of their new sensations, in words of miraculous power. At this display of the equal and impartial grace of God, the Jewish church-members from Joppa, who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea, were greatly amazed, having never before imagined it possible for the influences of the divine spirit to be imparted to any who had not devoutly conformed to all the rituals of the holy law of old given by God to Moses, whose high authority was attested amid the smoke and flame and thunder of Sinai. And what change was this? In the face of this awful sanction, these believing followers of Moses and Christ saw the outward signs of the inward action of that Spirit which they had been accustomed to acknowledge as divine, now moving with the same holy energy the souls and voices of those born and bred among the heathen, without the consecrating aid of one of those forms of purification, by which Moses had ordained their preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings of God’s holy covenant with his own peculiar people. Moved by that same mysterious and holy influence, the Gentile warriors of Rome now lifted up their voices in praise of the God of Israel and of Abraham, ――doubtless too, _their_ God and Father, though Abraham were ignorant of them, and Israel acknowledged them not; since through his son Jesus a new covenant had been sealed in blood, opening and securing the blessings of that merciful and faithful promise to all nations. On Jehovah they now called as their Father and Redeemer, whose name was from everlasting,――known and worshiped long ere Abraham lived. Never before had the great partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles been thus broken down, nor had the noble and equal freedom of the new covenant ever yet been so truly and fully made known. And who was he that had thus boldly trampled on the legal usages of the ancient Mosaic covenant, as consecrated by the reverence of ages, and had imparted the holy signs of the Christian faith to men shut out from the mysteries of the inner courts of the house of God? It was not a presumptuous or unauthorized man, nor one thoughtless of the vastly important consequences of the act. It was the constituted leader of the apostolic band, who now, in direct execution of his solemn commission received from his Master, and in the literal fulfilment of the prophetic charge given therewith at the base of distant Hermon, opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all nations. Bearing the keys of the kingdom of God on earth, he now, in the set time of divine appointment, at the call of his Master in heaven, so signally given to him both directly and indirectly, unlocked the long-closed door, and with a voice of heavenly charity, bade the waiting Gentiles enter. This was the mighty commission with which Jesus had so prophetically honored this chief disciple at CAESAREA _Philippi_, and here, at CAESAREA _Augusta_, was achieved the glorious fulfilment of this before mysterious announcement;