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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
a sight as Stephen got here. That vision was not granted to Stephen for his own sake alone but for our sakes as well. As far as Stephen, himself, was concerned this sight o f the Glory o f God and Jesus standing on His right hand was granted to strengthen him for suffering and wit nessing. Death no longer had any terrors for him. How could it? He saw where he was going and to whom he was going. “ Behold,” he cries, “I saw the Heavens opened, and the Son o f Man- standing on the right hand o f God.” He was a faith ful and fearless witness to the last. ! No howling mob could stop his testimony, and what a valuable testimony it is. Christ had been seen after his resurrection by five hundred persons (1 Cor. 15 : 6 ), he had been seen by the disciples as he ascended before their eyes, but now He is seen in Heaven itself, at the right hand o f God. So we can no longer doubt His Deity, nor our security. What most occupied Stephen’s thought and attention in what he saw Was Jesus Himself. He was more taken up with Jesus than he was-with the Glory of God,' marvelous as that was. He was taken up with Jesus “as the Son o f Man standing on the right hand o f God.” Jesus left Heaven as God only, He had been there as God through all eternity (John 1:1, 2 ; Phil. 2:6) ; but in His incarnation and birth through the Virgin Mary He became man (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 2:5) and when He went back to Heaven He went back as “the Son o f Man” as well as the “ Son o f God,” Stephen saw “Jesus stand ing at- the - right hand o f God.” Usually Jesus is represented as sitting at the right hand o f God (Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:13). Why then do we here see Him standing? Doubt less He had risen to strengthen His faith ful witness and to receive his spirit as it
more mad because in their hearts they were . convinced that -they were wrong. When anyone hardens his heart against the truth and resists the Holy Ghost nothing will stay him and there is no telling into what enormities o f sin and Crime he will rush forward. The one who hardens his heart against the truth and resists ‘the Holy Ghost goes on from worse to, worse and will through all eternity and that is hell. They were bound not to be convinced; they £would not listen; “they stopped their ears.” How many there are that are doing that very same thing today. Often times they claim to be sincere seekers after the truth but still they are unwilling to listen to the truth that they do not wish to obey and deliberately stop their ears, they avoid the books that they think will convince them. They avoid hearing the men who present the truth; whenever they do go to hear them it is with a sneer and scorn. O h ! if men would only listen today to the truth instead o f stopping their ears and doing everything in their power to keep from being convinced. There was a won derful unanimity in their attack upon Stephen. Each one who resisted the truth, encouraged the others to resist the truth. There is nothing in all the world so mad and senseless as a mob. Stephen was pushed along out o f the city by the wild and angry mob. He was going in exactly the same path that Jesus went to die “with out the gate” (Heb. 13:12). W e too may have to tread that path if we remain loyal to Jesus. It is not a path to be dreaded, it is a blessed and glorious path. Once out side the gate the stones began to crush in upon him. Among the crowd that looked on there was one especially delighted spec tator o f the pitiless fury o f the mob, that one was Saul o f Tarsus. Gladly he kept the garments o f those who committed the murder, he heartily approved o f it and was a participant in it. But Saul o f Tarsus Will never forget the scene: Stephen’s whole bearing and the words he uttered will prick him like a goad in his secret heart (Acts 26:14). Even though outwardly with a clear conscience he goes on from
left his crushed form. Sunday, November i<). Acts T .tf, 58.
-They could not deny the truth of Stephen’s testimony and they were not will ing to accept it; so they went about to kill him. They were mad with rage, all the
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