days after the second day of unleavened
bread, or the Passover day. It is also known as "the feast of weeks"
(Exo. 34:22; Deut. 16:10), because according to the Hebrew style, it
fell seven weeks, or a week of weeks, after the Passover; as "the feast
of harvest" (Exo. 23:16); and as "the day of the first-fruits" (Numb.
28:26). Pentecost was one of the great feasts in Israel, and was of
mandatory observance. Special sacrifices were appointed for the day, as
was also an offering suitable to the harvest season, comprizing two
leavened loaves made of the new wheat; these were to be waved before the
altar and then given to the priests (Lev. 23:15-20). Because of the
unprecedented events that characterized the first Pentecost after our
Lord's ascension, the name has become current in Christian literature as
expressive of any great spiritual awakening or unusual manifestation of
divine grace.

3. Having All Things in Common.--No condition recorded of the early
apostolic ministry expresses more forcefully the unity and devotion of
the Church in those days than does the fact of the members establishing
a system of common ownership of property (Acts 2:44, 46; 4:32-37;
6:1-4). One result of this community of interest in temporal things was
a marked unity in spiritual matters; they "were of one heart and of one
soul." Lacking nothing, they lived in contentment and godliness. Over
thirty centuries earlier the people of Enoch had rejoiced in a similar
condition of oneness, and their attainments in spiritual excellence were
so effective that "the Lord came and dwelt with his people ... And the
Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one
mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them." (P.
of G.P., Moses 7:16-18.) The Nephite disciples grew in holiness, as
"they had all things common among them, every man dealing justly, one
with another." (B. of M., 3 Nephi 26:19; see also 4 Nephi 1:2-3.) A
system of unity in material affairs has been revealed to the Church in
this current dispensation, (Doc. and Cov. 82:17, 18; 51:10-13, 18;
104:70-77), to the blessings of which the people may attain as they
learn to replace selfish concern by altruism, and individual advantage
by devotion to the general welfare.--See _The Articles of Faith_,
xxiv:13-15.

4. Saul's Conversion.--The sudden change of heart by which an ardent
persecutor of the saints was so transformed as to become a true
disciple, is to the