have had him pace along with sober gait and downcast eyes, like a
Pharisee, did not know what made him thus obstreperous, even in his
devout thankfulness. 'Leaping and praising God' do make a singular
combination, but before we blame, let us be sure that we understand.

One of the old manuscripts inserts a clause which brings out more
clearly that there was a pause, during which the three remained in
the Temple in prayer. It reads, 'And when Peter and John came out, he
came out with them, holding them, and they [the people] being
astonished, stood in the porch,' etc. So we have to think of the
buzzing crowd, waiting in the court for their emergence from the
sanctuary. Solomon's porch was, like the Beautiful gate, on the east
side of the Temple enclosure, and may probably have been a usual
place of rendezvous for the brethren, as it had been a resort of
their Lord.

It was a great moment, and Peter, the unlearned Galilean, the former
cowardly renegade, rose at once to the occasion. Truly it was given
him in that hour what to speak. His sermon is distinguished by its
undaunted charging home the guilt of Christ's death on the nation,
its pitying recognition of the ignorance which had done the deed, and
its urgent entreaty. We here deal with its beginning only. 'Why
marvel ye at this?'--it would have been a marvel if they had not
marvelled. The thing was no marvel to the Apostle, because he
believed that Jesus was the Christ and reigned in Heaven. Miracles
fall into their place and become supremely 'natural' when we have
accepted that great truth.

The fervent disavowal of their 'own power or holiness' as concerned
in the healing is more than a modest disclaimer. It leads on to the