The servants of God must not fear the reproach of men.
The reproach of men is a thing of small account—
I. BECAUSE MEN ARE APT TO BE MISTAKEN IN THEIR JUDGMENTS. The bulk of men have no wish even to be fair in their judgments. They praise and blame, acquit and condemn, either as their own interests—party or other—are concerned, or sometimes quite at random, according as the fancy takes them. Even such as wish to be fair very often misjudge, either
II. BECAUSE MEN'S JUDGMENTS SO FREQUENTLY CHANGE. The idol of a nation to-day becomes their detestation to-morrow; or, if not to-morrow, at any rote within a few years. Nothing is more fickle than the popular voice, which will cry one day, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" and, a week later, "Crucify him! crucify him!" The opinion formed of a man by his contemporaries is frequently reversed by posterity; and even posterity is not always steadfast, a later age often contradicting the decisions of an earlier. Historic characters, long condemned with almost absolute unanimity, are rehabilitated from time to time by clever writers, and are given niches in the Valhalla of the future.
III. BECAUSE MAN HIMSELF IS ALTOGETHER SO FLEETING, SO WEAK, AND SO LITTLE WORTHY OF REGARD. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2:22). At the best, what is human praise or blame? An opinion, founded on imperfect data, which can at most affect us during the brief term of our sojourn here. What are reproaches and revilings? The weak ways which men have of venting their spite or their ill humour, when some one, of whom they know very little, has acted otherwise than they expected or wished. "Hard words," it is often remarked, "break no bones." Human censure is but a breath. Why should we allow it to affect us at all? It does not matter what men think of us, but what God thinks. No one was ever more reviled than the One only perfect Man whom the world has ever seen.