When my turn comes

Now, brethren, whenever any man in these times is laughed at for following Christ fully, or ridiculed for bearing an honest testimony for the truth, do not be ashamed of him and turn your backs upon him. Such a man may not expect you to give him double honor, but he may claim that you shall stand shoulder to shoulder with him, and not be ashamed of the reproach which he is called to bear for Christ his Lord. So was it with the church in the olden time, the men who went first in suffering were also first in their love and esteem. They never failed to own that they were brothers to the man who was doomed to die; on the contrary, the Christians of the apostolic times used to do what our Protestant forefathers did in England.

The young Christian people of the church, when there was a martyr to be put to death, would go and stand with tears in their eyes to see him die, and what think ye for? To learn the way! One of them said when his father asked him why he stole out to see his pastor burned, “Father, I did it that I might learn the way;” and he did learn it so well that when his turn came he burned as well, and triumphed in God as gloriously as his minister had done. Learn the way, young man, to bear reproach. Look at those who have been lampooned, and satirized, and say, “Well, I will learn how to take my turn when my turn comes, but as God helps me I will speak for the truth faithfully and boldly.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Romans, But Not Romanists." Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.