Christianity

Persecution Futile Against Christianity. — God has chosen the weak things to confound the yfciglity. “Oh!” said Cassar, “we will soon root up this Christianity; — off with their heads!” The different governors hastened one after another of the disciples to death, but the more they persecuted them the more they multiplied. The pro consuls had orders to destroy Christians; the more they hunted them the more Christians there were, until at last men pressed to the judgment-seat and asked to be permitted to die for Christ. They invented torments; they dragged the saints at the heels of wild horses; they laid them upon red-hot gridirons; they pulled off the skin from their flesh piece by piece; they were sawn asunder; they were wrapped up in skins and daubed with pitch, and set in Nero’s gardens at night to burn; they were left to rot in dungeons; they were made a spectacle to all men in the amphitheatre; the bears hugged them to death, the lions tore them to pieces, the wild bulls tossed them upon their horns — and yet Christianity spread. All the swords of the legionaries which had put to rout the armies of all nations, and had overcome the invincible Gaul and the savage Briton, could not withstand the feebleness of Christianity; for the weakness of God is mightier than men.

The Democracy of Christianity. — A diamond is a diamond, whatever its size may be, and so little faith and great faith are of the same essence. Whether it be a grain of mustard-seed or a mountain-moving faith, it is still faith of the operation of God, faith in the same object, and faith working to the same end. Hence John, speaking to his converts, prays, “That you may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” If them art a believer, thou hast a right to the same fellowship with God as the apostle had, thou hast the same perfect cleansing by the precious blood, thou hast the same adoption, the same regeneration, thou standest in the same place of love and acceptance, thou shalt be blessed with the same blessings on earth, and thou shalt enter into the same joy at the right hand of God.