6
Sketches from the Life of Paul
threats were powerless, and at last, being restrained from violence by
fear of the people, they set the apostles at liberty.
Subsequent events served but to augment their fears and their ha-
tred. The power with which the apostles still proclaimed the gospel,
the wonders wrought by them in the name of Jesus, the converts daily
added to the church, the union and harmony that pervaded the body
of believers, the swift and terrible manifestation of divine judgment
in the case of Ananias and Sapphira,—all were marked by the Jewish
leaders, and urged them on to still more determined efforts to crush
the powerful heresy. Again the apostles were arrested and imprisoned,
and the Sanhedrim was called to try their case. A large number of
learned men in addition to the council was summoned, and they con-
ferred together as to what should be done with these disturbers of the
peace. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and
brought forth his servants, bidding them again proclaim in the temple
the words of life. Great was the amazement of priests and rulers when,
being assembled at dawn to pass sentence upon the prisoners, they
[13]
received the report that the prison doors were securely bolted and the
guard stationed before them, but that the apostles themselves had been
mysteriously delivered, and were already preaching in the temple.
Once more summoning them before the council, the high priest
angrily reminded them of the warning they had received, and charged
them with endeavoring to bring upon the Jews the blood of Christ.
They were not as willing to bear the blame of slaying Jesus as when
they swelled the cry with the debased mob, “His blood be on us and
on our children!”
Peter and his brethren repeated their former assertion, that they
must obey God rather than men. And then the accused became the
accusers, and as they were moved by the Spirit of God, they solemnly
charged the murder of Christ upon the priests and rulers who composed
the council. These dignitaries were now so enraged that they decided
without further trial, to take the law into their own hands, and put
the prisoners to death. They would have executed their murderous
designs at once but for the calm and judicious counsel of Gamaliel,
who warned them to beware of proceeding to violent measures before
the character of the movement they opposed should be fully developed,
lest haply they should be found fighting against God. The learning
and high position of this eminent rabbi gave weight to his words. The