The Progress., 1898-08-20

regard to his theological opponents, Put
them In whatever sauce you please, roast
ed or fried or baked or stcWCd or boiled or
hashcd, they arc nothing but asses!" All,
my friends, if John Milton or Martin
Luther could come down to such sourrll-
ity, what may you not expect from less
elevated opponents? Now, sometimes the
world takes after Them the newspapers
take after thcm public opinion takes after
them, and the unfortunate man is lied
about until all the dictionary Of Billings
gate is exhausted on him. You often see
man whom you know to be good and
pure and honest, set upon by the world
and mauled by whole communities, while
vicious men take on a superciliOus air in
condemnation of him, as though Lord
Jetfreys should write an essay on gentle
ness or Henry VIII talk about purity or
King Herod take to blessing little chill
dren
Persecution Is an Inspiration.
Now, certain amount of persecution
rouses mans defiance, stirs his blood for
magnificent battle and makes him 90 times
moro q man than he would have been
without tho persecution. So it was. with
the great reformer when he said, II will
not be put down; l will be heard" And
so 1t was with Willard, the preacher, in
the time of Louis XII When Louis XII sent
word to him that unless he stopped preach
Ing In that style he would throw him into
the river, he replied, "Tell the king that l
will reach heaven sooner by water than he
will reach it by fast horses" A certain
amount Of persecution is q tonic and in
spiration, but too much of 1t, and too long
continued becomes the rock Bozez throw
ing dark shadow over a mans life
What Is he to do thcn' Go homo, you say
Good advice, that, That is just the place
for man to go when the world abuses
him. Go home. Blessed be God for our
quiet and sympathetic homes! But there
Is many man who has the reputation of
having home when he has none. Through
unthinkingness or precipitation there are
many matches made that ought never to
have been made. An officiating priest
cannot alone unite a couple. The Lord
Almighty must proclaim banns. There
ore many homes in which there Is no sym
pathy and no happiness and no good cheer.
The clamor Of the battle may not have
been heard outside, but God knows, not
withstanding all the playing Of the we'd
ding march, and all the odor of the
orange blossoms and the benediction Of
the officiating pastor, there has been no
marriage. So sometimes men have aWak-
ened to find on one side of them the rock
of persecution and on the other side Of
them the rock of domestic infelicity. What
shall such q one dor Do as Jonathan did
climb. Get up the heights of Gods. con.
ISOLATION, from which you may look down
In triumph upon outside persecution and
home trouble. While good and great John
Wesley was being silenced by the magis-
trates and having his name written on the
board fences Of London In doggerel, at
that very time his wife was making him
as miserable as she could-acting as though
she were possessed by the devil, as I sup
pose she was, never doing him a kindness
until the day she ran away, SO that ne
wrote in his diary these words: Il did not
forsake her. have not dismissed her.
will not recall her," Planting one foot
upon outside persecution and the othel
foot on home trouble, John Wesley climb
ed up into the heights Of Christian joy
and after preaching 10000 sermons ant
travelling 270, 900 miles reached the height!
of heaven, though In this world he had i
hard enough-"a sharp rock on the ont
side and sharp rock on the other"
Despairing Women.
Again, that woman stands in the crisi
Of the text who has bereavement and I
struggle for livelihood at the same time
Without mentioning names, speak iron
observation. All, 1t is hard thing for
woman to make an honest living, evel
when her heart is not troubled, and sh
has fair cheek, and the magnetism OF al
exquisite presence. But low the husban
or the father is dead The expenses of tn