liel, resolved to neglect it, believing that it would
die out, if let alone. The Christians, on the other hand, gave as
little offence as possible; in the externals of religion they continued
to be strict Jews and zealous of the law, attending the temple worship,
observing the Jewish ceremonies and respecting the ecclesiastical
authorities.

It was a kind of truce, which allowed Christianity a little space for
secret growth. In their upper rooms the brethren met to break bread
and pray to their ascended Lord. It was the most beautiful spectacle.
The new faith had alighted among them like an angel, and was shedding
purity on their souls from its wings and breathing over their humble
gatherings the spirit of peace. Their love to each other was
unbounded; they were filled with the inspiring sense of discovery; and,
as often as they met, their invisible Lord was in their midst. It was
like heaven upon earth. While Jerusalem around them was going on in
its ordinary course of worldliness and ecclesiastical asperity, these
few humble souls were felicitating themselves with a secret which they
knew to contain within it the blessedness of mankind and the future of
the world.

32. But the truce could not last, and these scenes of peace were soon
to be invaded with terror and bloodshed. Christianity could not keep
such a truce; for there is in it a world-conquering force, which impels
it at all risks to propagate itself, and the fermentation of the new
wine of gospel liberty was sure sooner or later to burst the forms of
the Jewish law.

At length a man arose in the Church in whom these aggressive tendencies
embodied themselves. This was Stephen, one of the seven deacons who
had been appointed to watch over the temporal affairs of the Christian
society. He was a man full of the Holy Ghost and possessed of
capabilities which the brevity of his career only permitted to suggest
but not to develop themselves. He went from synagogue to synagogue,
preaching the Messiahship of Jesus and announcing the advent of freedom
from the yoke of the law. Champions of Jewish orthodoxy encountered
him, but were not able to withstand his eloquence and holy zeal.
Foiled in argument, they grasped at other weapons, stirring up the
authorities and the populace to murderous fanaticism.

33. Stephen.--One of the synagogues in which these disputations took
place was that of the Cilicians, the countrymen of Paul. May he have
been a rab