their relief. For this the clergy held such money in their hands. His own portion of course was not to be spared. “I beg of you," he writes in one place (Ep. 7.), “to have good care of the widows, of infirm persons, and of all the poor. Also let strangers, if any are in need, be helped out of my own amount placed in charge of our colleague Regatianus; to whom, lest this may possibly be already all laid out, I now send also by the acolyth Naricus another sum, that cases of distress may be the more readily and largely helped." Due regard must be had still more to spiritual wants. The confessors are urged to give themselves to heavenly meditations and prayers. By the daily sacrifice of the altar especially, they must arm themselves for the great conflict. The priests must visit them in turns, one at a time with his assisting deacon, to "offer" in their behalf; going thus singly and alternately to avoid exciting attention; for which reason also the brethren generally must not go to see them in crowds; lest it should rouse jealousy, and lead to a denial of access to them altogether. "Would that my situation and office," he exclaims in one of his letters (Ep. 12), "allowed me to be now present. Most readily and cheerfully would I fulfil, with solemn ministry, all the duties of love towards our most brave brethren. But let your diligence be a substitute for my care, and do all that should be done for those, who are distinguished through the divine favor by such merits of faith and virtue. Let the bodies also of any, who though not put to the torture in prison yet depart this life there by a glorious end. receive attention and affectionate care. For neither courage nor honor are wanting in their case, to place them on the roll of the blessed martyrs. For themselves, they have suffered all that they showed themselves ready and willing to suffer. They have endured, faithful, and firm, and unconquerable, even anto death. Where to will and confession in prison and bonds is added the term of dying, the martyr's glory is complete. Finally take note also of the days on which they depart, that we may be able to celebrate their commemoration among the inemories of the martyrs. Although Tertullus, our most faithful and devoted brother, who with his other care shown toward the brethren in every active service is not wanting in attention to this object also, will continue to inform me of the days on which our blessed brethren in prison pass into immortality by the end of a glorious death, that we may celebrate oblations and sacrifices here for their commemoration; which we hope soon to celebrate with you also, by the protection of the Lord."

The style in which Cyprian addresses these sufferers for the

name of Christ, it has sometimes been remarked, is not just according to modern evangelical rule. There is often what we can hardly help feeling to be an undue glorification, not only of the martyrs already dead, but of those also who were steadfastly aspiring after the same crown. It seems to be taken too easily for granted, that this crown formed as a matter of course a direct passport to the abodes of bliss. The grand point is made to be simply enduring to the end. We hear no warnings on the danger of self-deception, no calls to anxious self-examination. The subjective side of the Christian salvation is most completely merged in the objective. Then there is a strange want of caution or reserve, in speaking of personal merit. Secular soldiers could hardly be stimulated more directly, by the idea of high desert, or by the prospect of glory and renown. And yet it would be a great mistake, to suppose that this implied no sense of the need of humility and vigilant diligence on the part of these confessors, no apprehension of the spiritual dangers to which they were still exposed, Cyprian in fact often refers to this. He felt that the merit of a good confession, and the praises bestowed upon it, might become a snare; and he abounds in exhortations accordingly, enforcing the necessity of a subsequently pious walk and conversation to make such credit full and complete. We learn from him too, that there was but too much in the actual course of events to justify such anxious solicitude. Some few of the confessors at least fell into gross irregularities and sins. "I hear that some disgrace your number," he writes Ep. 13, "and destroy the praise of your excellent name by their corrupt conduct; whom ye yourselves, as lovers and defenders of your own renown, are bound to rebuke, restrain, and correct. What reproach is it to your name, when one lives only to become intemperate or lascivious; another returns into the world, from which he had been expatriated, to be apprehended and punished afterwards, not now as a Christian, but as a malefactor! I hear too that some are inflated and proud." It is a strange glimpse we have in this way, into the interior life of the church in these ancient times. There is much in it, which it is not easy at once to understand, but from which, rightly considered, there may be for this very reason a great deal also to learn.

The object of this sketch is, not merely to give some account of Cyprian, but to illustrate at the same time, from the mirror of his life and writings, the Christianity of the third century. The subject will be resumed hereafter.

J. W. N.

STEPHEN, THE FIRST MARTYR.

ALTHOUGH the doctrine of the resurrection and the strict morality of Christians had first excited the hostility of the Sadducees; yet it was quite natural that in the course of time the opposition of Christianity to the hypocritical self-righteousness of the Pharisees, and to their bondage to the dead letter of the Scriptures, should also come to view. The result was brought about by Stephen, one of the seven deacons of the Church of Jerusalem who was distinguished for his wisdom and power to work miracles. He was in all probability a Hellenist, in other words, of Graceo Jewish origin: an opinion that may be infer red from the complaint of the foreign Jewish converts that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration-the occasion that gave rise to the appointment of deacons-as well as from his Greek name and his more liberal views of the Gospel. He was the first to set forth decidedly and forcibly the inconsistensy of Christianity with lifeless Judaism, and, in this respect, became the forerunner of the Apostle Paul, who sprang from the martyr's blood. Here lies his significance. On the formation of his views special influence seeins to have been exerted by the sermons of Christ against the Pharisees (Matt. 23); and by His threatening prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, (Matt. 24: 1 et seq. 21: 18, Luke,17 : 22 et seq.) Stephen held many controversies with foreign Jews who had received their education in Greece, and, it is likely too with Saul of Tarsus' (Acts 6: 9), and none were able" 10 resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake." No doubt he attempted to convince them, reasoning from the Old Testament, that Jesus was the Messiah and founder of a new spiritual order of divine worship, and that, in consequence of its rejection of salvation, the Jewish nation was approaching destruction. Thus he provoked the charge of blaspheming Moses, which was regarded as tantamount to blaspheming God. Men were suborned who appeared before the Sanhedrim and alleged that he had said: Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered unto

To be inferred from the special interest taken by Paul in the persecution of Stephen, (7: 58, 8: 1;) and from the fact that, among those foreign Jews who disputed with Stephen in the Synagogues, those from Cilicia, Paul's native country, are mentioned expressly (6: 9).

us.2

What gave occasion to this charge against Stephen, was probably his opposition to the Pharisees, over-valuation of the temple and the ceremonial law, as well as his reference to the abrogation of the existing economy of salvation: a fact that he could learn from the prophetic language of Christ respecting the destroying and building again of the temple, and the cessation of all worship limited to a particular nation or to particular places, whether Gerizim or Jerusalem. But the charge of his enemies, that for this reason he blasphemed Moses and God, was a slander. For the whole of the old dispensation looks beyond itself to Christianity, as the complete fulfilment of the law and the prophets.

The address of this bold witness for the truth, delivered under the inspiration of the moment in vindication of himself before the Sanhedrim, (Acts 7: 2-53)-—his angel-like countenance the while beaming with heavenly peace and serenity (ch. 6: 15)— is not indeed a direct but an indirect refutation, possessing superior excellence, of the charge alledged against him. In the true spirit of Christ disregarding all consequences, and, carried away by his holy zeal for the things of God, he lost sight of all that might conciliate his judges. Yet his vindication of the divine economy of salvation, enabled every reflecting hearer to make an application for himself to the case in hand. By far the larger portion of the address (v. 2-50) is a review of the history of the Israelites from the calling of Abraham to the giving of the law by Moses, and from this period to the building of the temple by Solomon. In reference to it he quoted a paspage from Isaiah (66: 1) against the carnal superstition of the Jews, who imagined that the Most High could be limited to a building reared by the hands of men. Stephen designed not only to evince his belief in the Old Testament by taking this retrospect of sacred history, but chiefly to demonstrate the fearful manner in which the Jews had abused the grace of God. The greater His favors had been the more stubborness and in

(Acts 6: 11-14.) A complaint, very similar to this, was brought against Christ (Matt. 26: 61): "This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days:" a perversion of his language, (John 2: 19) which refers immediately to the temple of his body, but indirectly to the natural consequences of his death and resurrection, namely, the destruction of the holy sanctuary belonging to the old dispensation, and the introduction of the new christian mode of worship.

"A fact that may explain some unimportant historical discrepancies that appear in his address. However, these serve only to confirm the credibility of the narrative. Comp. Com. on Acts 7: 6, 7, 16, 53.

gratitude had they manifested towards Him and His ambassadors, particularly towards Moses. The past he held up to the view of his accusers in which, as in a mirror, he wished them to recognize the manner in which they themselves had treated the Messiah and His followers At the same time, from a par ticular point of observation, he represents the dealings of God as constituting a theocratic plan that, ever looking beyond itself, becomes complete finally in Christ. Moses already spake of a Prophet that should come after him; the temple of Solomon, constructed by hands of men, was but the type of another-of the worship of God in spirit and in truth. It is probable that he intended also to proceed to the third period of sacred history-to review the Messianic predictions and the conflict of the Prophets with the carnal disposition of the Jews; and more minutely to describe their attachment to externals, their ingratitude and obstinacy; but his hearers, feeling keenly the point in his recapitulation of their past history, were moved to indignation and interrupted him. He passed over, therefore, from the calmness of recital to the pathos of an earnest sermon on repentance and

4 John Jacob Hess, in his "Gesch. und Schriften der Apostel Jesu," 2d ed. vol, I p. 78 et seq. Zurich, 1778, directs special attention to the fact that this resemblance was in the mind of Stephen, particularly, when he dwelt on the History of Moses. A part of the address sounds almost as if Stephen were relating the life of Christ with but a change of names. "The whole " says he p. 83 "is a picture of the Jews' treatment of Christ. Their manner of thinking as it came to view in the life of Christ, is set forth before their eyes in their past history, as in a mirror. The jealousy of Joseph's brethren, the treatment of Moses both prior and subsequent to his flight into Midian, and the conduct of the Israelites under the dealings of God with them in the wilderness, are designed to represent to Stephen's hearers, their own character and disposition." This work of the Rev. Superintendent of Zurich, as also his "Lebensgeschichte Jesu," the more recent works on the same subject seem to have passed by almost without any notice. But it still merits particular regard. Its truly pious spirit and sound investigation should put many of our modern critics who look upon it with contempt, to the blush. "The history of the Jews" he remarks very beautifully in his preface "more especially that of the Evangelists and Apostles, constitutes for me an ever new, an inexhaustible treasury of wisdom and love, my knowledge of which, defective indeed yet always increasing, brightens the days of my life and gladdens my prospects for the future. And I know that any one who will but read with a sincere love of truth, cannot fail to be both convinced and comforted; for the lineaments of the divine character of these discourses,, deeds and events are so distinct, even when they are examined by themselves, and much more so when they are considered in their connection with each other, that I can not believe that there is any work of God in Heaven or on earth, which bears upon it more striking marks of a divine origin."