ir flesh torn with redhot pincers. It meant
that they should be scourged to death, or that they should be roasted
alive over slow fires, or that they should be gored in the amphitheatre
by a bull, or torn to pieces by a lion, or that they should have their
skin taken off, or that their heads should be struck off, or that they
should be crucified. So when they were baptized and professed the
Creed, and were signed with the cross, they knew that they were
enlisted to suffer persecution if they acted up to their profession,
and were worthy of the cross on their brows.

But this is not the sort of persecution you will be subjected to. The
time of such cruel torture is over. The world has become Christian in
name, but in heart it is pagan still.

"_All_ that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
S. Paul does not limit this to his day. It is not only all in the
first century, but all in the nineteenth century as well. Only this is
altered--the mode of persecution.

SUBJECT.--The persecution you will be subjected to, if you live godly
in Jesus Christ is--Ridicule. No one will make you suffer in the body.
No pincers and knives will be brought against you,--only Tongues.

I. Noah was ordered by God to build an ark on dry ground. Imagine the
ridicule he met with! How the people would flock out of an evening, to
see how he was getting on. What jibes! How he was tormented with
questions, When was the great boat to be launched? How was he to bring
the sea up to it? Was he with his three sons to put their shoulders to
it, and push it down to the seashore? But Noah did not heed them, he
went on with his building. It was very unpleasant to bear. It made
him very red with shame and annoyance sometimes. But he did not give
up. If he had done so, he would have been drowned. And one day the
flood came. The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the
windows of heaven opened, and then the water overflowed the land.
Then!--how was it with those men and women who had made fun of Noah?
On whose side was the laugh now?

The Israelites were ordered by God to camp against Jericho. They were
to march round the city once a day, with the priests going before,
blowing their trumpets; this was to be done six days in succession, but
on the seventh day they were to march seven times round the city, with
the priests leading the way, blowing the rams' horns. The first day
the inhabitants of Jericho