3. The enemy is permitted power over the children of
God, only thereby to bring to himself more utter defeat.
Jesus, wearing the crown of thorns, answered Pilate,
" Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it
were given thee from above." Only a few hours before, he
also said, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto me." This saying explains the other. By
giving up Jesus to be crucified, Pilate set a force in motion
which in a few years humbled the Roman Empire whose
creature he himself was. In like manner all seeming vic-
tories over the church, collective or individual, are sure
to recoil upon the assailants and aid the assailed.
4. Thus it also comes to all who suffer for Christ that
pain is not hurt nor loss. It brings a divine ministry, the



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forerunner of promotion and sure joy. Paul and Silas in
the inner prison, their feet fast in the stocks, prayed, and
sang praises. Christ in the soul brings a kingdom invul-
nerable to the enemy. ' Poverty, stripes, and imprisonment,
all eartftly ill, are powerless to invade that domain.
V. The disciple of Christ should rejoice tnosty not in view
cf victories here, but b^ecause of coming rewards in heaven.
