Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-03-03
WAS
FIRST MARTYR
Death of Stephen" Subject of
International Sunday
School Lesson
The International Sunday School Les
son for March 5 is ''The Death of
Stephen.-Acts III to S:3.
(By William T. Ellis.)

All sorts of honors have come to
laymen in the long history of the
Christian Church. Their greatest
distinction, however, is that the first
crown of Christian martyrdom was
laid on the brow of a layman. Dea-
con Stephen led that long procession
of martyrs which has extended
through tn centuries from Jerusa-
lem to Armenia and which has held
priests and laymen, women and
children.
Although he was only a layman,
stephen was singularly popular in
the early Church. Immediately aft
er the experience of the last lesson,
DR.. Luke's story proceeds to tell of
the ministry of Stephen. One preg-
nant phrase pictures him, stephen
full of grace and power" There is
your model layman; strength plus
charm; power with poise small
wonder the community could not
withstand him. We may outargue
mans wisdom, but we cannot rea-
son down the grace of his life. The
sweetness and flavor of holiness are
not special perquisite of the minis
try but are meant TO Hover in the
| lives of the laity, even as in Ste
phen of old. We can imagine how
the hearts of the apostles eXulted as
grace of the new Deacon.
When Might Gets After Right
Unable to withstand the wisdom
and the spirit by which Stephen
spoke when his gospel was chal-
| stupid old trick of the strong
throughout all ages - they tried to
crush him by power. Adopting the
same ruse as they used in the case
of Jesus, they bribed witnesses to
make charges of blasphemy against
Stephen and carried him before the
Sanhedrin.
The ordeal was no easy one for
this ministering layman. To be
taken from his lowly tasks of serv-
ice to face the very tribunal that had
| crucihed his Lord, we should not be
surprised had he been afflicted with
| CONSERVATION and fear. On the con-
trary, this seems to have been the
experience that brought Stephen to
his height. In the heart of the
storm that ragged about him he was
incarnate peace. "All that sat in
the council, fastening their eyes on
him, saw his face as it had been
the face of an angel" Like Moses,
Stephen knew not that his face
shone, hut this solar look" as JOS
eph Cook calls the radiance of the
face which comes only from nobility
/ or soul, preached Tor stephen as ell
/ fectively as his own lips could do.
Still when the high priests chal-
| lenged him, Are these things so?"
Stephen was ready with an answer
that is one of the longest sermons in
the New Testament.
a I.ayman's Sermon
This is the day of the preaching
| layman. Ten thousand of him are
at work all over the land speaking
| in conventions and conferences and
churches and schools. What a Won
derful work these devoted laymen
are doing! They do not aspire to
fill the preachers place, but they
supplement his ministry. Their eX-
emplar in this was Stephen who,
though he never had attended the
school of the rabbis. was able to
make answer concerning the faith
that was in him.
Most of Stephens sermon is a re-
hearsal of the Old Testament his
tory. He told the story of the deal
ings of God with man. Perhaps if
there were less abstract philosophy
and more concrete telling of the
great Story that we find between the
covers of our Bible, there would be
more convincing sermons. Nothing
field than the fact that the mission
aries do not argue or contend; they
chiefly tell the Story and that Story
is winning the world.
Like a good preacher, Stephen
found common ground with his hear
ers, even though he had to go clear
back to Mesopotamia. He got to the
application in good time, and it GER
tainly was not remote; for hard upon
the heels of a straight quotation
from Scripture he made the applica-
tion:
"Ye stiffnecked and uncir-
cIimcised in heart and ears, We
do always resist the Holy Spirit
it: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets did not
your fathers persecute? and
they killed them that showed
before of the coming of the
Righteous One; of whom We
have now become betrayers and
murderers; yet who received the
law as it was ordained by an
gels, and kept it not
When AristocFatS Became q Mob
Most of us have seen at sometime
or other a cultivated man lose his
poise and return to the primitive.
The sight is not a pretty one. That
is what happened with the Sanhe-
drin. Those learned and reverend
| dpptnrc pf tho lau clpthaJ in rnHae