he called on all present to attend; and then spoke to the Jews of their own history from the time of Abraham their forefather, and showed that their own revered Moses had witnessed of Christ. He reminded them of the sins of their forefathers, and of their having slain some of the Prophets who had foretold the coming of Christ; and he ended by accusing them of having murdered the Holy and the Just One.

This was more than his indignant hearers could bear; they were cut to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their teeth.

But Stephen was at this moment cheered by a glorious vision. "Behold," he said, "I see the heavens

opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

Then they all cried out, and stopped their ears. Stephen was cast out of the city, and the false witnesses, having laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, stoned him; while the holy martyr called on God, and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He then kneeled down, and, following his blessed Lord's example, prayed for his murderers with his dying lips : Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." And when he had said this, he fell into the sleep of death.

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CHAPTER IX.

Further Persecution of the Christians. Their Flight from Jerusalem. — The Gospel preached to the Samaritans.The Ethiopian converted by Philip.

THE death of Stephen, far from satisfying the vengeance of the unbelieving Jews, seemed, on the contrary, only a signal for further persecution of the Christians; and they were obliged to fly from Jerusalem into the country, scattering themselves through Judea and Samaria.

Thus God's Holy Spirit ordered it, that the Samaritans should be the next people to hear the tidings of salvation. Their particular teacher was Philip, another of the Deacons. He went down to the city of Samaria, and preached the Gospel there, healing the sick, and working many other miracles.

The Samaritans were not inattentive or thankless hearers of the word of God; we are told that they listened with one accord to Philip, that he baptized them, and that there was great joy in their city. The Apostles (who had remained at Jerusalem) afterwards sent to them Peter and John, that they might receive the gifts of the Holy

Ghost, which, as I have told you before, only an Apostle could be

stow.

But I must not forget to tell you about Philip's Ethiopian convert. Philip had received a command from God, to travel towards a certain desert, south of Jerusalem ; there he met an Ethiopian Jew, of no mean consequence, the treasurer of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, I think you will easily remember, is a country in the centre of Africa, therefore at an immense distance from Jerusalem.

You will wonder for what purpose he had travelled so far.

He had been to Jerusalem, to worship in the Temple; and a zea