deave to them, and delight in tiiem, as the excellent of the earth P — ^Or does he avoid them, and dislike them, and regard them as fanatics, and enthusiasts, and extreme, and righteous over-much P — ^The answers to these ques- tions are a pretty safe test of a man's true character. When a man can see no beauty in living saints, but much in dead ones, his soul is in a very rotten state. The Lord Jesus has pronounced his condemnation. He is a hypocrite in the sight of God.
We learn, thirdly, from our Lord's words, how surely a reckoning day for persecution will come upon the perse- cutors. He says that the "blood of all the prophets shall be required."
There is something peculiarly solemn in this statement. The number of those who have been put to death for the faith of Christ in every age of the world, is exceedingly great. Thousands of men and women have laid down their lives rather than deny their Saviour, and have shed their blood for the truth. At the time they died they seemed to have no helper. Like Zacharias, and James, and Stephen, and John the Baptist, and Ignatius, and Huss, and Hooper, and Latimer, they died without resistance. They were soon buried and forgotten on earth, and their enemies seemed to triumph utterly. But their deaths were not foi^otten in heaven. Their blood was had in remem- brance before God. The persecutions of Herod, and Nero, and Diocletian, and bloody Mary, and Charles IX., are not forgotten. There shall be a great assize one day, and then all the world shall see that "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." (Psalm oxyi. 15.)
54 EXPOsrroBY thoughts.
Let us often look forward to the judgment day. There are many things going on in the world which are trying to our faith. The frequent triumphing of the wicked is perplexing. The frequent depression of the godly is a problem that appears hard to solve. But it shall all be made clear one day. The great white throne and the books of God shall put all things in their right places. The tangled maze of God's providences shall be unravelled. All shall be proved to a wondering world to have been "well done.'' Every tear that the wicked have caused the godly to shed shall be reckoned for. Every drop of righteous blood that has been spilled shall at length be required.
We learn, lastly, from our Lord's words, how great is the mckedness of keeping back others from religious know- ledge. He says to the lawyers, " Ye have taken away the key of knowledge : ye entered not in yourselves, and those that were entering in ye hindered."
The sin here denounced is awfully t5ommon. The guilt of it lies at far more doors than at first sight many are aware. It is the sin of the Romish priest who for- bids the poor man to read his Bible. — It is the sin of the unconverted Protestant minister who warns his people against " extreme views," and sneers at the idea of con- version.— ^It is the sin of the ungodly, thoughtless husband who dislikes his wife becoming "serious." — It is the sin of the worldly-minded mother who cannot bear the idea of her daughter thinking of spiritual things, and giving up theatres and balls. All these, wittingly or unwittingly, axe bringing down on themselves our Lord's emphatic "woe." They axe hindering others from entering heaven !