recompensed His faithful servants. That which became the rule under the
Gospel, was the exception from Adam till Moses, and from Moses until
Christ. Here and there some great example of Christian asceticism
enforced upon a sensual people the nature of perfect sanctity. Elias
fasted on Mount Carmel, and beheld the skirts of the glory of the Most
High. The Baptist fasted and tamed his natural flesh in the wilderness,
and beheld not only the Incarnate Son of God, but the descent of the
Eternal Spirit upon Him. Yet, for the most part, the favoured servants
of God lived the lives of ordinary men; they possessed houses, riches,
and honours; and married wives, even more than one.

At length the Cross was set up in all its awful power; suffering
received its perfect consecration, and took its ruling place in the
economy of man's redemption. Jesus, in descending from the Cross,
bestowed that Cross upon His children, to be their treasure until the
end of the world. Crucifixion with Him, and through Him, as their Head,
became their portion and their glory. Every soul that was so buried
in His wounds as to receive the full blessings of His sacrifice, was
thereby nailed, in Christ, to the Cross, not to descend from its
hallowed wood until, like Christ, it was dead thereon. Henceforth the
sanctity of God's chosen servants assumes its new character. It is no
longer written, "I will bring you into a land flowing with the milk and
honey of this earth;" but, "Blessed are the poor, and they that suffer
persecution." The lot of Abraham and of David is exchanged for that of
St. Peter and St. Paul. In place of triumph in war with the idolaters,
the Christian is _promised_ persecution; in place of many herds and
flocks, and treasures of gold, God _gives_ him poverty and sickness; the
fast, the vigil, the scourge, take place of the palaces of cedar and
the luxuriant couch; marriage gives way to celibacy; and long life is a
privilege in order that in many years we may suffer much, and not that