The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1916-02-02

the common people who knew Of The
affair. Peter was bold in declaring
the cure came about in the name Of
the despised Nazareth whom the Jew
| ish leaders had caused to be put tc
death, hoping thereby to rid the world
of one who was most troublesome tC
them as He claimed to have a new
revelation as to their religion. The
Jewish leaders were amazed and an
noyed by the followers of Jesus contin
uing to preach, perform healings and
worst of all, accuse them of murder
ing the long looked for Messiah. What
they did in the lesson of today is but
the beginning of prosecutions of the
christian sect which grew in intensity
until nothing was left undone to kill
and drive out the followers of Jesus
wherever found.
Peter and John were in the midst
of the preaching after the healing OF
the lame man when the temple sol.
diers and Jewish leaders came down
on them and put the pair in prison
over night. The next day the great
Jewish council, known to us as the
Sanhedren, met and Peter and John
were brought before it. Behold now
these unlettered fishermen before the
notables and learned men of their ma
ton. Strangely they were not abashed
nor frightened, but held their ground
with a dignity and power which sur
prised their inquisitors. 1t would ap.
pear from the record that some five
thousand persons had now become be-
levers in the new faith and most of
them were present in Jerusalem. This
can we'll account for the fact that the
Sanhedren did not proceed in very
savage manner at this time.
The High Priest was not tactful in
his questioning OF Peter and John, for
he asked, "By what power have We
done this?" This gave Peter the
chance to launch at once into talk
leading up to declaring that the lame
man was cured by the power of Jesus
of Nazareth; the same man whom his
listeners had crucified and whom God
had raised from the dead. Peter went
further and boldly said that there was
no other name under heaven whereby
men and women could be saved, but
that of Jesus the Christ. No wonder
the Jewish leaders were astonished at
the boldness of the prisoners. At this
time they were not enraged to the ex.
tent of entering into system of whip
ming, stOning, imprisonment to stop
the spread of the new faith, and as the
cured man stood in the crowd and the
crowd was fully in sympathy with
Peter and John, it was thought best
to discharge the prisoners, after tell
ing them not to preach any more
q bout Jesus, His death and resurrec-
ton.
The notable verse of the lesson is
the 10Th. Peter had been told not to
preach. whereupon he made the fol-
lowing great reply:
Whether it be right in the sight
of God to hearken unto you more
than unto God Judge We, for we
cannot but preach the things which
We have seen and heard.
There is in these words the keynote
Of the religion Of Jesus. and the spirit
with which it was proclaimed in days
Of the early church. 1t was with this
feeling that Paul made his great mis-,
journeys and the christian
martyrs suffered death by burning and
with nameless horrors. If one is con-
vinced that the cause of Jesus is right
md just, that saloons should go, pub
ic gambling and houses of ill repute
lriven out, with no quarters, they
should stand up and say SO, having on
Y the fear Of God in mind, and not
hat of man. 1t is not the duty of ev-
,ryone to give over all their time to
against sin and vice, but all
should align themselves with the forces
moving to drive them out of city,
tate and nation. How powerless in