if his word is !mown to be truthful. No man ever needs to persecute if he has the rigbt on his side, and faith in those moral forces which ever uphold the right. As the line of thought is directly based on the incident as narrated in the verses, a brief outline will suffice. We find these advocates of strict Judaism- I. DEFEATED IN ARGUMENT. (Ver. 10.) Observe that, in Stephen, there was not merely controversial ekill, adequate knowledge, and a good theme; there was a spiritual 11ower which made him irresistible. Perhaps nothing rouses anger more readily than defent in discussion. Few men can retain self-control at such times. And the perma- nent valne of religious public disputations may be very seriously questioned. Happily the tone of religious controversy in our times is greatly improved. II. APPEALING TO PHYSICAL FORCE. Always a sign of weakness. Sadly illustraied in Calvin and Servetus, and similar cases of condescencling to use the power of the magistrate in purely intellectual and moral disputes. Properly, the public magistrate has only to do with the breaking of the social order, but it has always been found easy to fashion .;:barges cognizable by the magistrate when the real purpose has been to silence a triumphant intellectual or religious foe. Truth-lovers never need ask aid from the world's coarse government weapons. Magna. est verita.s, et prevalebit. III. MAKING ALLIANCE WITH LIARS. Suborning bad men and prompting false wit- nesses. So did the prejudiced Sanhedriru in dealing with our Lord. Honourable men descending to the lowest depths to carry out their malicious schemes. Their spirit an,l conduct are fully shown up by the company they keep. Loyalty to the right and to God cannot endure fellowship with false witnesses. IV. TRUSTING TO POPULAR EXCITEMENT. "They stirred up the people." The fickle- ness of the populace is proverbial. Their susceptibility to excitement makes them the easy tool of the demagogue. And Jewish crowds were remarkable for their sudden impulses. Theudas and Judas and Barchocheba played their purposes on this tightly strung string. When Stephen's enemies had no fair charge to urge against him before the courts, their only hope of accomplishment for their malicious purposes lay in the violence of a popular uprising. Their utter weakness and their shameful badness are revealed in their schemes. Seeming to succeed, they really failed more utterly than with their arguments. 'fhey could kill the body, but what more could they do? They could not fly after the winged words which, like seeds, had found their lodgment in the minds and hearts of Barnabas and Saul, and would surely spring up and bear blossom and fruitage to the dismay of all Stephen's enemies. Let the persecutor do his weak and foolish work, for "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."-R. T. Ver. 15.-The angel-fa.et- on 'll'UJn. Something of a proverbial character rests on the expression, "Saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (comp. Esth. v. 2, Septuagint). Some think that this description" may be traced to the impression made at the time on St. Paul and reported by him to St. Luke." '!'here was "calm dignity,'' but there was something more and better; there was the vision of Christ as present with him, and the radiant face was the response he made to the vision. Compare the ~kin of Moses' face shining, and the glory of the Saviour on the Mount of Transfigura- tion. "The face of Stephen was already illumined with the radiancy of the new Jerusalem." "The words describe the glory that brightened the features of Stephen, supported as he was by the consciousness of the Divine favour." Illustrate the truly wonderful power of varied expression which is found in the human face. It responds at once to the moods of the spirit, changing suddenly at changing moods, and gaining fixity of form and feature according to the settled character and habit of the mind. What a man is can be read from his face. How true this was of Stephen may be shown by ,lwclling on the following points:- 1. 'l'HE CHANGE IN STEPHEN'S FACE WAS THE SIGN OF CHERISHED FEELING. It tells us the tone and mood of his mind-what he was thinking about, and what he was feeling. Heveals to us the man of God and man of faith and man of prayer, who lived in communion of spirit with the glorified Saviour. Lines of care come into faces of worldly Christians. Heart-peace, rest in God, absorbing love to Christ, make smile- play over the face. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," and so is he in express sion of countenance. And the pleasant, the angel, face makes holy witness for Christ before men, winning them to the love of him who thus can glorify his saintn. 214 THE ACTS OF 'l'HE APOSTLES. [ OH, VIL 1-60.
II. THE OHANGE IN STEPHEN'& FACE INDIOATED SUPERIORITY TO HIS SURROUNDINGS, De11cribe them, and show how reasonably we might have looked for alarm and fear. Well Stephen knew that all this wild rage and tumult and false witnessincr meant his death. But there is no quailing. It might have been a day of joy and tri~mpb, to judge by Stephen's face. Com pa.re St. Paul's words, "None of these things move me, n~ithe: cou~t I my life dear un~ myself." Outwardly a n_u\ll ma.y be tossed, tempted, tried, 1mpenlled, tortured, but mwardly he may be kept m perfect peace, having his mind stayed on God. Such mastery of circumstance is just as truly the great Christian triumph now, though our circumstances a.re rather those of perplexity and pressure than of peril to life and property. Overcoming the world, as Stc1lhon did, we too may win and wear the "angel-face." Ill. THE CHANGE IN STEPHEN'S FA.OE WAS A RESPONSE TO THE OONSCIOUB NEARNESS OF Ji,;sus. Of this we have intimation in eh. vii. 66, but we a.re apt to regard Stephen's exclamation a.s indicating a. sudden and passing vision. It is much more probable that it kept with him all through the wild and exciting scene. When they set him before the council, the "angel-face" was there, and the vision of the Christ was in his soul. ·while be spoke his defence, the Lord stood by him and strengthened him; and when the stones flew about him and struck him down, the vision kept in bis soul ; the blinded eyes saw it, and it never passed until it became the enrapturing and et-erna.l reality-bis bliss for evermore to be with Jesus. The light on Stephen's face was the smile that recog- nized the best of Friends, who was so graciously fulfilling bis promise, and being with his suffering people always. That smile told on the per~ecuting Sanhedrim. 'l'hey would not forget it or ever get the vision out of their minds. It would secretly convict, if it did not openly win. Can there be still, and now, in our milder spheres, the angel-face on man--on us ? And if so, then on what things must the winning and the wearing of tlw angel-face depend ?-R. 'l'.
EXPOSITION.