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and condemned, and being carried without the city-walls, a rabble stoned him to death. Like his Lord for whom he died, he prayed for his murderers to the last, and "fell asleep."

Having thus begun to kill, the Sanhedrim followed up its sanguinary policy with such effect that the Christians were forced to flee, as they best might, from Jerusalem. But their dispersion had no other result than to spread over a wider surface the knowledge of Christianity. Philip, among others, conveyed it into Samaria, and after he had made many converts there, met, upon the road to Gaza, an Ethiopian noble, who was returning in his chariot from attending one of the festivals in Jerusalem. The noble, or eunuch, as he is called in Scripture, read, as he journeyed, from the book of Isaiah; and Philip, approaching his chariot, asked if he understood what the prophet meant. It was a strange, bold question, but the great man answered it gently, and a conversation followed which led to the hearty conversion of the Ethiopian. He was baptized in a pool or stream which they reached as they went along. Immediately Philip was borne away by the Spirit of God; and the grateful convert returning home, laid the foundation of a Church, with which we are only now beginning to become acquainted, though it claims to have subsisted in the midst of hostile tribes, from the times of the Apostles.

It is a remarkable fact, that in spite of the success which attended his ministrations, Philip the deacon did not possess the power of conferring upon his converts "the gift of the Holy Ghost." He preached and baptized, and admitted many, by this means, into the Church of Christ. But the laying on of hands did not appertain to his office, and we accordingly find that Peter and John were, at a subsequent

period, sent down by the brethren to do in Samaria what Philip had not presumed to attempt. It is upon this act, and upon others of a similar nature, that the church founds that rite of confirmation, which is practised in all lands under some form of usage or another, wherever the first principles of Christianity are taught.

CHAP. XLIX.

BOOK OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLEScontinued.

CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. HIS LABOURS AND THOSE OF PETER.

THERE had been present at the martyrdom of Stephen a young man, named Saul, whom the sternest spirit of the sect of the Pharisees animated; and who, rejoicing over the death of one whom he regarded as an arch heretic, applied for and obtained leave to persecute the Christians wherever he could find them. Having filled with them the prisons of Jerusalem, he set out for Damascus, whither he had learned that many had betaken themselves; and was approaching the city, when all at once, a bright light shone from heaven, and he heard a voice which demanded "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" He fell from his horse like one smitten with a deadly wound; and when his attendants raised him, his sight was gone. They carried him into Damascus, and for three days he meditated in total darkness over the appeal of one who had told him "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." He was a persecutor no more. The Lord had called him, and like his great ancestor, Abraham, he was not inattentive to the call. A man named Ananias

CONVERSION OF PAUL.

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a believer, who dwelt in the place was instructed by a vision to go to him; and Saul, now wounded and smitten at heart, and yearning to do the Lord's will, prayed to be baptized. He was baptized. His sight came again, and from that day forth he laboured more than all the rest, to establish that faith of which in his ignorance he had once been so bitter, though so honest, a persecutor.

A. D. 37.—There was, as might be expected, in the Christian community, both suspicion and jealousy of Saul, when first he declared his conversion. The Jews, on the other hand, heard of it with the wildest indignation; and had he not escaped over the town-wall by night, his career as an apostle would have ended where it began. But Paul (for so he now called himself) held the latter feeling very light, and soon overcame the former by the integrity of his conduct, He travelled to Jerusalem, where Barnabas at once took him by the hand, and agreed to be his companion in the ministry. For the persecution which began with Stephen's murder was, by this time, blown over, and the infant Church held its councils, as it had previously done, in the capital of Judæa. Paul joined in the deliberations of his brethren there, and helped them to assign to each Apostle his province of labour; for the work was parcelled out among many, though we are unable to fix accurately the fields of more than three. Peter took Judæa, Galilee, and Samaria, for his circuit; Paul and Barnabas, Cilicia and Syria; and James, who appears to have generally presided at such synods as from time to time were held, abode still in Jerusalem; and so the great task of converting the world was resumed.

Up to the present moment, the gospel had been preached only to people either of Jewish descent

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smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him thy left also." Instead of the absolute prohibition, too often violated in the letter, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," it was, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." Hypocrisy, evilspeaking, guile, ostentation, a too great anxiety for the very necessaries of life, anger, revenge, pride, vain glory, were not only all prohibited, but their opposites enjoined and enforced. "Let not thy left know what thy right hand doeth." "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and shut thy door." "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added. unto you." These, with the blessings pronounced upon "the poor in spirit," "the meek," "the mourners," "the merciful," 66 the pure in heart,' "the peace-makers," make up, when taken together, a code of morals, such as had never, till the Lord came, been dreamed of among men, such as God alone, speaking through his mouth, could have inculcated.

"

Nor were the Lord's acts at variance with the tenor of his teaching. He healed the sick, he fed the hungry, he gave sight to the blind, he cleansed the lepers, he cast out devils, he raised the dead. When he was reviled he reviled not again, when men threatened he cursed not, but passing from town to town, and from village to village, he shed round him, wherever he appeared, the blessings of health, and peace of mind, and sound and holy instruction. Under these circumstances I must endeavour, rather to let my young readers know what were the most prominent events in the Lord's most gracious career, than seek to lead them minutely through it. And it may facilitate this

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was Nararati, milena doctrines, or the less of to overcome the prejudices ledge of his kindred and come in among the intattan. Th performed in Cata, a town of Gratis proceeded with his mother and his present at a marriage et ege reader will better miderstand both the this gracious act, and the terms in spired writer descrie of some of the ages mich real Jews on these pecasions.

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spread abroad. mixed joy; and ereby removed, ed to all who udes from heaand Antioch; onversion at the time, the name of insult, to the

lapsed since the 1, with the exace to the infant ved the recall of f his successor; contempt both 1s, to suffer any o spoke against over the form brought evil to aperor Claudius set him up as. to occupy the gan his reign by in, to be put to was agreeable to ceeded to arrest I bent before the d directed them ir pure morality