Faith

The early disciples of the blessed Jesus derived no worldy advantage from the profession of their faith in him ; but on the contrary , they were exposed to manifold inconviences and hardships . The cross of Christ was the ensign , not of honour but of ignominy and reproach . " They had trial of of cruel mockings and scourgings ; yea , moreover of bonds and imprisonment ."Ye t among all the dangers and discouragements of their situation , these holy and devoted men - men of faith and men of prayer - experienced abundant and unfailing support , for their life was hid with Christ in God . The time was in our land , when those who loved the saviour and honoured his  name , met with the same harsh treatment as the Hebrew brethren to whom the Apostle refers . They were hunted like wild beasts on the mountains , even to the caves and fastnesses of nature's solitude , where they sought an assylum , they were followed by fiends of persecution . Often they had no covering but a canopy of leaves , and no couch save the barren heath . At times , in their religious convocations in the open air , they were exposed to the war of the elements of nature , not so terrible to them as the wilder passions of infuriated bigots , who acknoledged no restraint , and were subject to no law . What supported those martyrs under all their trials ? What enabled  them to  sustain the rage of their persecutors , and rise superior to the fear of torture and death ? It was faith in their Master - it was confidence in his promises - it was the felt experience of his gracious presence by which they lived and conquered . And in one word , what in every age has supported the people of God under the pressure of calamity , or the prospect of a dying hour ? Not certainly the remembrance of the good that they had done , or the glory they had acheived - not the contemplation of their own merits , or their moral or intellectual attainments , but simply the inwrought principle of a living faith - the faith which is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen

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