As to practice—a righteous life will not make a man 'popular.' And as for 'opinions'—earnest religious opinions of any sort are distasteful. Not the profession of them, but the reality of them—especially those which seem in any way new or strange—make the average man angrily intolerant of an earnest Christianity which takes its creed seriously and insists on testing conventional life by it. Indolence, self-complacency, and inborn conservatism join forces in resenting the presence of such inconvenient enthusiasts, who upset everything and want to 'turn the world upside down.'
'The moping owl doth to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her ivy tower.
Molest her ancient, solitary reign.'
The seeds of the persecuting temper are in human nature, and they germinate in the storms which Christianity brings with it.
3. The phases vary according to circumstances.
We have not to look for the more severe and gross kinds of persecution.
The tendency of the age is to visit no man with penalties for his belief, but to allow the utmost freedom of thought.
The effect of Christianity upon popular morality has been to bring men up towards the standard of Christ's righteousness.
The long proclamation of Christian truth in England has the effect of making mere profession of it a perfectly safe and even proper thing.
But the antagonism remains at bottom the same.
Let a man earnestly accept even the creeds of established religion and live by them, and he will find that out. Let him seek to proclaim and enforce some of those truths of Christianity whose bearing upon social and economical and ecclesiastical questions is but partially understood. Let him set up and stick to a high standard of Christian morality and see what comes of it, in business, say, or in social life.