It is good for us in this land of liberty to look back on less favored times, that we may learn our responsibilities in the present. It is well also to remember that if we are called upon to suffer, others have endured a vast deal more. Throughout the history of Christianity in this world, men, women and children have suffered and bled for the peerless name of Jesus.
The first followers of Christ were hated because they refused to worship idols and found their delight in the true God; therefore, the rage of the heathen vented itself on them. But the days changed when persecution came not from the self-righteous Jew, nor from the pagan Gentile, but from that which was called the church of God.
The history of the Stundists in southern Russia is the age old story of the struggle between darkness and light, of the opposition of cold, formal, lifeless religion to the warm vivifying power of the gospel. It is the story of the suppression of the poor despised followers of Christ by the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian government.
The picture of a poor Russian peasant family gathered in the dim candlelight of their dwelling, spelling slowly, verse by verse, through the sublime gospel stories, and committing to memory entire chapters, is indeed precious to contemplate. Never did the hart pant more eagerly for the waterbrooks than these spirit-quickened men and women pant for the Water of Life. “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?” James 2:55Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? (James 2:5).
Reprinted from an old periodical, circa 1897, it was thought that these articles on the Stundists, their sufferings and their sorrows, would prove deeply interesting to Christians today. We may not be called upon to die for Christ, but let us be able to say from the heart, like Paul, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:2121For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21).)