Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/550

8 therewith, to offer up to  the most acceptable of gifts, a poor mind, an unsullied devotion? to attend on, when He shall come to take vengeance on His enemies, to sit at His side when He is on the judgment-seat, to be fellow-heir with Him, to be made equal with the Angels, to rejoice with Patriarchs, Apostles, Prophets, in the possession of the heavenly kingdom? What persecution, what tortures, have power to subdue such thoughts? The mind is obstinate, brave, and stable, which is trained in religious meditations; the heart persists unmoved against all the terrors of Zabulon, and the threats of the world, when a sure and real faith in things to come braces it. The eyes are shut in persecution, but heaven is revealed. Antichrist threatens, but protects. Death is inflicted, but immortality follows… How great the honour and the peace, to go hence into joy, to go through straitness into glory, to shut the eyes suddenly, by which the world is seen, to open them again forthwith, and to see Almighty God! … How great is the speed! You are snatched from the earth, you are laid up safely in heavenly mansions. Let these be our thoughts and our consolations day and night; that when persecution comes on God's soldier, it may find in him a virtue ready for battle, proof against defeat. Or if he be summoned away first, that faith, which was prepared for martyrdom, will find its immediate reward, by the merciful judgment of God. The crown is given in persecution to those who serve gallantly in peace, to those who stand and wait.