Accordingly, St. Peter, after exhorting us (I Peter iv., 15) to walk so purely in the fear of God, as not to suffer as thieves, adulterers, and murderers, immediately adds, that if we must suffer as Christians, let us glorify God for the blessing which He thus bestows upon us.  It is not without cause he speaks thus.  For who are we, I pray, to be witnesses of the truth of God, and advocates to maintain His cause?  Here we are poor worms of the earth, creatures full of vanity, full of lies, and yet God employs us to defend His truth—­an honor which pertains not even to the angels of heaven!  May not this consideration alone well inflame us to offer ourselves to God to be employed in any way in such honorable service?

Many persons, however, can not refrain from pleading against God, or, at least, from complaining against Him for not better supporting their weakness.  It is marvelously strange, they say, how God, after having chosen us for His children, allows us to be trampled upon and tormented by the ungodly.  I answer:  Even were it not apparent why He does so, He might well exercise His authority over us, and fix our lot at His pleasure.  But when we see that Jesus Christ is our pattern, ought we not, without inquiring further, to esteem it great happiness that we are made like Him?  God, however, makes it very apparent what the reasons are for which He is pleased that we should be persecuted.  Had we nothing more than the consideration suggested by St. Peter (I Peter i., 7), we were disdainful indeed not to acquiesce in it.  He says that since gold and silver, which are only corruptible metals, are purified and tested by fire, it is but reasonable that our faith, which surpasses all the riches of the world, should be so tried.

It were easy indeed for God to crown us at once without requiring us to sustain any combats; but as it is His pleasure that until the end of the world Christ shall reign in the midst of His enemies, so it is also His pleasure that we, being placed in the midst of them, shall suffer their oppression and violence till He deliver us.  I know, indeed, that the flesh rebels when it is to be brought to this point, but still the will of God must have the mastery.  If we feel some repugnance in ourselves, it need not surprize us; for it is only too natural for us to shun the cross.  Still let us not fail to surmount it, knowing that God accepts our obedience, provided we bring all our feelings and wishes into captivity, and make them subject to Him.

When prophets and apostles went to death, it was not without feeling some inclination to recoil.  “They shall carry thee whither thou wouldst not,” said our Lord Jesus Christ to Peter. (John xxi., 18.) When such fears of death arise within us, let us gain the mastery over them, or rather let God gain it; and meanwhile, let us feel assured that we offer Him a pleasing sacrifice when we resist and do violence to our inclinations for the purpose of placing ourselves entirely under His command:  This is the principle war in which God would have His people to be engaged.  He would have them strive to suppress every rebellious thought and feeling which would turn them aside from the path to which He points.  And the consolations are so ample that it may well be said, we are more than cowards if we give away!