Take them, work them to thy will;
Thou alone must shape thy future,—
Heaven give thee strength and skill.”
While in Edinburg, I had some conversation with a Presbyterian minister on religious subjects. “Why,” said he, “you contend that Christians are rewarded in this world for their piety and virtue. I dissent from you. The Bible teaches me, that Christians are crushed to earth by the cross they bear. Sinners have no such burden to carry.”
I remarked: “It is true that the early Christians, by their enthusiasm in the Christian cause, often incurred the wrath of Jews and Pagans, and were sometimes roughly handled. But this was not done because they were good men and women, but because they were deemed enemies of truth and righteousness—fanatics of a dangerous creed and party. The world did not know that it was opposing God’s noblemen, and the highest religious and moral truths, hence Christ, when in the agonies of death from the hands of the unbelieving multitude, cried, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ The trials, hardships and persecutions they suffered, were incidental to the times, and are not the legitimate results of a holy life.
“And here you mistake, my friend. You suppose that the suffering they endured are the natural sequence of a divine life. In that you greatly err. The advocates of any unpopular cause, let it be good or bad, right or wrong, are sure to encounter opposition. Especially was this so in the early days of the Christian era. The nations of the earth, in those times, were ignorant, intolerant, cruel, and bloody—much more so than at the present time. The early Christians laid hold of the religious creeds of their day with a strong hand, tore them to atoms, and scattered them to the four winds. This was more than the adherents of those creeds could bear, and according to the intolerant and cruel spirit of the times, they pursued the enemies of their ancient faith with fire and sword. The Christian cause was unpopular; the Christians were an insignificant minority, and the dominant party could not brook their zeal for what they regarded to be a wretched delusion.
“Christianity is now popular among the civilized nations of the earth, and its advocates are very differently situated from what they were eighteen hundred years ago. There is now no cross for them to bear, as that term was understood in the apostolic times. Those who come nearest to bearing it in this country, are those who ‘trust in the living God as the savior of all men.’ They are often contemptuously, cruelly treated by the dominant parties; but thank God, if they are inclined to revive the old persecutions, they have not the power to do so. But the truly good in all ages and climes, are blessed, let their outward circumstances be what they may. Virtue is a divine fount, whence flows the elixir of life; a tree whose fruit heals the nations. The good man’s soul is in harmony with truth and righteousness; he lives an harmonious, heavenly life.”
“But I cannot see that there is as much difference in the happiness of saints and sinners, as there is in their character. The latter seem to enjoy themselves quite as well as the former, and sometimes even better.”
“If the Bible is any authority, you are much mistaken. The wicked, in that book, are said to be ‘servants,’ ‘captives,’ ‘strangers,’ ‘foreigners,’ ‘wandering prodigals;’ Christians are said to be ‘children,’ ‘freemen,’ ‘fellow-citizens of the household of God,’ ‘obedient children at home.’ The wicked are represented as ‘bearing a heavy burden,’ ‘weary,’ ‘condemned,’ ‘dead,’ ‘blind,’ ‘hungry,’ ‘poor,’ ‘thirsty,’ ‘miserable;’ but Christians as ‘entering into rest,’ being ‘justified,’ ‘alive,’ seeing ‘the Son of righteousness,’ ‘eating the bread of God,’ drinking ‘the water of life,’ possessing ‘all things,’ and rejoicing ‘in the hope of the glory of God.’ The difference between the two classes is clearly expressed thus: ‘There is no peace to the wicked’—‘Great peace have they that love thy law.’
“Truly hath the poet said: