truth, we cannot do what we believe is right, because the laws of our country or public opinion are against us, where would our holy religion have been now?  The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and killed by the Jews.  And why?  Because they exposed and openly rebuked public sins; they opposed public opinion; had they held their peace, they all might have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked generation.  Why were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, incarcerated, beaten, and crucified?  Because they dared to speak the truth; to tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that they were the murderers of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling-block the Cross might be to them, there was no other name given under heaven by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus.  Because they declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and refinement, the self-evident truth, that “they be no gods that are made with men’s hands,” and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of worldly wisdom, and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, whom they despised on account of the ignominious death he died.  Because at Rome, the proud mistress of the world, they thundered out the terrors of the law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slave-holding community.  Why were the martyrs stretched upon the rack, gibbetted and burnt, the scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst their tarred and burning bodies sent up a light which illuminated the Roman capital?  Why were the Waldenses hunted like wild beasts upon the mountains of Piedmont, and slain with the sword of the Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of France?  Why were the Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the highlands of Scotland—­the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted with rotten eggs—­the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, whipped at the cart’s tail, banished and hung?  Because they dared to speak the truth, to break the unrighteous laws of their country, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, “not accepting deliverance,” even under the gallows.  Why were Luther and Calvin persecuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer burnt?  Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth was contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical councils and conventions.  Now all this vast amount of human suffering might have been saved.  All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with all men, but following the example of their great pattern, “they despised the shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand of the throne of God,” having received the glorious welcome of “well done good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.”