in him. They call him a hypocrite and other
names. And all this, if the truth must be spoken, because they hate
the things of God, and therefore they hate His servants.

Accordingly, as far as they have power to do it, they persecute him,
either, as the text implies, with cruel untrue words, or with cold, or
fierce, or jealous looks, or in some worse ways. A good man is an
offence to a bad man. The sight of him is a sort of insult, and he is
irritated at him, and does him what harm he can. Thus Christians, in
former times, were put to death by the heathen. As righteous Abel by
Cain, as our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by the Jews, as St.
Paul too by the heathen; so, many after him were put to death also, and
that by the most cruel torments. It would not be right to describe the
horrible inflictions which the children of God once endured at the
hands of the children of the flesh; but we have some allusion to what
had taken place in an earlier age, in a passage from St. Paul's Epistle
to the Hebrews, from which you may judge of the more cruel trials which
Christians afterwards endured. They "had trial of cruel mockings and
scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned,
they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they
wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered
in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth[2]."

Praised be God, we live in times when this cannot take place!
Hitherto, at least, He has guarded us in a wonderful way. If any bad
man did any serious harm to a religious man, he knows he would incur
some punishment from the law of the land. Religious persons are
protected in this day from all great persecutions, and they cannot
sufficiently be thankful for it. The utmost they can suffer from the
world is light indeed compared with what men suffered of old time. Yet
St. Paul calls even his and their sufferings "our light affliction;"
and if their suffering was but light, compared with the glory which was
to follow after death, much more is ours light, who cannot undergo
persecution, if we would, and at best can only suffer very slight
inconveniences from serving God faithfully.

And yet, nevertheless, most true is it, that even now, no one can give
his mind to God, and show by his actions that he fears God, but he will
incur the dislike and o