ish it. St. Paul said to certain
heathens, "We also are men of like passions with you[3]." St. Paul,
and the Apostles, and all Christ's ministers after them, are of one
nature with other men. They have to go through what other men go
through. They suffer pain, sorrow, bereavement, anxiety, desolateness,
privations; and they have need, as other men, of patience,
cheerfulness, faith, hope, contentment, resignation, firmness, to bear
all that comes on them well. But even more than other men are they
called on to bear the opposition of the world. They have to bear being
ridiculed, slandered, ill-treated, overreached, disliked. All this is
not pleasant to them naturally, any more than to other people. But
they find it must be so; they cannot alter it; and they learn
resignation and patience. This patience and resignation then I exhort
you to cherish, my brethren, when the world scorns you for your
religion; and withal cheerfulness and meekness, that you may bear your
cross lightly, and not gloomily, or sadly, or complainingly.

For instance, persons may press you to do something which you know to
be wrong--to tell an untruth, or to do what is not quite honest, or to
go to companies whither you should not go; and they may show that they
are vexed at the notion of your not complying. Still you must not
comply. You must not do what you feel to be wrong, though you should
thereby displease even those whom you would most wish to please.

Again: you must not be surprised, should you find that you are called a
hypocrite, and other hard names; you must not mind it.

Again: you may be jeered at and mocked by your acquaintance, for being
strict and religious, for carefully coming to Church, keeping from bad
language, and the like: you must not care for it.

Again, you may, perhaps, discover to your great vexation, that untruths
are told of you by careless persons behind your backs, that what you do
has been misrepresented, and that in consequence a number of evil
things are believed about you by the world at large. Hard though it
be, you must not care for it; remembering that more untruths were told
of our Saviour and His Apostles than can possibly be told of you.

Again: you may find that not only the common run of men believe what is
said against you, but even those with whom you wish to stand well. But
if this happens through your conscientiousness you must not mind it,
but must be cheerful, leaving your case in th