This is a thought which certain persons will reject with ridicule; but it will prove a great help, as well as a source of real comfort, to many. That the constitution, as well of mind as of body, which God has bestowed upon each one of ourselves, is all that we require in order to please Him, is a truth which we cannot too fully realize. To doubt it, is to doubt at once GOD'S Wisdom and God's Power. Nay, He overrules our very short-comings to His own Glory. The Collect for the Day is faithful to remind us of this by the manner in which the doubtfulness of the holy Apostle Thomas in the Resurrection of CHRIST, is there alluded to. It is declared to have been suffered,'-'for the more confirmation of the Faith.' So may it fare, by GOD'S great mercy, with every one of ourselves! If we may not serve Him by the direct exercise of His best gifts, may our failings at least become converted into instruments of His Glory, for CHRIST's sake!

St. Stephen's Day.

FEARLESS WITNESS.

ACTS vii. 51-53.

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the HOLY GHOST: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the Law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

AFTER the four solemn sundays which precede Christmas-day, comes that great festival itself; followed by three saints' days, of which this is the first. We have been preparing ourselves in thought for the Coming of CHRIST; and lo, at last He comes. As far as may be done by such a mode of celebrating events, the memorial of His first Coming is meant to be a figure of the manner of His second. He will come in clouds,' hereafter; and behold, He comes now amid ‘a cloud of witnesses.' He will come, according to

the prophecy of Enoch, with ten thousand of

His saints; and behold, He comes now with some of His chiefest saints about Him. 'St. Stephen first, who suffered both in will and deed: next, St. John, who suffered martyrdom in will, but not in deed: lastly, the Holy Innocents, who suffered in deed, but not in will; yet are reckoned among the martyrs, because they suffered for CHRIST.'

This then was not the very time at which either the babes of Bethlehem, the disciple whom JESUS loved, or the first martyr, St. Stephen, suffered : but they are remembered now, says Bp. Sparrow, (whose words we have been already quoting,) 'because none are thought fitter attendants on CHRIST'S Nativity than the blessed Martyrs who have laid down their lives for Him, from whose Birth they received spiritual life.' And indeed it will be observed by any one who will be at the pains to examine the Calendar with this view, that the supposed month-day of our LORD's Nativity has attracted to itself by far the larger number of the saints' days throughout the year.

To St. Stephen then, the first-named of the seven deacons, is given in the Church's commemoration the nearest place to Him to whom that Martyr bore such fearless witness. His history is briefly set forth in the vith chapter of the

Acts. In consequence of a murmuring against the Hebrew disciples on the part of the Grecians, (that is on the part of those disciples, Jews by descent, who because they were born out of Judæa had adopted the Greek, which was then the universal language,)—it was resolved to appoint seven men of honest report, full of the HOLY GHOST and wisdom,' to whom the Apostles might give the charge of remedying the grievance of which the Grecians complained. St. Stephen, himself (as his name suggests) a‘Grecian,'—' a man full of faith and of the HOLY GHOST,'-is mentioned the first of these seven men; whose sacred order, although certainly of Divine institution, is thus represented as the immediate result of a necessity which made itself felt in the first days of the Gospel. Having received ordination to his holy office by the laying on of Apostolic Hands, it is related of him that, full of faith and power,' he did great wonders and miracles among the people.' His zeal quickly brought him into conflict with the most ardent opponents of the new religion; Grecians like himself, who could ill brook his warmth and eagerness on behalf of the religion of CHRIST. Unable to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake,' they charged him with blasphemy against Moses

and against GOD,- stirred up the people, and the Elders, and the Scribes; and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the Council, and set up false witnesses against him.' 'We have heard him say,' (they affirmed,) ‘that this JESUS of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.' Then follows that striking record,—' And all that sat in the Council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as if it had been the face of an Angel.'

The Apology of St. Stephen followed,—that precious summary of GoD's dealings with His chosen people, which forms the second lesson for this day's morning and evening service: wherein 'Stephen, permitted to answer to the accusation of blasphemy, sheweth that Abraham worshipped GOD rightly; and how GOD chose the fathers before Moses was born, and before the Tabernacle and Temple were built that Moses himself witnessed of CHRIST; and that all outward ceremonies were ordained according to the heavenly pattern, to last but for a time".' Having thus eloquently set forth the truth, the inspired speaker bore his fearless witness to the recent crime of his countrymen in becoming the betrayers See the heading of the Chapter.

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