t He
hates[41]. Nicolas seems in this way to be a sad reflection of the
awful example set by the traitor Judas, the last reckoned Apostle.

[Sidenote: Their functions.]

It is clear that the ministrations of the first Deacons were not of
necessity confined to the "serving of tables," which was the primary
occasion of their appointment. St. Philip both preached and
baptized[42]; and St. Stephen brought down upon himself the hatred and
malice of the Jews by the boldness and power of his preaching. Both
preaching and baptizing do still, under certain restrictions,
"appertain to the office of a Deacon[43]."

[Sidenote: Probably all Hellenists.]

Judging from the names of the Seven Deacons, there seems good reason
for supposing that they were all or most of them Grecians or {19}
Hellenists. St. Stephen was undoubtedly a Hellenist, and his early
training made him a ready instrument for the work to which the Holy
Ghost had called him. Freed by education from many of the associations
and feelings which bound his Hebrew brethren to the Holy City and the
Temple, he could realize more plainly than they could do, the future of
the Christian Church apart from both these, and boldly proclaimed his
convictions. [Sidenote: St. Stephen's preaching rouses Hebrew
prejudices.] By this conduct he aroused all the deeply-rooted
prejudices and exclusive pride of the Jewish mind, even amongst those
who, like himself, were Hellenists, and to whom he seems more
particularly to have addressed himself. Up to this time, what
opposition there was to the teaching of the Apostles, seems to have
come chiefly from the unbelieving sect of the Sadducees[44]; for the
people had espoused the cause of the Christian teachers[45], and the
Pharisees had advocated lenient conduct towards those who confessed, as
they themselves did, a belief in the Resurrection[46]. [Sidenote: The
Pharisees join with the Saducees in opposition to the Church.] But now
all was altered; priests and people, Sadducees and Pharisees, were
alike vehement against those who ventured to assert that the "Holy
Place and the Law" should ever give way to a Holier than they; and
foremost amongst the persecutors was the fiery, earnest, intellectual
man who was afterwards the holy Apostle Paul[47].

[Sidenote: St. Stephen's speech a direct Inspiration.]

The defence of the heavenly-minded Deacon before {20} his malicious and
bloodthirsty enemies must be looked upon as a direct Inspi