THE SPIRIT IS THE SAME.
By S.
MR. ALEXANDER THOMSON says: “During the ‘killing time’ in Scotland, the Episcopalian or king’s party were striving to root out all those who persisted in worshiping God as their consciences taught them, and the poor Presbyterians were hunted on the hillsides and slaughtered in cold blood, or cast into prison for Jesus’ sake. There was a man of great influence whose adhesion the king’s party were very anxious to secure. One of the leading persecutors waited on him, and plainly told him that if he came over to their side, there were both honor and wealth awaiting him; but if he remained stubborn, they would take no half measures with him, but he would at once be arrested for aiding and harboring the king’s enemies. Well the man knew what that meant. It meant being set before a bench of corrupt judges, who had settled upon their verdict, and divided the spoil of the victim, before a word of evidence was heard; but in the face of it all, the man chose rather to be persecuted with the children of God than to enjoy the riches of this world for a time. So he stuck to his post, and, after many hardships and sufferings, sealed his testimony with his blood. In this end of the nineteenth century we are not threatened with the boot and the thumbscrew if we will not deny our Lord. The devil has taken more cunning, more insidious, weapons of warfare. Many a young man is practically offered increase of salary and promotion in business if he will wink at practices which he knows are wrong. O, be steadfast. Trust in God and do right, and in the end you will be victorious.” — Watchword and Truth. But it is true, nevertheless, that the spirit of persecution for Christ’s sake is a perpetual inheritance among the children of this world. The human heart is as ready now to condemn the man or woman—or even the child—whose act is not in accordance with its belief, as it ever was. Witness the recent agitation in Australia and in England to revive the use of the stocks and pillory for those who keep the Sabbath of Jehovah and work the rest of the week. Witness the present agitation in Canada for the persecution of the same class, carried to such an extent that even children, ranging in age from four to ten years, who were playing in their garden at home, were convicted of “Sabbath desecration,” and ordered to jail or to pay a fine of $15. The fine was paid. The children had been seen by a neighbor carrying some potatoes. At the same time that the criminal prosecution of these babes was being carried on, two farmers were tried and convicted for the crime of doing ordinary work on their home places on Sunday, the one drawing in wheat, the other working in his stable. This occurred in Manitoba; but the same spirit of persecution is abroad in every land. This is not all that has occurred in Manitoba; it is not all that will occur there, for the dragon is wroth. But Canada has no monopoly on this sorry business. The record in these United States is nothing that any lover of Christian liberty can point to without a blush of shame. The spirit which actuates such deeds is precisely the same spirit that drenched Scotland’s hills and dales with the blood of Christ’s followers during the “killing time.” It is true that the devil has “more insidious weapons of warfare” now than then for accomplishing his work; but he has the same old purpose in view toward the followers of Christ, and that is persecution to the end. That many professed Christians lend willing aid in the carrying out of that wicked purpose, does not make the business Christ-like, or bring anything but sorrow and shame to Him in whose name they claim to do it. S.