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This gift, as imparted to them, seems to have carried greater evidence of their truth, than their barely speaking all languages. Men out of every nation heard them speak on the day of Pentecost, every man in his own tongue! Therefore were they amazed, and convinced that the apostles were sent of God and that the gospel was of heavenly derivation.
But the distinction is plain and obvious, not to be ignored, rather to be marked as being fruitful of blessed teaching, between the way in which Christ speaks about His Cross, and the way in which the Apostles speak about it after Pentecost. What then? My text gives us the reason.
It should be remembered that the Sunday called the twenty-fourth after Pentecost is always celebrated immediately before the first Sunday of Advent, even though it should not be even the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. Etymology and different signification of the word Feria. Among the Romans, the idea of a day of rest and a holy day was intimately united and received the name of feria.
The former metaphor is common in the Old Testament, as a designation of the prophetic office, but, in the accordance with the genius of the New Testament, as expressed on Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the lowly as well as on the high, on the young as on the old, and all prophesied, it may be fairly extended to designated not to some selected few, but the whole mass of Christian people.
The abundant use of water in this institution was considered as illustrative of the purifying influences of the Holy Spirit, of his miraculous descent on the day of Pentecost, and of the overwhelming sufferings of the crucifixion. The precursor of our Lord predicted Christ as coming to "baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
But suppose such a number as three thousand, and afterwards five thousand were converted in Jerusalem, yet these remained not constant members of that Church, for the three thousand were not dwellers at Jerusalem, but strangers who came out of all countries to keep the feast of Pentecost: yea, Acts ii. 9, they are said expressly to be "dwellers of Mesopotamia, Cappadocia," &c., and so might erect churches where they came.
The tributary kings of Uther, and the most famous knights, successively put their strength to the proof, but the miraculous sword resisted all their efforts. It stood till Candlemas; it stood till Easter, and till Pentecost, when the best knights in the kingdom usually assembled for the annual tournament.
Will anything but the Resurrection and Pentecost account for the psychological transformation effected in him and the other Apostles? II. No wonder that 'they were pricked in their heart'! Such a thrust must have gone deep, even where the armour of prejudice was thick.
The Church has always respected this right as one of the most elementary laws of nature. In the evangelization of nations She has always accommodated Herself to the ways and language of the people. In this, She is faithful to the illuminating lesson the Master gave to Her on Her birthday, Pentecost Sunday, when the Apostles were heard each speaking his own language.
At dinner she told me she had broken with her lover at the beginning of Lent, and begged me not to see him if he called on me. On Whit Sunday I called on the Count of Aranda, and Don Diego, who was exquisitely dressed, dined with me. I saw nothing of his daughter. I asked after her, and Don Diego replied, with a smile, that she had shut herself up in her room to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.
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