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2 (Editor’s Note: During the vacation of Dr. Len G. Broughton, our Pulpit Editor, in, Ameri ca, The Golden Age is fortunate in being able to furnish a sermon every week from Dr. A. C. Dixon, whose sermons are published regu larly in The Christian Globe, of London, England. Dr. Dixon is Dr. Broughton’s Father in the Gospel ’ and is doing a great work as pastor of Spurgeon’s Tabernacle, London.) TEXT: “Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” Acts 6:5. The word “Stephen” means crown, and he certainly received the crown of martyrdom, but Stephen was himself a crown, a crown of glorq. He performed miracles, but no miracle he ever performed was greater than himself. Stephen was a miracle, and it is better to be a miracle than to perform one. I know men who are miracles of grace 365 days in the year. I think we could count at least a thousand here tonight who would recognize themselves as saved by the grace and kept by the power of God and unable to do anything without the help if God. The Apostle Paul was as great a miracle as any he ever performed. C. H. Spur geon in his life and preaching was a miracle. God worked directly through him. D. L. Moo dy was a miracle. Jerry McAuley was a mira cle; the converted drunkard, the reformed pi rate. His successor, Mr. Hadley, a converted drunkard and thief turned into a sober and honest man, was a miracle. These miracles of grace that exist in our churches today are proofs of Christianity just as much as the mir acles of power that were performed by the apostles, and it is better to have your miracles, in that sense up-to-date. We believe in the miracles of the old and new Testament, but to have one like Lazarus raised from the dead and standing in our midst and reading the Bi ble, realizing the fact that God has raised him from the dead, that is thb miracle that con victs the people. A God That Revealed Himself. We want to look for a moment at this faith of Stephen that worked with the Holy Spirit. It has five characteristics. First of all, it was a faith in a God that revealed Himself. The first sentence of Stephen’s defense rings out a clarion note that those who heard never for got: “The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham.” My God is a God of glory. My God is one who appears. My God revealed Himself to our father in the promise that He made. He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. He revealed Himself to Isaac in the quiet of prosperity. He revealed Him self to Jacob in the conflict beyond the brook Jabbok. He revealed Himself to Joseph in deliverance. This Book is a revelation of God. It is a portraiture of God. We have sketches of God all through the Old Testament until by-and by the full-grown picture and substance is seen in Jesus Christ our Lord. So that He can say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. lam a revelation of God the Father.” Has He revealed Himself to you? Can you say that God has shown Himself as your Sa vior, your Sin-bearer, your Friend, your Guide, your Deliverer, your Helper. “Oh, but I have The Golden Age needs your renewal subscription to tide them over these “HARD TIMES.” Won’t you please LOOK AT YOUR LABEL and send in the amount due immediately. It will help us in our fight for the right and against the flagrant evils of the day. “STEPHEN” A Sermon by DR. A. C. DIXON, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF AUG. 28 cried for deliverance and I have not received it.” The moment you cried for deliverance from sin through Jesus Christ, and, cried in faith, you did receive it. I don’t care how you feel. If you came to God with a sense of guilt and confessed it, accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour, God’s promise is His certifi cate that you are saved. The work is done, in the sense that it is begun; a salvation com plete, to be rounded out in the future years in your experience. But you have been crying to God for deliverance from affliction and you have not been delivered. Well, God delivers from and in, and I am so glad that He did not deliver some people from. If He had delivered Daniel from the den of lions we would not have had so much encour agement from Daniel’s life. But He delivered Daniel in the den of lions, with the lions all about him, and that encourages me when I find myself in the midst of lions. Daniel, I think, made one of them a pillow and slept very well that night. You can make the lions that would kill a pillow on which to sleep, if you are trusting in Daniel’s God. The Lord did not deliver the three Hebrews from the fiery furnace and I am so glad He did not, for if He had the king would not have looked through and seen one like unto the Son of Man walking in the midst of the fire. If He had we should not have seen Him quenching the violence of the fire. Do not pray to be delivered from every thing. That is a cheap, short cut, but it does not bring the glory to God that being delivered in so often brings. You were in the furnace of affliction and the fire was seven times hot ter than usual, and in the midst of it you per ceived that the Son of Man was walking, and oh, what a time of fellowship you had with Him. He kept the fires from burning, except the bonds, they all broke and fell. He walked with you in the midst, and the people on the outside looked in and saw you bearing it pa tiently, joyfully, submissively, (-trusting God in the midst of the fire. Oh, friend, it is better to go with God into the fire than to be delivered from the fire and have no consciousness that God is with you. God did not deliver Stephen from the fire. He went with Him through the fire into the glory. If you think you are having a hard time, the fire scorches, the burden is heavy, the darkness is dense, just remember that God has away of delivering in rather than from. An old pilot gave me a thought that I have carried with me for years. Standing at the wheel, guiding the great ship of the sea into New York Harbour, he looked at the storm, saw the waves, took in the situation and said, “I tell you it is death or deep water. We cannot do better than turn our prow to the sea.” The captain knew he was talking wisely. He turn ed the prow and rode majestically through the storm. God will not take you in from the storms. He wants you to ride them. He is the pilot, and if you will give up to him he will carry you into harbor, and perhaps into a fairer and better one than that to which you think you are going. The God of Prophecy. In the next place, it was a faith in the God of prophecy. “They saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” It was a face made by the faith within him, a faith that shone out of the midst of his face in the dark ness gathered about him. Moses came down from the mount with his face shining because he had been with God, and Stephen’s face is shining because he is with God. God is with him, and while others blasphemed the God that he worships by accusing him Os blasphemy, his face still shines. Now, brother, what we need is a face that smiles while everybody else frowns, a face that shines while others gnash their teeth. It is a face that keeps cherry and bright while every body else is gloomy. There is no trouble about laughing while everybody else is laughing. You can laugh then, even if you don’t know what you are laughing about. You catch it. A Faith That Forgave. It was a faith that forgave. May the Spirit of God burn that into our souls tonight. “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ. I live and yet not I, it is Christ that liveth in me.” “Father, forgive them,” said Jesus, “They know not what they do.” Somehow I recognise that voice coming from Stephen. Is it Stephen that forgives? The natural Stephen would have hated, would have wanted to kill. It is the Lord Jesus, not Stephen, that forgives. The forgiving spirit on the cross has mastered this first martyr, and while they kill him he asks for their forgiveness. Is there somebody you cannot forgive? If so, you are not happy to night. You are waiting for them to come and beg your pardon. Then you will forgive them, won’t you? These men did not beg Stephen’s pardon. But he forgave them while they were casting the stones. Until somebody treats you worse than they did Stephen. I think you had better forgive. You will have a better time. There will be more joy in your heart. If you harbor malice against anybody in this world, I wish you would bring it right up to Stephen and realize in him there is the shining face, the spirit of forgiveness, the Christ ready to help. Suppose you are cruci fied. Forgive like your Master. Suppose you are lied about. They lied about Stephen. Suppose you are slandered, forgive. Forgive. No matter what the crime. Lastly, a faith that commits. “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” The body became uncon scious. The spirit went to Christ. When your loved ones tell you they see angels about the bed when they die, you may believe it. If they tell you they see glorified saints about the bed I think you may just as well hold that in re serve. I doubt very much whether glorified saints come back here in that way. I am cer tain they do not come back to write on slates and tip tables, and things of that kind. But the angels came and carried Lazarus up to Ab raham’s bosom. They showed him the way as they went through space and beyond planets and stars, to the Father’s house. But in the case of Stephen, the Lord Jesus Himself came (Continued on page 6.)