When suddenly there came from the heavens a noise like that of a strong wind rushing by; it filled the whole house in which they were sitting.

They had Peter and John brought before them, and questioned them. "By what power," they asked, "Or in whose name have men like you done this thing?"

The eyes of all the members of the Council were riveted upon Stephen, and they saw his face looking like the face of an angel.

The passage of Scripture which he was reading was this--'Like a sheep, he was led away to slaughter, and as a lamb is dumb in the hands of its shearer, so he refrains from opening his lips.

And saw that the heavens were open, and that something like a great sail was descending, let down by its four corners towards the earth.

Peter, however, lifted him up, saying as he did so: "Stand up, I am only a man like yourself."

"I was in the town of Jaffa," he said, "and was praying; and, while in a trance, I saw a vision. There was something like a great sail descending, let down by its four corners out of the heavens; and it came right down to me.

And the crowd, seeing what Paul had done, called out in the Lycaonian language: "The Gods have made themselves like men and have come down to us."

"We are only men like yourselves, and we have come with the Good News that you should turn away from these follies to a living God, 'who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them.'

For you are bringing some strange things to our notice, and we should like to know what they mean."

He came to see us, and, taking Paul's girdle, and binding his own feet and hands with it, said: "This is what the Holy Spirit says--'The man to whom this girdle belongs will be bound like this at Jerusalem by the Jews, and they will give him up to the Gentiles'."

It was then that Paul made the reply: "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart like this? For my part, I am ready not only to be bound, but even to suffer death at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus."

Up to this point the people had been listening to Paul, but at these words they called out: "Kill him! A fellow like this ought not to have been allowed to live!"

"I should like to hear this man myself," Agrippa said to Festus. "You shall hear him to-morrow," Festus answered.