Quotes about persecute (16 Quotes)


    Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye do not even the publicans the same.



    In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But the works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.

    To hold your truth, to believe it with all your heart, to work with all your might, first to make it real to yourself and then to show its preciousness to other men, and then not till then, but then to leave the questions of when and how and by whom it shall prevail to God that is the true life of the believer. There is no feeble unconcern and indiscriminateness there, and neither is there any excited hatred of the creed, the doctrine, or the Church, which you feel wholly wrong. You have not fled out of the furnace of bigotry to freeze on the open and desolate plains of indifference. You believe and yet you have no wish to persecute.


    It is funny that men who are supposed to be scientific cannot get themselves to realise the basic principle of physics, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, that when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger.


    Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

    What will the preachers say ... to teach men not to persecute men for, while a few sanctimonious humbugs are burning a few fanatics, the earth opens and swallows up all alike.

    The following sentiments are illustrative of the philosophy of the Talmud 'Love peace and pursue it at any cost.' ... 'Remember it is better to be persecuted than to persecute.' ... 'Be not prone to anger.' ... 'He who giveth alms in secret is greater than Moses himself.' ... 'It is better to utter a short prayer with devotion than a long one without fervor.' ... 'He who having but one piece of bread in his basket, and says, What shall I eat tomorrow is a man of little faith.' (Farrar, The Life of Christ, p. 680.)

    Now, I appeal to the consciences of those that persecute, torment, destroy, and kill other men upon pretence of religion, whether they do it out of friendship and kindness towards them or no I say, if all this be done merely to make men Christians and procure their salvation, why then do they suffer whoredom, fraud, malice and such-like enormities, which (according to the Apostle) manifestly relish of heathenish corruption, to predominate so much and abound amongst their flocks and people.



    Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you.





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