Montgomery County sentinel., 1950-01-19
Committee Chairman

Committee Chairman
THE APOSTLES, being called on,
refused to straighten the tangle
themselves. Let the church elect a
committee, they said. First on the
list was man named Stephen. He
turned out to be most famous for
being the first Christian martyr,
but when he fell unconscious be-
meath that shower of stones, there
died no ordinary man.
To begin with, he filled the
bill as chairman of that Com
mittee on Grievances. Not
many men, then or now, could
fill all three qualifications the
Apostles required: reputation,
spirituality, and wisdom.
1t takes a very tactful man to
settle a difficulty in which women
are concerned; it takes tact to
handle any committee; it takes
tact to manage an inter-racial sit
uation; it calls for wisdom to handle
funds.
Debater
COME MEN THINK themselves
~ bigger than their jobs. Some
men really are bigger, and Stephen
was one of these. He spilled over,
so to speak; he had even more en-
ergy and ability than the job called
for. We hear of him debating
around the synagogue circuit par
ticularly in the synagogues which
were used by Jews from other
parts of the world.
We have no details of those
debates, but we know how they
always came out: Stephen got
the decision. We can guess,
from his great speech in the
hour of his death, what his gen.
eral line must have been.
Many Christians in Jerusalem al
that time had little or no idea that
Christianity was actually new re-
ligion; even the name Christian
had not been thought of. They con-
sidered it a form of the Jewish
religion.
Scholar
CTEPHENS SPEECH at his trial
~ (Acts y may sound dull to
some now, but it was not dull to
the audience. No man makes a
dull speech on the brink Of death.
Further, it was that speech that
got him killed. His listeners may
not have liked it, but they certain
ly did not think it dull The Eeauty
of the speech is that it reveals
Stephens keen insight into the re-
ligious history OF his people.
Speaking without notes, he
reviews the history Of close to
1000 years In 10-minute
tdihg anu JCt oub
main points. Only real schol-
ar can do that, q man who Is
both historian and prophet.
The most important peaks in
IsraePs history were Gods
revelations TO the m; and
Stephen shows that these reveI-
atoms had never been tied to
house or a book.
No institutions and no place Is
indispensable to God. The same
God who had wrought new things
in the past had now wrought new
thing in Christ And the religion OF
thing in Christ.
Martyr
CTEPHEN'S AUDIENCE was not
~ convinced. Seeing murder in
their eyes. Stephen knew his time
was short. In a few singing last
words he reminded them that muir
der was an old story in that TEN.
pie. They had killed prophets, they
had killed Jesus the "Just One -
And now. Now they dragged
Stephen out and stoned him till he
died.
Well, you can stop a voice
but you cannot stop an idea.
Stephen was first TO fall, but
not the last. To this very year
Christ has his martyrs, men
and women who will die rather
than deny him.
You can silence man but you
cannot silence truth. When the
world goes against her, the Church
should remember that now as then,
"the blood Of the martyrs Is the
seed Of the Church."