the greatest Greek poet, who lived about a
thousand years B.C., is still world famous.

Homer's best-known poem[1] is about a terrible war which took place
between the Greeks and the Trojans. Its words are noble, and its
descriptions very clever, but although all must admire the beauty of
the lines, the poem produces a dismal and depressing effect.

The picture it gives of the old heathen religion is terrible, for Homer
described the 'gods' and 'goddesses' in whom he believed as being far
more cruel and unjust than the worst men and women of his time.
According to his ideas, Jupiter, Diana, Apollo, Mars, and the rest came
down to earth and took part in the battle.

In vain did the great hero, Hector, fight his bravest; in vain did he
sacrifice himself, and strive to make up for the wrong-doing of his
brother; he failed utterly, for Homer tells us that he was hated by
some of the 'gods' for no fault of his own, and so they doomed him to
destruction, and guided the hand of the man who slew him. How little
those clever Greeks had been able to discover of the mercy and justice
of God!

But although the men of this great nation knew nothing of our wise and
loving Heavenly Father, He knew and loved them every one, and as we
have seen, He called a Greek Christian author to help Him in the
wonderful work of writing the Bible.

In addition to the story of our Saviour's life this Greek author, St.
Luke, also wrote a book about a war--a war that was to become
world-wide--the war against sin and the Devil, and the name of this
second book is the '_Acts of the Apostles_.'

In all this wonderful Bible of ours there is no Book more wonderful
than the 'Book of the Acts.' Have you ever stopped to think what a
terrible gap there would be in the history of God's dealings with the
world had the 'Acts' never been written?

The Apostle Paul's life would be almost a blank. Stephen's victorious
death would be all unknown to us. Above all, the story of our
Saviour's ascension into Heaven, and the marvellous fulfilment of His
promises in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, would have been
left untold.

The Book of the Acts stands alone.

There are four Gospels--written from four different points of view, but
of the four writers, Luke, the Greek, was the only one who wrote a
sequel and showed the results which our Saviour's Life, and Death, and
Resurrection produced at once in the world.

The marvellous accuracy of St. Lu