tained their stedfastness, and were useful in the dif- fusion of the truth, by the simple exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were accused before Magistrates continually, through the influence of Satan ; but " they overcame their great adversary by the blood of the Lamb."
Let us consider — L The character of the adversary with whom we have to contend —
He is called ** the Accuser of the Brethren :" and this name justly belongs to him at the present day: for he accuses all the Lord's people,
1. To God himself—
[We are told how repeatedly and how confidendy he accused Job ^ : and that, " when Joshua the High Priest stood before the angel of the Lord, Satan stood at his right hand to resist him*^." To the same effect, in the words immediately before our text, it is said, " He accused the saints before God day and night." How far that wicked fiend may be permitted to prosecute his impious course in the presence of the Most High, we will not undertake to say : but whatever efforts he made in former days, he uses still: and by whatever means he sought to injure the saints of old, he still has recourse to them for the purpose of effecting his murderous designs.]
2. To their fellow-men —
[Here we can speak without hesitation. We see how this deceiver accused God's people of old, to Artaxerxes, to prevent the re-building of the temple''; and to Ahasuerus, in order to effect their utter destruction*. In like manner he ac- cused the Apostles as ring-leaders of sedition ; and even our Lord himself as a blasphemer and a demoniac. And what is there that he does not lay to the charge of the saints at this day ? Through him they are still, exactly as they were in the Apostolic age, " a sect that is every where spoken against V Our blessed Lord taught us to expect that men would " speak all manner of evil against his followers falsely for his sake*^:" and so it is, and so it will be, as long as " the Accuser of the Brethren" retains his influence in the world.]
^. To themselves —
[Few
I* Job. i. 9, 10. & ii. 4, 5. ' Zecb. iii, 1,2.
"^ Ezra iv. 12 — 16. • Esther iii. 8, p.
' Acts xxviii. 22. ' Matt. v. 11.