For I have heard the slander of many; fear was on every side;
while they took counsel together against me, they devised to
take away my life.--Psalm xxxi. 13.
It is not infrequent that the envious and the profligate are found
speaking in terms of reproach of characters whose public and
domestic conduct are a beautiful portrait of all that is honourable,
amiable, and truly worthy of commendation. Yet persons will never be
wanting who can truly appreciate and highly esteem the fair edifice
of moral excellence, and bestow the just tribute of respect it
deserves. It is possible for men to be so far deceived by personal
prejudice, or swayed by the false opinions of others, that they
not only view with indifference, but even treat with contempt and
scorn, persons, to whom the Searcher of hearts will one day say,
"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy
of thy Lord." Examples of these facts are not wanting, but we no
where behold so striking an illustration of this truth as in the
reception the Holy Jesus met with from the men amongst whom he
tabernacled. It must be confessed, that in the most perfect of the
human race there are defects and blemishes, to which even the eye
of friendship cannot be blind, yet in Jesus there was a freedom
from all evil either in principle or practice. He could be weighed
"in the balance of the sanctuary," and not found wanting either
to God or man. His actions, when measured by the just standard of
God's law, are pronounced perfect. Yet he, who was purity itself,
was not exempt from slander, but was called a gluttonous man, and
a wine bibber; a friend of publicans and sinners, an hypocrite, a
man of sedition and strife, a Sabbath breaker, and a violator of
all the laws of Moses. In scorn, they say, this fellow, and that
deceiver, thou art a Samaritan; a race of men held by the Jews in
the most sovereign contempt and hatred. By some, he is accused of
disloyal and traitorous conduct toward the rulers of Jewry; others
pronounced him guilty of blasphemy; and, to crown the whole, they
declare him to be a devil; yea, Belzebub, the chief of devils.
Blessed Jesus, thou didst, indeed, hear the slander of many. Every
action was viewed through a false medium. Thy acts of mercy became
an occasion of offence, and called forth the hatred of these
self-deceived men, and thy whole conduct was vilified and spoken of
in the harshest terms of disapprobation and scorn. Yet those ancient
slanderers and persecutors of Jesus, were not without their fears.
At one time, lest, from his growing popularity, the Romans should
take away their place and nation; at another time, the purity of
his doctrine becomes the source of disquietude. They all secretly
dreaded his power. Fear was on every side, while they took counsel
and devised to take away the life of Jesus. Pilate's wife could not
forbear expressing her fears; and Pilate himself illy concealed the
perturbation of his troubled conscience. How insufficient was water
to cleanse the polluted hands of that wretched governor, so deeply
stained with the blood of an innocent victim, sacrificed to his tame
compliance; and, to seal his awful doom, he soon after impiously
dared imbrue his hands in his own blood, and rush uncalled into the
presence of his offended Judge. How tremendous the situation of
Pilate when standing before the Judge of all the earth, even _that_
Jesus, he had unjustly condemned and crucified. How different the
scene from that when Jesus appeared as the despised Nazarene in
Pilate's hall. The mind shudders at contemplating the awful fate of
those who dare to lift their puny arms in rebellion against Zion's
King, and the language of whose hearts till death is, "we will not
have this man to reign over us."