The story of Stephen (lectionary version) is coming up this year for the 5th Sunday of Easter.
I have an indelible memory of the late great Bill Hennessy singing this hauntingly beautiful hymn as a solo in church – guessing, also on a 5th Sunday of Easter (A).
Maybe a solo because this particular hymn is not in the Presbyterian Hymnal.
The missing verse 2:
When Stephen preached against the laws
And by those laws was tried,
He had no friend to plead his cause,
No spokesman at his side;
But only in his heart a flame
And in his eyes a light
Wherewith God’s daybreak to proclaim
And rend the veils of night.
Image: “Mosaic Pfarrhof St. Stephan Amstetten” (cropped) DerHHO, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Matters of Interpretation 