picture of Stephen conducted to the place of execution, has represented Sau as walking by the martyr's side with melancholy calmness. He consents to his death from a sincere, though mistaken, conviction of duty; and the expression of his countenance is strongly contrasted with the rage of the baffled Jewish doctors and the ferocity of the crowd who flock to the scene of bloodshed. Literally considered, such a representation is scarcely consistent either with Saul's conduct immediately afterwards, or with his own expressions concerning himself at the later periods of his life. But the picture, though historically incorrect, is poetically true. The painter has worked according to the true idea of his art in throwing upon the persecutor's countenance the shadow of his coming repentance. We cannot dissociate the martyrdom of Stephen from the conversion of Paul. The spectacle of so much constancy, so much faith, so much love, could not be lost. It is hardly too much to say with Augustine,' that "the Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen."

SI STEPHANUS NON ORASSET

ECCLESIA PAULUM NON HABERET

Since this chapter was sent to press, the writer has seen Wieseler'a Chronologie des Apostolischen Zeitalters (Göttingen, 1848); a work of which both the text and the notes are of great importance. Dr. Wieseler argues (note, pp. 61-63) that St. Paul was probably a Cilician Libertinus. Great numbers of Jews had been made slaves in the civil wars, and then manumitted. A slave manumitted with due formalities became a Roman citizen. Now we find St. Paul taking an active part in the persecution of Stephen; and the verse which describes Stephen's great opponents, may be so translated as to mean "Libertines" from "Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia." Thus it is natural to conclude that the Apostle, with other Cilician Jews, may have been, like Horace, "libertino patre natus." The two passages from Tacitus and Philo, which prove how unmerous the Jewish Libertini were in the empire, will come under notice hereafter, in connection with Rome.

3

4

it was once in the church of St. Stephen at Valencia, and is now in the Royal Gallery at Madrid. See Stirling's Annals of the Artists of Spain, i. 363.

See Acts xxii. 4. xxvi. 10. Phil. iii. 6. 1 Tim. i. 13.

⚫ Sermo I & IV. in festo sancti Stephani.

• Acts vi. 9

4 Sat. i. 6, 45.

CHAPTER II

Ενόμισαν ἀπηλλάχθαι τῆς ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις διαλέξεως ἀπαλλαγέντες Στέφανου, και Zrépavov opodpórepov ɛúpov črepov.-S. Chrysost. Hom. xx. in Act. App.

FUNERAL OF ST. STEPHEN.-SAUL'S CONTINUED PERSECUTION.-FLIGHT OF THE CHRISTIANS.-PHILIP AND THE SAMARITANS.-SAUL'S JOURNEY TO DAMAS CUS.-ARETAS, KING OF PETRA. ROADS FROM JERUSALEM TO DAMASCUS.NEAPOLIS.-HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF DAMASCUS.-THE NARRATIVES OF THE MIRACLE.-IT WAS A REAL VISION OF JESUS CHRIST.-THREE DAYS IN DAMASCUS.-ANANIAS.-BAPTISM AND FIRST PREACHING OF SAUL. HE RETIRES INTO ARABIA.-MEANING OF THE TERM ARABIA.-PETRA AND THE DESERT.-CONSPIRACY AT DAMASCUS.-ESCAPE TO JERUSALEM.-BARNABAS -FORTNIGHT WITH ST. PETER.-CONSPIRACY.-VISION IN THE TEMPLE.SAUL WITHDRAWS TO SYRIA AND CILICIA.

THE death of St. Stephen is a bright passage in the earliest history of the Church. Where, in the annals of the world, can we find so perfect an image of a pure and blessed saint as that which is drawn in the con cluding verses of the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles? And the brightness which invests the scene of the martyr's last moments is the more impressive from its contrast with all that has preceded it since the Crucifixion of Christ. The first Apostle who died was a traitor. The first disciples of the Christian Apostles whose deaths are recorded were liars and hypocrites. The kingdom of the Son of Man was founded in darkness and gloom. But a heavenly light reappeared with the martyrdom of St. Stephen. The revelation of such a character at the moment of death was the strongest of all evidences, and the highest of all encouragements. Nothing could more confidently assert the divine power of the now religion; nothing could prophesy more surely the certainty of its final victory.

To us who have the experience of many centuries of Christian history. and who can look back, through a long series of martyrdoms, to this, which was the beginning and example of the rest, these thoughts are easy and obvious; but to the friends and associates of the murdered Saint, such feelings of cheerful and confident assurance were perhaps more diffi cult. Though Christ was indeed risen from the dead, His disciples could hardly yet be able to realize the full triumph of the Cross over death