2. Pentecost.--Pentecost is the name given in the New Testament to the Feast of Weeks, or of Ingathering, celebrated on the fiftieth day from the Passover. It was a festival of thanks for the harvest. It was also one of the three great yearly festivals, in which all the males were required to appear before the Lord at the place of his sanctuary. Josephus in three places in his writings, viz., in the fourteenth book of "Antiquities," ch. xiii,4; Ibid. xvii, ch. x,2; and in his second book of the "Wars of the Jews," ch. iii,2,--speaks of this festival as bringing together great numbers of the Jews from all parts of the world, and sustains the statement in Acts ii, that there were in Jerusalem at Pentecost "Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven," who came running together on hearing that the disciples of Jesus were speaking in unknown tongues. We cannot refrain from remarking that it was a most opportune time for such a demonstration, since these men would carry the rumor of these things and the substance of the remarkable sermon they heard to the distant lands from which they had come, and thus the news of the gospel would be spread abroad.--Roberts. 3. Joel's Prophecy.--It is very generally supposed among Christians, that this outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy, that is, its complete fulfillment. A careful examination of the prophecy, however, will clearly demonstrate that this is not the case. The prophecy will be found in Joel ii,28-32, and the particulars enumerated in it are as follows: The spirit of the Lord is to be poured out upon all flesh. At Pentecost it was poured out upon a few of the disciples of Jesus only; the sons and daughters of the people were to prophesy; we have no account of their doing so at Pentecost; old men were to dream dreams and young men see visions; there is no account of this taking place on the occasion in question; wonders were to be shown in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, the sun is to be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, yet on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem deliverance was to be found. These things unquestionably point to the glorious coming of the Son of God to judgment (see Matt. xxiv); and certainly they were not fulfilled on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on a few of the disciples of Jesus. Still Peter said, referring to the Spirit poured out upon the disciples: "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," and then quoted the passage. He doubtless meant: This Spirit which you now see poured out upon these few men, is that Spirit which Joel spoke of, and which will eventually be poured out upon all flesh, not only upon {80} men and women, but upon the brute creation as well, so that the lion and lamb shall lie down together and a little child shall lead them, and