on earth one faithful minister who does not experience the truth of that assertion, " If they have hated me, they will hate you also." It matters not what wisdom these servants of God exercise, or what talents they possess, or what blamelessness they maintain ; if they will discharge their duty faithfully to God and man, they shall surely be made conformable to their Sa\'iour's image in this respect: for, " if men called the Master of the house Beelzebub, much more will they those of his household."]
2. Universal —
[It is not the profane and profligate alone that will hate the servants of God ; but the moral, the sober, and those who have in some respect a regard for religion. Indeed, those who are of more decent habits are, for the most pai-t, the very leaders in opposition to the faithful ministers of Christ; inso- much that Satan found not any more wilKng or more efficient instruments to persecute Paul and Barnabas, than a number of "devout and honourable women™." Bound as kings are to protect the servants of the Most High, they have often been found their most cruel oppressors. Ahab would gladly have wreaked his vengeance on Elijah, even as Jezebel had already done on a vast multitude of the Lord's prophets : and at dif- ferent periods have the great and mighty of the earth exerted all their power to extirpate the servants of the Lord. From this enmity no rank or order of men is exempt : " the fat bulls of Basan" have been forward to lead the way; and " dogs have joined in compassing" about the servants of the Lord, to destroy them. Even Httle children have encouraged one another in this impious work. No less than forty-two of them ridiculed Elisha, saying, "Go up, thou bald head! go up, thou bald head!" expressing thereby their contempt, if not their disbehef, of the miracle that had been wrought in the assumption of the prophet Elijah in a fiery chariot to heaven. And so, at this day, we can scarcely have a surer criterion of the state of men's minds towards religion, than in the conduct of their children towards the faithful ministers of Christ. So true is that declaration of our blessed Lord to his faithful ser- vants, " Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake."]
3. Inveterate —
[There is no other thing which excites so much enmity as this. Persons guilty of any crime meet with some compas- sion : and, if they be treated with too much severity, they will find some to vindicate their cause. But a faithful servant of Christ may be persecuted with ever so much virulence, and none will venture to interpose for him. Ahab acknowledged
"> Acts xiii. 50.