the work to the controversies of the time, to the
Epistles of St. Paul, and to external history, and on the sources from
which St. Luke probably derived his information. It contains also lists
of the coincidences between the Acts and St. Paul's and St. Peter's
Epistles, of their points of contact with the contemporary history of
the outer world, and of the incidents which show the naturalness and
veracity of the narrative. The introduction closes with an excellent
chronological table from A.D. 28 to 100.

The Book of the Acts is treated throughout as sound history, and this
enables the commentator to find himself at home in all the circumstances
of the contemporary world, both within and without the Church. In the
scene on the Day of Pentecost full scope is allowed to the physical
phenomena, the storm and darkness, the earthquake and the lightning.
Ananias' death is understood as in the familiar phrase "by the
visitation of God." The state of Peter in his deliverance from prison
(xii. 9) is understood by reference to the phenomena of somnambulism.
The "revelation" by which St. Paul went up to the Council at Jerusalem
is explained in harmony with the assertion of the Acts that he was sent
by the Church at Antioch, as "a thought coming into his mind, as by an
inspiration, that this was the right solution of the problem." The
healing of the sick by handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the
body of St. Paul (xix. 12) is likened to that attributed to the relics
of saints. The accounts of Theudas, Judas, Gamaliel (v. 57), of Claudius
(xi. 28), of Herod (xii.), of the early life of St. Paul (vii. 58), of
the numbers composing the first congregation at Jerusalem (iv. 37), are
interesting and suggestive. Under the vivid realizations expressed in
these notes we seem to see the Apostles sitting in permanent conclave
(iv. 35), the daughters of Philip as members of an incipient, "order of
Virgins" (xxi. 9), or the rapacious Felix catching at the words "alms
and offerings" when uttered by St. Paul (xxiv. 26). The extreme
fertility of conjecture which we noticed in the Commentary on the
Gospels is somewhat chastened, and is exercised in a more legitimate
field. The possibility, for instance, of Stephen's having had some
connection with Samaria, as accounting for various statements in his
speech (note on vii. 16), the possibility that the words of St. Paul's
description of God's goodness at Lystra (xiv. 17) may have formed part
of