LESSON XV.

THE FIRST MARTYRDOM.

A.D. 35.-ACTS vii. 51—viii. 2.

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted! and they have slain them which shewed before of 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.

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

And cast him out of the city, and stoned him : and the witnesses 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.

And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria, except the apostles.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

COMMENT.-At the words about the Temple, which were so like the assurance to the woman of Samaria, that neither at Jerusalem nor Gerizim should God be exclusively worshipped, there was evidently some furious demonstration, for Stephen suddenly broke off his line of argument, and, in hot indignation, denounced the sin of the nation. Just as our Lord had said that they did the deeds of their fathers. "Your fathers killed the prophets, and ye build their sepulchres" (Matt. xxiii. 29), so Stephen reproached them with the same resistance to the Voice of the Holy Ghost. They had persecuted the

prophets, and slain those who had foretold the Messiah (i.e. Isaiah and Jeremiah, among others); and now He had come, they had betrayed and murdered Him. They had received the Law through Angels or Messengers, and had not kept it! These were not the words of one pleading for his life, and they filled the hearers with fury. How little did one of them think that with almost these words he should begin his last letter, and to his own people!

But now the reproach cut the hearers to the heart by its very truth; and while they were raging round him, and gnashing their teeth, he, as the first to confess the faith unto the death, was the first to see and make known the Presence that is with those who suffer for Christ's sake. Looking up, away from the angry faces, he beheld the glory of God, and JESUS, the Man Christ JEsus, with all His Wounds, standing at His right hand, to aid His witness through the struggle. As He walked with the Three Children through the Fire, so He made Himself visible to Stephen, and so He ever stands ready to succour all those who suffer for Him.

To hear this cry of joy, proclaiming the glorious Godhead of the Crucified, filled the Council with fury-so blind, that, forgetting all the rules as to condemnation by their Roman masters, they dragged him out of the city to put him to death, by stoning, according to Lev. xxiv. 16, Deut. xvii. 6, 7. The Jewish manner of carrying out this sentence was to place the condemned on the edge of a precipice. The first witness then threw a heavy stone at his head, which was sure to throw him over, often either stunned or killed; and the second then aimed another large stone at his breast; after which enough were thrown to make his death certain. We may suppose that Stephen's prayer, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," was just ere he felt the first stone, and that not being killed by the fall at once, he rose on his knees, praying, like his Lord, and unlike all the martyrs of the Old Testament, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ;" his last words ere he fell asleep.

He,

How that prayer in one instance, at least, was granted, the greater part of the Book of the Acts is spent in telling us. from whom St. Luke no doubt had his information, does not spare himself. His few and simple words contain volumes of unuttered self-reproach at the ignorant blindness and prejudice that led

him into the deed he never ceased to mourn, though now all he thought of was pursuing the new sect to the death.

Devout men carried Stephen to his burial. His tomb is still shown, and Nicodemus and Gamaliel are said to share it. A gate at Jerusalem still bears his name. First of the Church to die, like Abel, he was slain as a witness to the faith-the earliest of the glorious army of martyrs. This name, in Greek simply meaning a witness, has come to be the special glory of those who have sealed the witness with their deaths. His own name signifies a Crown, and it is remarkable that he should have been the first to wear the crown of martyrdom. His day is placed by the Church next to the Nativity of our Lord, as representing the noble company who were martyrs both in will and deed; while St. John stands for the martyrs only in will, and the Holy Innocents for the martyrs only in deed.

LESSON XVI.

THE FIRST CONFIRMATION.

A.D. 36.-ACTS viii. 3—17.

As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

And there was great joy in that city.

But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:

To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.

And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men

and women.

Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.

Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:

Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:

(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

COMMENT.-Saul, as a man of rank and authority, coming on the authorities of Jerusalem with accusations of slackness in rooting out those whom he viewed as enemies of the Law, was able to stir up the first persecution which touched anyone but the Apostles. Many were imprisoned, but it does not appear that any were put to death. Probably Stephen's murder had been the work of sudden fury, and there was no power of sentencing to death, though, as Pilate had been recalled the year before on account of his cruelty, some think that the Sanhedrim again had power of life or death. At any rate, the brethren were forced to disperse themselves, and in especial Philip, the deacon, as Stephen's companion, had to escape where the Sanhedrim could not reach him.

The place of his refuge was Samaria, where the mutual hatred of the Jews and Samaritans secured him from being given up to Saul. It will be remembered that the Samaritans were the descendants of the Arab and Chaldean tribes placed by Esarhaddon in the empty Israelite cities (2 Kings xvii. 24), that they had been offended at the exclusiveness of the Jews after the captivity, and had both persecuted them—as in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah -and had raised a rival temple on Mount Gerizim, declaring themselves all the time to be the direct descendants of Joseph, the true heirs to Shechem. Some six years ago our Lord had held converse with the woman of Samaria by the well of Sychar, and being invited by the men of that place, had brought many to believe on Him. He had then said that the fields were white to the harvest, and Philip found ready faith when he preached and worked miracles there. He baptized; but we now begin to trace the long unwritten, though always implied, law of the Church, that, though a deacon, or even a lay person, can baptize, and thus give the new birth into the kingdom of Heaven, the Apostolic hand is

required to seal that Baptism with the Holy Spirit of Might; in short, to complete Baptism with the sevenfold grace of Confirmation (Is. xi. 2).

Peter and John then, on the news of the conversions at Samaria, came to complete the work of Philip. They must have thought of their Master's words, spoken at this very place. "Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours" (John iv. 38). This being the first occasion of such sealing with the Holy Spirit, His coming was made evident to the understanding by the accompanying signs of tongues and miracles, as in the first descent at Pentecost, and these were bestowed, not merely on the ministry—as evidences of the Presence of God, the Holy Ghost. In the further chapters of the Acts, and in the Epistles, we find full evidence of the continuation of the ordinance, though, as in the cases of the Lord's-day and of infant baptism, there is no positive command in so many words.

LESSON XVII.

SIMON MAGUS.

A.D. 36.—Acts viii. 18—25.

And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,

Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.

But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.

Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.

And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

COMMENT.-The history of Simon, called Magus, or the Magician, is a very curious one, and is found in Greek and