WHAT IT COSTS.
BY HELEN F. DWLLY.
Let us bear in
mind that a “pure and undefiled” religion costs the possessor something. He who
determines to take God alone for his portion often finds that he has plans to
relinquish, friends to give up, worldly pleasure and ease to renounce, which
things are equal to the plucking out of the right eye, or cutting off of the
right hand.
It must have been
very trying to the natural afflictions of those Jews who, in order to please
God, put away their wives (with the children) whom they had taken from among
the heathen contrary to the Divine command. It cost Moses the pleasures of an
Egyptian court and the prospect of a kingly crown to serve God in faithfulness.
He exchanged ease and luxury for hardships and privations, to suffer with an
ignorant and faultfinding people in a great howling wilderness.
Thus it is with
God’s cause in every age of the world. God could bring the world to Himself
without human aid, but He chooses to employ His creatures to be workers
together with Him, and He also chooses that those who labor for Him shall be
partakers of Christ’s rejection.
In the eleventh
of Hebrews we have a brief summary of what it cost the ancient worthies to
maintain their integrity to God. They “were tortured, not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others had
trials of cruel mockings and scornings, yea, moreover, of bonds and
imprisonment; they were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain
with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the word was not worthy); they
wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Paul
speaks of them as being examples of earnest Christianity and patterns worthy of
imitation. He endeavors to stir up the Hebrews to such godliness. He exhorts
them to a similar degree of faith and patience, showing them that their trials
and afflictions for Christ’s sake had not yet equaled those of their fathers,
in these words: “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.”
Then let us hear
Paul’s summing up of what he himself suffered for the Gospel’s sake (and he had
not as yet finished his course); “Of the Jews five times received I forty
stripes save one, thrice I was beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep, in journeyings
often, in perils of waters, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the
heathen, in perils in the city, in the perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in
watching’s often, in cold and nakedness; besides those things that are without,
that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”
We think history,
both sacred and profane, teaches clearly that no considerable movement in the
cause of truth was ever made which was not preceded by human sacrifices, and
followed by persecution, contumely and reproach of its advocates and defenders.
And what is true of the body of believers is true also of individuals. Are we
unscriptural? “They that will live godly in this present word, shall
suffer persecution.” Instances are not wanting to prove the truth of this
Scripture, even in these days. The Chinese covert to Christianity knows what
this means when he becomes as an alien to his kindred, loses the respect and
patronage of his countrymen and becomes poor and despised like his Master. Let any
one “come out from the world and be separate,” “cleanse” himself “from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit,” and confess boldly what God
has done for him, and he will not long be exempt from persecution, though it
may take on the form of refined cruelty. Full many of the Lord’s
servants have experience the truth of the Scripture, “A man’s foes shall be
they of his own household.”
Trembling child
of God, standing upon the threshold of the open door of usefulness, is the
outlook discouraging? Do you shrink from entering the arena where your soul’s
and body’s powers will be tried to the utmost, saying, “Who is sufficient for
these things?” Recall the tender words of that most plaintive hymn-
“I gave my life for thee-
What hast thou given me?
“I suffered much for thee,
More than thy tongue can
tell,
Of bitterest agony,
To rescue thee from
hell.
I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for
thee-
What hast thou borne for me?”
Call to mind also
those courageous words of St. Paul, “I can do all things through Chris which
strengtheneth me” (Phil. iv: 13), and I “Rejoice in my sufferings for you, and
fill up that which is left behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for
His body’s sake, which is the church.” – (Col. i:24.)
Christ, our great
exempalar, suffered in order to bring the world a knowledge of God’s love to
fallen man, and make his redemption possible. His sacrificial work is done. He
has passed into the Heavens, leaving His cause in the hands of His faithful
servants tat they may carry if forward under His direction and by the aid of
His illuminating, sanctifying, energizing Spirit. “Behold His reward is with
Him and His work before Him.” If we will “resent” our “bodies a living
sacrifice unto God,” which is “our reasonable service,” go forth at His
bidding, and “conferring not with flesh and blood,” being determined to
“count all things but loss for the excellency of knowledge of Christ Jesus,”
our “labor will not be in vain in the Lord,” and “great will be our reward.”
We shall have the
peace which passeth understanding; our joy shall be full; we shall be “a crown
of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of our God.”
