But if not; if it seem good to God to let him taste the bitters, and
not the sweets, of doing right, in this life; if it seem good to God
that he should suffer--as many a man and woman too has suffered for
doing right--nothing but contempt, neglect, prison, and death; is he
worse off than Jesus Christ, his Lord, was before him? Shall the
disciple be above his master? What if he have to drink of the cup of
sorrow of which Christ drank, and be baptized with the baptism of
martyrdom with which Christ was baptized? Where is he, but where the
Son of God has been already? What is he doing, but treading in the
steps of Christ crucified; that he may share in the blessing and
glory and honour without end which God the Father heaped upon Christ
his Son, because he was perfect in duty, perfect in love of right,
perfect in resignation, perfect in submission under injustice,
perfect in forgiveness of his murderers, perfect in faith in the
justice and mercy of God: who did no sin--that is, never injured his
own cause by anger or revenge; and had no guile in his mouth--that
is, never prevaricated, lied, concealed his opinions, for fear of the
consequences, however terrible; but before the chief priests and
Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, though he knew that it
would bring on him a dreadful death; who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again, but committed himself to him who judgeth
righteously--the meekest of all beings, and in that very meekness the
strongest of all beings; the most utterly resigned, and by that very
resignation the most heroic--the being who seemed, on the cross of
Calvary, most utterly conquered by injustice and violence: but who,
by that very cross, conquered the whole world.
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