ENDURING HARDSHIPS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.
By John G. Woolley
ENDURANCE is the supreme trait of Christian service. One can scarcely get a sight of Jesus without loving him, and wishing to follow him; but to 'stick' when the trail gets blind and steep, and the earth slips under the feet, and the sun is down, and the night falling—that is different. It is practically no trouble to get a crowd to cheer for a right principle, but it is quite another matter to get a man to plod on after it, alone, when the meeting is over. And in general the lack of virtue in men is not defective vision or want of pure desire, but inability to 'stay.' A 'two hundred and twenty yards' dash' is fun, but many a fine fellow, when the course is a mile, comes to the home stretch with a sick stomach, and pitches on his head in the fourth quarter as helpless as a bag of bran. The phrase 'enduring hardships' suggests terrible things,—persecution, inquisition, death,—to this add 'missionary topic,' and one thinks of expatriation, fever, cannibalism. But really these tragic things do not call for endurance more than others which sound like trifles by comparison. The drawn fist, the scourge, the crown of thorns, were, I reckon, small matters to Jesus, compared to the indifferent look on Peter's face when he stood warming in the hall. Peter went down in a great trial, it is true; but the great body of the account against 'want of endurance' is made up of little cowardices which, in general estimation, do not 'count' at all. Prosperity breaks more saints than adversity. It requires greater endurance to keep true on an increasing salary than in the face of beggary. A fat mailing list has swamped many a high ideal. Increasing popularity has made a spiritual pimp of many a man. To be mobbed is not so great a strain of character as to be coddled. If bad men hate and threaten a Christian man, he may grow in grace the more; but if they applaud him, he is in deadly peril. If they nominate him for office, he is all but lost. If he seeks their nomination or their support, he is a weakling and probably a fraud. Many a fine young Christian man has been debauched in his politics by an appointment upon a committee of prominent—and nasty—citizens to welcome a distinguished man to the town. It is the settled policy of politicians to invite weak or vain or ambitious ministers to pray at the convention, to 'fix,' that is, corrupt them. The placid face of a rich parishioner has made a sneak of many a man. A ruffian's club would only rouse the courage in some men who will eat dirt under a presiding elder's smile. One of the nicest operations of the program committee is to scuttle independence by a8shrewd distribution of places on the program or portrait sketches in the newspapers.—John G. Woolley.