The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 272

apo1tles themselves. They must hRve been easy to find, and they must have been known to be at the root of the whole matter. The most probable account of the matter seems to us to be that the Sanhedrim bad already had enough of them, and in interfering with them had been BO bumblingly worsted (see homilies on eh. iv., v.). IV. IT FINDS OUT SAUL, TO SET AN INDELIBLE MARK, NOT ON HIM, DUT RATHER IN Hill. It will seem to the reader at first, perhaps, that it is none but the historian who sets a mark on Saul, and that the mark which he sets is none but an outward mark, though he repeats it three times (eh. vii. 58, 60; viii. 3). Second thoughts will persuade him of something very different. As sure as ever sureness was, mark surer far than even CRin's mark is being set upon San!, set where nothing can endanger its lasting depth. lnefface.able memories are furnishing the secret cabinet of his mind; thoughts and resolutions and strong forces of conviction are being stored there, that no future crowd of cares, or throng of occupations, or tumults of mirth should avail to drive out, In the whole scene Saul takes three parts. 1. He takes a passive part, or what may seem mostly so (eh.vii. 58), and then a picture was being photographed on an inner tablet in its stillness, accurate, full, sale, to be permanent also. It was destined for a while, indeed, to be overlaid by other images, fleeting and vain, but after a while to brighten out and become, perhaps, brightest of all ezrept one. 2. Saul takes a consenting part (eh. vii. 60). Ee says nothing against the martyrdom; he looks approval of it. Do they ask whether it is all right and to his mind ?-his answer is in the affirmative. 3. Saul takes an active part. Full of zeal, full of fury, full of impetuous, impeDious, intolerant determination, he "makes havoc of the Church, entering into every house, e.nd haling men e.nd women, commits them to prison" (ver. 3). He is mercilessly marking himsel,f, unless you say that, with triple mark, another hand, a gracious one, is mark- ing him for mercy--Jesus Christ's own "pattern of all long-suffering" (1 Tim. i. 15). Yes; the Saul of Stephen's martyrdom; the Saul who permitted the polluted garments of those that stoned that saintliest Stephen to lie at his feet for safety's sake; who made himself a consenting accomplice of the causeless murder, and who then girded himself up to the full stretch of his mighty energy to presume to "make havoc" of the fiock of Jesus, will make a good pattern indeed, a pattern hard to improve upon- " pattern of the all long-suffering" of that same "Jesus." V. lT FTh"DS UTI'ERANCES AllUNDANT, RINGING, FAR AND WIDE, FOR "PREACHING CHRIST," A THOUSAND-FOLD FOB THE ONE LOVING VOICE THAT HAD DEEN HUSHED. (Ver. 4.) And no thought outside of the rapture of his own soul, delivered unto the glory of God, of Christ, of heaven, could have been more welcome than this to Stephen. His murderous, stoned death, he would have said, was already amply and blessedly revenged. The one thing, " preaching Christ," that caused his death, was multiplied immediately a thousand-fold by that very thing-his death. In his death Samson slew more than all he had slain while he lived in his mighty manhood. Unenviable achievement! Fame unblessed! His seed perish from the earth I But Stephen in bis death becomes the means of the offer of life, and doubtless of life too to more, innumerably more than all whom he could reach with all his saintly force while he lived. Honoured servant! Deathless renown I His seed" the noble army of martyrs," and converts exceeding the drops of morning dew! No unworthy pendant to the thrilling sacred tale of Scripture itself is the proverb that takes date from this one: "The blood of the marty,'!l is the seed of the Church."-B. Ver. 8.-New-fO'Und Joy. "And there was great joy in that city." The gospel of Jesus begins now its own aggressive but beneficent march. Twice already has it passed through the most solemn baptism of blood. Its' birth, its infancy, its home, its early struggles outside its own sacred home, and its baptisms can never be for- gotten. Yet it is time for the young giant to essay his powers, and, without a weapon, to try what intrinsic force may count for. Apostolic preaching and achievement are still for e. short time lleld in abeyance by the history. It is almost as though open ground were being prepared for the entrance of Saul into the great champion's place. Stephen, stricken down, is immediately replaced, not by an apostle, but by the second of those who had been specially set apart for the care of tables. Philip, who comes to be named Philip the Evangelist, is to the front. At the message of persecution, when IUany, apparently with no little concert and in no little order of movement, travel on. vm. 1-40.] THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. 26!)