The preaching of Philip in Samaria was the first Gentile mission, for the Samaritans were a mixed people and were regarded as heathen by the Jews. An interesting concatenation of events took its rise in the bold preaching of Stephen. On the one side there proceeded from this the increased opposition of the Jewish nation and the sad calamity of the preacher’s own death, but on the other there flowed from this opposition and the persecution which was consequent upon it great benefit. The Christians were indeed scattered abroad by ill-treatment, but with them went the gospel message, and the great work of heathen missions dated directly back to the martyrdom of Stephen. Christian history furnishes no more impressive illustration of the saying of Tertullian: “The blood of martyrs is seed.”—G.B.S.