that prevailing about them. But no smallest loss of influence or usefulness was thereby incurred. And then there is the inner joy, the testimony of a good conscience in the breast of those who have been faithful unto death in their witness for Christ. Here is a spiritual revenue, over and above all others. "God pays, but not always at the end of the week," says an oft-quoted proverb; and we may add, nor always in the same currency. By a divine exchange he often settles temporal losses with spiritual coin, a coin which bears only the image and superscription of Christ, and therefore has no value in the world's markets, but which is of inestimable worth to such as have spiritual discernment. How endless the illustrations of this inward spiritual requital, if we had space to consider them. Here is the patience and faith of the saints-the balm of the Spirit healing the wounds of the sword, the reality of heavenly citizenship assuaging all the pains and privations of earthly exile. We need not wonder if Zinzendorf, who exclaims from a glowing heart, "I have one passion; it is He, He alone," should soon find himself the object of bitterest contempt in a world whose one passion is self and self alone. But what matters it? "By faith Noah. prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world." A holy choice of God and life eternal as our supreme good, will cast an inevitable reflection upon such as mind earthly things. But the por tion of such is with the Lord, and in the communion that lifts us into his presence. Slander and detraction followed Zinzendorf as dark shadows follow a brilliant light. He who had renounced earthly citizenship, owning that "that place is our proper home where we have the greatest opportunity of laboring for our Saviour," found his residence for years in exile. But in the midst of it all he could say, "I would rather be despised and hated for the sake of Jesus, than be beloved for my own sake." Weighed down with labor, and often bearing the heavy cross of obloquy, he could yet exclaim concerning a journey, "All the way I swam in peace and joy in the Lord." Thrice blessed are they who have such a portion. “And your joy no man taketh from you," says the Saviour. Let God's servants be incited, by these brief glimpses of suffering and victorious lives, to choose this divine inheritance. "It is a faithful saying For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer with Him, we shall |
