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Christians in All Ages Have Overcome, November 17
Those Who Have Conquered
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1 John 5:4
The apostles built upon a sure foundation, even the Rock of Ages.
To this foundation they brought the stones that they quarried from the
world. Not without hindrance did the builders labor. Their work was
made exceedingly difficult by the opposition of the enemies of Christ.
They had to contend against the bigotry, prejudice, and hatred of those
who were building upon a false foundation....
Kings and governors, priests and rulers, sought to destroy the temple
of God. But in the face of imprisonment, torture, and death, faithful
men carried the work forward; and the structure grew, beautiful and
symmetrical....
Centuries of fierce persecution followed the establishment of the
Christian church, but there were never wanting men who counted the
work of building God’s temple dearer than life itself....
The enemy of righteousness left nothing undone in his effort to stop
the work committed to the Lord’s builders. But God “left not Himself
without witness.” Workers were raised up who ably defended the faith
once delivered to the saints. History bears record to the fortitude and
heroism of these men. Like the apostles, many of them fell at their post,
but the building of the temple went steadily forward. The workmen were
slain, but the work advanced. The Waldenses, John Wycliffe, Huss and
Jerome, Martin Luther and Zwingle, Cranmer, Latimer, and Knox, the
Huguenots, John and Charles Wesley, and a host of others brought to
the foundation material that will endure throughout eternity.... We may
look back through the centuries and see the living stones of which it is
composed gleaming like jets of light through the darkness of error and
superstition. Throughout eternity these precious jewels will shine with
increasing luster, testifying to the power of the truth of God.
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