in
which period, and notwithstanding that the late persecution occupied
part of it, churches, or societies of believers, had been formed in all
Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; for we read that the churches in these
countries "had now rest and were edified, and, walking in the fear of
the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." (Acts
ix 31.) The original preachers of the religion did not remit their
labours or activity during this season of quietness; for we find one,
and he a very principal person among them, passing throughout all
quarters. We find also those who had been before expelled from Jerusalem
by the persecution which raged there, travelling as far as Poenice,
Cyprus, and Antioch; (Acts xi. 19.) and lastly, we find Jerusalem again
in the centre of the mission, the place whither the preachers returned
from their several excursions, where they reported the conduct and
effects of their ministry, where questions of public concern were
canvassed and settled, whence directions were sought, and teachers sent
forth.

_________

* Dr. Lardner (in which he is followed also by Dr. Benson) ascribes the
cessation of the persecution of the Christians to the attempt of
Caligula to set up his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem, and to the
consternation thereby excited in the minds of the Jewish people; which
consternation for a season superseded every other contest.
_________

The time of this tranquillity did not, however, continue long. Herod
Agrippa, who had lately acceded to the government of Judea, "stretched
forth his hand to vex certain of the church." (Acts xii. 1.) He began
his cruelty by beheading one of the twelve original apostles, a kinsman
and constant companion of the Founder of the religion. Perceiving that
this execution gratified the Jews, he proceeded to seize, in order to
put to death, another of the number,--and him, like the former,
associated with Christ during his life, and eminently active in the
service since his death. This man was, however, delivered from prison,
as the account states miraculously, (Acts xii. 3--17.) and made his
escape from Jerusalem.

These things are related, not in the general terms under which, in
giving the outlines of the history, we have here mentioned them, but
with the utmost particularity of names, persons, places, and
circumstances; and, what is deserving of notice, without the smallest
discoverable propensity in the historian, to magnify t