- trations as I have alluded to as desirable; they bring in a new set of difficulties with
them, without removing any of those previously obstructing the interpretation of the facts. In this case, the only circumstance which could be reasonably made to agree with the idea of lightning, is the mention of the bright light; while throughout the whole account, the presence of a supernaturally mysterious person, acting and speaking, is perfectly unquestionable. The violation of all probability, shown in this forced explanation, will serve as a fair instance of the mode in which many modern German critics are in the habit of distorting the simple, manifest sense of the sacred writers, for the sake of dispensing with all supernatural occurrences. (See Kuinoel for an enlarged view and discussion of this opinion. Other views of the nature of the phenomenon are also given by him, and by Rosenmueller, on Acts xii. 7.)
Morning dawned at last upon the towers and temple-columns
of the Holy City. On the gold-sheeted roofs and snowy-pillared
colonnades of the house of God, the sunlight poured with a splendor
hardly more glorious than the insupportable brilliancy that
was sent back from their dazzling surfaces, streaming like a new
morning upon the objects around, whose nearer sides would otherwise
have been left in shade by the eastern rays. Castle Antonia
shared in this general illumination, and at the first blaze of
sunrise, the order of Roman service announced the moment for
relieving guard. The bustle of the movement of the new sentries
towards their stands, must at last have reached the ears of
Peter's forsaken companions. Their first waking thoughts would
of course be on their responsible charge, and they now became for
the first time aware of the important deficiency. In vain did their
heavy eyes, at first winking with sleepiness, but now wide open
with amazement, search the dim vacancy for their eloped bed-fellow.
The most inquisitive glance fell only on the blank space
between them, scarcely blanker than the forlorn visages of the
poor keepers, who saw in this disappearance the seal of their certain
death, for having let the prisoner escape. But they had not
much time to consider their misfortune, or condole upon it; for
the change of sentries now brought to the door the quaternion
whose turn on duty came next. With a miserable grace did the
unhappy occupants of the cell show themselves at the open door,
with the empty chains and fetters dangling at their sides, from
which their late companion had so curiously slipped. Most uncomfortable
must have been the aspect of things to the two sentinels
who had been keeping their steady watch outside of the
door, and who shared equally with the inside keepers, in the undesirable
responsibilities of this accident. There stood their comrades
with the useless chains displayed in their original attachments;
but, amazing! what in the world had they done with the
prisoner? The ludicrous distress and commotion resulting from this
