CHRISTIANITY.
And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.—Acts, xi. 26.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.—Galatians, v. 1.
Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.—Ephesians, iv. 1.
Yet if any man suffer as a christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.—I. Peter, iv. 16.
But for that contention and brave strife
The Christian hath to enjoy, the future life,
He were the wretchedest of the race of men;
But as he soars at that, he bruiseth then
The serpent’s head; gets above death and sin,
And, sure of Heaven, rides triumphing in.
Ben Jonson.
All faiths beside, or did by arms ascend;
Or sense indulged has made mankind their friend:
This only doctrine does our lusts oppose;
Unfed by nature’s soil in which it grows;
Cross to our interests, curbing sense and sin;
Oppressed without and undermined within,
It thrives through pain, its own tormentors tires;
And with a stubborn patience still aspires.
To what can reason such effects assign,
Transcending nature, but to laws divine,
Which in that sacred volume are contained,
Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordained?
Dryden.
Well hast thou fought
The better fight, who, singly, hast maintained
Against revolted multitudes the cause
Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms;
And for the testimony of truth hast borne
Universal reproach, far worse to bear
Than violence.
Milton.
A Christian is the highest style of man;
And is there who the blessed cross wipes of
As a foul blot from his dishonour’d brow?—
If angels tremble, ’tis at such a sight.
Young.
O Antioch, thou teacher of the world!—
From out thy portals passed the feet of those,
Who, banished and despised, have made thy name
The next in rank to proud Jerusalem.
Within thy gates the persecuted few,
Who dared to rally round the Holy Cross,
And worship Him whose sacred form it bore,
Were first called Christians. In thy sad conceit,
Thou mad’st a stigma of reproach and shame,
This noblest title of the sons of earth:
While, save for this, thy name were scarcely known,
Except among the mouldering vestiges
Of dim antiquity. So doth our God
Make all men’s folly ever praise His name.
J. L. Chester.
To be an humble follower of Him,
Who left the bliss of Heaven, to be for us
A man on earth in spotless virtue living
As man ne’er lived; such words of comfort speaking,
To raise, and elevate, and cheer the heart,
As man ne’er spake; and suffering poverty,
Contempt, and wrong, and pain, and death itself,
As man ne’er suffered.
Joanna Baillie.
The Christian’s faith had many mysteries too.
The uncreated Holy Three in One;
Divine Incarnate, Human in Divine;
The inward call; the Sanctifying Dew;
Coming unseen, unseen departing thence;
Anew creating all, and yet not heard;
Compelling, yet not felt:—mysterious these;
Not that Jehovah to conceal them wished;
Not that Religion wished. The Christian faith,
Unlike the timorous creeds of Pagan priest,
Was frank, stood forth to view, invited all
To prove, examine, search, investigate,
And gave herself a light to see her by.
Mysterious these—because too large for eye
Of man, too long for human arm to mete.
Pollok.