Seven Deacons
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him with one accord. “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.”
Amid the agonies of this most cruel death, the faithful martyr, like
his divine Master, prayed for his murderers. The witnesses who had
accused Stephen were required to cast the first stones. These persons
laid down their clothes at the feet of Saul, who had taken an active part
in the disation, and had consented to the prisoner’s death.
The martyrdom of Stephen made a deep impression upon all who
witnessed it. It was a sore trial to the church, but resulted in the
conversion of Saul. The faith, constancy, and glorification of the
martyr could not be effaced from his memory. The signet of God upon
his face, his words, that reached to the very soul of all who heard them,
except those who were hardened by resisting the light, remained in
the memory of the beholders, and testified to the truth of that which
he had proclaimed.
There had been no legal sentence passed upon Stephen; but the
Roman authorities were bribed by large sums of money to make no
investigation of the case. Saul seemed to be imbued with a frenzied
zeal at the scene of Stephen’s trial and death. He seemed to be angered
at his own secret convictions that Stephen was honored of God, at the
very period when he was dishonored of men. He continued to persecute
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the church of God, hunting them down, seizing them in their houses,
and delivering them up to the priests and rulers for imprisonment and
death. His zeal in carrying forward the persecution was a terror to
the Christians in Jerusalem. The Roman authorities made no special
effort to stay the cruel work, and secretly aided the Jews, in order to
conciliate them, and to secure their favor.
The learned Saul was a mighty instrument in the hands of Satan
to carry out his rebellion against the Son of God; but a mightier than
Satan had selected Saul to take the place of the martyred Stephen,
and to labor and suffer for his name. Saul was a man of much esteem
among the Jews, for both his learning and his zeal in persecuting the
believers. He was not a member of the Sanhedrim council until after
the death of Stephen, when he was elected to that body in consideration
of the part he had acted on that occasion.