صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

was pleased to reveal unto His martyr St. Stephen the very form and presence of His Saviour. in heaven. “And he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at 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." These words did but further increase their rage against him, and make them more eager to put St. Stephen to death as a blasphemer. "Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. 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." Such was the peaceful, and blessed, and glorious death of St. Stephen, the first martyr: the first in the Church of Jesus Christ, who was called to seal with his blood his witness to the Gospel which he preached. Almighty God revealed to him at his dying hour the vision of his Saviour in heaven.

Into that Saviour's hands he com

mended his spirit; and, after that Saviour's example, his last prayer was for his enemies and murderers. "Lord, lay not this charge."

sin to their

Blessed are the dead, which (thus) die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

Blessed are "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held."

And, surely, we have a practical lesson to learn from the sufferings and deaths of the martyrs. There have been times, when they who would be true and faithful to God, had to suffer sharp and cruel persecutions. In the early Church of Jesus Christ, for a period of three hundred years, the disciples of our Lord had no other choice than either to deny Christ, and offer sacrifice unto idols, or to suffer, at the hands of the heathen, all that the malice of man and of Satan could devise; many died at the stake, many on the rack, many were cast to the wild beasts; and, of them who died not, many were scourged and tortured, many were imprisoned in loathsome dungeons, or sentenced to labour in the mines; many again were banished from their homes, and

lived and died in foreign and barbarous countries, among strangers and enemies, enduring hunger and thirst, and cold and nakedness, all their lives through. Such was the state of the early Church, such the trials of the early Christians; trials hard to flesh and blood, but such as, by God's grace, they overcame; nay, trials, whereby their faith was exercised and perfected, and they fitted and prepared for a brighter crown, a higher place in the kingdom of heaven.

And even now, in heathen lands, the Christian missionary and the Christian convert, may be, and at times are, called to undergo the same fiery trial; even now, no one year, perhaps, passes, but that some in heathen lands may be called to seal with their blood their witness for Christ. Through the alone mercy of God, we have been spared this trial of our faith. Martyrdom is what we read of, or hear of, not what we are called to witness with our own eyes, still less to undergo in our own persons.

Almighty God hath cast our lot in quiet and ordered times. We are not now called to suffer persecution for the name of Jesus Christ. We are not now called to bear harm or loss rather than deny the faith; still we may, at any time, be put to lesser trials of our faith and

:

duty and how great would be the sin and shame to fail in these, whereas the noble army of martyrs failed not under so far greater and heavier trials. We may be called on to deny ourselves, and to take up our cross and follow Jesus Christ in our daily life, in our daily business, at home, or abroad. We may be called to give up gains, such as are not strictly honest, to incur losses rather than risk a good conscience. We may have friends or kindred who would tempt us to sin, and we may love them, and yet be called, and bound, to give them up; or we may live and mix with persons who mock at purity and religion, who would laugh us out of our innocence, laugh us into sin.

many such around us, and the

Alas, there are

young may be

sorely tried when they wish to keep holy the Lord's day, when they wish to come to the church, when they do not wish to mix in rude sports on God's own day, or to speak light, or profane, or unclean words :-the young may be sorely tried, when they wish to be pure, and dutiful, and religious, and are mocked at, and laughed to scorn by those of their own age. But they must not faint, nor give over: so far as God calls any to suffer for Him, be it shame, or mockery, or what it will, so far God calls them.

:

to be in a measure His martyrs: in a mean and poor way, perhaps, as compared with such as resisted even unto blood; still to be His martyrs, i. e. His witnesses: witnesses for God, for duty, for purity of speech and life, for religion, for reverence for God's house and for God's holy day. Unto all this God calls any who are set upon by evil scorn, or mocked at, when they would do their duty, follow conscience, and keep from sin and let such take comfort and courage from the thought that God has given unto His servants grace and strength to overcome trials ten-fold harder. God has helped His servants at all times, and will continue to help them. No trial so great but that He will give them strength to bear it; no trial so small as to be beneath His regard and care. His eye, that neither slumbers nor sleeps, is upon them; all that they do and suffer, they do and suffer in His sight; all is laid up with Him, as treasure in heaven; all He will reward and crown at His coming.

Blessed are they that, in any age of the Church, in any country, in any the least measure, are called to be martyrs, witnesses for God and His truth: if only, that is, they be faithful, and true to God, and obey His call: blessed indeed are they, for our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself hath

« السابقةمتابعة »