Among the nameless herd of Stephen’s murderers and disputants, there
was one only whose name has been preserved from the impenetrable
oblivion which hides their infamy. And that name now is brought to
the mind of every Christian reader, without one emotion of indignation
or contempt, for its connection with this bloody murder. That man is
now known to hundreds of millions, and has been for centuries known to
millions of millions, as the bright leader of the hosts of the ransomed,
and the faithful martyr who sealed with his blood the witness which
this proto-martyr bore beneath the messengers of death to which his
voice had doomed him. In the synagogue of the Cilicians, which was so
active in the attack on Stephen, was a young man, who was not behind
the oldest and the fiercest, in the steady, unrelenting hate which he
bore to this devouring heresy. He gave his voice amid the clamors of
the mob, to swell the cry for the death of the heretic; and when the
stout murderers hurled the deadly missiles on the martyr’s naked head,
it was he who took charge of the loose garments which they had thrown
off, that they might use their limbs with greater freedom. Neither the
sight of the saintly martyr, kneeling unresistingly to meet his bloody
death, nor the sound of his voice, rising in the broken tones of the
death-agony, in prayer for his murderers, could move the deep hate of
this young zealot, to the least relenting; but the whole scene only
led him to follow this example of merciless persecution, which he here
viewed with such deep delight. Abundant opportunities for the exercise
of this persecuting spirit soon occurred. In connection with the charge
against Stephen, which, however unfounded, brought him to this illegal
death, there was a general and systematic disturbance raised by the
same persons, against the church in Jerusalem, more particularly
directed, as it would seem, against the Hellenist members, who were
involved, by general suspicion, in the same crime for which Stephen,
their eminent brother, had suffered. Saul now distinguished himself
at once above all others, by the active share which he took in this
persecution. Raging against the faithful companions of the martyred
Stephen, he, with the most inquisitorial zeal, sought them out, even
in their own quiet dwellings, and violating the sanctity of home, he
dragged out the inmates to prison, visiting even on helpless women the
crime of believing as their consciences prompted, and without regard to
delicacy or decency, shutting them up in the public dungeons. As soon
as the storm began to burst on the new converts, those who were in any
special danger of attack very properly sought safety in flight from
the city, in accordance with the wise and merciful injunction laid upon
the apostles by their Lord, when he first sent them forth as sheep in
the midst of wolves,――“When they persecute you in one city, flee into
another.” The consequences of this dispersion, however, were such as to
turn the foolish rage of the persecutors to the solid advantage of the
cause of Christ, and to show in what a variety of ways God can cause
the wrath of man to praise him. For all those who were thus driven
out of their peaceful homes, became missionaries of the word of truth,
among the people of the various cities and countries through which they
were scattered. All those of whose wanderings we have any account, seem
to have journeyed northward and north-westward, probably all of them
foreign Jews, who naturally returned home when driven out of Jerusalem.
Some of these went, in this way, to the Phoenician coast, to Antioch,
and to Cyprus, all laboring to extend the knowledge of that truth for
which they were willing sufferers. But of all those who went forth
on this forced mission, none appear to have been more successful than
Philip, who stood next to the martyred Stephen on the list of the
seven Hellenist servants of the church, and who appears to have been
second not even to his great fellow-servant in ability and energy. His
home was in Caesarea, on the sea-coast; but he had higher objects than
merely to take refuge in his own domestic circle; for instead of thus
indulging his feelings of natural affection, he also turned his course
northward, and made his first sojourn in the city of Samaria, where
he immediately began to preach Christ to them, as the common Messiah,
so long desired by Samaritans as well as Jews. Here, the people being
ruled by no tyrannical sectaries, like the Pharisees and Sadducees,
and the various orders of ecclesiastical power in Jerusalem, were left
entirely to follow the impulse of their better feelings towards the
truth, without the fear of any inquisition into their movements. Under
these happy circumstances of religious freedom, they all with one
accord gave heed to the preaching of Philip, hearing and seeing the
wonderful works of kindness which he did. For foul spirits, which,
possessing many sufferers, had long wasted their bodies and deranged
their minds, now at the word of this preacher of Christ, came out
of many of them, crying with a loud voice in attestation of the
irresistible power which had overcome them. Many also that were
affected with palsies and that were lame, were healed in the same
miraculous manner; so that, in consequence of this removal of so many
bodily and spiritual evils, there was great joy in the city, at the
arrival of this messenger of mercy. But before the coming of Philip,
the people of Samaria had been the subjects of arts of a somewhat
different kind, from a man who could claim for his works none of the
holy character of disinterested humanity, which belonged to those of
the preacher of Christ. This was one Simon, a man who, by the use of
some magical tricks, had so imposed upon the simple-minded citizens,
that they were profoundly impressed with the notion, which he was
anxious to make them believe, namely, that he was a great man. To
him they all, both young and old, paid the deepest reverence, in
consequence of the triumphant ability displayed by him in the arts
of sorcery; and so low were their notions of the nature of miraculous
agency, that they concluded that the tricks which he played were tokens
of divine interposition in his favor, and universally allowed that
he was himself a personification of the mighty power of God. But when
Philip came among them, and exhibited the genuine workings of the holy
spirit of God, they immediately saw how much they had been mistaken in
their previous estimate of its operations, and changed their degraded
notions, for a more just appreciation of its character. On hearing the
word of truth so fully revealed and supported, they believed in the
new view which he gave them of the kingdom of God on earth, and in the
name of Jesus Christ; and were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon
himself, overwhelmed with the evidences of a higher power than any
that he knew, confessed the fallacy of his own tricks, and submissively
owned the power of God as manifested in the words and deeds of Philip,
with whom he now remained, a humble and wondering observer of the
miracles and signs wrought by him.