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CARTOON IV.

THE

DEATH OF ANANIAS.

A STRIKING contrast to the Cartoon last under review! Nothing here is the same, but the power— power, both in the painter and the principal agent represented. In the scene at the "Beautiful Gate," however, the power of the apostle was exerted in an act of pure benevolence-here it is shown in the severity of punishment: of that composition a redundancy of beauty is the presiding characteristicof the present, it is a studied plainness.

The first glance at this composition conveys a vivid impression of a catastrophe, the result of a divine infliction. This idea is suggested by the general disposition of the groups. In the central background, the compact assemblage of the apostles frowning inflexible judgment on the unhappy

criminal, reminds the awe-struck spectator of a thunder-cloud, from whence the destroying bolt has been just launched; while the scattered figures in the front exhibit the sudden but fearful effect of its fall, in the prostrate dying man, and the extreme terror and alarm of the beholders, gradually subsiding into indifference among the distant persons, who are yet ignorant of the terrible event. Or we may liken the general features of the composition to a rock in mid-ocean, against whose stately side a sudden storm has dashed the waves: flung foaming back, and broken into raging fragments at its base, they retire from the eye on either side, in masses more tranquil in proportion as they recede.

It is needless to detail the particulars of an event so well known as the death of Ananias. As, however, it has been thought, that the punishment inflicted on this unhappy person and the partner of his guilt was of too relentless a character, we shall detain the reader by a few words on the nature of their crime.

In the infant state of the church, its stability and growth would chiefly depend on two circumstances

the unquestionable evidence of divine authority abiding with its ministers, and the perfect purity of motive which actuated those who joined themselves to its community. Now, the crime of Ananias and Sapphira involved the strongest possible violation of both these principles. They had witnessed the recent miraculous demonstrations of the Holy Spirit -perhaps had themselves received a portion of the divine influence. They had ostentatiously come forward among those members of the church, who relinquished all individual right in their possessions for the common advantage. On the public stock, therefore, they now claimed to be appointed pensioners. They were not required to make this sacrifice: it was, they pretended, voluntary-the spontaneous result of conviction and devotedness. sequently, their guilt included vain-glory, hypocrisy, falsehood, and fraud in holy things-in a word, impiety and sacrilege. Was it a time, when that Holy Spirit, who, by wonders palpable to all, was securing the radication of the "engrafted" church, could endure so flagrant an insult to himself, or permit a deadly plague-spot to spread its stain over her purity? As to the personal share of Peter and his coadjutors in this catastrophe, we have no right to condemn them. They were no more than

Con

instruments in executing the fiat of the Supreme "Judge of all the earth." The sin was committed against Him: so truly said Peter-" Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." His-God's-was also the it was not by his own power" that Peter, himself a feeble and sinful man, could strike dead that fraudulent culprit.

vengeance;

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In the sentiment which inspired the apostle, there was nothing private-nothing selfish; still less, malevolent. His indignation was no more than zeal for God, grounded, like the divine displeasure itself, in love. "The wrath of the Almighty is but a form and an organ of love; and in the storm-cloud that passes with fatal effect over the present, is impressed the fair rainbow of promise to future generations. Put the lust of self in the forked lightning, and would it not be a spirit of Moloch? but God maketh the lightnings his ministers, fire and hail, vapours and stormy winds fulfilling his word." Without, however, looking so far as to the ultimate beneficial results for a justification, this act of punishment, if compared with those judgments, which, in such cases, were inflicted under the Mosaic dispensation, denotes already the more mild and merciful character of Christianity. Compare it, for instance, with the

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