SOME people invite persecution by their own unwise course. God does not desire that his people should suffer hardship and persecution. However, ever since the fall of man, the coming of Christ has not been to send peace, but a sword; not that God is looking for trouble, but that it is the studied purpose of Satan to challenge every wise plan of God. God’s people, directed by infinite wisdom, are to so live in the world that the people (not the leaders of the people, who are determined on forcing their own selfish ambitions, but “the common people [who] heard him gladly,”) will be compelled to admire them and their manner of living. And yet there are many of our people who very unwisely do many things which make for strife and discord. For instance, some very zealous Sabbatarians, in order to show their utter disregard for the day dedicated to the worship of the sun, manage to do their most demonstrative work on that day. But rather than go to this extreme and thus incur the consequent unnecessary disapproval of their neighbors, it would be far better did they rearrange their work, even to the extent of discommoding themselves, and respect the civil and religious rights of those with whom they chance to differ in matters of conscience. Again, some, not seeing in the other churches, in secret societies, and even in the government itself, all the good that other men see in them, lose no opportunity of airing their unqualified disapproval of the weaknesses and evils that are to be found in these institutions, and thus incur the displeasure of those who see in them all that is desirable, and unconsciously pave the way for unnecessary persecution. Immensely better would it be did they say nothing about those things which they can not help, and zealously say everything about the thing they can help—the third angel’s message to the world in this generation. In all things we ought to study carefully how we may make for peace until the very last moment, until the time when men shall have passed probationary time and completely turned against the elect of God; not in a spirit of compromise with worldly men, but in a spirit of love for their souls and for peace so long as God shall see fit to compel its continuance in the earth: only too soon at best will the winds blow; why, then, sally forth and tempt our adversaries “to torment us before the time”? “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”—The Worker’s Bulletin.