very city where He had suffered, and a few days after His passion, His
disciples ventured in the most public manner to declare His innocence
and to proclaim Him as the Messiah. The result of their appeal is as
wonderful as its boldness. Though the imminent peril of confessing
Christ was well known, such was the strength of their convictions that
multitudes resolved, at all hazards, to enrol themselves among His
followers. The success which accompanied the preaching of the apostolic
missionaries at the feast of Pentecost was a sign and a pledge of their
future triumphs, for "the same day there were added unto them about
three thousand souls." [52:1]

The disinterested behaviour of the converts betokened their intense
earnestness. "All that believed were together and had all things common,
and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as
every man had need." [52:2] These early disciples were not, indeed,
required, as a term of communion, to deposit their property in a common
stock-purse; but, in the overflowings of their first love, they
spontaneously adopted the arrangement. On the part of the more opulent
members of the community residing in a place which was the stronghold of
Jewish prejudice and influence, this course was, perhaps, as prudent as
it was generous. By joining a proscribed sect they put their lives, as
well as their wealth, into jeopardy; but, by the sale of their effects,
they displayed a spirit of self-sacrifice which must have astonished and
confounded their adversaries. They thus anticipated all attempts at
spoliation, and gave a proof of their readiness to submit to any
suffering for the cause which they had espoused. An inheritance, when
turned into money, could not be easily sequestered; and those who were
in want could obtain assistance out of the secreted treasure. Still,
even at this period, the principle of a community of goods was not
carried out into universal operation; for the foreign Jews who were now