Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-07-30
Man Who Was Not Neutral
BY WILLIAM r. ELLIS

This is a tale of two men who be-
lieved tremendously the opposite
sides of the most vital issue of their
day. Neither was a neutral: In
fact the Bible was a poor book in
which to seek support for neutral
ity. From its Course we Meroz''
(the community who tried to play
spectators when they should have
been in the thick of the fighting),
to its Laodiceans of the Revelations.
whom God said He would spew out
OF His mouth, because they were
neither hot nor cold. the Scripture
is a book which extols men of con-
viction. The drab and colorless
Christians. who cultivate only the
passive virtues, and who are afraid
to disagree with anybody. must get
their faith from a different source
from that whence sprang the Ste
phenS and Sauls and the Apostles,
saints and martyrs. Bible Christian
ity makes rock-characters and not
jelly-souls.
Our story centers about Saul,
whose biography is to engage the
attention of the many millions of
Sunday school members for the next
six months. After a series of les
sons upon The Social Teachings of
the Bible" we now have a course in
the life of a man-one of the rug
ged, red-blooded, stout-hearted,
great-brained, high-souled heroes of
all history, a man who has Impress
ed the centuries more deeply than
any other persons, except only his
Master.
We exult in the prospect of half A.
year spent in company with Saul.
From him the world may learn the
lesson of consecrated personality
which our time sc sorely needs.
God give us men!" is the cry of
the hour-fearless, ~clear-eyed, out
spoken men, who dare to be their
best selves, amid all of the fog and
clamor of a time that seems bent
upon effacing individuality.
An End That Was a Beginning
Our hero emerged at a colorful
moment-the stoning of stephen. the
first Christian martyr. Saul was a
leader of the mob that lynched the
brave disciple of Jesus, who died
with his eye upon his Lord, and with
the very words of his magnanimous
Master upon his lips. stephens
faith evoked the fury of his foes,
who straightway built a stony path
to glory for him. Saul, as a wealthy
and aristocratic young Pharisee, did
not actually throw the deadly stones.
but he kept the coats Of those who
did.
Saint Stephens end was Saint
Sauls beginning. Learned common
tators trace Saul's name back to
his illustrious fellow Benjaminite,
King Saul: but that is trifing; he
had three names anyway, after the
fashion of a Roman citizen, and is
best known by the Roman name of
Paul, which apparently also de-
scribed his diminutive stature. Saul
was the spiritual successor of Ste
phen. Heroism begets heroism. The
martyr did not die that day; he only
began his greater life. personally in
heaven, and representatively in the
transformed character of his bitter
enemy from Tarsus. so soon to be-
come Christianity's greatest cham
pion.
Our noble dead are not dead; the
youth who. fell in France. for exam
e, came not to their end, but to
their beginning. Their torch and
task are to be carried on by hands
which at the moment may seem
blind to the meaning of their sacri-
flee. Every Stephen Is succeeded by
a Saul. All who die gloriously ac-
complish more in their death than
in their life. The level of a nation
is fixed by its heroes and martyrs.
not by its money-changers and it's
self-seekers.
Too Discreet to Be a Hero
A modern novel centers about a
young reformer, competent and self
conscious, who refused to rescue an
imperilled cripple from an approach
ing automobile, because he felt that
his own life meant more to society
the life of the beggar.
His fiance gave intellectual assent
to his reasoning and to his defense
but she cast him off, because her
told her truly that the man
had failed in the essential quality
which makes manhood glorious. He
had been selfish when he should
have been sacrificial. He had spurn-
ed a chance to risk his life, after the
fashion of the man whose names his
tory has written highest. In his self
engrossment he had failed to re-
spond to the instinct which tells
every normal man that the highest
possible use of life is to fling it OUT
overwhelmingly in the service of
need.
A dead hero is mightier forever
than a live coward. The Stephens
of history are Immortality great:
their death gives ceaseless voice to
the best of their life. "The blood
of the martyrs is the seed of the
and it is an inescapable call
TO the hest pOwerS of tho pobJoct e,r