'Peter therefore was kept in the prison: but prayer was made earnestly
of the Church unto God for him.'--ACTS xii. 5 (R.V.)
The narrative of Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison is full of
little vivid touches which can only have come from himself. The whole
tone of it reminds us of the Gospel according to St. Mark, which is in
like manner stamped with peculiar minuteness and abundance of detail.
One remembers that at a late period in the life of the Apostle Paul,
Mark and Luke were together with him; and no doubt in those days in
Rome, Mark, who had been Peter's special companion and is called by one
of the old Christian writers his 'interpreter,' was busy in telling
Luke the details about Peter which appear in the first part of this
Book of the Acts.
The whole story seems to me to be full of instruction as well as of
picturesque detail; and I desire to bring out the various lessons which
appear to me to lie in it.