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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2
peculiar work, and would add to the precious reward that awaited them
in Heaven. He charged them, when persecuted by men, not to lose
confidence, nor become depressed and mourn over their hard lot, but
to remember that righteous men of the past had likewise suffered for
their obedience. Anxious to fulfill their duty to the world, fixing their
desire upon the approbation of God, they were calmly and faithfully
to discharge every duty, irrespective of the fear or favor of man.
Those things which seem to the Christian most grievous to be borne
often prove his greatest blessing. Reproach and falsehood have ever
followed those who were faithful in the discharge of duty. A righteous
character, though blackened in reation by slander and falsehood, will
preserve the purity of its virtue and excellence. Trampled in the mire,
or exalted to heaven, the Christian’s life should be the same, and the
proud consciousness of innocence is its own reward. The persecution
of enemies tests the foundation upon which the reation really rests.
Sooner or later it is revealed to the world whether or not the evil
reports were true, or were the poisoned shafts of malice and revenge.
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Constancy in serving God is the only safe manner of settling such
questions. Jesus would have his people use great care to give the
enemies of his cause no ground to condemn their holy faith. No wrong
action should cast a stigma upon its purity. When all arguments fail,
the slanderers frequently open their galling fire upon the besieged
servants of God; but their lying tongues eventually bring curses upon
themselves. God will finally vindicate the right, honor the guiltless,
and hide them in the secret of his pavilion from the strife of tongues.
God’s servants have always suffered reproach; but the great work
moves on, amid persecution, imprisonments, stripes, and death. The
character of the persecution changes with the times, but the principle—
the spirit that underlies it—is the same that stoned and beat and slew
the chosen of the Lord centuries ago.
There was never one who walked a man among men more cruelly
slandered than the Son of God. He was met at every point with bitter
reproaches. They hated him without a cause. The Pharisees even hired
men to repeat from city to city the falsehoods which they themselves
fabricated to destroy the influence of Jesus. Yet he stood calmly before
them declaring that reproach was a part of the Christian’s legacy, coun-
seling his followers how to meet the arrows of malice, bidding them
not to faint under persecutions, but, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad;”