gave them rules, and ordained presbyters to preside over them in sacred things, and to teach them the way of salvation: of these, in process of time, when they were themselves prevented from visiting and ordering the Churches, they appointed some to exercise their own authority, and to ordain ministers, as occasion required. Such were Timothy at Ephesus, and Titus in Crete. These were the first bishops, superintendents, and overseers of the flock of Christ. To these, and to the presbyters, or elders, the deacons were assistants. These three spiritual orders alone are recognized in the annals of the early Church; and these three alone, as being of scriptural authority, does our own reformed and apostolical Church acknowledge.

The Apostles, being no longer embarrassed with secular cares, devoted themselves with increased energy and effect to the work of the ministry; and the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith; and Stephen, adds the sacred historian, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. The faith he possessed before his ordination to the office of

deacon his power, derived from God, was conferred upon him when he was ordained, at the imposition of hands by the Apostles. But his faith and power were qualities, which placed him, as it were, in the front rank of the battle which was waging between the Lord of life and the prince of this world; made him an intrepid and successful soldier under the banner of the cross; and honoured him with the first crown of martyrdom. The conversion of a great company of the priests, whose chiefs were the most obstinate and implacable enemies of Christ, was a signal triumph, which seems to have been achieved in part by the zeal and eloquence of Stephen. He was accordingly regarded as one of the ablest advocates of the new religion, and assailed by some of the subtlest disputants of the synagogue of the African and Asiatic Jews, the Libertines, (or citizens of Libertum, a town on the coast of Africa, who, together with the Jews from Cyrene, a neighbouring town, and from Alexandria, had their own synagogue at Jerusalem,) and of them of Cilicia and Asia; and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. He proved, no doubt, by a comparison of the ancient prophecies with the character, and actions, and discourses of Jesus,

that he was the expected Messiah; that he was greater than Moses; that he was the onlybegotten Son of God. That Stephen did assert the divine character of Jesus, and his authoritative abrogation of the law of Moses, we may collect from St. Luke's expression, then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. On this charge he was carried before the council; where, upon being questioned by the high priest, who sat as president, Are these things so? he delivered that speech which is contained in the seventh chapter of the Acts. In this defence, he vindicates himself from the charge of blasphemy against the law of Moses, by showing, first, that Abraham and his family served and pleased God before the giving of the law; secondly, that Moses himself foretold the coming of a prophet, whose authority was to supersede his own; thirdly, that the law, good as it was, had not restrained the Jewish people from idolatrous practices. As to the temple, it was no blasphemy, he tells them, to predict its destruction; for it did not exist till long after the time of Moses; and although it was a magnificent habitation for the God of Jacob, yet He dwelleth not in

temples made with hands; and, lastly, as to the opposition which their leading men offered to the religion of Jesus, that was no proof of its falsehood, but rather an argument in its favour; since they had at all times resisted the counsels and persecuted the messengers of the Most High; slaying the prophets, who from time to time were appointed to show before of the coming of the Just One; that Just One, whose death had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and put the seal to their doom.

Such appears to be the purport of the defence which Stephen made before the council; and, as might be expected, it served still further to enflame the animosity of the proud and obstinate Jews. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. On the other hand, the pious believer, full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God; and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Now there is no occasion to suppose, that Stephen saw the heavens actually open, or the glorious appearance of the divinity manifested to his bodily sight. It seems to be a more probable

opinion, that, in the transport of his zeal and devotion, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he enjoyed an inward vision of the glories of the heavenly kingdom; like St. Peter, who, while he was praying, fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened.*

Let us pause here for a moment, to remark, that the energy of a lively faith, and an ardent spirit of devotion in this holy man, were able, while the fear of death was before him, to transport him beyond the confines of mortality, into that eternal sphere of glory, where the Redeemer stands at the right hand of his Almighty Father, making intercession for the faithful, and waiting to receive them to himself. It is true, that in the instance before us, it was a faith, strengthened and enlightened by the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit: but will the assistance of the same Spirit be withholden from any true disciple, at his most trying hour of need? Surely not. Has it never, my friends, fallen to your lot, to witness something of the same kind, taking place in the soul of the dying Christian? At that awful moment, when the spirit is disengaging itself from its fleshly tabernacle, and is held to earth only by one slender thread of vitality, its

* Acts x. 10.