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LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY, ON 



reader is thus vividly reminded of events immediately before 

 and during the Crucifixion of our Lord. 



In No. {17) in the Acts, three sets of Roman rulers, Claudius 

 Lycias, Festus, and Agrippa with Bernice, all testified that 

 Paul had not committed anything worthy of death. 



In No. {18) in the Acts, three other sets of witnesses, the town 

 clerk of Ephesus, some scribes of the Pharisees' part in Jerusalem, 

 and Judsean Jews writing to their countrymen in Rome, also 

 testified that Paul had done no wrong. 



The components of the triphcations emphasizing our Lord's 

 innocence were all given close together, at about the time 

 of His great atoning Work, at His Death upon the Cross. But 

 the testimonies that Paul had not broken human laws were 

 distributed over the much greater period of time, occupied by 

 his work of preaching the Gospel to many peoples in different 

 lands. 



This pair of triphcations also serves to support the main object 

 of the book of Acts, the record of the growth of the Church 

 among the nations, because they emphasize the fact that the 

 great Evangelist St. Paul possessed one of the necessary 

 quahfications of a Christian leader, " a good testimony from 

 them that are without " (i Tim. iii, 7). 



{19) The three dying sayings of Stephen, recorded by St. Luke. 



Triphcation No. {19) in the Acts, composed of the dying 

 words of the first martyr Stephen, irresistibly carries back the 

 memory to the three sayings of our Lord on the cross, see No. (25) 

 in the Grospel of St. Luke. 



We recognise the overruhng influence on the dying Martyr, 

 for we read that he, " full of the Holy Ghost, looked up sted- 

 fastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing 

 on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens 

 opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." 

 The reader is thus forcibly reminded of the second sapng of 

 our Lord on the cross, recorded by St. Luke, to the penitent 

 thief, " Verily, I say unto thee. To-day shalt thou be with me 

 in Paradise " (Luke xxiii, 43) ; for Stephen's statement attests 

 the accomphshment of our Lord's confident words on the cross, 

 that He would soon be in glory. 



The second dying utterance of Stephen, " Lord Jesus, receive 

 my spirit," corresponds to the last of our Lord's, when He 

 commended {irapariOTjfiL) His Spirit to God the Father 



