Acts 7:60 - Exposition

Cried with a loud voice . Compare again Luke 23:46 , and with Stephen's prayer, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge , compare Luke 23:34 . He fell asleep. Blessed rest after life's toilsome day! Blessed contrast with the tumult of passion and violence which brought him down to the grave! How near, too, in his dying was that likeness to his Lord advanced, which shall be perfected at his appearing ( 1 John 3:1 )! "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, … that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." St. Augustine attributes Saul's conversion to the prayer of Stephen: " Si Stephanus non orasset, Ecclesia Paulum non haberet ."