trary, have been that which led the Lord Jesus to select this man for the work to which He afterwards called him, fitted him, and rendered him successful in. We have no reason to suppose that Stephen's prayer was in vain, that it was not in some degree answered, but rather the reverse. And that because Scripture-testimony is to the effect that God will hear, will regard, the prayers of His faithful servants. It might, too, have been answered in respect to some others besides Saul, and that after his soul was lodged in the realms of light and glory.

And I believe this has often been the case in respect to the prayers of many other saints of God. They may have prayed, while in the body, and that, again and again, for some particular object in respect to others, and have had no answer while they have lived; but after they have gone to heaven their petitions have been answered. God had not forgotten their aspirations, though He might, according to His wisdom and good pleasure, have delayed to answer them while the utterers of them were alive.

It has especially been the case, I believe, with pious parents in respect to their children. Many children, I believe, have owed their conversion to God, after their parents have been taken to their eternal rest, to the prayers which their parents have put up for them before they died. Teaching all to be instant in prayer, to pray always, to let their requests ever be made known to God.

Stephen's prayer for his murderers evinced also the spirit of the gospel. His Master had saiḍ 'Love your enemies: bless them that curse you: do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.' Here, in the case of Stephen, was an instance of the direction being carried out, showing its practicability, and the power of that grace which produces such a feeling. For it is nothing short of the power of divine grace that can effect it. It is doubtless a hard lesson to learn. But we see, in the case before us, that it can be learned. And while Stephen had learned it, and could and did carry it out in its fulness, we believe that myriads of other martyrs have pursued the same course in respect to the murderous hands which have been laid upon them. At the same time that they have prayed for their own spirits to be received by the Lord, they have also prayed that those who were putting them to death might

be forgiven their sin. It is a blessed feeling to be possessed of-one that can only proceed from heaven; it is no fruit of earth. It can only exist where the Spirit of God has taken possession of the heart, where He rules and reigns. There it can exist. Let us pray that grace may thus reign in us, and that we may become conformed unto the image of Jesus Christ, being enabled, from unction imparted unto us from above, to carry out in its fullest extent every command which he has laid upon us.

We must notice, lastly,

Stephen's end. It is said, he fell asleep.' A common expression in Scripture in reference to the death of persons. Of David it is said: 'He fell on sleep.' 'Christ is become the first fruits of them that slept,' says St. Paul. And again he says: 'I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.'

The stoning of Stephen, then, ended in his death. He ceased to move, or breathe, or speak, or look, or hear. But his cessation from all bodily action is set forth as a retiring to rest, and then rising again refreshed, and that with renenewed vigour And this is taught, in Scripture, to be the case with all the children of God. They lie down to rise up again. They will not for ever sleep in the grave. A time will come when they shall come forth, and their bodies shall be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.

How delightful is this thought to the christian. St. Paul alludes to it where he says: 'I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others, which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.' This was Stephen's prospect in departing out of this world -'with him to die was indeed gain.' The persons, however, who stoned him had no reference to this. They wished to get rid of an active supporter of the cause of Christ, to cause his labours, his success, to cease. among those who had this object in view was a young man whom we have already referred to, namely, Saul. We do not say that he himself cast a stone at Stephen, but he sanctioned their crime, did all he could to help them. In the 58th verse it is stated, that the witnesses laid down their

And

clothes (their outer garments) at a young man's feet whose name was Saul.' He was doubtless pleased at the tragedy that was going on. He guarded, took care of, the raiment of those who executed this diabolical piece of business. He afterwards, however, lived to repent of it, to grieve over it, and to be a martyr himself in the same cause—the cause of Christ.

In our observations on this subject there are many things which might be profitably noticed; but we have not time further than just to allude to them:

That, persons, while they profess faith in God, may be without His grace, and become persecutors of His true

That, the holiest saints of Jesus may be called to suffer for His name's sake:

:

That God affords help according to the day of His people :

:

That God's servants are often cut off in the midst of usefulness, and that at a time when apparently their presence is most needed :-

That the heart of the unconverted man is so hard, and his mind so blinded, that he often rushes on in opposition to the will of God without consideration:

That the believer dies in faith that his reward is before him :

That the grace of God when received into the heart produces love, not only to God, but to man also :—

That prayer is the refuge and resource of God's children, and

That the bitterest persecutors of the cause of Christ may become changed-so changed as to cast off the works of darkness, and to put on the armour of light.

May that grace which supported Stephen, and changed. Saul's heart and life, so change ours, that we may be passed from death unto life, and have no condemnation to rest upon us through our believing in Christ Jesus-believing on Him with the heart unto righteousness.

XXX.

"And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad through out the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word."—Acts, viii. 1-4, (except the first clause of the first verse.)

In the previous chapter we have an account of the cruel death of Stephen by stoning; and, by the second verse of the passage before us, we find that he did not die unlamented: 'Devout men,' it is said, 'carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.' They did not lament the happiness to which he had been taken ; but they grieved that one so able, so holy, so faithful, and so useful, had been so suddenly snatched from them, and that by so painful a death.

We cannot say in what way their lamentation was expressed beyond their spirits being deeply affected at his departure; nor is it necessary for us to know. They were holy men, men who loved Christ, men who could not see their brother in Christ disgraced in the eyes of the world without paying him all the honour and respect which lay in their power. They would, first, therefore, collect his mangled remains, and then convey them to the grave, thus showing that they sympathized with him, notwithstanding the treatment which he had received, and that they also were followers of Him whom Stephen loved, and for whose name's sake he had suffered.

The death of Stephen appears to have been the commencement of a general persecution against the church at Jerusalem; that is, against the body of believers in Christ Jesus joined together in Christian fellowship in that city. The probable cause of it was the continued testimony of the disciples as to the resurrection of Christ. This was so

important a matter that, if it were true, it was at once a condemnation of the conduct of the Jews in putting Jesus to death, as well as a proof that He was, in truth, their Messiah, the sent of God. The disciples knew, too, that it was this great truth which stamped an impress of divinity on their teaching; that, if Christ rose from the dead, then all was true which He had taught; that if He did not rise, as their scribes and elders wished the Jewish people to believe, then He was an impostor and no truth was in Him. This was the view which St. Paul took, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he says: 'If Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins.'

This truth being then so important, the disciples bore testimony to it in all its glorious fulness, constantly setting it forth, and boldly declaring that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom the elders and scribes had crucified, had been raised by God from the dead. It was this which gave point to their preaching, and influenced so many to receive Him as the Saviour, and as their Saviour. Their assertions being made boldly, and God sealing their truthfulness by enabling them to work miracles, to heal the sick, to cast out unclean spirits, to speak in other languages than their own, to restore the lame to strength, induced multitudes to believe in Christ, and to accept of Him as the prophet that was to come into the world.

This daily and growing success of the disciples of Christ tended more and more to embitter His enemies against them. That His cause should be increasing, and that in opposition to all that they could say and do against it, was to them a source of the deepest mortification; and it raised up in them a spirit of continued action to put it down by main force, and to drive it out of their city. Although it is stated that those who were particularly concerned in opposition to Stephen were persons who belonged to the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia, yet we cannot but think, that it was in combination with the elders, and scribes of Jerusalem, that they did it—that the elders and scribes there assented to it, and knew of what was going to be done, and gave every encouragement to it that they could, even if they did not suggest the proceeding in the first instance. And if so the proceeding against Stephen