St. Peter now tells the glad news of Christ's coming amongst men. He tells them that the once despised and outcast Gentiles are not only invited to receive God's grace, but are to be in all things equal partakers with the Jewish people—that Christ, of Whose resurrection and ascension they had already heard, had given an express commission to His Apostles to preach the Gospel to all nations.
Suddenly his address is interrupted. It is a scene second only to that of Pentecost, for the Holy Ghost comes down upon these Gentile converts, and they begin to speak with tongues, to the surprise of St. Peter and his companions. If any lingering feeling of Jewish superiority had been left in their hearts, this unmistakable proof of God's gracious purposes towards the Gentiles destroyed it for ever.
If special grace and special gifts were thus bestowed from Heaven, St. Peter, as head of the Church on earth, must not fear to admit them to every privilege it was his to bestow, and he therefore desired that they should be baptized.
Thus began that mission to the Gentiles which opened a new era in the world's history.
The Apostles had thought much of the blessings and honours intended for their own people, but they had not fully comprehended how broad, how extended Christ's kingdom was to become. So God wonderfully interposed, and called into His service one who was better fitted to be the Apostle of the Gentiles than St. Peter with his zeal, or St. John with his ardent love,—even Paul the persecutor, but afterwards the great and glorious servant of the Christian Church.
Chapter II.
The city of Antioch, in Syria, was full of fugitives from other countries.