Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-02-18
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE
LESSON.
Reasctions of an Elevs ting Character
-wholesome Food for Thought
etudying the scriptural Lesson In
teiligently and Prohtabiy.


IL z
telligently and Proftabiy.
tr .,sse. -
"fA~e Lesson for Feb. FL.
Golden Textile thou faithful unto
death, and will give thee a crown OF
life."-Rev. 2: 10. 81.
This lesson Is found in Acts @; $40;
z: 54-6O, and treats of the first Christian
martyr. Between the fifth and sixth chap
tiers of Acts a considerable time elapsed,
probably several years. Chapter six be-
gins ''in those days, when the number or
the disciples was multiplied, there arose
a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against
the Hebrews, because their widows were
neglected" Here we have church much
enlarged, including a considerable num-
Der of Heilcnistic Christians; and the
events narrated are apparently connected
with the shortly subsequent death of Ste
phen, which took place not long before the
conversion of Paul. Therefore the date of
the lesson is placed either in A. ID. 30, 80
or 81. During the years since Pentecost
the church has not yet reached any state
of high organization, for it dispensed its
charity in a somewhat unsystematic man
ner. The passage describing the choice of
seven men to attend to the charities of tho
church ACTS 6: 10 should be carefully
the sense of the Importance Of the step
which they were about to take that AMI
mated these early Christians. The seven
men who were chosen are regarded by
most Baptist interpreters. as well as by
many others, as the first deacons, or
rather, the fore-runners of the deacons
of later decades whose duties were some
what less restricted. The election of
these men was a turning point in the his
tory Of the church. Stephen and Philip,
at least, were broad-minded men, whose
preaching could not be restrained within
the narrow bounds of Judaism, and they
Immediately showed their power to do
something more than ''serve tables
Explanatory.
"Stephen full of faith and power:
should be, grace and power. His wonders
and miracles showed that he was far too
able man to spend all his time in routine
work, even work so noble as the relief of
distress. Doubtless, like all busy men, he
found time to do several things where
other men have failed to do even one.
The synagogue which is called the
synagogue of the Libertines": the Liber-
tines were those Jews who were of slave
blood, but had acquired freedom and had
synagogue of their own at Jerusalem;
the freedmen's synagogue. Whether the
Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Ciicians and
Asiatics also had separate synagogues it
is not distinctly stated. Notice that it is
the foreigners who attempt to dispute
with stephen, which seems TO indicate
that his preaching may have been of a
characted to arouse their interest. Fail
ing in fair argument they proceeded to
use the towards weapon-perjury.
H.. L,. 80 l. H.
the surest way to get an immediate hear
ing and a sure penalty. Blasphemy was n
capital offense; it was on this charge that
Jesus was accused. The blasphemy
against Moses would be equivalent in
their mind to basphemy against God.
eve have heard him say that this Jesus
of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and
shall change the customs which Moses de-
livered u.s.: probably Stephen had quot
ed the misunderstood words of Chrst's
which referred to the temple of his holy
body. AS for changing the customs of
Moses, undoubtedly the preaching Of the
gospel would have that effect, and Ste
phen probably had not concealed the fact.
Saw his face as il had been the face of
an angel: This can hardly refer merely
to an expression of calm composure on
Stephens face. The comparison with an
angel meant rather more to the Jew than
Ii does to us, who Immediately think of
the angel of our pictures. In the mind of
the writer the phrase probably signified
some supernatural shining of Stephens
face like that of Moses. The speech Of
Stephen is worthy of careful study.
''Stoned him.: the Jewish form of exc
cution. This was, however a mere muir
der, for no sentence had been passed. and
ba M hoI
infiict the death penalty without the per-
mission of the Roman governor.-The
mention of Saul here seems to indicate
that Saul was the one who told the story
of Stephens trial and martyrdom to Luke
How the scenes of that day were impress
ed on Saufs mind is shown by his refer
ence, some twenty years later, to the oc-
casion, in his speech before the people
after his arrest at Jerusalem Acts ~:
2O). The dying prayer Of Stephen shows
how well he had learned the spirit of his
Lord. "He fell asleepv' the phrase used
almost uniformly for death by the early
Christians.
Teaching Hinta.
This is lesson which may be SO taught
as to produce profound impression. IL
the teacher confines himself to the mere
recital of the circumstances of the ira
gedy, however, such is the callousness of
human nature, even In young minds. sad
to say, that 1t will seem to be nothing but
a simple murder; another good man gone;
an act of monstrous injustice no more
noteworthy than many which happen ev-
cry day in our great cities and fill the
columns of our papers with crime. But it
Is to the deeper meaning of Stephens
death that the class must be directed.
This, the first severe and lasting con-
fiict between the old and the new religion,
marks an epoch in the history of the
church. Up to this time Christianity had
been confined almost to Jerusalem. The
death of Stephen and the consequent per-
secution drove the disciples abroad, as we
shall study next week; and the church was
multiplied, THE blood of the martyrs is
the seed of the church,