The hour had come for the fulfilment of the promise of their Lord, for which they were to tarry in Jerusalem and wait.  There was a great miracle,—­a sound from Heaven as of the rushing of a mighty wind which filled the house.  Flame-like tongues, having the appearance of fire rested on the heads of the disciples, who were “all filled with the Holy Ghost.”  He gave them utterance as they spoke in languages they had not known before.  Crowds of foreigners in the city “were confounded because that every man heard them speaking in his own language.”

On the morning of that day the Church numbered one hundred and twenty.  “There were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.”

St. John was one of those filled with the Holy Ghost, according to the prophecy he had heard by the Baptist, and the promise by Christ.  On him rested a fiery tongue.  To him the Spirit gave utterance, perhaps in the languages of those among whom he was to labor in Asia Minor, from where some of these strangers had come.  He was in full sympathy with that Christian company, an actor with them, a leader of them, a pillar for them strong and immovable.

But the Upper Room was not the only place where John worshiped.  The Temple was still a sanctuary where such as he communed with God.  The hour for the evening prayer was nearing when “Peter and John were going up into the Temple.”  They reached the Beautiful Gate, which Josephus describes as made of Corinthian brass, surpassing in beauty other temple gates, even those which were overlaid with silver and gold.  By it they saw what doubtless they had often seen before, a lame man who, during most of the forty years of his life, had been daily brought thither.  His weakness was a great contrast to the massive strength of the pillar against which he leaned, as he counted the long hours and the coins he received in charity.  His haggard appearance and ugly deformity were a greater contrast to the richness and symmetry of the gate which was so fittingly “called Beautiful.”

Was there something especially benignant in the faces of the two Apostles, that encouraged the poor creature to hail them as he saw them “about to go into the Temple”?  They were willingly detained.  “Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, ‘Look on us.’” A gift was bestowed richer far than that for which he had hoped.  They were full of joy themselves, and of pity for him, and of a sense of the power of their Lord, so often exercised in their presence.  Therefore the command, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

That was a strange sight to those who had long known the beggar, as he held Peter with one hand and John with the other, as if leading them into the Temple, into which he entered, “walking, and leaping, and praising God.”