ful blasphemy; and falling upon him, they dragged him out of the city, and stoned him to death.

Stephen, while they were mangling his body with stones, was praying to Omnipotence for their pardon. 'Lord," said he, "lay not this sin to their charge." And then calling on his dear Redeemer to receive his spirit, he yielded up his soul.

TIMOTHY.

TIMOTHY was a convert and disciple of St. Paul. He was born, according to some, at Lystria; or, according to others, at Derbe. His father was a Gentile, but his mother a Jewess, whose name was Eunice, and that of his grandmother, Lois.

These particulars are taken notice of, because St. Paul commends their piety and the good education which they had given Timothy. When St. Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, about the year of Christ 51 or 52, the brethren gave a very advantageous testimony of the merit and good disposition of Timothy: and the apostle would have him along with him, and he initiated him at Lystra before he received him into his company. Timothy applied himself to labor with St. Paul in the business of the gospel; and did him many important services, through the whole course of his preaching.

This holy disciple accompanied St. Paul to Macedonia, to Philippi, to Thessalonica, to Berea;

and

when the apostle went from Berea, he left Timothy and Silas there to confirm the converts. When he came to Athens, he sent for Timothy to come thither to him: and when he was come and had given him an account of the churches of Macedonia, St. Paul sent him back to Thessalonica, from whence he afterwards returned with Silas, and came to St. Paul at Corinth.

Some years after this, St. Paul sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia; and gave Timothy orders to call at Corinth, to refresh the minds of the Corinthians, with regard to the truths he had inculcated in them. Some time after, writing to the same Corinthians, he recommends them to take care of Timothy, and send him back in peace; after which, Timothy returned to St. Paul in Asia, who there staid for him. They went together into Macedonia; and the apostle puts Timothy's name with his own, before the second epistle to the Corinthians, which he wrote to them from Macedonia, about the middle of the year of Christ 57. And he sends his recommendations to the Romans in the letter which he wrote to them from Corinth the same year.

When St. Paul returned from Rome, in 64, he left Timothy at Ephesus to take care of that church, of which he was the first bishop, as he is recognized by the council of Chalcedon. St. Paul wrote to him from Macedonia, the first of the two letters which are addressed to him. He recommends him to be more moderate in his austerities, and to drink a little wine because of the weakness of his stomach, and his frequent infirmities. After the apostle came to

Rome, in the year 65, being now very near his death, he wrote to him his second letter, which was full of the marks of kindness and tenderness for this, his dear disciple; and which is justly looked upon as the last will of St. Paul. He desires him to come to Rome to him before winter, and bring with him several things which St. Paul had left at Troas. If Timothy went to Rome, as it is probable he did, he must have been a witness of the martyrdom of this apostle, in the year of Christ 66.

If he did not die before the year 97, we can hardly doubt but that he must be the pastor of the church of Ephesus, to whom John writes in his Revelations: though the reproaches with which he seems to load him for his instability in having left his first love, do not seem to agree to so holy a man as Timothy was.

TITUS.

TITUS was a Gentile by religion and birth, but converted by St. Paul, who calls him his son. St. Jerome says that he was St. Paul's interpreter; and that probably, because he might write what St. Paul dictated, or explained in Latin what this apostle said in Greek; or rendered into Greek, what St. Paul said in Hebrew or Syriac. St. Paul took him with him to Jerusalem, when he went thither in the year 51 of the vulgar era, about deciding the question

which was then started, whether the converted Gentiles ought to be made subject to the ceremonies of the law? Some would then have obliged him to circumcise Titus; but neither he nor Titus would consent to it. Titus was sent by the same apostle to Corinth, upon occasion of some disputes which then divided the church. He was very well received by the Corinthians, and very much satisfied with their ready compliance: but would receive nothing from them, imitating thereby the disinterestedness of his master.

From hence he went to St. Paul in Macedonia, and gave him an account of the state of the church at Corinth. A little while after, the apostle desired him to return again to Corinth, to set things in order preparatory to his coming. Titus readily undertook this journey, and started immediately, carrying with him St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. Titus was made bishop of the Isle of Crete, about the 63d year of Christ, when St. Paul was obliged to quit that island, in order to take care of the other churches. The following year he wrote to him, to desire that as soon as he should have sent Tychicus or Artemus to him for supplying his place in Crete, Titus would come to him to Nicopolis in Macedonia, or to Nicopolis in Epirus, upon the gulf of Ambracia, where the apostle intended to pass his winter.

Titus was deputed to preach the gospel in Dalmatia; and he was still there in the year 65, when the apostle wrote his second epistle to Timothy. He afterwards went into Crete; from which it is said he

propagated the gospel into the neighboring islands. He died at the age of 94, and was buried in Crete. We are assured that the cathedral of the city of Candia is dedicated to his name; and that his head is preserved there entire. The Greeks keep his festival on the 25th of August, and the Latins on the 4th of January.

THE VIRGIN MARY.

As we are taught by the predictions of the prophets, that a virgin was to be the mother of the promised Messiah, so we are assured, by the unanimous concurrence of the evangelists, that this virgin's name was Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anna, of the tribe of Judah: and married to Joseph of the same tribe.

What is said concerning the birth of Mary and her parents, is to be found only in some apocryphal writings. St. John says, that Mary the wife of Cleophas was the virgin's sister Mary, that was of the royal race of David.

That the mother of our Lord, notwithstanding her marriage, was even in that state to remain a pure virgin, and to conceive Christ in a miraculous manner, is the clear doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. "Behold," says Isaiah, in chap. vii. "a virgin shall conceive and bear a son."

Though we cannot doubt but that God, who or