meat, from emulation, from party-spirit, or from love of praise. Suffering for Christ will seldom be endured from any but one motive. That motive is the grace of God.
We shall do well to remember these things in forming our estimate of the comparative grace of professing Christians. We err greatly if we suppose that those who do public work, and preach, and speak, and write, and fill the eyes of the Church, are those who are most honourable in God's sight. Such men are often far less esteemed by Him than some poor unknown believer, who has been lying for years on his back, enduring pain without a murmur. Their public efiforts perhaps will prove at last to have brought less glory to Christ than his patience, and to have done less good than his prayers. The grand test of grace is patient suffering. " I will show Saul," said the Lord Jesus, " what great things he shall suffer for my name.*' (Acts ix. 16.) Peter, we may be sure, did far less good when he drew his sword and cut off a man's ear, than he did when he stood calmly brfor^ the council as a prisoner, and said, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'* (Acts. iv. 20.)
We should learn, lastly, from these verses, that the time during which evil is permitted to triumph is fixed and Umited by God. We read that our Lord said to His enemies when they took Him, " This is your hour and the power of darkn^."
The sovereignty of God over ever3rthing done upon earth is absolute and complete. The hands of the wicked are bound until He allows them to work. They can do nothing without His permission. — ^But this is not all. The hands of the wicked cannot stir one moment before God