His suggestion found favour with the assembled body of the brethren, and they nominated two of their number, who eminently possessed their confidence, as also the special qualifications thus laid down. One was Joseph Bar-Sabas, surnamed Justus, and Matthias, of whom, however, nothing further is known in the New Testament[647]. These they put forward, and leaving to the Lord the final determination, they prayed that, as the Searcher of hearts, He would indicate whom He had selected for the office, and then _gave forth their lots[648], and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered_ with the Eleven Apostles (Acts i. 26). Thus quietly and without observation was the first seed sown of what was destined to grow into a _great tree_[649] (Mtt. xiii. 31–33). Never did it seem more unlikely that the religion of the crucified Redeemer could be revived. The City had been restored to peace, as though nothing extraordinary had taken place. The Roman guard had been bribed to contradict any rumour that might be bruited about of the Resurrection; in the popular estimation the death of Jesus had extinguished all ideas that He was the Messiah; and no leader of any weight appeared likely to rally the little band of His once attached followers[650]. The triumph of the Sanhedrin appeared complete. But this was the very hour when the new Faith was to achieve its first conquest. Ten days passed away after the Ascension. The Fiftieth, the day of Pentecost[651], the Feast of Weeks, was come[652]. The Holy City, crowded with strangers from every quarter of the then known world, presented a scene of unusual animation. There was scarcely a region but had its representative in its streets. Not only from Palestine[653] itself, but from the lands beyond the Euphrates, whither the Israelites had been carried by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities[654], Parthia and Media, Elam[655] and Mesopotamia[656]; from the various districts of Asia Minor, Cappadocia and Pontus[657], Phrygia and Pamphylia, as well as those fringing the Western coast-line, Mysia, Lydia, and Caria, and now comprehended under one name, _Roman Asia_[658]; from the islands of the Mediterranean[659]; from populous Alexandria and the flourishing region of Cyrene[660]; from the capital of the West itself, Jews and Hellenists, “proselytes of righteousness[661]” and “proselytes of the gate,” had flocked to take part in the great Festival (Acts ii. 9–11).