The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-03-16
THE DEATH OF STEPHEN.
Five Pen Pictures of the Last Mo-
ments of Glorious Martyr.
God Selects His Choicest Treasures for the
Galleries of Heaven-The Christians
Dying Day Is Always a
Happy Experience.

given below, is a vivid story of martyr
dom and an enhancing description o
the glories awaiting the dying Chris
tian. The text used is Acts I: $500
behold | see the heavens opened, " etc
Stephen had been preaching a rous
ing sermon, and the people could no
stand it. They resolved to do as me,
sometimes would like to do in this dav
If they dared, with some plain preacher
OF righteousness-kill him. The onl,
way to silence this man was to knocl
the breath out of him. So they rushed
Stephen out of the gates of the city
apd with curse, and whoop, and below
they brought him to the cliff, as wa.
the custom when they wanted to take
away life by stoning. Having brought
him to the edge of the cliff, they
pushed him off. After he had faller
they came and looked down, and see
ing that he was not yet dead, they be.
gan to drop stones upon him, stone
after stone. Amid this horrible rain
OF missiles, Stephen chambers up on
his knees and folds his hands, while
the blood drips from his temples to his
cheeks, from his cheeks to his gar.
ments, from his garments to the
ground; and then, looking up, he
makes two prayers--one for himself
and one for his murderers. "Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit" that was for
himself. Lord, lay not this sin to
their charges" that was for his assail-
ants Then, from pain and loss of
blood, he swooned away and fell asleep.
Iwant to show you to-day five pic
lures. Stephen gazing into Heaven.
Stephen looking at Christ. Stephen
stoned. Stephen in his dying prayer.
Stephen asleep.
First, look at Stephen gazing into
Heaven. Before you take leap you
want to know where you are going to
land. Before you climb ladder YOU
want to know to what point the ladder
reaches. And it was right that Stephen,
within a few moments of Heaven,
should be gazing into it. We would all
do well to be found in the same posture.
There is enough in Heaven to keep us
gazing. A man of large wealth may
have statuary in the hall, and paint
lngs In the sitting room, and works of
art in all parts of the house, but he
has the chief pictures in the art gal
lery, and there hour after hour YOU
walk with catalogue and glass and
ever-increasing admiration. Well.
Heaven is the gallery where God has
gathered the chief treasures of His
realm. The whole universe is His
palace. In this lower room where we
stop there are many adornments; tes-
seliated floor of amethyst, and on the
winding cloud-stairs are stretched out
@inyases on which commingle azure,
and purple, and saffron, and gold.
But Heaven is the gallery in which
the chief glories are gathered. There
are the brightest robes. There are the
richest crowns. There are the highest
exhilarations. John says of It: "The
kings of the earth shall bring their
honor and glory into it," And see
the procession forming, and in the line
come all empires, and the stars sprang
up into an arch for the hosts to march
under. The hosts keep step to the
sound OF earthquake and the pitch of
avalanche from the mountains, and the
flag they bear is the flame of a consum-
ing world, and all heaven turns out
with harps and trumpets and myriad
voiced reclamation of angelic domin-
ion to welcome them in, and so the
kings of the earth bring their honor
and glory into it. Do you wonder that
good people often stand, like Stephen.
looking into Heaven? We have many
friends there.
There is not a man in this house to-
day so isolated in life but there is some
one in Heaven with whom he once
shook hands. AS man gets older the
number OF his celestial acquaintance
very rapidly multiplies. We have not
had one glimpse of them since the
night we kissed them good-by and they
went away, but still we stand gazing
at Heaven. AS when some of our
friends go across the sea, we stand on
the dock, or on the steam tug, and
watch them, and after awhile the hull
OF the vessel disappears, and then
there is only patch of sail on the sky,
and soon that is gone, and they are all
out of sight, and yet we stand looking in
the same direction; so when our friends
go away from us into the future world
we keep looking down through the
Narrows, and gazing and gazing, as
though we expected that they would
come out and stand on some cloud, and
give us one glimpse of their blissful
and transfigured faces.
While you long to join their compan-
onship, and the years and the davs 90
with such tedium that they break your
neart, and the viper of pain and sorrow
md bereavement keep gnawing at your
vitals, you stand still, like Stephen, gaz-
ng into Heaven. You wonder if thev
lave changed since you saw them last.
You wonder if they would recognize
1our face now, so changed has it been
With trouble. You wonder if, amid
he myriad delights they have, they
ARE as much for you as they used to
when they gave you helping hand {
md put their shoulder under your bur
lens. You wonder if they look any
'lder and sometimes in the evening
ide, when the house is all quiet, you
Wonder If you should call them by :
heir first name if they would not an /
wer, and perhaps sometimes you do /
make the experiment, and when no one !
'ut God and yourself are there YOU !
istinctly call their names and listen, 1
nd sit gazing into Heaven.