Ordinances and legalism do not entail persecution and suffering. The natural man can enter into and appreciate them, and when those who bear the Lord’s name sink to this level, the world and themselves are agreed and can walk together. How sorrowfully and long has this been true in Christendom! Had the Apostle preached circumcision and blended Judaism generally with the Christianity he taught, he would have been spared much, as he himself says, “Then is the offence of the cross ceased.” But against all this he ever resolutely set his face, at all cost to himself, and other faithful men who stood with him.
W. W. Fereday r