passage from the sermon on the mount was particularly appropriate to their present circumstances. “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my name’s sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.” Comforted by such words as these, they returned to their labors as before, and daily, in the temple, and moreover in private houses, ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ, in the very face of the express prohibition of their thwarted persecutors. _Messenger._――This is a fair and literal interpretation of αγγελος, (_angelos_,) and one justifiable in every place where it occurs in the Bible. Wherever it is applied to a supernatural being sent from God, the connection will abundantly explain the term, without rendering it by a different word. Thus I have chosen to do, and to leave each reader to judge for himself, from the other attendant circumstances, of the character of the _messenger_. See Kuinoel in loc. _All the words of this life._――I here follow the common translation, though Kuinoel and most interpreters consider this as a _hypallage_, and transpose it into “all these words of life.” But it does not seem necessary to take such a liberty with the expression, since the common version conveys a clear idea. “The words of _this_ life” evidently can mean only the words of _that_ life which they had before preached, in accordance with their commission; that is, of life from the dead, as manifested in the resurrection of Jesus, which was in itself the pledge and promise of life and bliss eternal, to all who should hear and believe these “words.” This view is supported by Storr, and a similar one is advanced by Rosenmueller, in preference to any _hypallage_. _Change of heart._――I have in general given this translation of Μετανοειτε, (_Metanoeite_,) as more minutely faithful to the etymology of the word, and also accordant with popular religious forms of expression; though the common translation is unobjectionable.