T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S “Lay not this sin to'their charge.” Compare Luke 23:34. Stephen does not say, “They know not what they do,” for they did know; but he prays that the awful sin of murder may not be laid against them. This prayer, made in the presence of Saul who held the clothes of the murderers, may have been God’s arrow to bring conviction. 4. THE MARTYR’S DEATH AND BUR IAL, 8:1, 2. “Devout men carried him to his burial.” We do not know who prepared the body for burial, nor where it was laid, but we do know that the Holy Spirit who filled him will guard his ashes un til the Lord shall return in glory and the scattered dust shall he gathered and glorified. 5. THE MAN SAUL, 8:3; 22:3, 4; 26:4, 5, 9, 10. “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.” These three passages of Scripture have evidently been selected for the pur pose of giving us a little insight into the early history of Saul. In the first three verses of the 22 nd chapter w,e have Saul’s account of his conversion. He faces his brethren according to the flesh with a sad hut stout heart. He loved his people with a pure passion (Rom. 9: 1-3). He would have died for them if that would have saved them. He was facing men who had made up their minds concerning his teaching, and were wait ing like hungry wolves to lay hold of their victim, but the strong Roman arm hindered them. The assemblage were not a unit, however, in anything save their hatred of Paul. It was composed of Pharisees who believed in the Holy Scripture and in tradition as equally sacred and who believed in immortality. They were the controversialists and fat alists of the day. Then there were the Sadducees who believed in inspiration,, hut with their own interpretation. They denied the eternal existence of the soul and the resurrection. They were ration-'
6$2 the human heart as God sees it, (Jer. 17: 9) ’ “The heart Is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know It7” and stress the necessity of seeking con stantly the only power for victory over that devilish nature to which we have fallen heir. (Phil. 3:13.) “ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, fo r getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the m ark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” 2. THE MANIFEST GLORY, 7:55, 56. “Looked up steadfastly into heaven and , saw the glory of God.” Marvellous contrast! Wonderful pic ture! Ravening wolves with open mouths like the jaws of hell, ready to swallow Stephen, but he, with upturned eyes, looking into the face of Jesus. (Heh. 12: 2 .) “ Looking unto Jesus the author and fin isher of our faith; who for the joy th at was set before him, endured the cross, despis ing the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” By faith he penetrated the veil and saw his Lord standing ready to receive him. “He saw no man save J,esus only,” What power can hinder the eye of faith from perceiving—what barriers hide from His believing children—the person of Jesus? The rulers had set their faces against him, hut the Lord Jesus—“whose he was and whom he served”—turned His face toward him and prepared him for the martyr’s death. Our Lord Himself had passed through the same experience and had felt the cruel, crushing malignity of the Jewish leaders. He was touched with a feeling of Stephen’s infirmity and responded to his silent appeal. How different was it with Himself! He had looked up in the midst of His agony and the heavens were as brass. Heavy clouds hung over Him. No heavenly vision for Him hut, instead, the averted face of God. The gloom, the torture, the sting of death was upon Him, for He was bearing our sins and paying , the penalty of our guilt. 3. THE MAGNANIMOUS PRAYER, 7:59.
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