---

The sin of inflicting suffering.

I. PERSECUTION IS A MOST ARROGANT CRIME. The religious persecutor acts upon the assumption that his ideas of religion are absolutely true. that his theological knowledge is the test by which all other opinions are to be tried; shows an arrogance before which servile spirits bow, but from which all thoughtful and noble men recoil with disgust and indignation But his arrogance is shadowy and harmless compared with the arrogance of him who enters the temple of human conscience and claims dominion over the moral workings of the soul. Yes, such arrogant men abound in all ages, and are by no means rare, even in this age and land of what is called civil and religious liberty.

II. PERSECUTION IS A MOST ABSURD CRIME. Far wiser is the fool who would legislate for the winds or the waves, and like Canute give commands to the billows, than he who attempts to legislate for human thoughts and moral convictions. And truth never seems to rise in greater power and majesty than under the hand of cruel persecution.

III. PERSECUTION IS A MOST CRUEL CRIME. What ruthless inhumanities are here charged against the various peoples mentioned. It has often been observed, that no anger is so savage as the anger which springs up between relations of blood. A brotherly hate is the chief of hates. No animosity burns with a more hellish heat than that connected with religion.

(Homilist.)

---

---

KJV: Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:

WEB: Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;