been
some cloke for the shamelessness of the world's sin, if He had not
spoken words and done works among them such as none other ever said and
did; but in the face of the perfect beauty of His character, the grace
and truth of His words, and the loveliness of His deeds, it was by
their perfidy He was crucified and slain. In vain He challenged them
to convince Him of sin, and to bear witness to any evil which might
justify their malicious cruelty. They knew it was innocent blood; but
this knowledge, so far from mollifying them, only exasperated them the
more.

The world hates the Church, not for the evil that is in it, but for the
good. It hates without cause. The holier and purer a life is, the
more certainly it will attract to itself malignity and dislike. The
more Christlike we are, the more we must suffer the relentless hate
that drove the nails into His hands, and the spear into His side. Do
not be surprised at this. Think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which cometh to prove you, as though a strange thing happened
unto you; but doubt and question and be in fear, if you meet only
smiles and flattery and such honors as the world can give. You may
then ask yourselves whether you are not one of the world's own.

_The real origin and fountain of the hatred of the world is due to
Satan's antagonism to God._--In his original creation, he was doubtless
as fair as any of the firstborn sons of light; but in his pride he
substituted himself for God, and love faded out of his being, making
way for the unutterable darkness of diabolic hate. Satan hates God
with a hatred for which there are no words; and therefore when the
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, Satan gathered up
every energy and resource of his nature to dog His steps, and make His
course through the world as painful as possible. Do you wonder that
the life of Jesus was so full of suffering? It could not have been
otherwise. Directly God, in the person of Jesus, stepped down into the
time-sphere, and assumed the conditions of earth and death, He came
within the range of the utmost that Satan could do to molest and injure
Him. Similarly, when the blessed Lord becomes the tenant of the heart,
and in proportion as He is so, that heart attracts to itself the hatred
with which the devil from the beginning has hated God. "If they have
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My
saying, they will keep yours