October 2

"When they persecute you."—Matthew 10:23.

SORROW is evidently an indispensable mark of disciplehood and apostleship.

Sheep in the midst of wolves; in their synagogues they will scourge you; ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake—how the prophecies of persecution follow one another in quick succession! how sure the Master is that, like Himself, I shall make the acquaintance of the Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death!

Tribulation has certainly changed its dress in these last days. The lions do not tear the Christian limb from limb in the Roman Coliseum. The fires do not burn for him in Smithfield. The drums do not beat in the Grassmarket, as they did for Isobel Alison and Hugh Mackail. The cruel crawling foam does not creep up and up, on Wigtown sands, until all is over.

But, to-day as of old, if I will live godly, I must suffer. I cannot be a whole-hearted disciple, in my home, in my business, everywhere, without awakening opposition. If my religion never brings me an adversary, I may well question whether it is very true or very deep. If it is so unmistakable that it does expose me sometimes to ridicule and resentment, I should bless God for that.

It is still along the Way of the Cross that the pilgrim walks to the Celestial City. If, here as well as hereafter, he lives in paradise, it is a paradise like that of which one has written that, in a remote corner of it, the Grey Water of weeping is found; and he who dwells there must stoop and touch his eyelids with this water, and then he is healed of his too great joy, and his songs are the sweetest sung in all the ways of Paradise.