example. The place, where he suffered, is said by the Evangelist to have been "out of the city." Over the place the Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius, erected a beautiful and stately church to the honour of this first martyr: and tradition still preserves the memory of the spot, without the walls on the north side of Jerusalem, in a broad stone, on which he is said to have suffered martyrdom, and in a gate, called St. Stephen's gate, from its vicinity to the supposed place of his suffering".

REFLEXIONS.

IN reflecting upon the actions related of St. Stephen, we may first have regard to the character given of him by the Evangelist, that he was "a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." In this character we perceive the principle by which he was actuated, and the power which enabled him to act under its impulse: Faith, the principle; the Holy Ghost, the power. As it is from the Holy Spirit of God that men derive their sufficiency to do things pleasing to God, so it is through the principle of faith that they act in such a manner as to please him. And sound must have been that principle, and great must have been

4 Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.

that power, which enabled Stephen to support the trial to which he was exposed, with the fortitude, and firmness, and pious confidence, and forgiving meekness, which marked the last moments of this holy man.

The manner indeed, in which the early Christian martyrs, after the example of this their leader, the illustrious soldier and servant of Christ commemorated on this day, submitted to their sufferings in testimony to the Christian truth, is most surprising; and affords a strong argument for our faith and confidence in the goodness of God. They were imprisoned and proscribed: they were banished: they were condemned to work in the mines: they were made to fight with wild beasts in the theatres for the diversion of the people: they were put to the torture: they were placed in red hot iron chairs they were crucified, impaled, burned alive in a word, they were compelled to undergo all the torments, which cruelty and barbarity, inflamed by rage, could invent: torments, of which we cannot hear or read without horror, and at the very mention of which human nature shudders and recoils. Yet these inflictions they endured with the most undaunted courage, and with constancy the most unbending. As feminine weakness, the tender

ness of youth, or the decrepitude of declining years, was no protection from the cruel acts of the persecutor, so were they no impediments in the sufferer to the most persevering resolution and the most patient endurance. They were led to their deaths, deaths the most violent and tremendous, like St. Stephen: and, like St. Stephen, they met their deaths with a firmness, which triumphed over all that men could do unto them, because, like him, they were " full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." God, we cannot but suppose, suffered them not to sink under the trials, which he permitted them to undergo for his Son's sake; but made them "strong in faith," and gave them a more abundant measure of his Spirit to support them. And in them he has furnished us with an encouragement, to persevere in the faith, to which they bore testimony; and ensamples, that, if we strive to do so, we shall have a sufficient supply of his grace.

The special motive, which animated the first martyr, was doubtless the assured prospect of heavenly happiness, in exchange for his earthly sufferings borne in testimony to the truth of Christ. To him indeed, at the moment of his sufferings, a special revelation was vouchsafed, setting before him in sensible view the majesty of his Lord. "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 there appears an evident propriety, in the admission of this first martyr to a particular enjoyment of the beatifick vision during the agonies of his mortal combat. The Apostles had beheld the blessed Jesus "taken up into heaven, till a cloud received him out of their sight." The cloud that obscured him was now removed; and the first martyr beheld the Saviour, amid the radiance of the divine glory, in a posture of defence and protection of his suffering servant." He was set in the forefront of the battle, the first of that noble army who resisted unto blood in defence of Jesus and his truth. And the issue of that encounter was of mighty consequence: of mighty consequence, not only to the champion himself, but to the cause in which he was engaged, and to the many millions of souls who were to engage in it after him. The religion, which undertook so boldly to renounce the world, and "brought life and immortality to light," was then in its infancy. And an instance of those regions of immortality opening themselves to one, who had so stedfastly fixed his eyes upon them, and in the strength of that vision triumphed over death and malice in their ghastliest form, proved the force, as well as the

certainty, of those hopes and that faith inspired by the Gospel"."

But the vision, once vouchsafed, was not to be repeated to the material eye. By the eye of faith only was the Saviour afterwards beheld by succeeding martyrs: and by the eye of faith he is, as the Church teaches us to pray, to be beheld by us. We have no reason to expect, we have every reason not to expect, a repetition of St. Stephen's vision: but, if "we look up stedfastly to heaven in our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of the truth," or in those sufferings which are generally incident to our mortal nature, we have good reason to expect, that we shall" by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed;" and be supported by that faith, until we be translated into the presence of Him, even "Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God"."

To Him meanwhile our duty is to be performed in this life and amongst other marks of faithful devotion there is one in particular suggested by the conduct of the Saint of this day. "They stoned Stephen, calling upon, or invocat

* Dean Stanhope.

⚫ Heb. xii. 2.