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bitter hatred of him, debated about killing him, cast him into a pit,
and at last sold him into Egypt. Afterwards, in like manner, Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram rose up against Moses. And, later still, Saul
persecuted David; and Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah; and the priests and the
prophets the Prophet Jeremiah. Lastly, not to dwell on other
instances, the chief priests and Pharisees, full of envy, rose up
against our Lord Jesus Christ, and delivered Him to the heathen
governor, Pontius Pilate, to be crucified. So the Apostles, after Him,
and especially St. Paul, were persecuted by their fierce and revengeful
countrymen; and from the way in which St. Paul speaks on the subject we
may infer that it is ever so to be: "All that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution:" or, as he says, after referring to the
history of Isaac and Ishmael, "As then he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now:" and
indeed we see this fulfilled in its measure before our eyes even at
this day. Hence our Saviour, to console all who suffer for His sake,
graciously says, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven[1]."

The case seems to be this:--those who do not serve God with a single
heart, know they ought to do so, and they do not like to be reminded
that they ought. And when they fall in with any one who does live to
God, he serves to remind them of it, and that is unpleasant to them,
and that is the first reason why they are angry with a religious man;
the sight of him disturbs them and makes them uneasy.

And, in the next place, they feel in their hearts that he is in much
better case than they are. They cannot help wishing--though they are
hardly conscious of their own wish--they cannot help wishing that they
were like him; yet they have no intention of imitating him, and this
makes them jealous and envious. Instead of being angry with themselves
they are angry with him.

These are their first feelings: what follows? next they are very much
tempted to deny that he _is_ religious. They wish to get the thought
of him out of their minds. Nothing would so relieve their minds as to
find that there were no religious persons in the world, none better
than themselves. Accordingly, they do all they can to believe that he
is making a pretence of religion, they do their utmost to find out what
looks like inconsistency