How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about us. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electroplate or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our lives, we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, Let him curse; . . . It may be the Lord will . . . requite me good for his cursing this day (2 Samuel 16:11-12). Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies. Soon their lives become one little whirl of petty warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. We may disperse the hornets, but we will probably get terribly stung and get nothing for our pains, for even their honey is not worth a search. God give us more of Jesus' Spirit. When he was reviled, [he] reviled not again; . . . but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously (1 Peter 2:23). Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself (Hebrews 12:3).
