The fruits of persecution.
Persecution is Satan's instrument for checking and, if possible, destroying the truth of God. Our Savior reminds us, in the sermon on the mount, how the prophets, who spake to the people in the Name of God, had been persecuted of old; and foretold how the prophets and wise men and scribes whom he would send should, in like manner, be scourged and persecuted, killed and crucified. And the history of the Church, from the first imprisonment of the apostles related in Acts 4:1-37. down to the present day, shows the truth of the prediction. Some of the springs and causes of persecution were noted in the homiletics on Acts 4:1-31. Our attention shall now be turned to the fruits of persecution.
I. THE FIRST EFFECT OF THE PERSECUTION THAT AROSE UPON THE DEATH OF STEPHEN WAS THE DISPERSION OF THE DISCIPLES. In accordance with the Lord's directions (Matthew 10:23), they fled, to save their lives, from the city of Jerusalem to the neighboring cities of Judaea and Samaria. But wherever they went they preached the Word. Thus the immediate effect of the persecution raised at Jerusalem for the extirpation of the faith of Jesus Christ was that that faith was carried into cities and districts and countries where it might never have been heard of but for the persecutions. Samaria heard the gospel; it was deposited in the heart of the eunuch for dissemination in Ethiopia. From Azotus to Caesarea it was proclaimed aloud. It passed on to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. It took deep root in Antioch, and was passed on from thence through all Asia and on into Europe.
II. ANOTHER EFFECT OF THE PERSECUTION WAS THE BREAKING DOWN OF OPPOSING BARRIERS OF HABIT, OPINION, AND PREJUDICE. If the rulers and priests, the scribes and Pharisees, had accepted the gospel, it might have been a very hard matter to separate it from circumcision and from the temple and from exclusive Judaism. It might have been very long before Jewish Christians would have turned in a spirit of love and brotherhood to their Samaritan neighbors, or sent a messenger to Ethiopia, or planted the first community who called themselves Christians in the great heathen city of Antioch. Endless scruples, hesitations, difficulties, would have barred the way. But persecution quickened with a marvelous impulse the logic of reason and benevolence, ay, and of faith too. By the force of circumstances, the persecuted disciples, expelled from country and home by their own flesh and blood, found themselves drawn into the closest bonds with those who were not Jews, and as it were compelled to tell them of the love of Jesus, and then to feel that that love made them both one. It would have taken generations, perhaps, to do what persecution did in a day. Persecution cut the Gordian knot which the fingers of human reason would, perhaps, never have untied; and the great persecutor himself might never have become the great chief and prince that he was in the Church of the Gentiles, had it not been fur the part that he had played in persecuting it in times past.
III. NOR MUST WE OVERLOOK THE INFLUENCE OF PERSECUTIONS WHEN ENDURED IN THE TRUE MARTYR'S SPIRIT, IN DEEPENING AND HEIGHTENING THE FAITH, THE ZEAL, AND THE LOVE OF THE DISCIPLE. The fire of the spiritual life in the soul of the saint burns brightest in the darkest hours of earthly tribulation. The love of Christ, the hope of glory, the preciousness of the gospel, are never, perhaps, felt in their living power so fully as when the lights and fires of earthly joy and comforts are extinguished. Then, in the presence, so to speak, of Christ's unveiled power and glory, charity and boldness, zeal and self-sacrifice, are at their highest pitch, and the making known to others the glad tidings of great joy seems to be the only thing worth living for. So that the fruit of persecution is to be seen in a noble army of martyrs and confessors, qualified to the very highest extent, and eager in the very highest degree, to preach far and wide the unsearchable riches of Christ, and in extraordinary accessions to the numbers of the persecuted Church.
IV. OTHER FRUITS OF PERSECUTION, SUCH AS EXHIBITING TO THE EYES OF THE WORLD THE REALITY OF THAT RELIGION WHICH THEY DESPISE, HOLDING UP TO ITS ADMIRATION THE TRUE CHARACTERS OF THOSE WHOM IT PERSECUTES, AND SHOWING THE HOPELESSNESS OF STAMPING OUT THAT FIRE WHICH IS FED FROM THE LIVE COALS OF GOD'S ALTAR IN HEAVEN, AND MANY MORE, IT WOULD RE EASY TO ENUMERATE.
But these must suffice to teach us that the malice of Satan is no match for the power of God; but that the Church will eventually shine forth in all the brighter beauty of holiness for the efforts that have been made for her disfigurement and utter overthrow.