Take the professor of religion minus the real possession, and let him be placed under the distressing ordeal of certain lines of adversity. Let him be cut with the cruel tongue of the talker, peeled with popular prejudice, girdled with the scalpel of the religious dissecter, crunched by cruel cannibals who love to devour one another, and see how quickly the spiritual sap ceases to flow. See how soon he withers and shrinks up and says, "What is the use of trying any more; I might as well give up my religion." He may not come out openly and above board and declare his intentions, but that is about the outcome. But see how it works on the palm tree saint, whose life is "hid with Christ in God." Drag him through the streets by the hair of his head as they did John Wesley; incarcerate him as they did John Bunyan; incinerate him as they did the martyrs of old; excommunicate him and revile him as they did some in our own day; ecclesiastically decapitate him and skin him alive and girdle him clear around, and then see him leap and dance, and sing and shout "Hallelujah! You can't hurt me, for I have the palm tree blessing, and my life is hidden inside." The sap flows right on, and, though the outside may be somewhat worse for the wear, yet the Christ-life within surmounts it all and shouts its victorious way over all obstacles. Had the early saints not known this wonderful blessing, they surely would have failed in the struggles of life. Hear the Apostle Paul as he faces the guillotine block: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:6-8). Hear the Apostle John on that dreary Isle of Patmos: "He that overcometh, shall inherit all things." "These are they which come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." See the martyrs all down the ages with an inner current of joy as they faced fagots, and with unfaltering step gave up their lives and flew to heaven in chariots of fire. There were no outside punishments that could cut off their life flow. It was hidden so deep that stripes, nor stocks, nor sword, nor stones, nor any other kind of affliction or infliction could reach its fountain head. There are those of our present day who know by actual experience the joys of this inner, invulnerable gift. Had it not been for this, they would have been swept into the vortex of discouragement and despair long ago. O, the unspeakable joy of a life that is not superficial, but hidden so deep that the Devil's darts or any of his devices can not reach it!