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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 612. Stephen's Character
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Stephen's Character
(1) He was a man “full of faith.” It was faith in the highest degree. While others showed timidity and were in danger of wavering, he stood firm as a rock against every withering blast of error and storm of unbelief. His supreme trust was in Christ, in whom he confided with all his heart, and to whom he clung as the only One who could help and save. He was a man of faith, in whom that marvellous faculty, which is the eye of the soul, was fully developed, by which he saw, strange paradox as it may appear, the Invisible, just as some animals have the strange power of seeing in the dark.
There's a star overseas like a dew-drop new-hung on a bud that uncloses;
There's a fire in the turrets of heaven; there's a flush on the breast of the sea;
And the gates of the sun-rise are filled with a flame as of myriad roses,
That kindles ineffable vistas, a world re-created for me.
There's a hill in its vestment of dew-fall that kneels like a priest to the altar;
Low bird-cries resound in the silence, frail tendrils reach forth to the light;
The fields flower-breasted are fragrant, and fresh the faint breezes that falter:-
Life's faith in the future is perfect, life's dream of eternity bright!
If ours were the faith of the petals unfolding, the nest and its treasure,-
The faith all revealed and illumined, the faith that alone makes us free,-
What divine understanding were ours of the sun-light that flows without measure,
Of the silver of moon-light that rings down the resonant floor of the sea!
What divine understanding for life; for the world how majestic a meaning;
What truths by the way-side; in martyrdom, poverty, pain what delight;
What poems in the midnight; what visions revealed that the darkness was screening,
As like fire-tinged incense the dawn-mists flush deep round the knees of the night!
O, beware! for the safety we cherish is false:-we are blind! we are soothless!-
Have we learned how the fields are made fruitful? Are we aimed to life's ultimate goal?-
O for faith to accept for our lives not an ecstasy less, not a truth less,
Than the world and the senses afford us, than are sphered in the scope of the soul!1 [Note: G. C. Lodge, Poems and Dramas, ii. 155.]
(2) He was not only “full of faith,” but also “full of the Holy Spirit.” And rich in privilege as the life of faith is, this is a higher step in Christian attainment. For while faith is the hand of the soul clasping God, or the eye of the soul looking unto Jesus; to be “full of the Holy Ghost” is to enjoy the actual presence of God in the heart. Faith is a great gift of the Holy Spirit, but to be “full of the Holy Ghost” is to possess the fulness of His spiritual gifts.
I believe in Thee!
Life's Lord, Life's Giver,
For aye and ever
Source and Fountain of boundless sanctity,
Pouring high sapience and wisdom royally
Down on Thy suppliant people, the blest, the free.
Thou who art fain to hallow all men, oh, hallow me,
My God, I believe in Thee.2 [Note: E. Hickey, Later Poems, 52.]
(3) It is no wonder, then, that Stephen is described as being “full of grace,” as reflecting in his life the life of Christ in all its singular charm of gentleness and strength. And with grace he had “power,” a strong word in the Greek, which we have carried into English, in a term which deals with the science of forces, “dynamics,” and in the expression “dynamite,” a material which possesses great explosive force.
Grant us such grace that we may work Thy Will
And speak Thy words and walk before Thy Face,
Profound and calm, like waters deep and still:
Grant us such grace.
Not hastening and not loitering in our pace
For gloomiest valley or for sultriest hill,
Content and fearless on our downward race.
As rivers seek a sea they cannot fill
But are themselves filled full in its embrace,
Absorbed, at rest, each river and each rill:
Grant us such grace.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Verses, 114.]
(4) Stephen was a man “full of wisdom.” This was a necessary qualification on the part of men who were called to the conduct of affairs. Their chief duties were administrative. We usually think of Stephen as a beautiful and lofty character, standing on a pedestal above others in true nobility of life, in a spirit of detachment from mundane affairs. But we do well to remember that he was specially selected on account of his discretion, because of his aptitude for practical business and his capacity for work.
Stephen, as the record of his trial shows, was possessed of marvellous intellectual powers, coupled with wonderful facility of expression and utterance. His eloquence, when he stood before his judges, was irresistible. They “were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.” His adversaries could not understand it, but Stephen, like Micah, might have said, “I truly am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,” as his burning thoughts followed one another, “in fit words and heavenly eloquence.”
The first and highest rule of all deed and speech, the more necessary to be followed the higher and more numerous our posts, is: an ounce of wisdom is worth more than tons of cleverness. It is the only sure way, though it may not gain so much applause. The reputation of wisdom is the last triumph of fame. It is enough if you satisfy the wise, for their judgment is the touchstone of true success.1 [Note: B. Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, 54.]
(5) We might also say that Stephen was a man full of love. His triumph over force was the triumph of forgiving love. It is the very royalty of victory when love pours its rain of forgiveness upon the place where cruelty and wrong have stained our lives, and washes out the stain. No nobler thing is known on earth than the soul which forgives and forgets an injury, or remembers it only to use it as a means of redeeming the injurer. For that is the magnificence of God's triumph over us. We refuse His love; we neglect His voice; we set aside His education. Unmoved, His love soars serene above our wrongs, and if it punishes, as it often must, punishes with the unwavering tenderness that regenerates our hearts, burning up all our chaff, and gathering, in the harvest of eternity, our wheat into His garner.
Triumphant Love! Now comes apace
Thy flood-tide, that will leave no trace
Of Time and Death, dead, hand in hand.
Half-rooted in the desolate sand,
Heart-shapen, blooms Thy garb of grace,
Till, by Thy waves, that conquer space,
The robe of that sweet flower's embrace
Be freed from Time's cold rocky strand,
Triumphant Love.
Sole King of an immortal race,
Though men thy mortal name debase!
Thy feet upon the rock now stand,
Thy wings the infinite have spanned!
Unveil Thy power, reveal Thy face,
Triumphant Love!2 [Note: A. Matheson, Maytime Song of Solomon, 13.]
2. Stephen stood the supreme test that can be applied to any life. He was “faithful unto death.” We may not feel with Bishop Woodford, that “if he had failed in the trial, humanly speaking, Christianity would have failed.” We cannot tell whether Stephen realized that for a brief hour the world's destinies had rested with him. But of this we are sure, that a great crisis had come, that as-
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side,
so it came to Stephen. He was more than conqueror through Him that loved him.
3. It was Jesus who, from the cross as from a pulpit, taught to Stephen the law of devout living; and it was Jesus, too, who, when His scholar had well learned that rule and fully practised it, rose from His throne to crown him. Before us we too have the same Unchanged One to gaze at; nor can the long procession of succeeding saints hide Him from our eyes. He who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, has set open to us also the gates of everlasting life. From beside the throne of God He beckons to us as He beckoned Stephen. Stephen, by His grace, followed and entered in, but, entering, did not break the bridge or shut the gate behind him. Martyrs we may not be unto blood; but witnesses, and sufferers, too, for Christ we all must be. In our lives, if not in our deaths, we surely need great Stephen's steadfast courage, and his clear-eyed faith, and his heaven-piercing hope, and his Godlike charity. After such life, death shall be sweet as a falling on sleep, and beyond it are the crown laid up, and the conqueror's palm, and the welcoming Lord.
Fear not, O little flock, the foe
Who madly seeks your overthrow,
Dread not his rage and power:
What though your courage sometimes faints,
His seeming triumph o'er God's saints
Lasts but a little hour.
Be of good cheer; your cause belongs
To Him who can avenge your wrongs,
Leave it to Him our Lord.
Though hidden yet from all our eyes,
He sees the Gideon who shall rise
To save us, and His word.
As true as God's own word is true,
Nor earth nor hell with all their crew
Against us shall prevail.
A jest and byword are they grown;
God is with us, we are His own,
Our victory cannot fail.
Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer!
Great Captain, now Thine arm make bare;
Fight for us once again!
So shall Thy saints and martyrs raise
A mighty chorus to Thy praise,
World without end. Amen.1 [Note: Gustavus Adolphus' Battle-Song (Lyra Germanica, 17).]