[Sidenote: Peter Interrupted.] While Peter was still preaching to the thousands assembled in "Solomon's Porch," he saw approaching from the castle near the Temple, the captain of the guard and his band. The Jewish priests had become jealous, and suspicious of the apostles, and looked with alarm at the thousands of people joining the Church. So they decided to call out the soldiers, disperse the multitude, and arrest Peter and John as the men responsible for all the excitement. However, about five thousand of the people were converted that afternoon. [Sidenote: Imprisoned.] So the soldiers "laid hands on them," and put them in jail, "For it was now eventide," and, therefore, too late to take them to trial. Though they were shut up in close cells, yet their spirits were free and their consciences clear. They could sleep more peacefully than the priest who had caused their arrest. [Sidenote: Before the Sanhedrin.] In the morning, the prisoners were taken to the Sanhedrin where sat Annas, the high priest and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander, and relatives of the high priest. These men had condemned Jesus, perhaps in this very room, and they were determined that the preaching in the name of Jesus of Nazareth must cease. Others were present that morning, and among them true friends to the apostles. One of these was the lame man, who had been healed. [Sidenote: Curiosity and Amazement.] As he was the innocent cause of the multitude's gathering the previous evening, everybody seemed to be even more interested in him than in the prisoners. He was carried, they knew, only twenty-four hours ago, to the temple gate, and now they see him walking firmly through the crowd to get near the apostles. "By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?" demanded one of the judges. "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them. Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, "If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; [Sidenote: Peter Testifies of Christ.] "Be it known unto you all, and unto all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole." How those sinful men must have quailed as they beheld Peter's dignity, felt his sincerity, and listened to the flashing words that pierced their guilty souls! He told them further that they could get no salvation unless they, too, took upon themselves the name of Christ: "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." What could the priests say? What could they do? Nothing. [Sidenote: Enemies Confounded.] There stood the man sound and whole, who had been helpless for forty years! There stood Peter boldly proclaiming that the miracle was wrought in the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom they had condemned to death. They considered Peter unlearned, but he had confounded them all.