Page:The Eternal Priesthood - Manning.djvu/164

158 vived Him. "This deceiver said, while He was yet alive." This same lot He left behind Him to them that are His. "God hath set forth us Apostles, the last, as it were, appointed to death. We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake; but you are wise in Christ. We are weak; but you are strong. You are honorable; but we are without honor. Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode. And we labor, working with our own hands; we are reviled, and we bless; we are persecuted and we suffer it. We are blasphemed and we entreat. We are made the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now." "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of the household." Why should we complain if we be blackened with accusation, and die under it? Innocence falsely accused is a close conformity to the Son of God.

Three thoughts, arising from all this, may give us both peace and strength when we are falsely accused. The first is, that innocence, suffering under sin, suffers for sinners. It is what S. Paul describes as "filling up those things that are