Counsel for the Soldiers of Jesus.
BRO. WHITE: I send you the following article for the Review, if you think proper to publish it. It is taken from a chapter in Pike’s Guide to Young Disciples, entitled, “The Spiritual Conflicts and Sorrows of the Disciples of Christ,” and will, I trust, encourage and comfort the humble followers of Jesus. What I have selected is under the heading of Persecution and Temptation. M. F. MAXSON.
Adams’ Center, N. Y. The Christian’s path to Heaven is a chequered path. Many are the sacred pleasures of the followers of the Lamb; but they have also pains and trials peculiar to themselves. “Much in sorrow, much in woe,
Onward, Christian, onward go;
Fight the fight, and, worn with strife,
Steep with tears the bread of life,
Onward, Christian, onward go!
Join the war, and face the foe.” Every disciple of Jesus will find that the Christian life is truly a warfare. Would you behold those who have no foes without, no foe within; whom no fears distract, no dangers threaten? It must be when you meet them in the upper world; and if you ever join them there, assisted from above, you must persevere in the warfare which they have triumphantly ended. “Life is the scene of conflict, not of rest;
Man’s is laborious happiness at best;
On this side death his dangers never cease,
His joys are joys of conquest, not of peace.” The spiritual sorrows and conflicts which the Christian has to endure are of various kinds. Many of his trials proceed from within. He feels the correctness of the statement made in the word of truth, “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye do not the things that ye would.” By the expression, the flesh, in the Scriptures, appears frequently to be meant human corruption, or those remains of depravity with which the believer has to struggle. This is one of the Christian’s principal enemies. The world occasionally allures by its charms, or alarms by its terrors. The assaults of Satan take place at times, though not constantly continued; but the flesh is like a body of death, with which the Christian is perpetually burdened. The Scriptures represent the conquest and destruction of this constant enemy as a painful and difficult achievement. It is not described as dying by a sudden wound, but by a slow and lingering death. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The young Christian commencing his course full of hope, may for a while be comparatively insensible to the pressure of this constant enemy; but soon he will find that he has to struggle with an evil heart, and has need to crucify the flesh with its affections and desires. Perhaps with all the inward conflicts and sorrows, you have to encounter outward opposition. The world reviles and slanders you because you are no longer conformed to its corruptions. You are perhaps represented as a schismatic, an enthusiast, or a fanatic, or as a melancholy creature, going out of your senses, because you will follow the dictates of Jesus, and tread where he trod before you. Your regard to his precepts is deemed unnecessary preciseness; your religion is pronounced hypocrisy, and your wisdom folly. Your former associates make you the butt of their ridicule. Your nearest relatives oppose your holy choice, and are changed into enemies because you have embraced the religion of Jesus. Perhaps some who read these lines may have parents who even threaten to disown them, and to cast them helpless on the wide world if they adhere to their religion; or employers who will dismiss them from their service if they faithfully follow Jesus Christ. This kind of persecution still exists. The carnal mind is as much enmity against God as it was when Nero, or Pliny, or Trojan, or Diocletian, ravaged with persecution the church of God. In the midst of trials of this kind you have cause for joy rather than sorrow. They are what the holy Jesus told his first disciples to expect. “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” “And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.” “A man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” They are what he himself encountered, and need we wonder that a world which hated him should hate his followers? “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household.” If they represented him as a glutton, a drunkard, and a stirrer of sedition, surely you need not be surprised, and should not be pained at any scandal they may cast on you. If friends oppose your choice, and deem your wisdom folly, remember his brethren at one time did not believe in him, but said he was beside himself. If the haters of holiness revile and mock and injure you, hearken while your Lord says, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Since he was hated, why should it grieve you to be hated by a world that hated him? Why should you mourn at being reviled, when he was reviled before you? Rather rejoice; and if ever disposed to mourn and droop on account of the opposition you experience, then hear him saying, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in Heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Thus expect little from the world that hated him; but rejoice, that if you are dead with him, you shall also live with him; if you confess him on earth, he will also confess you before his Father, and before his angels. Important period! How trifling then will appear the ridicule of the gay, and the more open enmity of the hostile! Then all the trials of faithful piety will end. Look therefore to the crown, and you will not tremble at the cross. Think of hearing from the lips of the Master those gladdening words, Well done, good and faithful; and the enmity and contempt of the haters of holiness will be as trifling as the chattering of a magpie, and will no more prevent your pressing on to Heaven, than the buzzing of an angry fly. Had the disciples of Jesus no other enemies than the flesh and the world to oppose their progress to Heaven, the Christian life would be in reality a warfare. But the word of God discloses to your view other enemies not less formidable. However Unitarians and infidels may reject or ridicule the notion of Satanic opposition directed against the growth of piety, no truth is revealed in the divine word with more clearness. In your warfare with the prince of darkness you have no occasion for surprise or alarm at the strength, the reputation, or the horrid nature, of his suggestions to temptations. Read the history of our Lord’s temptation, and it may furnish you many useful lessons. Satan tempted Jesus, hence you may learn that the most pious may expect his assaults. He persevered in tempting Jesus, and when foiled at one temptation, employed another. Hence it is evident that Satan will not easily depart from those whose faith and piety he is anxious to destroy. He tempted Jesus with the most horrid of temptations, even that of falling down and worshiping himself—a Devil. Need the Christian then be surprised if the enemy, who presented a temptation so horrid to his Lord, should harass him with suggestions equally dreadful? His last and principal offer to the Saviour, was the world. “All this will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” This is the most successful of the false but alluring offers that he still employs to keep or draw the soul from God. When tempting Jesus, he backed his impious suggestions by passages from even the word of God, and by wrestling the Scriptures. Thus the kingdom of Satan is still upheld, and multitudes undone forever. Yet consider that Jesus, though tempted even to worship the Devil, continued holy, harmless, and undefiled. It is not therefore temptation, but yielding to temptation, that stains the soul with sin. Often are the friends of Jesus distressed and perplexed from not regarding this distinction. They think they cannot be his followers who have such horrid thoughts or27temptations as they have. At such times they should look to their Lord, and think, Am I, or can I be, tempted worse than he? Why then despond? That you may overcome in your warfare, watchfulness is a most imperative Christian duty. The Lord Jesus inculcates a watchful spirit. “Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is. I say unto you all, Watch.” “Blessed is he that watcheth.” “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Take unto you the whole armor of God, and you will, through Jesus’ strength, triumph over the wicked one. Pray much. By prayer you will conquer. Avoid idleness. The slothful are peculiarly open to the assaults of the wicked one. With prayer unite reading the Scriptures and devout meditation. Above all, endeavor to live under the influence of faith in God and Christ in Heaven. To communicate your trials and temptations to Christian friends may also assist you in overcoming the wicked one. Amidst all the discouragement and distress of your spiritual warfare, never forget that you have a faithful High Priest who has passed into the Heavens, but who knows how to succor them that are tempted, as he was in all points tempted like as they are, yet without sin. Jesus felt the sting of affliction, the assaults of Satan, and the sorrows of spiritual desertion. In your darkest hour you may approach him and say, Blessed Lord, behold in me a case that once was thine—harassed by those hellish foes that once harassed thee; but thou hast conquered, and wilt thou not give thy poor follower grace and strength to conquer too? Why distrust the gracious Saviour? Are not his promises as rich as heavenly love can make them? as firm as eternal truth can fix them? as free as an undone world can want? Art thou his servant? He says, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be.” Art thou one of his flock? he declares, “My sheep shall never perish, neither shall any one (neither man nor devil) pluck them out of my hand.” Or art thou laden with sin and full of fears? he says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” In your Christian pilgrimage, in your spiritual warfare, forget not that you have a Saviour; and let that Saviour be your comfort and support. Think of your heavenly Father’s love. Richer mercy you cannot need than that which God displays. Think of him as a father. Does not a father pity his feeble child? If the child be sick and afflicted, unable to utter anything but sobs and moans, will he pity that child the less? God is a Father to those that seek him; a kinder Father than any earthly parent; he knows his children’s sorrows; he sees their feebleness, and knows their frame is dust. He pities them. Trust in his tender love. Take courage. Press onward. Soon life’s conflicts will cease, and a crown of life will be yours.