Palestine only that St. James wrote, but " to the twelve tribes who were scattered abroad." Religion was persecuted not by one party only, but by every party and in every place: and it is still, in every place, " to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness :" and all who will cultivate it will sooner or later need to have the consolations of our text administered to them for their support.
In the words which we have read, we see,
I. The appointed portion of God's people —
In former ages they were hated for righteousness' sake —
[Go back to the time of Abel. You well know that he was murdered by his own brother Cain. And what was the ground of Cain's enmity against him ? We are informed on infallible authority : " Cain slew his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous*." Descend through all successive ages, and you will still find the same enmity subsisting between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent. As light and darkness, so Christ and Belial, both in themselves and in their members, ever have been, and ever must be, opposed to each other b. As to the diversity of trials to which the godly have been exposed, we need look no further than to the short summary given us in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews : " Some were tortured : others had trial of cruel mockings and scom-gings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wan- dered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented :" (yes, they were so treated " of whom the world was not worthy :) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth c." Come we to the time of Christ and his Apostles : it might be hoped that their superior light and piety, and the innumerable miracles with which their divine commission was confirmed, would screen them from such evil treatment; and especially that the Lord Jesus Christ, whose character was so spotless, and whose wisdom was infinite, should be able to overcome the prejudices of a blind infatuated world. But they were only the more exposed to the taunts and cruelty of the ungodly in propor- tion as their light shincd with the brighter splendour. And all who in the first ages of the Church became their followers,
a 1 John iii. 12. h 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. c Heb. xi. 35—38.