Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/196

 And now send men to Joppa, and call for a man named Simon Peter, lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-*side. He, when he comes, shall tell thee what it is right that thou shouldst do." When the surprising messenger had given this charge, he departed; and Cornelius, without delay, went to fulfil the minute directions he had received. He called two of his domestics, and a devout soldier of the detachment then on duty near him, and having related to them all that he had just seen and heard, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter according to the order. The distance between the two places is about thirty-five miles, and being too great to be easily traveled in one day, they journeyed thither during a part of two days, starting immediately when they received the command, though late in the afternoon. While they were continuing their journey, the next day, and were now near to the city of Joppa, Peter, without any idea of the important task to which he was soon to be summoned, went up, as usual, to the Alijah, or place of prayer, upon the house-top, at about twelve o'clock, mid-day. Having, according to the usual custom of the Jews, fasted for many hours, for the sake of keeping the mind clear from the effects of gross food on the body, and at length becoming sensible that he had pushed himself to the utmost limits of safe abstinence, he wished for food, and ordered his dinner. While the servants were preparing it, he continued above, in the place of prayer, where, enfeebled by fasting, and over-wrought by mental effort, he fell into a state of spiritual excitement, in which the mind is most susceptible of strong impressions of things beyond the reach of sense. In this condition, there appeared to him a singular vision, which subsequent events soon enabled him fully to interpret. It seemed to him that a great sheet was let down from the sky, to which it was fastened by the four corners, containing on its vast surface all sorts of animals that were forbidden as food by the Mosaic law. While the apostle gazed upon this vast variety of animals, which education had taught him to consider unclean, there came a voice to him, calling him by name, and commanding him to arise, kill, and eat. All his prejudices and early religious impressions were roused by such a proposal; and, resisting the invisible speaker as the agent of temptation to him in his bodily exhaustion, he replied, in all the pride of a scrupulous and unpolluted Jew, "By no means, Lord, because I have never eaten anything improper or unclean." The mysterious voice again said, "What God hath cleansed, do