The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-04-08

MIN stripes, whlpplngS, as disturDer |
Of the peace-not that he did disturb !
the peace, but that those who opposed |
his teachings raised a tumult and |
blamed him for it. in order to bring
him into disrepute. hinder his service |
and forward their own interests. This |
at times brought him to prison, too,
and even close to deaths door.
Nevertheless. he rejoiced in all such
privileges. He declared that five times
he received whippings, stripes; once he
was stoned. and three times he was
shipwrecked. But none of these things
moved him from faithfulness to his
Master, whose servants he had perse-
cuted before his eyes were opened.
Then he recounts various perils ex-
perienced from waters. from robbers,
from the Jews, from the heathen-ln
the city, in the wilderness, on the sea.
He winds up the list of perils In the
words of the text. "Perils amongst
false brethren"
One question which will arise in
many minds is, Were these sufferings
stripes, perils, etc.-deservedT If
asked, the answer would surely be
that they were not deserved: for St
Paul was a noble character and bore
the Message of Gods grace in Christ
good tidings of great joy which shall
be unto all people, The next ques-
ton with some would be, IF his suf-
ferings were not punishments, what
were theyT
We reply that they were the same as
were the Masters evidences of his
loyalty to God and of the darkness of
the world, which led them to oppose
him. The declaration. whatsoever
will live godly will suffer persecution"
was fully exempllfied in his own ex
periences and in the Masters. The
amount of suffering as a reward for
well-doing marked the measure Of 10y
atty and zeal. and the measure of
hatred and malice aroused by the Adj
versary. The answer to the question
as to why Jesus suffered is the answer
to all such questions in respect to st.
Paul and all other footstep followers.
Darkness Hates the Light.
The Master declared that He stood
for the principles of light righteous
ness. Truth; while Satan stands for
the reverse-darkness, superstition.
| blindness And so it is with the fol-
| lowers of Jesus. They must all be
children of the light. must walk in the
| light, must be Incorporating in their
attitude toward sin and all that is
wrong Therefore the world will hate
them and say all manner of evil
against them falsely. Yea, men will
feel that they do God service when
| they Stay the righteous, whether lit
orally, as in Jesus case and st. Pauls,
or by shooting out arrows. even bit
| ter words" AS is the more popular
method of the present time.
| But some one will say. "Ah, times
have changed. Today our bishops and
popes and preachers are all reverenced.
No one thinks Of prosecuting them.
| Rather, all men speak well of them,
| Any one not spoken well of today must
| be in some way unworthy" How
strange that we should forget, and ar
que along these linesI Were there not
/ Doctors of Divinity in Jesus day?
| Were there not priests and chief
priests and Levites then? And were
| there not Pharisees who made long
prayers in the Temple? And were
| they not highly spoken of and rever
enced? Did they not make broad their
| phylacteries? Did any one think of
| traducing MensF No.
But the Master was there. and His
| disciples; and they were not of the
popular clergy. BY their own recGSi
they were styled the filth and off
securing Of the earth; and, as the
Master said, whoever prosecuted them
| thought that they did God service.
| How apt we all are to think of our
own day as being different from other
| periodsl So it was in Jesus day. AS
He told some Of them, Eye garnish the
| sepulchers of those whom your faith
ers slew, yet We do their works So
TO-DAY many extol the Lord and the
| Apostles, and denounce their persecu-
tors, while they similarly prosecute.
The climax of St Paul's perils, the
severest Of them all, was from false
brethren. How strange that seems!
One would think that however much
the heather or the Jews might have
prosecuted him, at least all protested
| followers of Jesus would have thanked
God for his example and ministry, and
have esteemed him. But this was not
so; and as we look back to the Master
before him, we see the same to be
true. AS He declared, "A mans foes
shall be they Of his own household"
The Master was Jew. The Jews
were His brethren according to the
flesh; and it was they that hated Him
without a cause-they that prosecuted
Him-they that said. HE hath a devil
and is mad"-they that took up stones
to stone Him"-they that finally cruel
| fed Him. HE came unto His own,
and His own received Him not" except
few sanity, elect ones.
St Paul also had persecution from
the Jews, who repeatedly sought his
life. He lived after the establishment
of the Church. He had also Christian
brethren, begotten of the Holy Spirit
and fellowmembers of the Body of
Christ Jesus had none such "Of the
people there were none with Him."
The Holy Spirit was not given until
Pentecost; hence Jesus could not re-
ceive Christian persecution The near
est approximation was the case of
Judas. But If st. Paul enjoyed the
sweetness of Christian fellowship in
his study, Iabors and tolls. he also
knew the bitterness Of opposition and
prosecutions from false brethren-the
climax of his perils We may be sure
that such experiences were more diff
cult for him to bear than any others,
because they came closer home They
came from brethren of the closest i'm
aginable archaeological members
Of the Body of Christ.
The Cody Suffer Persecution.
As.we glance down through this Cos
pei Age, from st. Paul's day to the
present, we find that all followers of
Jesus have had experiences such as He
foretold for Misrepresentation We
find that these prosecutions have come
from every quarter. but none, appar
emily, more severe, more cruel, more
perilous, than those which have come
from Christian brethren. 1t is scarcely
necessary for us to refer to history to
demonstrate this fact. Disputes be-
tween Christians have been very bit
ter Thousands have lost their lives at
each others hands. The word hereto
became more obnoxious than any other
term In the dictionary.
Neither Catholic nor Protestant can
donrr tho tor.rinlo s%nrur- Of tho M onc