blessed testimony for their Lord; so that their opposers were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them, which was prevented by the advice and wisdom of Gamaliel. Thus Peter and John were set at liberty, and went on daily in the temple and in every house preaching Jesus Christ.

The church being now so numerous, as we cannot ascertain their number, a murmuring broke out amongst some of the members. The Grecians, i. e. those Jews who were of the dispersion, and were now believers in Jesus, and members of this apostolic church at Jerusalem, and those Jews who were natives of Jerusalem, and members of this church, had a mistake: the former thought their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. This being known by the twelve apostles, they called the whole church together, and before them they observed that it was of more importance, and it belonged immediately to their office, to study, preach, and open the word of God, than to attend to the other concerns of the church. They therefore propose it to the church to choose seven deacons, who were to look at the secular affairs of the church-to provide for the Lord's table-the table of their ministers, and for the table of the poor. These men were to be of honest report;--they were to be full of the Holy Ghost ;-they were to be wise men. The apostles give the church to understand they would give themselves continually up to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

What was thus proposed being exceeding acceptable to the church, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, were chosen to this office. And the church, as it was their act to choose them, so they set them before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them, and thus they were invested into their office, and a blessing succeeded this, The word of God increased, and the multitudes of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, one of the seven deacons, was full of faith and power, and he did great wonders and miracles among the people. This drew out the enmity of others against him; those Jews who were of the synagogue of the libertines, i.e. such as were free citizens of Rome, amongst whom was Saul of Tarsus, as may be conceived, and such Jews who were of the synagogue of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia. Some, it seems, of each of these disputed with Stephen; it was doubtless concerning Christ's being the true Messiah. These not being able to resist the wisdom and the power by which Stephen spake on the subject, they got men who declared they heard him speak blasphemous things against Moses and God. Then the people being stirred up, and the elders and the scribes, he was seized and brought before the council. False witnesses gave in their charge against him, whilst all that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him, saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel. Then the high priest addressed him concerning the charge brought against him, asking him, are these things so? To which he replies, and in his

answer gives a most concise and accurate account of the Lord's appearance to Abraham in Mesopotamia, of his giving him the covenant of circumcision, and of the observance. He proceeds from Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs; of the sale of Joseph into Egypt, of what befel him there; of Jacob's descent into it; of his death and burial. He gives an account of the case of the Israelites into Egypt: how Moses was born, and raised up to be their deliverer: how the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in the wilderness of Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush, and sent him to bring them out of the land of bondage: how the Israelites always were an obstinate and rebellious people. He shews they were brought into Canaan by Joshua. Then he speaks of David, their king, as desirous to build an house to God, which honour was bestowed on Solomon; not that the majesty and immensity of God were circumscribed in it; and quotes the words of the prophet, heaven is my house, and earth my footstool; what house will ye build me, saith the Lord? or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hands made all these things?

As he had spoken of their rejection of Moses in Egypt, and of their rebellion in the wilderness, and worshipping the calf and the host of heaven, and that for the sin of idolatry they were carried into Babylon in the predecessors, so he calls them, and addresses them at the close of his discourse thus; ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers so do ye. Then he asks this question of them, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slayed them which shewed before the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. Thus he closes, which cut them to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, which was altogether supernatural; and his eye was elevated, and so wrought on by the power of God, that he saw God and Christ there, and he could and did relate to them what he saw; he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and said, behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. The heavens were opened when Jesus had been baptized; they were now opened for Stephen to see, whilst on earth, with his natural eyes, elevated in a supernatural manner, the glory of God and Christ. This was never the case with any other. Moses was in the mount with God, and conversed with him forty days and forty nights. Paul was caught up into the third heaven, but he could not say whether he was in the body, or out of the body at that time: but Stephen was in the body; he was in this our world when he was thus favoured. He was the first martyr for Christ after his ascension; and before it, he was thus favoured; he cries out with astonishment, behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Messiah, the Son of Man, whom jected and slain, standing at the right hand of God. other scriptures spoken of as sitting at the right hand of God; here he stands up on the behalf of Stephen, as ready to receive his soul into

ye Our Lord is in

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the arms of his everlasting mercy and love. I conceive that no saint was ever favoured with such a sight before or since, it was not a visionary but a corporeal sight; his eye must have been elevated in a miraculous manner, some way as Moses was, when the Lord a little before his death gave him from Mount Nebo a view of the promised land. Whilst this was blessedness indeed to the martyr Stephen, and he related it as such, yet his enemies are the more enraged at him; then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, as a blasphemer, and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And those who professed to be witnesses of his being a blasphemer, laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge: and when he had said this, he fell asleep. So that this saint died as his Lord did before him, praying for his murderers, and his prayer was answered in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

The death of Stephen made way for a great storm of persecution to break forth against the church at Jerusalem; but as I have at present no concern with it, I will return to the words of my text, which are these; and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. In which we have the following particulars, 1st. The martyrdom of Stephen, and the mode of it, a very severe one, he was stoned. And they stoned Stephen. 2nd. How he was engaged at that time. It was in prayer; he was calling upon God. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God. 3rd. The words of his prayer: and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. The prayer is short; it contains but five words, the word God should be omitted; then it is clear whom the dying martyr addresses, it was Jesus. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my Spirit.

I am first to speak of the martyrdom of Stephen, and the mode of it, which was a very severe one. He was stoned; and they stoned Stephen.

(To be concluded in our next.)

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

TIME HOW SHORT!-ETERNITY HOW LONG!

WHILE wandering in company with a dear friend in a lonely church yard, where we spent some time perusing the various epitaphs of the departed, my mind became suddenly arrested by a deep consciousness of the brevity of human life, and the infinite extent of a state of immortality

Amongst the group of tombs, we distinguished some of every age and sex, from the grey and hoary head, to the infant who became strangled in life's porch, and as instantly fled into a never-ending eternity. Indeed amongst the motley heap of ruins we beheld the

rich and the noble, mingling their ashes with their less aspiring tenants. All appeared huddled up together, as if to proclaim to the passing traveller the disgrace into which they had fallen, and that 'ere long these gloomy receptacles would close their career in life for

ever!

Impressed with the solemnity of the scene, which the dawning of the evening but aided to cast over the mind a general pensiveness, experienced from the review; and being enabled to recall to my remembrance the day of my espousals to Christ, my beloved, and to look at our mortal existence in the light of the cross, I could not help exclaiming, "my fellow traveller to Canaan, cannot you rejoice with me in the grand truth, that soon time with us will be swallowed up of immortality, and then the clangour of the weapons of hostility which we have so long weilded against the best of friends will be heard, and known no more; then shall be brought to pass the saying, "death is swallowed up of boundless felicity and glory." Is not the thought somewhat animating to thy spirits, amidst thy various conflicts, that very soon the icy hand of death will lay close siege to thy clay-built tenement, attack the tottering citadel, and level it with the dust, to moulder into its native original; since that destined period will mature the fruition of thy hope, and introduce thee into the ineffable delights of heaven?

How favourable, thought I, is this solemn scene for my meditation! and what does it remind me of? does not an inward monitor dictate an inaudible, but intelligent language to my heart, that in matters of eternal moment, all earthly knowledge and attainments, however in themselves intrinsically excellent and much to be valued, yet comparatively are but of little worth?

Philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, arithmeticians, and men of the most profound erudition and skill, have in the various ages of the world achieved and discovered much by the nurture of the talents, with which God has naturally endowed them, into the manhood of earthly science; and some have evinced a prodigy of genius in their ardent pursuits of wisdom, for which they have dug with the most astonishing and indefatigable industry, as for hidden treasure. Aspiring reason itself has extended her bounded and widely expanded wings to the utmost stretch, and in her soaring flight has comprehended much; but there is much that is incomprehensible to her finite powers, even in created objects within the ken of human sight; and spiritual objects are only discernable to the eye of faith, by the light of revelation.

Astonishing indeed are the attainments of some men, who have risen to the climax of classical fame, and scientific knowledge, beyond the conception of those who shine only in the literary sphere of mediocrity! yet palpably obvious is the truism, that after all their almost boundless researches, they only find that blessing which at longest is of very transient duration, and must cease with time; and which, like the glow-worm, emits light in darkness, but which only enlightens the natural understanding, but warms not, nor animates the heart.

"None by searching can find out the Almighty to perfection." Job xi. 7. True wisdom is of God, and from him alone it is bestowed. It eclipses every other attainment; and its full attainment is, "the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ."

The fleeting round of threescore years and ten has revolved on its axis with millions. Millions more are frittering away the short span of their existence, while few is the number comparatively who enter in at wisdom's gates. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and her price is above rubies." Job xxviii. 18.

The striking of the clock-the tolling of the funeral knell-the sight of the mournfully attended bier-the beating of the pulse-and the rapid succession of day and night, with the endless evolution of passing events, remind me of the grand truth, that " man goeth to his long home," from whence no traveller returneth; that his days 'ere they have reached the meridian of life, “like a shadow declineth away."

And since we feel that we are fast hastening on to an eternal world, by the mementos of mortality within us, and perceive around us so many external evidences of the bitterness and brevity of our earthly span, how blessed must be the man who can calmly survey time in the glass of eternity, and is enabled to comprehend by practical experience that, heavenly arithmetic, "so to number his days, as to apply them to true wisdom."

And since the ebbing sand within our glass of time is well nigh spent, and the solemn realities of a never-ending eternity are unfolding to our view, lamentable indeed is the fact in the experience of him "who is at ease in his possessions," and how truly unwelcome is this dawning hereafter to the man exalted on the pinacle of fame, destitute of a well-grounded hope of immortal blessedness! Such must either meet death with horrors past imagination; die like the savage brute, hardened into insensibility and stoical indifference; or urged on by wild despair must stem its tide with more than frantic madness, and be plunged for ever beneath its dreadful vortex into the burning deluge, prepared for the finally impenitent!

With such a scene in view-what would the trembling sinner, the earthly monarch, the illustrious senator, the wise statesman, the able orator, the refined rhetoritician, and the man of wisdom, descended from noble parentage, destitute of the hope of the gospel, give for one moment's respite from the fast approaching and all-impending ruin! Gladly would such barter their all, even to the extent of kingdoms to obtain it, and count the sacrifice but trivial. Poor consolation this, to gain even the whole world, at the expense of the soul !

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Appaling beyond description will be the summons come to judgement" to the man who knows nothing of Christ or his salvation but, come it must, for " man goeth to his long home." Time is ever on the wing; and as time flies, eternity approaches-a long, a vast, and never-ending eternity. When life's curtain drops, all the actors of life's drama, as well as all their groundless hopes, cease for ever.

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