Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1916 — THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYR

Actx 6.9, B:2—Jfank 5. Faithful St. Stephen<S-His Eloquence and Zeal For God and Truth Stirred His Enemies—They Hated Him For the Qualities They Should Have Admired. “H< thou t'lithfiil tinfb dr-ath^fiini' I icill git* -i <■></!' « '>/ life.’’—ll'ercWi'jn 2:10. STRICTLY speaking, our Lord .Jesus was the first Christian martyr; but the first of His followers to endure death because of Joyalty in preaching the. Gospel of Jesus was st. Stephen, one of the seven elected Deacons. Seemingly he was a man of great power and a lover of the Truth, highly estimated because of Ills purity <>f character and life. History says that at that time there were four hundred ami sixty synagogues in Jerusalem, It is supposed that St. Stephen had formerly Seen attached to one of these, and had gone th 11 he r to nice

upon his associates i the Message that 1 Jesus was the Mes j siah. it has been assumed, wit h apparenlly good reason, that Saul of Tarsus attended the same syn ago g ue, and was one of the disputants over whom St. Stepheti. by tbe ,

Lord’s grace, seemed to have an advantage in these debates. Thus bitter feeling was aroused. To the Jewish rulers this Message respecting Jesus as the Messiah and a Jewish responsibility for His death and respecting God’s favor in raising Him from the dead was a gross error, which was likely to arouse a popular spirit of resentment against themselves as rulers and to be subversive of all law and government in Palestine. Indeed, these Christians claimed that because of this rejection of Jesus the Jewish nation had been rejected from God’s favor, and that dire calamities were coming. St. Stephen's second battle was the one which preceded his death. The Sanhedrin, angry with him, suborned witnesses—bribed men to make complaint, charging him with having bias phemed, with having declared Moses and the Law obsolete, with declaring that the Temple was no longer God's Temple. These witnesses had pnt together certain isolated sayings of St. Stephen which, thus patched up, madthe truth appear false, blasphemous. St. Stephen's Defense.

After these paid witnesses had given their testimony, charging blasphemy—the penalty for which was stoning—the Sanhedrin, with a show of fairness, permitted St. Stephen to reply. This he did in a masterly way, by taking up the t hread of Jewish history, showing his implicit faith in Gods promises to Abraham. In orderly manner be brought the thought of his hearers down to the time of Moses and' the giving of the Law, and reminded them that Moses had said that in due time God would raise up a greater Prophet than he. (Deuteronomy 18:1*. 19.) This greater Prophet, he allowed them to infer, was Jesus: and since Moses ha<l particularly referred to Jesus thus as greater, it could not bidisloyalty to Moses to accept that greater Prophet. Thus one feature of tlie charge was overthrown. As for the Temple, he reminded iiis hearers that God first established the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and later bad provided, the Temple in its stead. It was no disrespect to the Tabernacle for them to believe in Solomon’s Tern pie. God had now provided that a still higher Temple should take the place of the building made with hands. The higher Temple was spiritual, to !•<» composed of God's people, who as iiv ing stones would be builded together as a habitation of God through the Spirit. As it was not blasphemy accept Solomon's Temple as instead of Moses’ Tabernacle, neither should it be considered blasphemous to accept this higher, spiritual Temple, of which Jesus is the Foundation, as instead of the typical Temple of wood and stone. So convincing were St. Stephen's words that his hearers realized that

their cause was coming out second: best. It is assumed that Saul of Tarsus was a member of that" Sanhedrin. Their only hope uo w was that they could fasten upon something that St Stephen said as being blasphemous and rush him to

death. The moment came. St. Stephen. preaching Christ and the blessings yet to, come through Him, was radiant in face. Looking toward Heaven, he exclaimed, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." This was the signal for the Sanhedrin to raise a cry of blasphemy and to rush upon God’s messenger. We may be sure that a mob was ready to follow the Sanhedrin’s sug gestlon. Pushing Jesus' minister outside of their gates, the crowd threw their clothing at the feet of the young man, Saul of Tarsus, who thus became their authority for the stoning: and they stoned Stephen to death. This was his climax of victory—faithfulness unto death.

Forgive my Murderers.

St. Stephen's Defense.