Those who fight the Lord’s battles must be contented to be, in no respect, accounted of. They must expect to be, in no wise, encouraged by the prospects of human praise. And if you make an exception so that the children of God will praise you, whatever the world will say, beware of this, for you may turn them into a world and find in them a world, and you may sow to the flesh in sowing to their approbation, and you will neither be benefited by them nor they by you so long as respect for them is your motive, so long as you are conscious as to how they will think of you.
All such motives are a poison to you and a taking away from you the strength in which you are to give glory to God, and because such a time may be needful for you, I beseech you, be prepared for a time when you shall be as persons unknown, even to those that know God. It is not the fact, that all that see the face of the Lord, do see each other. It is not the fact that the misapprehension of the world is the only misapprehension the Christian must be contented to labor under. He must expect even his brethren to see him through a mist, and to be disappointed of their sympathy, and their cheers of approbation. The man of God must walk alone with God; he must be contented that the Lord knows. And it is such a relief, yea, it is such a relief to the natural man within us, to fall back upon human countenances and human sympathy that we often deceive ourselves and think it brotherly love, when we are just resting on the earthly sympathy of a brother worm. You are to be followers of Him who was left alone, and you are, like Him, to rejoice that you are not alone, because the Father is with you, that you may give true glory to God. Oh, I cannot but speak of it. It is such a glory to God to see a soul that has been, through the flesh, accessible to the praise of man, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of his fellow-creatures, every one of whom he knows how to please, and yet that he should be contented, yea, peaceful and happy in doing, with a single reference to God, that which he knows they will all misunderstand and misconceive. Here was the victory of Jesus.
J. N. Darby