Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
in spirit amid storms of opposition, proving to their torturers and
all others that they still stand resolute, and believe that though
the body be bruised or even destroyed, or the mind harassed, He
who numbers the hairs of our head shall protect the soul.
Christians should never persecute others. They must be
tolerant even to those who extend to them no toleration. Abuse
never comes within the range of Christian duty. It never
bridges the breach, but always widens it. "All things therefore
whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do
ye also unto them" (Matt. 7:12). By patiently bearing whatever
blows are inflicted, and refusing to use the enemies'
weapons, a great victory is achieved, for men thus tread in
the footsteps of their Master. "If ye are reproached for the
name of Christ, blessed are ye" (1 Pet. 4:14).
624. Yes, you never burned a human being alive, you never
clapped your hands as the death-shriek proclaimed that the
lion's fang had gone home into the most vital part of the
victim's frame. But did you never rob him of his friends?
gravely shake your head and oracularly insinuate that he was
. . Did you never find a malicious
leading souls to hell? chill the affections of his family? take
from him his good name? .
pleasure in repeating all the miserable gossip with which religious
slander fastened upon his daily acts, his words, and even his
uncommunicated thoughts? F. W. Robertson.
625. There is a persecution sharper than that of the axe.
There is an iron that goes into the heart deeper than the knife.
Cruel sneers, and sarcasms, and pitiless judgments, and coldhearted
calumnies, these are persecution. Did you ever pour
bitterness into a heart that God was bruising, by a cold laugh,
or a sneer, or a galling suspicion—into a sister's heart, or a
friend's, or even a stranger's? Remember when you sent them,
as Job's friends sent him, to pour out their griefs alone before
their Father, your name went up to the avenger's ears mingled
with the cries of His own elect.
F. W. Robertson.
626. Christ never used anything that looked like force or
violence except once, and that was to drive bad men out of the
temple, and not to drive them in. Dr. Jor tin.
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