Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/179

 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