OF THE

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

ARRANGED WITH CHRONOLOGICAL AND EXPLANATORY
NOTES, AND VALUABLE TABLES.

DESIGNED FOR POPULAR USE, AND SPECIALLY ADAPTED TO
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

GEORGE W. CLARK, D. D.,

AUTHOR OF "NEW HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS," "NOTES ON THE GOSPELS."

PHILADELPHIA:

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,

1420 CHESTNUT STREET.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by the AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

The following work was conceived by the author, several years ago, when preparing his Harmony of the Gospels; and is a continuation and result of studies pursued at that time. As the life of Christ can be best gathered from the study of the four Gospels in connection, so the lives of Peter and Paul, and the planting and training of the early churches, can be best understood by comparing the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. The study, too, of the numerous quotations from the Old Testament, and of the contact of the first missionaries with the heathen world, helps to perfect our knowledge of primitive Christianity; while a comparison of the Acts with itself, as in the three accounts of Paul's conversion, gives a clearer view of separate characters. To the Scripture harmonist, therefore, the book of the Acts affords an interesting field, of great variety and fruitfulness.

The design of this work is to help intelligent Sunday-school teachers, and others, to thus study, fundamentally and independently, this very important and central book of the New Testament. The increased attention now given to the relation between the Acts and the Epistles, especially in Sundayschools, encourages the belief that this effort is in the right direction.

In carrying out this plan, the Scripture text of the Acts is arranged into sections, with parallel passages below, the broad-face type guiding the eye to the more important similarities or divergences. In addition, many passages more distantly related are given in references at the end of verses.

Before each section is an analysis made from the original, giving in their order the topics and events of each section, and often containing an interpretation of some disputed point.

The notes are mainly chronological and harmonic, and only such references to persons and places are made as seemed demanded by the character of the work. To facilitate reference, the subjects of the sections are indicated by capital letters. In many instances the quotations in the notes are from the