for the people of God, and side with the people of God,
Son: Mat. 3:17, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,"
or rather, as the original has it more elegantly, "This is my Son, my
beloved, in whom I am infinitely delighted and contented." The same
word the apostle uses to express his delight in afflictions and
persecutions for Christ.
Just so, those in Acts 5:41, "They went away rejoicing that they
were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ." O Christians, this is to
do gloriously, for a man to rejoice that he has an estate to lay out for
Christ, that he has a life to lay down for Christ, that he has a tongue
to speak for Christ, that he has a hand to fight for Christ. This is to do
gloriously, to rejoice in anything we suffer for Christ, and in all sorts
of sufferings and doings for Christ.
6. Then again, Men do gloriously, mark this, when they appear
for the people of God, and side with the people of God,
notwithstanding any evil and danger which may befall them. Come
whatever difficulties can come—yet they will appear for the people of
God, and side with the people of God. This is to do gloriously, when
come whatever difficulties can come--I will fall in with the saints,
and be one with those who are one with God. As Esther, when they
were in a sad condition, and Haman had sold them to be butchered
and mangled by ungodly wretches: "Well, I will go to the king," says
she, though there was a command that none should, "I will venture
my life; if I perish, I perish." Now she did gloriously. Just so,
Nehemiah: "Shall such a man as I flee?" Shall I desert the saints, and
turn my back on the saints? No! I will appear for them, and side with
them, I will not desert them. Just so, David's father and his brethren:
1 Sam. 22:1, "David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the
cave Adullam: and when his brethren and his father's house heard it,
they went there to him." They did not stand disputing: "We have
estates to lose, and if Saul knows that we join with David, and have
taken part with him, we shall lose our heads, and lose our estates."
The politicians of our times are wise: they will say they wish the
saints well—but they dare not, they will not side with them. Ah,
wretches! God will save his glory and the honor of his name, and will
deliver the righteous, and leave such to deliver themselves. God can
shift well enough for his honor and for his people, and leave such
wretches in a shiftless condition. Just so, good Onesiphorus: Paul
speaks of some, 2 Tim. 1:13-14, etc., who played the apostates; ver.
15, "This you know, that all they who are in Asia are turned away
from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes." They played the
apostates, and left him to shift for himself. When he was in trouble
they fall away. But Onesiphorus, he stands by Paul, and the apostle
commends it for a glorious cause, and commends him in a particular
manner to God: "Oh, that God would double his mercy on him; the
Lord grant that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day; and in
how many things he ministered unto me you know; and he was not
ashamed of my chains." There were base spirits, who were ashamed
of his chains, that were ashamed to side with and to own Paul; and