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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Whole Armour of God, by John Henry Jowett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Whole Armour of God
+
+Author: John Henry Jowett
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2011 [EBook #36692]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Júlio Reis and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    *** Transcription notes:
+
+    The following typos were fixed:
+
+    page 11: Moffat -> Moffatt
+    page 57: loathesome -> loathsome
+    page 60: fellowmen -> fellow-men
+    page 115: battle-fields -> battlefields
+    page 145: baptised -> baptized
+    page 153: multidudinous -> multitudinous
+    page 225: today -> to-day
+    page 233: pruninghooks -> pruning-hooks
+    page 260: frost-bitten -> frostbitten
+
+    There are text lines missing on page 112, which were marked with
+    "[missing text]". The missing text could not be found anywhere,
+    so most likely all subsequent editions reproduced this error.
+    Anyway, the meaning of the paragraph is evident from the
+    context.
+
+    Bold text is marked with =, italics with _.
+
+    *** End of the transcription notes
+
+
+
+
+THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD
+
+
+
+
+By J. H. JOWETT, D.D.
+
+
+    The Whole Armour of God
+
+      12mo, cloth                                              net $1.35
+
+    My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year
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+        "There is something to think about each day. It is
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+
+    Things That Matter Most
+
+      Devotional Papers. A Book of Spiritual Uplift and
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+
+    The Transfigured Church
+
+      A Portrayal of the Possibilities Within the Church.
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+    The High Calling
+
+      Meditations on St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians.
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+    The Silver Lining
+
+      A Message of Hope and Cheer, for the Troubled and
+      Tried. 12mo, cloth                                       net $1.15
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+    Our Blessed Dead
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+      16mo, boards                                               net 25c
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+    The Passion for Souls
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+    The Folly of Unbelief
+
+      And Other Meditations for Quiet Moments. 12mo, cloth       net 60c
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+
+    _SENTENCE PRAYERS for EVERY DAY_
+
+    The Daily Altar
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+    Yet Another Day
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+
+
+
+    THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD
+
+    BY
+
+    JOHN HENRY JOWETT, M.A., D.D.
+
+    _Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City_
+
+    [Illustration: Logo of Fleming H. Revell Company]
+
+    NEW YORK   CHICAGO   TORONTO
+
+    Fleming H. Revell Company
+
+    LONDON AND EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+    Copyright, 1916, by
+    FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+
+    New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
+    Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
+    London: 21 Paternoster Square
+    Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                        PAGE
+
+       I. THE INVISIBLE ANTAGONISMS                   9
+
+      II. THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH                        25
+
+     III. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS           41
+
+      IV. READY!                                     59
+
+       V. THE SHIELD OF FAITH                        77
+
+      VI. THE HELMET OF HOPE                         91
+
+     VII. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                   109
+
+    VIII. THE SOLDIER'S USE OF PRAYER               127
+
+      IX. WATCH YE!                                 143
+
+       X. ENDURING HARDNESS                         161
+
+      XI. THE INVISIBLE COMMANDER ON THE FIELD      179
+
+     XII. THE SOLDIER'S FIRE                        197
+
+    XIII. THE VICTORY OVER THE BEAST                215
+
+     XIV. THE COMING GOLDEN AGE                     231
+
+      XV. MORE THAN CONQUERORS                      249
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE INVISIBLE ANTAGONISMS
+
+
+    _Eternal God, may no distraction draw us away from our communion
+    with Thee. May we come to Thee like children going home,
+    jubilant and glad. We have been in the far country and our
+    garments are stained. May we hasten to the ministry of
+    forgiveness and reconciliation. If we have been on fields of
+    heavy battle, where the fire of the enemy has been awful and
+    unceasing, may we hasten to Thee for the overhauling of our
+    armor, and for the renewal of our strength. If we have been
+    called upon to walk weary roads of unfamiliar sorrow, may we
+    turn to Thee as to refreshing springs. If we have lapsed from
+    our high calling, may we renew our covenant. If we have missed a
+    gracious opportunity, may we seek another chance. If we have
+    been counted faithful in any service, and have fulfilled our
+    commission by the help of Thy grace, may we hasten to give the
+    glory to Thee. Unite us, we humbly pray Thee, in the holy bonds
+    of Christian sympathy. Deepen our pity so that we may share the
+    sorrows of people far away. May we feel the burden of the
+    burdened and weep with them that weep. May we not add to our sin
+    by ceasing to remember those who are in need. Grant peace in our
+    time, O Lord, the peace which is the fruit of righteousness. Let
+    Thy will be done among all the peoples, so that in common
+    obedience to Thee all the nations may find abiding union. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE INVISIBLE ANTAGONISMS
+
+    "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be
+    able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to
+    stand." Eph. 6:13.
+
+
+Let me give one or two other translations which devout scholars have
+made in the attempt to bring out the precise significance of Paul's
+original words. Many interpreting minds act like the solar spectrum, and
+they help to display the wealthy contents in the pure white light of
+gospel truth. Here then is Dr. Moffat's translation: "So take God's
+armour that you may be able to make a stand in the evil day and hold
+your ground by overcoming all your foes." And here is Dr. Weymouth's
+fine attempt to elicit the buried wealth of the apostle's words: "Put on
+the complete armour of God so that you may be able to stand your ground
+on the day of battle, and having fought to the end to remain victors on
+the field." That is a translation which stirs one's blood, and I am
+inclined to regard it as a very vital interpretation of the rousing,
+soldierly counsel of the apostle Paul.
+
+The apostle is writing to a tiny company of Christians at Ephesus, so
+tiny that they are like a drop in a bucket in the midst of that teaming
+population. For this is what has happened. Under the constraining
+influence of the gospel of Christ this little handful of men and women
+have done one of the hardest things we are ever called upon to do. They
+have cut themselves away from old fellowships. They have separated
+themselves from the fond attachments of a lifetime. They have severed
+themselves from venerable roots. They have forfeited dear and vital
+friendships, and they are now living an alien life within the circle of
+their own city. They are strangers in their own home. They are
+foreigners in their native land. They are pilgrims in their own country.
+They are in it and yet not of it. They are like tropical plants which
+find themselves in the Arctic Zone. And it is to this little company
+that the apostle writes this letter, and to them he gives the inspiring
+counsel of my text: "Put on the complete armour of God that ye may be
+able to stand your ground in the day of battle."
+
+In what sort of circumstances did these people live? Let us take a swift
+survey of the hostility of their surroundings. What was the nature of
+the antagonisms by which this little company were beset? First of all,
+there was the overwhelming power of the world. Their city itself was
+luxuriously placed. The very location of Ephesus was favourable to
+prosperity, enjoying as it did the double advantage of shelter and of
+openness to the outer world. I was amazed when I walked among its ruins
+in the late spring at the magnificence of its position. If you will
+think of a cup, with more than a third of its rim broken down to its
+base, you will gain a rough but practical suggestion of the groundwork
+of this ancient city. About two-thirds of the city are immediately
+engirt with noble and richly verdured hills. Then this sheltering rim of
+hills is broken, and the cup opens out in one direction to a port on
+the open sea, and in the other direction to a rich alluvial plain,
+famous for its wonderful fertility. Such was Ephesus, sheltered and yet
+open, with protective arms of hills about it, and yet widely hospitable
+to the trade and wealth of the world. No wonder Ephesus was luxurious,
+no wonder she was carnal, and no wonder she was ennervated. She was the
+very hunting ground of the garish world, and in this mesmeric garishness
+this little company of Christians had their home. This was the first of
+their antagonisms.
+
+Well, then, to mention a second antagonism, there was the majestic power
+of an alien religion. The magnificent Temple of Diana, which is now only
+a little heap of stones, with literally not one stone resting orderly
+upon another, then dominated the city by its splendour, and represented
+a religion which held the people in the loose leash of easy and
+licentious morals. Just think of that resplendent temple, that gorgeous
+temple, and then think of some obscure house in some obscure street,
+where this little company of Christians met to commune with their Lord,
+and in the contrast you will realize another of the antagonisms which
+assailed their discipleship every hour of the day. The Temple of Diana
+versus the little Christian meeting-house! It makes one think of another
+contrast in the grey and windy city of Edinburgh; the dark, frowning
+Palace of Holyrood versus John Knox's small house in Canongate! And
+history tells us which of these two proved to be the dwelling-place of
+invincible strength. This was the second of their antagonisms.
+
+And then, to name a third of their antagonisms, there was the pervasive
+power of popular customs and traditions. Every day this little handful
+of Christians were up against customs that were like invisible bonds.
+Yes, religious and social customs always thread the common life, and to
+oppose them is to run up against antagonisms which are like invisible
+webs of barbed wire. We know what it means to oppose a popular custom
+to-day. Just oppose even a simple one; decide to wear no black in the
+hour of bereavement and you are up against a world of hostility and
+suspicion. And, still further, let the convention you defy be an
+ecclesiastical convention, or one which has somehow come to wear
+religious sanctions, and the antagonism is tremendous. Well, this little
+company of Christians in Ephesus were defying popular social customs and
+popular religious customs every day, and they were, therefore,
+confronted with a fierce and terrific opposition. And so they had all
+these antagonisms to meet, the hardening glare of the world, the
+far-reaching power of an alien religion, and the tyranny of popular
+custom and tradition. And in the very thick of all these you must
+imagine these comparatively youthful Christians seeking to live their
+separate and consecrated life.
+
+But in this strong and tender letter to this little flock of Christians,
+the apostle Paul looks beyond the opposition of flesh and blood, and the
+steelly barriers of usage and tradition; he pierces the visible veil and
+beholds invisible antagonists, spiritual, alive, active and hostile.
+Listen to him: "For ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood,
+but with the despotisms, the empires, the forces that control and govern
+this dark world, the spiritual hosts of evil arrayed against us in the
+heavenly warfare." When the apostle looked upon Ephesus it seemed as
+though the whole city became transparent, and behind the visible and
+transient veils he saw these spiritual foes. There was much mischief in
+Ephesus, there was much weaving of evil webs, there was much coming and
+going of worldly forces; but to Paul, the real prompters and instigators
+were back in the unseen. This is the teaching of this great apostle.
+These Christians in the early Church had to fight unseen enemies,
+antagonists in the spirit--"spiritual hosts of evil in the heavenly
+warfare." The real enemy is entrenched in the unseen, and he is ever
+active, night and day, and the early believer confronted him in ancient
+Ephesus, as the later believer confronts him in modern New York and
+London.
+
+Now it is of these invisible antagonists that the apostle most urgently
+warns these young disciples. He warns them of the extraordinary subtlety
+of the warfare, of the wiles of the devil, of the stratagems of these
+mysterious powers, of their traps and devices, of their diabolic
+cleverness, and of their amazing and manifold ingenuities. The
+instruments of modern material warfare are almost incredible in the
+refinement of their destructiveness, and I have no doubt in my own mind
+that even these ingenuities are also diabolic, and that if we could
+pierce the veil we should see the invisible enemies at their fiendish
+work. But these unseen antagonists out-do all the subtleties of the
+material instruments of destruction in the devices in which they lure
+and snare and entrap and overthrow the soul.
+
+Well, then, how do these antagonists work? How is this cunning
+antagonism exerted upon the soul? It is exerted both mediately and
+immediately. First of all, these invisible antagonists work immediately
+upon the soul. Spirit can work upon spirit; mind can lay pressure upon
+mind. There is a direct and immediate influence upon the secret life of
+man. That is the teaching of the Word of God, and I freely confess to
+you that there are phenomena in my own life, and in the lives of others
+which I cannot interpret in any other way. I know it is altogether
+mysterious, but it is by no means incredible. In our own day we are
+obtaining first glimpses into avenues of spiritual activity which
+hitherto have been shrouded in mist and darkness. The phenomena of
+thought transference, of telepathy, of hypnotism, are lifting the veil
+upon modes of influence of which we have scarcely dreamed. One mind can
+influence another mind directly without either speech or deed, leaving
+upon the other the seal and imprint of its own mould. When I see this I
+do not count it incredible when it is reported to me that there are
+spiritual antagonists in Ephesus and in New York who prey upon the
+thoughts of man, and work upon his imagination, and engage his
+sentiments and ambitions with the purpose of luring him from his sacred
+loyalties, and inciting him to rebellion against the holy and most high
+God. "Ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood," says the
+apostle. We have invisible foes.
+
+And then, in the second place, these spiritual antagonists work
+mediately upon the soul. They work upon the soul through the medium of
+human ministries--through the contagious power of crowds, through the
+gravitation of the age, through the general spirit of society, through
+the psychological climate in which our life is cast. And they also work
+upon the soul through the medium of individuals, through men and women
+who have been captured by the evil one and who are now used in his
+purposes of moral and spiritual destruction. Our invisible antagonists
+cast their lure upon us through the ministry of our fellow-men.
+
+Now all these antagonisms, seen and unseen, mediate and immediate, this
+little company of Christians had to meet in ancient Ephesus. You say the
+antagonisms are tremendous! Yes, indeed they are, and the Christian life
+is a tremendous thing. That is what tens of thousands of professing
+Christians have yet to learn. Let it be said that of all tremendous
+things the Christian life is the most tremendous. It is not something we
+can play with in idle hours, it is not a merely pleasant fellowship, it
+is not the bloodless act of joining the visible Church. No, it is not
+the carrying of a highly imposing label; it is a desperate, continuous,
+but withal, a glorious campaign. Speaking for myself, I confess that I
+have to have my fingers on the throat of the devil every day of my
+mortal life. This is how I find it. I do not gain a single inch without
+a fight. No fine victory is ever gained by me without blood. O, the
+sternness of the Christian fight! and O, its attractiveness and its
+glory! Yes, indeed, you are right; the antagonisms are tremendous.
+
+How then, are they to be met? If these are our antagonisms, seen and
+unseen, in New York as well as in Ephesus, how can we meet and overcome
+them? Let us listen to the Word: "Put on the complete armour of _God_."
+Let us begin there. Our first need is God. Without God we are beaten
+even before the fight begins. We have no more likelihood of vanquishing
+our spiritual foes without God than this unaided hand of mine would be
+able to drive back the solid phalanxes of the German hosts. We must
+begin with God. In the tenth verse of this chapter the apostle unfolds
+the primary secret of victory. "Be strong in the Lord and in the power
+of His might." But that is a very imperfect translation, laying too much
+emphasis upon the soldier and too little upon his Lord. I greatly like
+the marginal rendering of the revised version: "Be made powerful in the
+Lord." Does not that word sound full of promise for soldiers who are
+about to storm a difficult position? "Be made powerful in the Lord." Let
+God make you powerful! Such power is not a trophy of battle; it is the
+fruit of communion. It is a bequest and not a conquest. This power is
+not something we have to win; it is something we have to receive. It is
+not something we have to gain; it is something we have to take. "Be made
+powerful in the Lord!" And listen again: "Ye shall receive power when
+the Holy Spirit is come upon you." That power, that vital endowment of
+strength, is the gift of God, one of the ministries of the divine grace,
+and it is offered to every soldier without money and without price. So
+is it true that our first necessity in battle is to hasten away to the
+Lord to receive the gifts of the soldier's strength.
+
+But not only is there the imperative need of God for our initial
+strength, but for every piece of armour which may be needful in the
+fight. Armour for offence, and armour for defence; armour to meet every
+device and stratagem with which we may be assailed. I propose to
+consider this armour, piece by piece, and over and over again I shall
+have to tell you that you may find every piece of armour in the
+abundantly stocked and open and free armoury of God. And therefore do I
+say again that if we are to be triumphant over our antagonists, our
+first need is God. "Seek ye the Lord." "O come, let us kneel before the
+Lord our Maker."
+
+And then, our other great requirement is the ceaseless co-operation of
+our wills. The life of a Christian soldier is not a continuous reclining
+on "flowery beds of ease." Having obtained the strength we must
+ceaselessly exercise it in the practice of our wills. Listen to the
+divine challenge to the will: "Be made powerful in the Lord!" Well,
+then, exercise the will you have, your weak will, and go and kneel in
+humility at the source of power, and receive the promised gift. "Put on
+the whole armour of God!" Well, then, exercise the will and go to the
+armoury of grace for thine arms. "Stand therefore!" Well, then, having
+received the gift of power, exercise thy will in stubborn and invincible
+resistance. "Here stand I," said one who had received the strength,
+"Here stand I; I can do no other, God help me!" "Having done all,
+stand"--and victory shall be yours! In the name of God the Father, God
+the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, victory shall most certainly be yours!
+
+Says Dr. Weymouth: "Stand your ground in the day of battle, and having
+fought to the end remain victors on the field." "Victors on the field."
+I am thrilled by the inspiring word--"Victors on the field." After every
+temptation--the temptation that comes to me in sunshine, or the
+temptation that comes to me in the gloom--after every fight, victors on
+the field! The Lord's banner flying, His banner of love and grace; and
+the evil one and all his host in utter rout, and in full and dire
+retreat!
+
+    Soldiers of Christ arise,
+      And put your armour on;
+    Strong in the strength which God supplies
+      Through His eternal Son.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH
+
+
+    _Holy Father, we humbly pray Thee to reveal unto us the
+    unsearchable riches of Christ. Refine our discernments in order
+    that we may behold them; and deepen our hearts in order that we
+    may long to possess them. Unveil to us our poverty so that we
+    may seek Thy wealth. Lead us through meekness and penitence to
+    the reception of spiritual power. May our loins be girt about
+    with truth. May we drink deeply at the waters of promise and
+    find refreshment in immediate duty. We pray that Thou wilt bind
+    us together in the bonds of holy sympathy. Help us to gather up
+    the needs of others in common intercession. Make us ready to
+    bear the burden of the race. Quicken our imaginations in order
+    that we may enter into the sorrows of Thy children in every
+    land. We humbly pray Thee to steady our faith in these days of
+    bewilderment. In all the confusion of our time may we never lose
+    sight of Thy throne. In all the obscuring of our ideals may we
+    never lose sight of Christ. And O, Lord, out of our disorder may
+    we be led into larger ways. Let Thy Holy Spirit brood over us,
+    quickening all that is full of sacred promise, and destroying
+    all that hinders our friendship with Thee. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH
+
+    "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth." Eph.
+    6:14.
+
+
+The girdle was just a strong belt holding the different pieces of a
+soldier's armour securely in their place. Even in the ordinary Oriental
+attire the girdle was a necessity. Without the girdle the loose, flowing
+garments became very cumbersome, flapping about the feet, and especially
+hindering the movements in a hostile wind. Even the most graceful attire
+became an entanglement unless the girdle held it in serviceable bonds.
+But the necessity of a girdle was still more imperative on the field of
+war. In active fighting loose pieces of armour would be like
+embarrassing articles hanging on the soldier rather than appropriate
+implements to make him efficient. Loose armour was troublesome and
+distressing, making the soldier feel soft, and awkward, and unready,
+giving him a sense of going to pieces. The belt bound the loose pieces
+together, creating a healthy sense of firmness, compactness, and making
+the soldier feel that he had everything well in hand, and enabling him
+to meet the enemy's attack with united strength and confidence.
+
+Now it is that figure of the military belt which the apostle is using
+in our text, "Let your loins be girt about with truth." The soldier of
+Jesus can have his armour flapping about him in disorderly array. He can
+be loose and distracted. His energies can be scattered. He can be just a
+mass of incoherences and inconsistencies in the presence of the foe. Or
+a soldier of Jesus can be firm, and collected, and decisive. He can be
+"all there," with every ounce of his strength available for the
+immediate fight. And the apostle teaches that this bracing sense of
+collectedness, this fine, firm feeling of moral and spiritual
+concentration, can only be obtained by binding the entire life with the
+splendid and tenacious girdle of gospel truth.
+
+I want to approach the apostle's central teaching along roads which
+will gather up the testimony of common experience. We all know the
+strength which is imparted to a life when it is girt about with firm
+principle. It is even so in the life of a boy when he is passing his
+earliest days at school. Is there anything nobler to contemplate than a
+fine boy whose life and character are held firm and free in the bond and
+girdle of moral principle? It is even so in the later days of college
+and university. What college or university graduate has not admired the
+decisive strength of some man or woman whose character was held in
+splendid consistency by the girdle of moral conviction! What joyful and
+boisterous liberty there is in such a life! And it is all the more free
+and jubilant because it recognizes fields of license into which it never
+strays. And in the broader fields of the world we have the witness of
+the same experience. Life that is held in a girdle quadruples its
+strength. Life which is bound together even by a strong expediency
+gathers force in the bondage. A life which is held in the constraint of
+a policy is far mightier than a life which is trailing in scattered
+indifference. But a life which is bound together in moral principle,
+having all its faculties and powers gathered under one control, has
+tremendous force both of attack and resistance.
+
+You may study the contents of that statement and find abundant
+illustrations in the lives of men like Lincoln, and Mazzini, and
+Gladstone, and John Bright, and John Morley, and James Bryce. All these
+men, whether we approve or disapprove their political programmes and
+ambitions, are men whose characters reveal no loose ends, no trailing
+garments, no unchartered opinions, no vagrant and unlicensed moods, but
+rather a moral wholeness and solidity which we know will retain its
+splendid consistency in the teeth of the fiercest storm. Yes, even in
+the ways of the world men recognize the man who is wearing the belt of
+principle, and whose loins are girt about with truth.
+
+But the apostle Paul is thinking of something more than moral
+principle, splendid as is the influence of a great principle on the
+healthy action of a life. He is thinking of something even finer and
+deeper than this, and in which the moral principle is included. He is
+thinking of a soul belted with the more distinctive truth of the
+Scriptures, a soul girt about with gospel truth and with the ample
+promises of God. He is thinking of a man who takes some great truth of
+revelation, some mighty word of life, or some broad and bracing promise
+of grace, and who belts it about his soul and wears it on active service
+in seeking to do the sovereign will. I know not where to begin, or where
+to end, when I turn to the pages of biography for examples of men and
+women who have worn the girdle of gospel truth and promise. Let me dip
+here and there in the many and brilliant records.
+
+Well, then, let us begin with Martin Luther. It is one of the strong
+characteristics of Luther that he is ever wearing the girdle of truth,
+and bracing himself with the promises of grace. I open his letters
+almost at random, in the great year of his life when he defied the pope,
+and opposed himself to the strength of uncounted hosts. He is writing to
+Melanchthon on May 26, 1521: "Do not be troubled in spirit; but sing the
+Lord's song in the night, as we are commanded, and I shall join in. Let
+us only be concerned about the Word." There you find him putting on the
+girdle! Once again I find him writing a letter to a poor little company
+of Christians at Wittenberg: "I send you this thirty-seventh Psalm for
+your consolation and instruction. Take comfort and remain steadfast. Do
+not be alarmed through the raging of the godless." There again he is
+wearing the girdle and urging others to wear it. His loins are girt
+about with truth.
+
+Then again there is John Wesley. Let me give you a glimpse of that
+noble servant of the spirit as he is putting on the girdle of truth:
+"When I opened the New Testament at five o'clock in the morning my eyes
+fell on the words, 'There are given unto us exceeding great and precious
+promises that we should be partakers of the divine nature.'" He girt his
+loins with that truth. "Just before I left the room I opened the Book
+again, and this sentence gleamed from the open page, 'Thou art not far
+from the Kingdom of God.'" And he girt himself with that promise. He
+went to St. Paul's that morning, and in the chant there came to him this
+personal message from the Word: "O Israel, trust in the Lord, for in the
+Lord there is mercy and in Him there is plenteous redemption, and He
+shall redeem Israel from all his sins." Do you not see this noble knight
+belting himself for the great crusade that even now awaits him at the
+gate?
+
+Then I think I will mention General Gordon, who laid down his life at
+Khartoum. Only, if you want to see Gordon girding himself with truth,
+and see it adequately, you will have to quote from almost every letter
+he ever wrote, and especially his wonderful correspondence with his
+sister. Take this sentence from a letter written in Cairo in 1884: "I
+have taken the words, 'He will hide me in His hands'; good-night, my
+dear sister, I am not moved, even a little." Or take this sentence from
+a letter written in Khartoum toward the end of his days: "This word has
+been given me, 'It is nothing to our God to help with many or with few,'
+and I now take my worries more quietly than before." He put on the
+girdle of truth, and his worries were leashed in the girdle, and his
+soul was quieted in gospel confidence and serenity.
+
+And I had other examples to offer you, but these must suffice. I had on
+my table David Livingstone, and John Woolman, and Josephine Butler, and
+Frances Willard, and Catherine Booth, and I wanted to give you glimpses
+of all these notable soldiers of the Lord girding themselves for the
+open field. But their names shall be their witness. I might have quoted,
+had I the knowledge and the time, the testimony of all the saints who
+from their labours rest. And concerning them all we should have seen
+that their loins were girt about with truth.
+
+Now it was to spiritual equipment of this kind that the apostle was
+directing the little company of Christians at Ephesus. Think of their
+surroundings:--the overwhelming worldliness, the dominating influence of
+an alien religion, the fierce antagonisms of popular customs and
+traditions, and all of these backed by invisible hosts of wickedness in
+heavenly places. Now what chance would a loose, shuffling Christian have
+in circumstances so hostile as these? The Christian in Ephesus, if he is
+to be a conqueror, must not slouch along the way with a loose, hang-dog
+sort of air, but rather with all the poise and movement of a lion. The
+Christian must belt himself about with big truth, truth that will not
+only confirm but invigorate, truth that will not only define his creed
+but vitalize his soul. And these Ephesian Christians followed the
+apostle's counsel and they girded themselves with truth, and so were
+able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
+
+Let us watch how they did it. They had been converted to the Christian
+faith and life. One sure effect of their conversion was a more vivid
+sense of sin. After their conversion their own sinfulness began to
+reveal itself in more awful relief. The nearer they got to the light the
+more their sin appeared, just like invisible writing emerging from its
+secrecy when exposed to the open fire. They saw their sin, and they saw
+the sin of the people. They were like the prophet Isaiah, to whom also
+there came the awakening sense of sin, and with him they could have
+cried: "Woe is me, for I am unclean, and I dwell in the midst of a
+people of unclean lips." Well, now, how could that little company of
+Christians deal with the sin? It was like trying to drain a vast and
+bitter marsh that was fed by secret springs. How could they do it? And
+the tremendous task only emphasized their weakness, and might have
+depressed them into a feeling of helplessness and despair. And we share
+that feeling to-day. Think of the colossal sins of Europe, and think of
+the sins and moral indifference of the great cities. If the sin be like
+a bitter marsh, what is going to drain it? Nay, how are we going to get
+the confidence that it can be drained? Well what did Paul do, and what
+did he teach his fellow-disciples to do? This is what he did. He found
+something even bigger than sin, and he girded himself with the bigger
+thing when he confronted the appalling task. Listen to him: "Where sin
+abounds grace does much more abound." Yes, sin is a big thing, but grace
+is a bigger thing; the biggest thing even in this rebellious and
+indifferent world. Sin is a strong thing, but grace is a stronger thing,
+even the strongest thing in a revolting and alienated world. Well then,
+let your loins be girt about with that truth! Put it around your fears
+and uncertainties like a strong girdle. Wear it ever night and day. Go
+up to every stupendous task in the vigour of its bracing grip. Begin at
+the piece of the bitter marsh nearest to you, and begin to drain it. And
+wear the truth--"Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound." Wear
+the truth, say it, sing it, and you will be amazed how the difficulty
+will be subdued; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
+
+There was something else in Ephesus for which these Christians needed
+the girdle of truth. Ephesus was a vast city, and these Christians were
+only a tiny and obscure fellowship. And even this small fellowship had
+to be broken up during the hours of labour, and in those hours each
+believer had to stand alone. One of them was perhaps a slave, and there
+was no fellow-believer in the house. Or perhaps one was a soldier, and
+there wasn't another believer in his regiment, and he had to face it all
+alone. We have been reading that one reason for the massed solidity of
+the German advance is that the individual German soldier craves the
+mystic strength of fellowship, and desires even the physical touch of a
+comrade-in-arms. I can understand it. And so could the Ephesian
+Christians have understood it. They felt strong when they touched their
+fellow-believers, and they felt weakened when the visible communion was
+broken.
+
+What, then, shall they do when alone? They must let their loins be girt
+about with truth. But what truth? What did the apostle Paul wear in such
+isolation? He took this girdle and wrapped it round his loins: "He loved
+me, and gave Himself for me." And that girdle gives a man a sense of
+glorious fellowship along the emptiest and loneliest road. Put that
+girdle on, lonely soul! "He loves me, and gave Himself for me!" Wear it
+ever, night and day. And wear it consciously! Say it; sing it--"He loved
+me, and gave Himself for me." "Let your loins be girt about with that
+truth."
+
+And so have we seen these Ephesian soldiers putting on the girdle. In
+the presence of threat and persecution they wore this girdle, "We are
+more than conquerors through Him that loved us." When their
+circumstances were a medley and a confusion, full of ups and downs, of
+strange comings and goings, of mingled joy and sorrow, foul and fair,
+they wore this girdle: "All things work together for good to them that
+love God." And thus they were braced for all the changes of the
+ever-changing day.
+
+So do I urge my fellow-soldiers in this later day to wear the belt.
+"Let your loins be girt about with truth." Let us pray the good Lord to
+help us even now to put it on. Is the girdle we need this--"He loved me
+and gave Himself for me?" Well, put it on. Or is it this--"We have
+forgiveness through His blood?" Put it on. Or is it this--"I will come
+again and receive you unto myself?" Put it on. Or is it this--"In My
+Father's house are many mansions?" Put it on. Or is it this--"I will
+never leave thee nor forsake thee?" Put it on. Or is it this great
+girdle--"When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and
+through the rivers, they shall not overthrow thee, when thou walkest
+through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame
+kindle upon thee?" Put on the girdle, wear it ever, night and day, and
+thou shalt find that in the strength of gospel truth thou are competent
+to meet all circumstances, and triumphantly perfect thy Saviour's will.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
+
+
+    _Almighty God, our Father, it is by Thy grace that we attain
+    unto holiness, and it is by Thy light that we find wisdom. We
+    humbly pray that Thy grace and light may be given unto us so
+    that we may come into the liberty of purity and truth. Wilt Thou
+    graciously exalt our spirits and enable us to live in heavenly
+    places in Christ Jesus. Impart unto us a deep dissatisfaction
+    with everything that is low, and mean, and unclean, and create
+    within us such pure desire that we may appreciate the things
+    which Thou hast prepared for them that love Thee. Wilt Thou
+    receive us as guests of Thy table. Give us the glorious sense of
+    Thy presence, and the precious privilege of intimate communion.
+    Feed us with the bread of life; nourish all our spiritual
+    powers; help us to find our delight in such things as please
+    Thee. Give us strength to fight the good fight of faith. Give us
+    holy courage, that we may not be daunted by any fear, or turn
+    aside from our appointed task. Make us calm when we have to
+    tread an unfamiliar road, and may Thy presence give us
+    companionship divine. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
+
+    "Having on the breastplate of righteousness." Ephesians 6:14.
+
+
+This is counsel given to a little company of Christians, so little as
+to be almost submerged and lost in the great unfriendly city of Ephesus,
+so little as to be like a tiny boat in the midst of a vast and
+threatening sea. A missionary of the gospel has been among them and they
+have received the word of the Lord Jesus. They have answered the
+constraint of redeeming love and they have confessed their faith in
+Christ. And what has happened? Their confession has compelled their
+separation from many of their old fellowships and attachments. They are
+loosened from many of their old affections. The forces that were once
+friendly to them have become unfriendly, and they are now confronted by
+overwhelming hostilities on every side.
+
+We must try to feel the power and peril of their isolation if we would
+understand the force of the apostle's words. Imagine then the lot of
+some German in Germany who espoused the cause of the Allies, or conceive
+the lot of some Englishman in England who sided with Germany, and you
+may realize the heat and fierceness of the antagonism with which these
+immature Christians were surrounded in the city of Ephesus. But their
+peril was not only found in the hostility of their old friends. There
+was the enervating moral atmosphere which they had to breathe; there was
+the recurring inclination of their own riotous passions; there was a
+remnant of appetite for the old delights; and there was the nervous fear
+that the forces against them might prove overwhelming.
+
+What should they do? How should they be able to stand? And especially
+how should they be able to stand in the evil day, the day when external
+circumstances might culminate in some terrific assault, or when their
+own passions might rise against them in some particularly fierce
+resurgence? Well, this chapter records the counsel of a great and
+experienced apostle, a mighty soldier of the Lord, in which he advises
+these young recruits of the Kingdom what armour they must wear if they
+would be victorious on the field. "Put on the whole armour of God." And
+we are considering these noble pieces of armour if haply we too may
+possess the equipment and so turn our days of battle into days of
+glorious victory.
+
+And now, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I bring you this piece of
+armour, "the breastplate of righteousness," and it is to be worn in our
+modern warfare in this difficult city of New York. What is this
+breastplate of righteousness? What indeed was the Roman breastplate from
+which the figure of speech is taken? Unfortunately, the word breastplate
+is very inaccurate and misleading. The piece of armour to which the
+apostle refers protected the back as well as the breast, and in addition
+it gave protection to the neck and the hips. It would be much more truly
+described by the phrase, "a coat of mail," because it was a sort of vest
+made of small metal plates, overlapping one another like shield upon
+shield, wrapping the body in its defences, and protecting the vital
+organs, back and front, from every assault of the foe.
+
+Let us then venture to lift this more accurate description into our
+text, "Put on righteousness like a coat of mail, wear it in all your
+comings and goings in the city of Ephesus, and in it meet all the
+malicious antagonisms of devils and of men." Now I wonder how the
+apostle's counsel affected these fearful struggling Christians in
+Ephesus. Let us look at them. Let us assume that we are with them, and
+that we are about to give them the counsel offered in the text. How will
+they receive it? Remember that they have just been lifted out of the
+horrible pit and out of the miry clay of long-continued sin, and that
+they are oppressed by their own weakness and helplessness, and by the
+strength of the evil inclinations and habits which they have just
+renounced. Well, now, let us offer these inexperienced disciples the
+apostle's counsel: "Put on righteousness like a coat of mail!" Why, they
+just look at you in utter despair! It is their very weakness that they
+cannot forge and weave such a coat of mail to cover them in the day of
+battle. The counsel would surely seem like the taunting cry of the foe.
+
+Suppose we had waylaid poor Christian in "The Pilgrim's Progress" when
+he was struggling with his oppressive burden up the hill, and with the
+fiery darts of the devil hurtling around him on every side, and suppose
+we had called out to him, "Put on righteousness like a coat of mail!" We
+should surely only have added heaviness to his burden and crushed him to
+the ground in despair. "Put on righteousness like a coat of mail?" he
+would have moaned in his reply, "My righteousness is like unto filthy
+rags!"
+
+One poor, sorrowful correspondent wrote to me some weeks ago who was
+the victim of alcohol and drugs. For years he had walked in ways of
+uncleanness, but he was now just waking from his awful sleep and turning
+his thoughts toward home. Suppose now I had written to him and said "Put
+on righteousness like a coat of mail!" I think his eyes would have
+dulled into weariness again, and he would have slipped back to his drugs
+and his despair. This cannot be the meaning of the apostle's counsel, or
+this coat of mail would never be worn.
+
+What, then, does the apostle mean when he says "Put on righteousness
+like a coat of mail"? Let us seek for light in his own life, for he is a
+soldier as well as a counsellor, and we shall find him following his own
+advice and wearing the armour which he recommends to others. Let us
+listen then to this word, and let us mark its significance; "Touching
+the righteousness which is in the law I was found blameless." That seems
+like an invincible protection. "Touching the righteousness which is in
+the law I was found blameless!" But there was nothing invincible about
+it. It was no more a coat of mail than an ordinary vest, and the devil
+smote through the defences a dozen times a day.
+
+Listen again to the apostle when he has passed into the intimate
+friendship of Christ: "Not having a righteousness of mine own." Mark
+that; yea verily mark that;--"Not having a righteousness of mine own."
+This coat of mail he wears is not his own righteousness. Whose, then, is
+it? It is the righteousness of Christ. As Paul declares: "It is the
+righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
+which is of God by faith." The apostle is wearing the righteousness of
+Christ, and he wears it like a coat of mail, covering back and front,
+shielding him before and behind.
+
+I want to pause a little there because we are very near one of the
+deepest mysteries in the gospel of grace, and I want to state the
+mystery as plainly as words can express it. This, then, is what the
+Scriptures state: The Lord Jesus Christ was absolutely righteous, so
+righteous that human imagination and human dream cannot conceive it
+excelled. His holy obedience was perfect. There was no rent in the
+vesture of His holiness. There was no frayed edge, there was no
+imperfect strand, there were no stains. "In Him was no sin." We must
+begin there.
+
+And now let us assume that a poor penitent comes to this perfectly holy
+Lord. Let us make the sinner as nauseous and repulsive as you please.
+Let us make him a moral leper, the wretched victim of uncleanness,
+befouled by his own habits, consumed in his own sin, eaten without and
+within. That poor penitent sinner, laden with defilement, comes to the
+holy Lord Jesus, humbly seeking His favour and grace.
+
+Now what happens? What do the Scriptures tell us about the happening?
+They tell us that the holy Saviour covers the sinner with the robe of
+His own righteousness. The Lord puts His merits on to the sinner who has
+no merits. He puts His obedience on to the sinner who has nothing but a
+record of disobedience. He puts His spiritual conquests on to the sinner
+who is torn and scarred by nothing but appalling defeats. He puts His
+holiness on to a sinner who has been raked by defilements. That is the
+proclamation of the gospel. That poor penitent believing sinner stands
+now before the devil, and before men and angels, and before the presence
+of God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ! What, in all his
+imperfections? Yes. In all his weaknesses? Yes. With the scorching marks
+of hell-fire still upon him? Yes. He is covered with the robe of
+Christ's righteousness. He wears the merits and the strength and the
+defences of the Lord's obedience. Have we not read of one who wrapped
+himself in his country's flag and then dared an alien power to fire? It
+is an altogether imperfect illustration, but it offers me some faint and
+helpful analogy when I hear the saints give this witness: "He hath
+clothed me with the robe of righteousness, and covered me with the
+garments of salvation." No, it was not Paul's own righteousness which
+constituted his coat of mail. It was the righteousness of his Lord.
+
+Now, this is the word of grace, and this is the message of the gospel.
+It is this of which Toplady sings in his immortal hymn--"Rock of Ages":
+
+    "Naked, look to Thee for dress."
+
+It is this also of which Charles Wesley sings in his also immortal
+hymn--"Jesus, Lover of my Soul":
+
+    "I am all unrighteousness,
+     Thou art full of truth and grace."
+
+It is this which was discovered by George Fox, the founder of the
+Society of Friends, and of which he tells us so rapturously in the early
+pages of his journal. It was this which John Bunyan found, and of which
+he tells us in the pages of "Grace Abounding": "One day, as I was
+passing into the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience,
+suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, 'Thy righteousness is in
+heaven,' and me thought that I saw with the eyes of my soul, Jesus
+Christ at God's right hand. There, I saw, was my righteousness; so that
+wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, He
+wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw,
+moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my
+righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness
+worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same
+yesterday, to-day and forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs
+indeed; I was loosened from my afflictions and irons.... Now went I also
+home rejoicing for the grace and love of God." All these men, at the
+beginning of their Christian life, were covered not with a righteousness
+of their own, but with the righteousness of Christ, and they could sing
+with Paul that they were clothed in the garments of His salvation. Their
+coat of mail was the righteousness of Christ.
+
+Now I recognize, and I experience the difficulty, of realizing all
+this, and I sympathize with you in the poverty of our apprehension. But
+I think our difficulty is in some ways occasioned by the inadequacy of
+all figures of speech to convey to us the real vitality of the truth.
+For instance, a coat of mail is something detached, separate and
+external, and so is a robe, and they have no vital relation to the body
+which wears them. And therefore, when we think of the righteousness of
+Christ covering another like a robe or a coat of mail, it appears
+something unreal, a superficial ministry, or even a fine pretence. We
+think of some villain clothed in the garb of a minister, but all the
+more a villain because of the robes which cover him. Or we think of some
+vile woman wearing the habits of a nun, and all the more vile because of
+the significant garments in which she is clothed. A leprous sinner
+wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness! It all appears detached and
+superficial, like a climbing rose hiding a rubbish heap, or some lovely
+ferns and greenery concealing an open sewer. There appears no deep
+reality in it,--a sinner just covered with the robe of Christ's
+holiness, and wearing the Lord's righteousness as a coat of mail.
+
+Yes, I admit that the figures all fail. The figure of a robe leaves the
+sinner and the Saviour in no vital relation. And so it is with the coat
+of mail. But in the blessed reality there is no detachment. There is
+union between the sinner and the Saviour of the most profound and vital
+kind. You must remember our assumption; the sinner who comes to the
+Saviour comes in faith, and in penitence and in prayer, and these things
+never leave a soul separate and detached from the life and love of the
+Lord. Faith itself, even amid human relationships, is never a dividing
+ministry; it always consolidates and unites. You may trace the vital
+unifying influence of faith in a score of relations. The faith which a
+patient has in a doctor is a minister of very vital union in every
+effort to recover the lost genius of health. The faith which a pupil has
+in a teacher unites the two in a very vital relation, and puts the pupil
+into communion with the knowledge which is stored up in the teacher's
+mind. The faith which one man has in another incorporates the two in
+one. Faith always unifies; it never divides.
+
+And all this has its supreme application in the relation of the soul to
+Christ. A poor penitent sinner who comes to the Lord in faith becomes
+one with the Lord in the profoundest union which the mind of man can
+conceive. Faith in Christ unites the soul with Christ just as in
+grafting the engrafted scion becomes one with the vital stock.
+
+Now this is the beginning of our reasoning. We are assuming a poor,
+penitent, weary soul flinging himself by faith on Christ, and thereby
+becoming one with Christ, one with all He is; one with all He has been;
+one with all He shall be, sharing His merits, His holiness, His
+obedience! By faith in Christ I become one with Christ, and all He is is
+thrown over me! And now before the devil I stand as one in Christ; and
+in the day of judgment I shall stand as one in Christ, one with Him in
+spite of all the sins of my past, and all the weaknesses and
+immaturities of the present. "Thou hast covered me with the robe of
+righteousness, and clothed me in the garment of salvation." I wear the
+righteousness of Christ, and I wear it as a coat of mail.
+
+Now is not that a strong defence? Go back to the illustration of
+grafting. I saw a young graft which had just been newly related to a
+strong and healthy stock. The graft still looked very poor and weak and
+sickly, but it had become vitally one with the healthy stock; it stood
+no longer in its own strength. All the resources of the stock were
+thrown about it, the merits of the stock were now the scion's, all the
+victories of its yesterdays, and all the sap and energies of to-morrow.
+The stock is to the scion as a coat of mail! And so it is with the soul
+which has become by faith the scion of the Lord.
+
+    "All my trust on Thee is stayed,
+     All my help from Thee I bring;
+     Cover my defenseless head
+     With the shadow of Thy wing."
+
+The righteousness of Christ is the breastplate of the soul.
+
+Now let us gather up our practical conclusions: The righteousness of
+Christ becomes immediately mine by the act and attitude of faith. Yea,
+verily, the most leprous and unclean soul in this city, with a history
+unutterably loathsome, whose faith looks up tremblingly to the Saviour,
+is immediately covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness, for by
+faith he immediately becomes one with the righteousness of Christ. By
+faith I can here and now become one with Christ; however poor and
+wretched I be, and however sinful I have been, the righteousness of
+Christ becomes the armour of my soul. You say that is very dogmatic.
+Yes, blessed be God, it is dogmatic, but it is justified dogmatism, for
+it is the glorious dogmatism of the gospel of Christ.
+
+And covered with the righteousness of Christ, that imputed
+righteousness becomes progressively mine in the appropriation of
+experience. His life flows into me like the life of stock into scion,
+and all through my days I am assimilating more and more the
+righteousness which covers me. His covering righteousness becomes more
+and more my rectitude. His covering holiness becomes more and more my
+obedience. His righteousness passes more and more into my conscience and
+makes it holy; more and more into my affections and makes them lovely;
+more and more into my will to make it rich and dutiful in obedience.
+Forever and ever His righteousness will cover me, and forever and
+forever I shall be growing into His likeness. His righteousness is my
+defence. Yes, it is a coat of mail, a protection for breast and back.
+His righteousness protects me from the things that are behind, the guilt
+and the sins of my yesterdays. His righteousness protects me from the
+things of to-morrow, from all the assaults of the unknown way, from the
+fear of death, and from the day of judgment.
+
+    "When I soar through worlds unknown,
+    See Thee on Thy Judgment Throne,
+        Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
+        Let me hide myself in Thee."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+READY!
+
+
+    _Heavenly Father, we thank Thee we are called to be children of
+    the light. Even though we have been children of the darkness,
+    and have loved the ways of error rather than of truth, and of
+    sin rather than of holiness, Thou art calling us to the light of
+    eternal day. We would answer Thy call in penitence, and we would
+    return to Thee like wayward children who are coming home again.
+    We do not ask to lose the sense of our shame, but we ask to
+    taste the sweetness of Thy forgiveness. We do not ask to forget
+    our rebelliousness, but we ask to be assured that we are
+    reconciled to Thee. We would sit at Thy table and receive the
+    bread of life. We would worship at Thy feet and receive the
+    baptism of the Holy Spirit. We would stand before Thee with our
+    feet shod with the shoes of readiness, willing to go out on
+    errands of Christian love and service. If we are inclined to
+    frivolity may we become inclined to be serious and reverent. If
+    we are heedless may we become fired with heavenly ambition and
+    spiritual devotion. Redeem us from the littleness of selfishness
+    and lift us into the blessed communion of our fellow-men. Give
+    us a wide and generous outlook upon human affairs. Endow us with
+    the sympathy that rejoices with them who are rejoicing and that
+    weeps with them that weep. If Thou art leading us through the
+    gloom of adversity may we find that even the clouds drop
+    fatness. If Thou art leading us through the green pastures and
+    by the still waters, may we recognize the presence of the great
+    Shepherd and may our joys be sanctified. Hallow all our
+    experiences, we humbly pray Thee, and may we all become branches
+    in the vine of our Lord. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+READY!
+
+    "Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace."
+    Ephesians 6:15.
+
+
+A little while ago an article appeared in one of the daily papers with
+this startling title: "Boots and shoes may be vital determining factors
+in the war." And contrasts and comparisons were made between the
+opposing forces in respect to their footgear, and the provision which
+had been made for keeping the soldiers' feet strong and hardy. And
+allowing even for the ordinary journalistic exaggeration, it is a most
+reasonable thing to assume that good, durable, well-fitting boots are
+part of the requisite armour for all soldiers who are called to
+prolonged and exacting service. Think of those heavy tramps in the early
+days of the war, whether in advance or in retreat; and think of the miry
+roads and the marshy ground since the rains have fallen; and think of
+the wet and soaking trenches where the men have to stand for hours
+together; and you will begin to realize what a vital part boots may play
+in the terrible hardships of a long and wintry campaign.
+
+In the Roman Empire scrupulous care was given to the feet of the
+fighting men. The shoes were specially made, not only for long marches,
+but for protection against the secret dangers of the way. They had not
+arrived at some of our refinements in devilry, but some of their
+subtleties occasioned great destruction. Gall-traps were set along the
+road, multitudes of sharp sticks were inserted on the surface of the
+road, keen as dagger points, to obstruct the advance of an enemy, and to
+maim his soldiers and compel them to fall out by the way. And so it was
+an imperative necessity that the Roman soldier be well shod, his feet
+made easy for the most exacting march, and defended against the hidden
+perils which would maim him in service and spoil him for the fray.
+
+Now the apostle Paul had seen the Roman soldier marching as to war. I
+think he must have been particularly fond of watching soldiers because
+we can so often see and hear them reflected in his letters. We can
+always learn a great deal from a man by studying his metaphors and
+figures of speech, and we can get some very suggestive glimpses of his
+tastes and interests by watching the analogies of the apostle Paul,
+where the army is often tramping through his letters, and the Roman
+soldier is often presented to offer counsel to the soldiers of the Lord.
+And here in my text we are bidden to look to the soldier's shoes. He is
+well shod, so splendidly shod that in a moment he is ready for any call,
+along any road, and for any service.
+
+And the Christian, too, has long marches, and often along difficult and
+trying roads, and there are flints about and sharp thorns, and other
+things that wound and make him stumble. And sometimes there is scarcely
+a road at all, and we have never been that way before, and it is like
+the work of a pioneer cutting his way through the jungle. What roads we
+have to tramp! Especially when we are apostles sent forth on the King's
+bidding! And, says the great apostle, "You need shoes for the roads or
+you will be unfit for the long journeys, and you will easily become
+tired and sore, and you may even drop out of the ranks." And what kind
+of shoes are we to wear as soldiers of Christ? How can we be defended in
+our long journeyings and in our crusades in the service of the King? The
+answer to these questions is given in the words: "Have your feet shod
+with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Now what is that?
+
+Let me slightly recast the phrase. One of the words has slightly
+altered its colour and significance since the days of the Authorized
+Version. I mean the word "preparation." In the earlier days if you spoke
+of a man of "preparation" you meant a man who was prepared, a man who
+was equal to opportunity, a man who was awaiting the opening of the
+door, having everything ready for the call of obligation and service. So
+that the word "preparedness" would now be more accurate than the
+authorized word "preparation." "Having your feet shod with the
+preparedness of the gospel of peace." But I think we shall do even
+better if instead of either of these we use the word "readiness."
+"Having your feet shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace." What
+is that? Look at it a little more closely. "The readiness of the
+gospel"; that is the readiness which is born of the gospel as heat is
+born of the sun. The gospel of peace enters the soul of a man and takes
+possession of it, and then inspires the man with readiness. What for?
+Readiness to take the road to tell others the good tidings which have
+filled his own soul. That is it. The gospel of peace enters and
+glorifies the soul, and it then imparts to the feet a readiness to take
+the road, the long and difficult road, if need be, in order to tell to
+others the good news which has set it free. That is it. Have your feet
+shod with the readiness begotten of the gospel of peace!
+
+Let me give an example, and let it be taken from the book of the
+prophet Isaiah. Here, then, are people in exile, sitting in the cold
+shadow of oppression, and longing for freedom and home. And over the
+hard mountain tracks there come messengers, swift messengers carrying
+the glad tidings of emancipation. There they come over the long roads!
+And when the suffering exiles see and hear them they break into this
+song: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
+bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings
+of God, that publisheth salvation; that saith to Zion, Thy God reigneth!
+Break forth into joy! Sing together!" The feet of the messengers were
+shod with the readiness begotten of good news, and they were speeding
+with comfort to the desolate and distressed.
+
+We have another example in the same book where messengers who were
+ladened with a rich experience were bidden to take the high road and
+tell their news to others. "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee
+up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift
+up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the
+cities of Judah, Behold your God!... He shall feed His flock like a
+shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His
+bosom; and shall gently lead those that are with young." That was the
+good news, and with the readiness begotten of the good news the
+messengers hastened to make it known. And so it is that our feet, as
+disciples of the Lord Jesus, are to be shod with similar readiness, the
+readiness begotten of our own experience of the goodness of God, the
+readiness to go out on the rough and troubled roads of life, into its
+highways and its byways, its broad streets and its narrow streets,
+carrying the good cheer of the news of God's redeeming love and grace.
+To be ready to go wherever there is any form of bondage, singing the
+gospel song of joy and freedom,--that is the privileged service of the
+soldiers of the Lord. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of
+him that bringeth good tidings!" "Have your feet shod with the readiness
+of the gospel of peace."
+
+Now I think it might be good for us to just glance along the roads of
+life and look at one or two sorts of people who are held in spiritual
+bondage, and who are therefore in need of good news and cheer, and we
+will challenge ourselves if our feet are shod with readiness to take
+them the gospel of peace. Well, then, look down this road, for here is a
+soul who is held in the bondage of despondency and despair. You will
+find such souls upon almost any road you like to tread. They are souls
+who somehow have fainted; they have lost the warm, cheering, kindling
+light of hope. Now failure is never really deadly until it puts out our
+hope and freezes the springs of resolution. The only really fatal
+element in defeat is the resolution not to try again. We have only
+terribly failed when we have furled our sails. Yes, I repeat it; failure
+only becomes virulent when it breeds despair.
+
+Now these folk are on the road. They have so utterly failed that they
+have lost their vital confidence, and they have become pathetic victims
+of self-disparagement. What do they need? They need to have their lamps
+re-lit with the cheering light of hope. They need to have their fires
+rekindled with the blessed warmth of confidence. They need to hear of
+new dawnings, of radiant to-morrows, of larger, brighter coming days.
+And if they do need light and fire and sunrise, what is that but to say
+that they need to hear again the good tidings of the inexhaustible love
+of the risen Lord. They just need Jesus, and the comforting gospel of
+His peace.
+
+Yes, but who is to take it? Messengers are wanted, messengers shod with
+"the readiness of the gospel of peace," messengers swift and ready to
+run these glorious errands as the ministers of eternal hope. Now, are we
+shod with that gospel readiness? Are our feet ready for the road? It is
+a noble and a gracious ministry. How beautiful upon the mountains are
+the feet of him that bringeth oil to smouldering lamps, and fuel to
+dying fires, and that cheer and illumine the cold haunts of despondency
+and despair! It is Mark Rutherford who says somewhere in what is to me
+an unforgettable word: "Blessed are they who heal us of our
+self-despisings." Yes, verily it is a beautiful ministry to kindle again
+the lovely light of confidence and hope. Are we ready for such service?
+Soldiers of Jesus, are our feet "shod with the readiness of the gospel
+of peace"?
+
+Look again along the road. Here is another lonely soul, held in the
+bondage of a blinding experience. Let us say it is Saul of Tarsus, who
+is now on the road to Damascus: "And as he journeyed, he came near
+Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
+and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him: Saul, Saul,
+why persecuteth thou me?... And Saul arose from the earth, and when his
+eyes were opened he saw no man: but they led him by the hand and brought
+him into Damascus." Now here is a man who is held in the bondage of a
+blinding experience. He has been smitten in the midnight, but has not
+yet seen the dawn. He is convicted of sin, but has not yet found peace.
+He has lost his old life but has not yet found the new one. His old
+delights have gone, but the new joys have not yet arrived. He has been
+stunned, but he is not yet free! And there he is! What is needed? O
+surely, what is needed is some human messenger in whom the gospel of
+peace dwells like summer sunshine and fragrance, and whose feet are shod
+with readiness to carry that gracious summer to others. "And the Lord
+said unto Ananias, Arise and go into the street which is called
+Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul.... And
+Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands
+on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto
+thee on the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive
+thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell
+from his eyes as it had been scales." And so the blinded found his
+sight, and the enslaved found his liberty, and the bewildered found his
+peace; and one of the Lord's messengers was the human minister in the
+great emancipation. His feet were shod with the readiness of the gospel
+of peace. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
+bringeth good tidings."
+
+There are other blinded people along the road, people who are stunned
+and bewildered, not by dazzling light but by fierce lightning. There are
+people who are just blinded by calamity. They have suffered the
+lightning stroke of disaster or bereavement. I was talking to one such
+troubled soul this very week; and speaking of the repeated blows of her
+heavy sorrows she said: "They just left me blind and dumb!" Blind and
+dumb along the road! What did she need? O, she just needed the restoring
+balm and cordials of heavenly comfort. She needed the soft consolations
+of divine grace. And what is that but to say again that she needed the
+gospel of peace? And where are the messengers, with feet shod with the
+readiness of the gospel of peace, to carry the good tidings to this soul
+held in the bondage of silence and night? How unspeakable is the
+privilege of carrying this holy grace, and seeing the holy light of
+faith breaking upon the face of bewilderment, lovelier far than the
+glory of sunrise breaking upon the mountains, flushing the cold snows,
+and suffusing with living color the gloominess of the pines! Yes, it is
+a beautiful service to carry good tidings to those who are stunned. "How
+beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him that bringeth good
+tidings!" Soldiers of Jesus, are our feet shod with this readiness of
+the gospel of peace?
+
+Look once more down the road, for there is another soul held in the
+bondage of ignorance. Let it be a man of Ethiopia. Let the road be the
+steep descent which leadeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza. "A man of
+Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, Queen of the
+Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and did go to
+Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot,
+read Esaias, the prophet." This man has the Word, but he has not got the
+clue. He has the Scriptures, but he has no interpreter. What is needed?
+He needs some messenger in whom the Word has become life, and who has
+discovered the central secret of the Scriptures in the companionship of
+the Lord. "The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and
+go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto
+Gaza. And he arose and went." "How beautiful upon the mountain are the
+feet of him that bringeth good tidings!" "And Philip ran thither to him,
+and heard him read the prophet Esaias." He ran on his errand because his
+feet were shod with readiness!
+
+    "Take my feet and let them be
+     Swift and beautiful for Thee."
+
+"And Philip said, Understandest thou what thou readest?" So he
+explained to him the Word, and through the Word led him unto the Lord.
+And this is the last word we read about this man going down to Egypt:
+"He went on his way rejoicing!" What a ministry for a servant of the
+Lord! And that is your gracious service, fellow-preacher, in the
+ministry of the Word. And that is your privilege, Sunday-school teacher,
+when you meet your children in the class. You are appointed by the Lord
+to light up words that will burn in your scholars' minds to the very end
+of the pilgrim way. And that is the privilege of all of us if we will
+just have confidence in the guiding grace of the Lord. We need not be
+stars in order to light lamps and kindle fires. A taper is quite enough
+if it burns with genuine flame. Our greatest fitness for this kind of
+service is to be ready to do it, and the Lord Himself will provide the
+needful equipment. To have feet shod with readiness, that is what we
+need. Then through our ministry it may joyfully happen that many of
+
+    "The sons of ignorance and night
+     Will dwell in the eternal light
+       Through the eternal love."
+
+There is only one thing remaining to be said. The apostle teaches that
+such readiness is armour for our own souls, it is defensive armour
+against the world, the flesh and the devil. To be ready to tell the good
+news of grace, the gospel of peace, is to have stout protection as you
+trudge along the road. Readiness is one piece of armour in the panoply
+of God. The soul which is not ready to serve is an easy prey to the evil
+one. A man whose feet are swift to carry the good tidings of grace is
+the favoured child of glorious promise: "He shall give His angels charge
+over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." While we are ministering to
+others we are being ministered unto by the spirits that surround His
+throne, and our security is complete.
+
+Then let us pray for the grace and protection of readiness. Let us
+pray that the gospel of peace may more and more deeply possess our
+souls, so that we may be inspired with that spontaneous readiness which
+awaits the King's bidding, and which speeds on its way carrying the
+glorious treasures of grace. "Have your feet shod with the readiness of
+the gospel of peace." "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of
+him that bringeth good tidings!"
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SHIELD OF FAITH
+
+
+    _Most Holy God, Who lightenest every man that cometh into the
+    world, enlighten our hearts, we pray Thee, with the light of Thy
+    grace, that we may fully know our sins and our shortcomings, and
+    may confess them with true sorrow and contrition of heart.
+    Unveil Thy love to us, so that in its clear shining we may
+    behold the sin of our rebellion, and may turn unto Thee in
+    humility and fervent devotion. Deliver us, we pray Thee, from
+    the tyranny of evil habit. Save us from acknowledging any
+    sovereignty above Thine. Keep us in sight of the great white
+    throne, and may Thy judgments determine all our ways. Defend us
+    when we are tempted to fields of transgression. Protect us from
+    the allurements which assail the senses, and which entice us,
+    through our fleshly desires, into impure delights. Loose us from
+    the bonds of vanity and pride, and remove every perverting
+    prejudice which blinds our vision. Impart unto us the grace of
+    simplicity. May our worship be perfectly candid and sincere.
+    Give us a healthy recoil from all hypocrisy, from all mere
+    acting in Thy holy Presence. Quicken our perception that we may
+    realize Thy Presence, and feel the awe of the unseen. Lead us,
+    we pray Thee, to the fountain of life. Quicken our souls so that
+    we may apprehend the things that concern our peace. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SHIELD OF FAITH
+
+    "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
+    able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Ephesians
+    6:16.
+
+
+But did the apostle who gives the counsel find his faith an
+all-sufficient shield? He recommends the shield of faith, but is the
+recommendation based on personal experience? And if so, what is the
+nature and value of that experience? What sort of protection did his
+faith give to him? When I examine his life what tokens do I find of
+guardianship and strong defence? When I move through the ways of his
+experience is it like passing through quiet and shady cloisters shut
+away from the noise and heat of the fierce and feverish world? Is his
+protected life like a garden walled around, full of sweet and pleasant
+things, and secured against the maraudings of robber and beast? Let us
+look at this protected life. Let us glance at the outer circumstances.
+Here is one glimpse of his experience: "Of the Jews five times received
+I forty stripes save one; once was I stoned; thrice have I suffered
+shipwreck; a day and a night have I been in the deep; in stripes above
+measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft; in weariness and
+painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
+often, in cold and nakedness." And yet this is the man who speaks about
+the shield of faith, and in spite of the protecting shield all these
+things happened unto him!
+
+Look at his bodily infirmities. "There was given unto me a thorn in the
+flesh." Where was the shield? It is not necessary for us to know the
+character of his thorn. But assuredly it was some ailment which appeared
+to interfere with the completeness of his work. Some think it was an
+affliction of the eyes; others think that it was a proneness to some
+form of malarial fever which frequently brought him into a state of
+collapse and exhaustion. But there it was, and the shield of faith did
+not keep it away.
+
+Or look again at his exhausting labours. There is no word concerning his
+ministry more pregnant with meaning than this word "labour," which the
+apostle so frequently used to describe his work. "In labours oft;"
+"whereunto I labour;" "I laboured more abundantly than they all." This
+is not the labour of ordinary toil. It is the labour of travail. It is
+labour to the degree of poignant pang. It is labour that so expends the
+strength as to empty the fountain. It is the labour of sacrifice. And I
+thought that perhaps a protected life might have been spared the
+sufferings of a living martyrdom and that the service such a man
+rendered might have been made fruitful without pain. I thought God might
+have protected His servant. But the shield of faith did not deliver him
+from the labour of travail through which he sought the birth of the
+children of grace.
+
+Or look once more at his repeated failures. You can hear the wail of
+sadness as he frequently contemplates his ruined hopes concerning little
+churches which he had built, or concerning fellow-believers whom he had
+won to Christ. "Are ye so soon fallen away?" "Ye would have given your
+eyes to me but now--." "I hear that there is strife among you." "It is
+reported that there is uncleanness among you." "Demus hath forsaken me."
+And it is wail after wail, for it is failure after failure. Defeat is
+piled upon defeat. It is declared to be a protected life, and yet
+disasters litter the entire way. It is perfectly clear that the shield
+of faith did not guard him from the agony of defeat.
+
+Such are the experiences of the man who gave his strength to proclaim
+the all-sufficiency of the shield of faith, who spent his days in
+recommending it to his fellow-men, and whose own life was nevertheless
+noisy with tumult, and burdened with antagonisms, and crippled by
+infirmity, and clouded with defeat. Can this life be said to be wearing
+a shield? We have so far been looking at the man's environment, at his
+bodily infirmities, at his activities of labor, at his external defeats.
+What if in all these things we have not come within sight of the realm
+which the apostle would describe as his life? When Paul speaks of life
+he means the life of the soul. When he thinks of life his eyes are on
+the soul. In all the estimates and values which he makes of life he is
+fixedly regarding the soul. The question of success or failure in life
+is judged by him in the courthouse of the soul. You cannot entice the
+apostle away to life's accidents and induce him to take his measurements
+there. He always measures life with the measurement of an angel, and
+thus he busies himself not with the amplitude of possessions, but with
+the quality of being, not with the outer estates of circumstances but
+with the central keep and citadel of the soul. We never find the apostle
+Paul with his eyes glued upon the wealth or poverty of his surroundings.
+But everywhere and always and with endless fascination, he watches the
+growth or decay of the soul. When, therefore, this man speaks of the
+shield of faith we may be quite sure that he is still dwelling near the
+soul and that he is speaking of a protection which will defend the
+innermost life from foul and destructive invasion.
+
+Now our emphasis is prone to be entirely the other way, and therefore
+we are very apt to misinterpret the teachings of the apostle Paul and to
+misunderstand the holy promises of the Lord. We are prone to live in the
+incidents of life rather than in its essentials, in environment rather
+than in character, in possessions rather than in dispositions, in the
+body rather than in the soul. The consequence is that we seek our
+shields in the realms in which we live. We live only in the things of
+the body and therefore against bodily ills we seek our shields. We want
+a shield against sorrow, to keep it away, a shield to protect us against
+the break-up of our happy estate. We want a shield against adversity, to
+keep it away, a shield against the darkening eclipse of the sunny day.
+We want a shield against loss, to keep it away, a shield against the
+rupture of pleasant relations, a shield to protect us against the
+bereavements which destroy the completeness of our fellowships. We want
+a shield against pain, to keep it away, a shield against the pricks and
+goads of piercing circumstances, against the stings and arrows of
+outrageous fortune.
+
+In a word, we want a shield to make us comfortable, and because the
+shield of faith does not do it we are often stunned and confused, and
+our thin reasonings are often twisted and broken, and the world appears
+a labyrinth without a providence and without a plan. It is just here
+that our false emphasis leads us astray. We live in circumstances and
+seek a shield to make us comfortable; but the apostle Paul lived in
+character and sought a shield to make him holy. He was not concerned
+with the arrangement of circumstances, but he was concerned with the
+aspiration that, be the circumstances what they might, they should never
+bring disaster to his soul. He did not seek a shield to keep off
+ill-circumstances, but he sought a shield to keep ill-circumstances from
+doing him harm. He sought a shield to defend him from the
+destructiveness of every kind of circumstance, whether fair or foul,
+whether laden with sunshine or heavy with gloom. Paul wanted a shield
+against all circumstances in order that no circumstance might unman him
+and impoverish the wealth of his soul.
+
+Let me offer a simple illustration. A ray of white light is made up of
+many colors, but we can devise screens to keep back any one of these
+colors and to let through those we please. We can filter the rays. Or we
+can devise a screen to let in rays of light and to keep out rays of
+heat. We can intercept certain rays and forbid their presence. Now, to
+the apostle Paul the shield of faith was a screen to intercept the
+deadly rays which dwell in every kind of circumstance; and to Paul the
+deadly rays in circumstances, whether the circumstances were bright or
+cloudy, were just those that consumed his spiritual susceptibilities and
+lessened his communion with God, the things that ate out his moral
+fibre, and that destroyed the wholeness and wholesomeness of his human
+sympathies, and impaired his intimacy with God and man. It was against
+these deadly rays he needed a shield, and he found it in the shield of
+faith.
+
+Paul wanted a shield, not against failure; that might come or stay
+away. But he wanted a shield against the pessimism that may be born of
+failure, and which holds the soul in the fierce bondage of an Arctic
+winter. Paul wanted a shield, not against injury; that might come or
+stay away; but against the deadly thing that is born of injury, even the
+foul offspring of revenge. Paul wanted a shield, not against pain; that
+might come or might not come; he sought a shield against the spirit of
+murmuring which is so frequently born of pain, the deadly, deadening
+mood of complaint. Paul wanted a shield, not against disappointment,
+that might come or might not come; but against the bitterness that is
+born of disappointment, the mood of cynicism which sours the milk of
+human kindness and perverts all the gentle currents of the soul. Paul
+wanted a shield, not against difficulty; that might come or might not
+come; but against the fear that is born of difficulty, the cowardice and
+the disloyalty which are so often bred of stupendous tasks. Paul did not
+want a shield against success; that might come or might not come; but
+against the pride that is born of success, the deadly vanity and
+self-conceit which scorch the fair and gracious things of the soul as a
+prairie-fire snaps up a homestead or a farm. Paul did not want a shield
+against wealth; that might come or might not come; but against the
+materialism that is born of wealth, the deadly petrifying influence
+which turns flesh into stone, spirituality into benumbment, and which
+makes a soul unconscious of God and of eternity. The apostle did not
+want a shield against any particular circumstance, but against every
+kind of circumstance, that in everything he might be defended against
+the fiery darts of the devil.
+
+He found the shield he needed in a vital faith in Christ. First of all
+the faith-life cultivates the personal fellowship of the Lord Jesus
+Christ. The ultimate concern of faith is not with a polity, not with a
+creed, not with a church, and not with a sacrament, but with the person
+of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore the first thing we have to do if
+we wish to wear the shield of faith is to cultivate the companionship of
+the Lord. We must seek His holy presence. We must let His purpose enter
+into and possess our minds. We must let His promises distil into our
+hearts. And we must let our own hearts and minds dwell upon the Lord
+Jesus in holy thought and aspiration, just as our hearts and minds dwell
+upon the loved ones who have gone from our side. We must talk to Him in
+secret and we must let Him talk to us. We must consult Him about our
+affairs, and then take His counsels as our statutes, and pay such heed
+to them that the statutes will become our songs. Faith-life cultivates
+the friendship of Christ, and leans upon it, and surrenders itself with
+glorious abandon to the sovereign decrees of His grace and love.
+
+And then, secondly, the faith-life puts first things first, and in its
+list of primary values it gives first place to the treasures of the
+soul. Faith-life is more concerned with habits than with things, with
+character than with office, with self-respect than with popular esteem.
+The faith-life puts first things first, the clean mind and the pure
+heart, and from these it never turns its eyes away.
+
+And, lastly, the faith-life contemplates the campaign rather than the
+single battle. One battle may seem to go against it. But faith knows
+that one battle is not the end of the world. "I will see you again, and
+your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Faith takes the long view, the
+view of the entire campaign. "I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
+coming down out of heaven from God." "The kingdoms of this world shall
+become the kingdom of our God." Such a relationship to the Lord protects
+our life as with an invincible shield. It may please God to conduct our
+life through long reaches of cloudless noon; the shield of faith will be
+our defence. It may please God to lead us through the gloom of a long
+and terrible night; the shield of faith will be our defence. "Thou shalt
+not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the
+destruction that wasteth at noonday."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE HELMET OF HOPE
+
+
+    _Eternal God, mercifully help us to unitedly draw near to the
+    atoning Saviour, and through His mercies find access into the
+    inheritance of the saints in light. Forgive the sins of our
+    rebellion and redeem us from our guilt. Transform our spiritual
+    habits that we may find ourselves able to fix our minds upon
+    things above. Cleanse our hearts by the waters of regeneration,
+    in order that our inclinations may be fixed upon the things that
+    please Thee. Rekindle the fire of our affections, purify the
+    light of our conscience. Broaden our compassions and make them
+    more delicate in their discernments. Impart unto us the saving
+    sense of Thy Companionship, and in the assurance of Thy Presence
+    may we know ourselves competent to do Thy will. Meet with us one
+    by one. Equip us with all needful armour for our daily battle.
+    Feed us with hidden manna, that so our strength may be equal to
+    our task. Unite us in the bonds of holy fear, and may we all be
+    partakers of Thy love and grace. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE HELMET OF HOPE
+
+    "And take the helmet of salvation." Ephesians 6:17.
+
+    "And for an helmet the hope of salvation." I Thessalonians 5:8.
+
+
+The helmet of hope! Who has not experienced the energy of a mighty
+hope? It is always a force to be reckoned with in the day of life's
+battle. Hope is a splendid helmet, firmly covering the head, and
+defending all its thoughts and purposes and visions from the subtle
+assaults of the evil one. The helmet of hope is one of the best
+protections against "losing one's head"; it is the best security against
+all attacks made upon the mind by small but deadly fears; it is the only
+effective safeguard against petty but deadly compromise. Far away the
+best defence against all sorts of mental vagrancy and distraction is to
+have the executive chambers of the life encircled and possessed by a
+strong and brilliant hope.
+
+Now every student of the apostle Paul knows that he is an optimist. But
+he is an optimist, not because he closes his eyes, but because he opens
+them and uses them to survey the entire field of vision and possibility.
+He is an optimist, not because he cannot see the gross darkness,--no one
+has painted the darkness in blacker hues,--but because he can also see
+the light; and no one has portrayed the light with more alluring
+brilliance and glory. He is an optimist, not because he cannot see the
+loathsome presence of weakness, but because he sees the unutterable
+grace and love of God.
+
+Yes, he is a reasonable optimist, and I dare to say that you cannot
+find anywhere in human literature a hundred pages more glowing and
+radiant with the spirit of hope than in the letters of the apostle Paul.
+Nowhere can you travel with him, not even to the darkest and most tragic
+realms of human need, without catching the bright shining of a splendid
+hope. You know how it is when you walk along the shore with the full
+moon riding over the sea. Between you and the moon, and right across the
+troubled waters, there is a broad pathway of silver light. If you move
+up the shore the shining path moves with you. If you move down the shore
+still you have the silver path across the waves. Wherever you stand
+there is always between you and the moon a shining vista stretching
+athwart the restless sea. And wherever the great apostle journeyed, and
+through whatever cold or desolate circumstances, there was always
+between him and the risen Lord, the Lord of grace and love, a bright and
+broadening way of eternal hope. No matter where he is, and how appalling
+the need, no matter what corruption may gather about the shore on which
+he is walking, always there is the silver path of gospel-hope stretching
+from the human shore-line to the burning bliss of the eternal Presence.
+In Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Lystra, in Ephesus, in Philippi, in Rome,
+he was never without these holy beams. They moved with him wherever he
+went, for they were the outshining rays of the mercy of the eternal God.
+Yes indeed, he was an optimist born and sustained in grace. He saw a
+shining road of hope out of every pit, stretching from the miry clay to
+the awful and yet glorious sanctities of holiness and peace.
+
+Now our ordinary experience teaches us how much energy resides in a
+commanding hope. A big expectation is stored with wonderful dynamic, and
+it transmits its power to every faculty in the soul. The influence of a
+great hope fills the mind with an alert and sensitive trembling,
+inspiring every thought to rise as it were on tiptoe to await and greet
+the expected guest. A great hope pours its energy into the will,
+endowing it with the strength of marvellous patience and perseverance. I
+have lately read of an ingenious contrivance, which is now being used in
+some parts of Egypt, in which, by a subtle combination of glass
+receivers, the heat of the sun is collected, and the gathered energy
+concentrated and used in turning machinery in the varied ministries of
+agriculture. That is to say, the power of a diffused shining is directed
+to an engine and its strength enlisted in practical service. And so it
+is with the sunny light of a large hope. Its gathered energy is poured
+into the engine of the will, imparting glorious driving power, the power
+of "go" and laborious persistence.
+
+Every sphere of human interest provides examples of this principle.
+Turn to the realm of invention. An inventor has a great hope shining
+before him as a brilliant vision of possible achievement. With what
+energy of will it endows him, and with what tireless, sleepless,
+invincible patience! Think of the immeasurable endurance of the brothers
+Wright who were inspired by the great hope of achieving the conquest of
+the air! Their hope was indeed a helmet defending them against all
+withering suggestions of ease, protecting them against the call of an
+ignoble indolence which is so often heard in hours of defeat. An
+electric railway has just been introduced by its inventor to the British
+Government, which is capable of transmitting mails and parcels along a
+prepared track at the rate of three hundred miles per hour; and the
+inventor has recently quietly told us that he has been at work upon it
+for thirty years! But think how, all through those long and many
+fruitless years, his helmet of hope defended him, and especially
+protected him from those alluring suggestions which come from the mild
+climate of Lotus-Land, and which tempt a man to relax his tension and
+lie down in the pleasant and thymy banks of rest and ease.
+
+Or seek your examples in the realms of discovery. Read the chapters in
+Lord Lister's life which tell how he, braced and inspired by a mighty
+hope, laboured and laboured in the quest of an anćsthetic. Or turn to
+the equally fascinating pages which tell how Sir James Simpson toiled,
+and moiled, and dared, and suffered in the long researches which led to
+the discovery of chloroform. His will was rendered indomitable by the
+splendid hope of assuaging human pain.
+
+Or think again of the restless, tireless labours of hundreds of men who
+are to-day engaged in searching for the microscopic cause of cancer,
+that having found it they might isolate it, and discover an antagonist
+which shall work its complete destruction. There is a glorious hope
+shining across the cancer waste, and it is nerving the will of research
+with unconquerable perseverance. Yes, indeed, men wear a splendid
+helmet, even in the ways of common experience, when they wear the helmet
+of hope.
+
+And mark their condition when they lose it. Turn to the scriptural
+record of the voyage when Paul and his fellow-prisoners were being
+escorted by soldiers to take their trial in Rome: A tempestuous storm
+arose, and, in the power of a mighty hope to save the boat and
+themselves the men called out every ounce of their strength. But now
+note this connection in the narrative as I read it to you: "All hope was
+taken away." ... "We let her drift." That is it, and it offers a
+striking symbol of a common experience. While our hope is burning we
+steer; when our hope is gone out we drift. The motive power is gone, and
+the hopeless man is like a drifting hull in the midst of a wild and
+desolate sea.
+
+Or turn to the pages of Capt. Scott's journal when he and his party are
+surmounting colossal tasks in the chivalrous hope of winning for their
+country the honourable distinction of first discovery of the South Pole.
+The narrative just blazes with hope, and therefore it tingles with
+energy and shouts with song! But when Amundsen's flag was seen at the
+Pole, and their strong hope was gone, and the disappointed company began
+to return--O what heavy feet, and what accumulated burdens, and what
+fiercely added laboriousness to an already laborious road! Hope had
+gone, and they nobly trudged, and trudged, and trudged, to faint, and
+fall, and die! Aye, men and women, hope is a tremendous power. To have
+hope is to have always fresh reserves to meet every new expenditure of
+the will. To lose hope is like losing the dynamo, the secret of
+inspiration, and the once indomitable will droops and faints away. It
+just makes an infinite difference whether or not we are wearing the
+helmet of hope.
+
+But now, if all this is true of common hope and common experience, how
+is it with the supreme hope, "the hope of salvation?" What is this
+hope,--"the hope of salvation?" To whom is the apostle Paul giving this
+counsel? He is giving it to Christian believers in Ephesus: But were
+they not already saved? Why should he speak to them of "the hope of
+salvation" as though it were something still to be won? I remember when
+I was a mere boy going to Spurgeon's Tabernacle, and as I was retiring
+from the building at the close of the service, a gentleman laid his hand
+upon my shoulder, and said: "My boy, are you saved?" His question
+suggested that it was something I might already have experienced. Well,
+had not the Ephesian disciples passed through that same experience? A
+little while ago a London cabman stood at the foot of the pulpit-stairs
+in our church, and told me that by the grace of God he had been
+wonderfully saved. But the apostle speaks to these believers of "the
+hope of salvation" as though it were something still before them. They
+had taken a great step in discipleship in that vast and wicked city of
+Ephesus, crowded with all sorts of antagonisms, and they had boldly
+confessed themselves on the side of Christ. And yet, the apostle
+counsels them to wear as a helmet "the hope of salvation."
+
+The truth is that the apostle Paul uses all the three primary tenses
+in speaking of salvation. He speaks to believers in the past tense, and
+he says: "We were saved." And to the same believers he uses the present
+tense, and he says: "Ye are being saved." And yet again to the same
+believers he uses the future tense, "Ye shall be saved." All of which
+means that to this great apostle a gloriously full salvation stretches
+across the years from past to future, gathering riches with every
+passing day. Salvation to Paul was more than a step, it was also a walk.
+It was more than a crisis, it was also a prolonged process. It was more
+than the gift of new life, it was the maturing in growth and power. A
+drowning man, when he is lifted out of the water, is in a very profound
+sense vitally saved. But after this initial salvation there is the
+further salvation of re-collecting his scattered consciousness, and of
+recovering his exhausted strength. And in a very glorious sense a man is
+spiritually saved in a moment; in a moment in Christ Jesus he passed
+from death into life. But it is also equally true that a man is only
+saved in a lifetime, as he appropriates to himself more and more the
+grace and truth of the risen Lord. Yes, after we have been converted and
+saved, there is a further salvation in self-recovery, in self-discovery,
+all of which becomes ours in a fuller and richer discovery of Christ.
+Our possibilities of salvation in Christ Jesus stretch before us like
+range upon range of glorious mountains. When we have attained one range
+we have only obtained a new vantage-ground for beholding another; when
+that, too, has been climbed, still vaster and grander ranges rise into
+view. Every fresh addition to our Christlikeness increases our power of
+discernment, and every added power of discernment unfolds a larger
+vision and a more glorious and alluring hope. All believers in Christ
+Jesus have been saved. All believers in Christ Jesus are being saved.
+All believers in Christ Jesus will be saved. And therefore, says the
+apostle, always wear the helmet of hope, "the hope of salvation."
+
+Now perhaps we cannot better draw this meditation to a close in more
+immediate and practical purpose than by just gazing upon one or two of
+the hopes of the apostle Paul, if perchance by God's good grace we may
+appropriate them to our own souls. For he, too, is wearing the helmet of
+hope, the hope of salvation. What, then, does he hope for? What mighty
+hope is throwing the energies of its defences upon and around his soul?
+Here is one of his hopes; look at it: "In hope of the glory of God." He
+wore that hope, and he wore it like a helmet, and he wore it night and
+day. He had gazed upon the glory of the Lord, the wondrous light of
+grace and truth which shone in the face of Jesus Christ. And now he
+dared to hold the glorious hope of becoming glorified with the same
+glory. He dared to hope that his own soul would become translucent with
+the holy light of divine truth and purity. It almost makes one catch the
+breath to see such spiritual audacity. One has read of young boys
+trembling with artistic sensibility, bowing in the presence of the
+world's masterpieces in art or music, and becoming possessed with the
+amazing hope of one day sharing the master's light and glory. But here
+is a man who has been prostrate in the presence of his God. He has been
+humbly gazing upon "the chief among ten thousand and the altogether
+lovely." And now, in a daring which yet quiets the soul in reverence and
+prayerful lowliness, he tells his fellow-believers that he lives "in
+hope of the glory of God." What a hope! The hope of being glorified with
+God's glory, of being made gracious with His grace, of being made
+truthful with His truth, of being sanctified with His holiness, of being
+transformed into the same image, from glory unto glory! I say, what a
+hope, and therefore, what a helmet! With a helmet like that defending a
+man's brain, what a defence he has against all the petty devilries which
+seek to enter among our thoughts in the shape of mean purposes, and
+petty moral triflings, such as so often invade and desolate the whole
+realm of the mind! What a hope this is, and what a helmet; "the hope of
+the glory of God."
+
+And here is another way the apostle has of describing the hope he
+wears, "the hope of salvation;"--"To present us spotless before His
+throne." Quietly and reverently repeat that phrase, again, and again,
+and again, until something of its grandeur begins to fill your soul as
+the advancing light of the rising sun fills a vale in Switzerland with
+its soft and mellowing glory. "To present us spotless before His
+throne." What a hope! And yet this man wore it every day, in all the ups
+and downs, the victories and defeats of his ever-changing life. "To
+present us spotless before His throne!" Just think of wearing that hope
+in New York! And by God's good grace we can wear it; yes, indeed, we
+can, and what a helmet to wear! When a man has got that helmet on, and
+some sharp temptation is hurled at him, it will fall away from him like
+a paper pellet thrown against the armour plate of a mighty dreadnought.
+"To present us spotless!" Wear that helmet of hope, and the devil shall
+batter thee in vain. For what can the devil do with men and women in
+whom these hopes are blazing? He offers us his glittering snares, and
+they are revealed as common paste in the presence of genuine stones.
+They stand exposed as noisy fireworks in the presence of the stars.
+
+Let us wear the helmet of hope, the helmet of salvation, and we are
+quite secure. But let us put it on every day. Every morning let us put
+on the helmet, and often and again during the day let us feel that it is
+in its place. Let us begin the day by saying, "Now, my soul, live to-day
+in hope of the glory of God! Live to-day in the hope of being presented
+spotless before His throne! Live to-day in the hope of being 'filled
+unto all the fulness of God'." Let us put that helmet on, and let us do
+it deliberately, prayerfully, and trustfully, and in life's evil day we
+shall be able to stand, and having done all, to stand.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT
+
+
+    _Heavenly Father, Who hast given Thy Holy Spirit to comfort and
+    to guide Thy servants, teach us to trust His leading. Day by day
+    we would listen to His consolation and direction. When we open
+    Thy Word of Life we would rely upon His illuminating
+    interpretation. When the story of the character and the depths
+    of the teaching of Jesus are far beyond us, and seem
+    unapproachable, when doubts and fears assail the mind, let us
+    abide in quiet repose under the tuition of the indwelling
+    Spirit. When desire for the highest life fails, and hunger and
+    thirst after righteousness are forgotten in other pursuits, may
+    the kindly Spirit inspire afresh the ardor of enthusiasm which
+    He alone can create. When we have lost our bearings in the maze
+    of life teach us to look to the ever-present Guide Who brings
+    back into the clear path all Who trust Him; through Jesus
+    Christ. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT
+
+    "Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God."
+    Ephesians 6:17.
+
+
+Here is the Christian soldier with his sword, and his sword is the Word
+of God. And what a sword it is! "Then said Mr. Greatheart to Mr.
+Valiant-for-truth, Thou hast worthily behaved thyself; let me see thy
+sword. So he showed it him. When he had taken it into his hand and
+looked thereon a while, he said, Ha, it is a right Jerusalem blade. Then
+said Mr. Valiant-for-truth, It is so. Let a man have one of these
+blades, with a hand to wield it, and skill to use it, and he may venture
+upon an angel with it. He need not fear its holding if he can but tell
+how to lay on. Its edge will never blunt. It will cut flesh and bones,
+and soul and spirit and all." Yes indeed, this sword is a serviceable
+and most efficient weapon. And it might be profitable, in the very
+beginning of our meditation, to go on to the field of actual battle and
+watch one or two mighty swordsmen wielding the sword in actual war. And
+let us begin with Him who could wield the sword as none other could do
+and who never drew it in vain. "And the tempter came to Him and said, If
+Thou art the Son of God command that these stones be made bread." At
+once the Master's hand was on the hilt of His sword and He drew it forth
+for combat. "It is written man shall not live by bread alone." It was
+"the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God!" The place of battle
+is now changed, but the [missing text] unto Him, "All these things will
+I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." And again the Master
+whipped out His sword;--"Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou
+shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt Thou serve." It was
+"the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God!"
+
+Now turn your eyes to quite another field of battle where one of the
+Master's disciples, a very skilful swordsman, is in combat with a very
+deadly foe. "And when the people saw what Paul had done"--he had just
+given a cripple the power to walk--"they lifted up their voices saying,
+The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called
+Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker."
+Now what did the apostle do in the presence of so deadly a peril, a
+peril which garbed itself in the attractive robes of light? Immediately
+he drew out his sword, and fought his shining antagonist with a word
+from the 146th Psalm! That is excellent swordwork, by a most excellent
+swordsman! And he used "the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of
+God."
+
+Or turn once more to another field of battle, to the Valley of
+Humiliation, where "poor Christian was hard put to it. For he had gone
+but a little way before he espied a foul fiend coming over the field to
+meet him; his name was Apollyon." "Then did Christian draw, for he saw
+it was time to bestir him; Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts
+as thick as hail.... The sword combat lasted for about half a day, even
+till Christian was almost quite spent; for you must know that Christian,
+by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker. Then
+Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to
+Christian, and wrestling with him gave him a dreadful fall; and with
+that Christian's sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, I am
+sure of thee now. And with that he had almost pressed him to death, so
+that Christian began to despair of life. But as God would have it, while
+Apollyon was fetching his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this
+good man, Christian nimbly reached out his hand for his sword, saying,
+Rejoice not against me, oh mine enemy: when I fall I shall arise; and
+with that gave him a deadly thrust which made him give back as one that
+had received his mortal wound. Christian perceiving that made at him
+again, saying, 'Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
+through Him that loved us.' And with that Apollyon spread forth his
+broken wings, and sped him away, so that Christian saw him no more.... I
+never saw Christian all this while give as much as one pleasant look,
+till he perceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then
+indeed he did smile and look upward.... Then there came to him a man
+with some of the leaves of the tree of life, the which Christian took
+and applied to the wounds that he had received in the battle and was
+healed immediately." Surely to watch expert fighters like these, who
+turn their battlefields into fields of glory, makes one more ambitious
+to possess and wield that same two-edged sword, the sword of the Spirit
+which is the Word of God!
+
+Well now, it is this sword which Paul advises these young disciples at
+Ephesus to get and hold at all costs, and never to leave it rusting in
+the scabbard at home. And surely, if there was need for swordwork
+anywhere it was in that gay, shallow, materialistic city of Ephesus. We
+have been reading many terrible accounts of late of bayonet fighting in
+the trenches in Belgium and France, where gunnery attacks were
+unavailable, and where men came face to face in the hot breath of one
+another's passions, and were locked in the death-grip of hand-to-hand
+encounter. It was even so with the spiritual warfare in Ephesus. There
+was no long-range fighting, no far distant antagonisms, no remote or
+merely theoretical persecution. The foes of the soul were exceedingly
+real, exceedingly near, and exceedingly intimate. In Ephesus your enemy
+was upon you in a moment, and there was nothing for it but never to let
+the sword fall from your hand. Spiritual enemies approached the soul
+every hour of the day, and it was imperative to run them through with
+the sword of the truth. There were falsities, and subtleties, and
+evasions; there were ambiguities and sophistries; there were half truths
+linked with black falsehood, and white lies linked with snatches of
+truth; there were exaggerations and perversions; there were insinuations
+and evil counsels; there were mean expediencies and illicit compromises;
+there were hypocrisies of every kind in that prosperous city of Ephesus,
+tricked out in apparent seemliness, and perilous in all the wiles of the
+devil. What, then, was a young Christian to do in all that immoral
+welter? He must have his sword in hand, always in hand, and he must
+prick these bubbles, and pierce these showy disguises, and rend these
+deceptive veils, and he must do it at once, before they mastered him
+with the plausible counterfeits of the truth.
+
+I saw a photograph the other day from the European field of war, in
+which a company of soldiers were examining a load of hay. They were
+piercing it with their swords in the endeavour to find out if any foe
+lay hidden in the fragrant pile. And I could not but think of the
+warfare of the soul, and of the sweet and fragrant disguises in which
+the devil is so often concealed. The devil in a hay-rick! I have
+experienced it a thousand times. A deadly temptation hidden in some
+innocent expediency! Some fatal lure concealed in a popular custom!
+Corruption housing itself in a white lie! The enemy wearing a white
+robe! The devil, I say, in a hay-rick! In such conditions there was only
+one resource for these disciples in Ephesus, as there is only one
+resource for you and me to-day, to have our swords always ready, and to
+pierce these glistening falsities in the blessed name of the holy and
+unchanging God. Yes, whip out your sword, the sword of the Spirit, which
+is the Word of God.
+
+What, then, is this sword? It is "the Word of God." And what is this
+Word of God which we are to flash through all falsehood like the thrust
+of a gleaming sword? What is this Word which is to be our sword? Well,
+first of all, it is the word of divine truth; God's way of thinking
+about things. And therefore when we are wielding the sword we are using
+a thought of God. We are to use God's thought about a thing in fighting
+all other thoughts about that thing. For instance, we are to take God's
+thought about life, and use it as a sword to meet and destroy all mean
+and unworthy conceptions of life. We are to take God's thought about sin
+and use it in combating all the lax and deadly conceptions of sin which
+are so loose and rampant in our own day. We are to take God's thought
+about holiness, and use it in fighting all ignoble compromises which may
+satisfy a poor standard in the kingdom of the letter, but which have no
+standing in the more glorious realm of the spirit. We are to take God's
+thought about worship, and fight all the little, mean, seductive
+ritualisms which so frequently strut about in royal and gorgeous robes,
+but which are empty of all vital spiritual wealth and power.
+
+And so with a thousand other relations. God's thought about a thing is
+to be our sword in fighting all the debasing thoughts of that thing; it
+may be God's thought of work, or of wealth, or of success, or of
+failure, or God's thought of pleasure, or of service, or of death. What
+does God think about a thing? That is my sword, the thought of God which
+is the word of God. And we are to take that shining, flaming, flashing
+thought, and use it as a sword among all the creeping, crawling things,
+or against all the flying and bewitching subtleties of things which
+abounded in Ephesus, and which are equally prolific in London or New
+York. And so does the apostle give us this counsel: "Take the sword of
+the spirit, which is the thought or word of God."
+
+And now I can add a second characteristic of the sword, a
+characteristic which amplifies and corroborates the first. This word of
+God, which is to be our sword, is not only the word of divine truth as
+laid upon the mind. It is also the word of divine commandment as laid
+upon the will. It is a word which divinely reveals our personal duty,
+imposing upon us some imperative mission. Some word of God comes to us
+with the mysterious suggestion of obligation, and we often receive it
+over against some soft and wooing temptation to an indulgent indolence;
+and we are to take the divine word of obligation, and with it fight and
+slay the soft seduction to ease.
+
+We have this sort of warfare most vividly described in the experience
+of the prophet Jonah. Let me set it before you. "And the word of the
+Lord came unto Jonah, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and
+cry against it!" Let us note the lines of this experience. The word of
+the Lord came to Jonah as an imperative and an obligation. It said
+"Nineveh!" But another word came to Jonah, a soft, luxurious, seductive
+word, luring him to Tarshish. And there you have all the conditions of
+spiritual warfare; and the only way for the believer is to take the word
+of obligation, and use it as a mighty sword against the word of
+seduction; he must take his sword and slay it, or chase it in miserable
+flight from the field. The word of duty is the word of God, and
+therefore the word of duty is thy sword against every plausible
+temptation that would snare thee to disloyal ease.
+
+There is still a third descriptive word about the sword, and which
+again corroborates and enriches the others. The word of God, which is
+the sword of the spirit, is not only the word of divine truth laying
+God's thought upon the mind; and not only the word of divine commandment
+laying God's purpose upon the will; it is also the word of divine
+promise laying God's strengthening comfort upon the heart. Just think of
+that fine sword, the word of promise, being handed to these young and
+tempted disciples in this awful, hostile city of Ephesus. I think we may
+easily imagine, without presumption, how they would apply the apostle's
+counsel, and how the older men among them would train the younger men in
+the expert use of this shining sword. They would say: "Whenever you go
+out to your work, amid all the cold, bristling antagonisms of the world,
+carry the sword of promise! When your circumstances seem to mock you
+because of your unnerving loneliness, whip out the sword of promise!
+When you appear to be in a minority of one, and the enemy swarms in
+menace around you on every side, carry this sword of promise in your
+right hand, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' And when the
+enemy taunts you because of your weakness, or your want of culture, or
+your lack of rank and social prestige, or your nobodyism and nothingism,
+whip out the sword and fight the taunt with this word of promise,
+'Neither shall any one pluck you out of my hand'!" Thus do I think these
+disciples would speak to one another, as, blessed be God, disciples can
+speak to one another to-day. When the devil comes to us in our
+loneliness, in our weakness, in our seeming abandonment, let us lay hold
+of the word of grace, and fight all the enemies' taunts with the divine
+promise, and pierce them through and through, turning the foe to rout,
+and remaining more than conquerors on the hard and finely won field.
+
+Well, such is what I think to be the sword. It is the word of divine
+truth, it is the word of divine commandment, and it is the word of
+divine promise. It is a superlatively excellent sword, "it is a right
+Jerusalem blade." "Let a man have one of these blades, with a hand to
+wield it, and skill to use it, and he may venture upon an angel with
+it." Its edge will never blunt, for it is "the sword of the spirit,
+which is the word of God."
+
+Where, then, can we find this word of God which is to be our sword of
+the spirit. Well, first of all, we can find the word of God in the
+sacred Scriptures. We can get our sword from its splendid armoury. Here
+is the word which gives the revelation of truth, telling me how the
+great God thinks about things, and therefore, telling me how to think
+amid all the plausible errors of our time. And here, too, is the word
+which gives the revelation of duty, telling me what the great God would
+have me do. And here also is the word which gives the revelation of
+promise, telling me what resources are prepared for them who follow the
+fair gleams of truth and take the divine road of duty and obedience.
+Yes, the word of God is in the old Book, and here you can find your
+sword.
+
+But sometimes the word of God is given to us, not through the medium of
+a book, not even the book of the Scriptures, but in a direct and
+immediate message to our own souls. Oh, yes, sometimes the Captain of
+our salvation gives me my sword without my having to make recourse to
+the written word. He speaks to me and hands me my sword with no
+intermediary between us. The word of the Lord comes unto thee and unto
+me as it came to the herdman Amos, and the courtier Isaiah, and to the
+fisherman Peter, and to the university student Paul. He speaks to thee
+and to me. "Hath He not promised, and shall He not do it"? "Thine ears
+shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way; walk ye in it."
+
+    "And His that gentle voice we hear,
+       Soft as the breath of even;
+     That checks each fault, and calms each fear,
+       And speaks of heaven!"
+
+If the sword of the spirit is the word of God, then sometimes I take my
+sword immediately from my Sovereign's hand,--the word of truth, the word
+of duty, and the word of promise,--and like St. Francis of Assisi, and
+St. Catherine of Sienna, and George Fox, all of them mystics, and all of
+them deep in the knowledge of the mind and heart of God, I, too, can
+take the sword and use it on the wide and changing battlefields of life,
+and be more than conqueror through Him Who loved me and gave Himself for
+me. "Take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God."
+
+Well, then, let us take the sword; let us draw it, and let us use it.
+Let us reverently find the word in the Book of Holy Writ, or in the
+secret chamber of our own soul; and then let us carry it as our sword to
+the immediate occasion, and to the next stage upon life's road. Let us
+have the sword ready, always ready; let us be always at attention,
+waiting with the word of God to meet the tempting word of man. A man
+without a sword is in a sorry way when the devil leaps upon him. That
+was the tragic plight of Judas Iscariot. When the chief priests and
+scribes came to bargain with him, to induce him to sell his Lord, he
+ought to have had his sword ready, and to have run it through the
+devilish suggestion when it was only newly born. But somehow, somehow,
+he had lost his sword, and he was undone--"and he covenanted with them
+for thirty pieces of silver"! And when you and I are tempted to sell the
+Lord, when we are tempted to make a dirty bargain of any kind, when we
+are tempted to prefer money to integrity, or unholy ease to stern duty,
+or soft flattery to rugged truth, let us have our swords in our
+hands,--"the sword of the spirit which is the word of God"--and let us
+slay the suggestion at its very birth. Have your sword ready. You may
+need it before you get home. Have your sword ready! Fight the good fight
+of faith, and lay hold on eternal life.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE SOLDIER'S USE OF PRAYER
+
+
+    _Almighty God, Our Father, it is by Thy grace that we attain
+    unto holiness, and it is by Thy light that we find wisdom. We
+    humbly pray that Thy grace and light may be given unto us, so
+    that we may come into the liberty of purity and truth. Wilt Thou
+    graciously exalt our spirits and enable us to live in heavenly
+    places in Christ Jesus? Impart unto us a deep dissatisfaction
+    with everything that is low, and mean, and unclean, and create
+    within us such pure desire that we may appreciate the things
+    which Thou hast prepared for them that love Thee. Wilt Thou
+    receive us as guests of Thy table? Give us the glorious sense of
+    Thy presence, and the precious privilege of intimate communion.
+    Feed us with the bread of life; nourish all our spiritual
+    powers; help us to find our delight in such things as please
+    Thee. Give us strength to fight the good fight of faith. Give us
+    holy courage, that we may not be daunted by any fear, or turn
+    aside from our appointed task. Make us calm when we are to tread
+    an unfamiliar road, and may Thy presence give us companionship
+    divine. Meet with us, we humbly pray Thee, in all the appointed
+    means of grace, and may the joyful remembrance of this service
+    inspire us in all common life and service of after days. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE SOLDIER'S USE OF PRAYER
+
+    "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
+    and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
+    for all saints; and for me that utterance may be given unto me,
+    that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of
+    the gospel." Ephesians 6:18, 19.
+
+
+We have been engaged in studying the different pieces of the Christian
+soldier's armour as it is described to us by the apostle Paul. Let us
+now glance at the warrior as he stands before us fully armed and ready
+for the field. His loins are girt about with truth, the truth revealed
+in Jesus Christ our Lord. He is protected back and front with a coat of
+mail, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, a righteousness which covers
+him in a moment as with a garment, and then little by little imparts to
+him the holy likeness of his Lord. His feet are shod with readiness, and
+are swiftly obedient to do the King's bidding and to carry his message
+of grace and good-will. He bears the shield of faith, his sure screen
+from every deadly dart springing from any kind of circumstance, whether
+in the cloudless noon or in the blackest midnight. On his head there is
+the helmet of salvation, the helmet of a mighty hope, protecting his
+mind from the invasion of deadly distractions, and from all the
+belittling suggestions of the evil one. In his hand he carries the sword
+of the Spirit, the word or thought of God, the shining thought wherewith
+every other kind of thought is overthrown or put to utter rout.
+
+Now that, surely, is a brave and gleaming equipment. Surely the armour
+is all-sufficient, and the well-appointed, well-defended warrior is now
+ready for the field! Let him go forth to meet the great enemy of souls.
+Let him encounter all the wiles of the devil, and let him so hold
+himself and so use himself as to convert every hour of opportunity into
+a season of spiritual glory. No, no, not yet! Says the apostle,
+"Steady!" With all his shining armour his equipment is not yet complete.
+There is one other vital thing to be named, and this the Christian
+warrior must take along with him, for his warfare will be hopeless if he
+leaves it behind. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
+the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and
+supplication for all saints."
+
+Now why should the Christian warrior pray? He must pray as a suppliant
+for the robust health of his own spirit. Yes, but why should he pray for
+the maintenance of his own spiritual health? What is the vital
+relationship between the praying soul and the attainment of moral and
+spiritual robustness? How is prayer related to a man's moral force? This
+is the relationship. A praying warrior receives into his soul the
+grace-energies of the eternal God. The power of grace is just the holy
+love and strength and beauty of the holy Godhead flowing into the needs
+of the soul and filling them with its own completeness. Now we do not
+pray in order to make God willing to impart this grace, but in order to
+fit ourselves to receive it. We do not pray to ingratiate God's
+good-will, but to open our souls in hospitality. We do not pray in order
+to create a friendly air, but to let it in, not to propitiate God but to
+appropriate Him. We do not pray to turn a reluctant God toward
+ourselves, but to turn our reluctant selves toward a ready and bountiful
+God.
+
+It is imperative that we should lay hold of this teaching very firmly.
+It is of the utmost moment we should know what we are doing when we pray
+for the bracing and sanctifying energies of the Holy Spirit. Prayer
+then, I say, is first and chiefly the establishment of communion with
+God. Prayer is the clearing of the blocked roads which are crowded with
+all sorts of worldly hindrances. Prayer is the preparing of the way of
+the Lord. When I turn to the Lord in prayer I open the doors and windows
+of my soul toward the heavenlies, and I open them for the reception of
+any gifts of grace which God's holy love may wish me to receive. My
+reverent thought in prayer perfects communion between my soul and God.
+
+Let me offer an illustration. I am told there is electricity in my
+house. I am told that this mysterious, invisible, electric spirit is
+waiting to be my minister and to serve me in a dozen different ways. I
+go into a room where the genius is said to be waiting, and yet the room
+is held in darkness. Where is this friendly spirit? Where is the light
+which is one of its promised services? And then I am told that an action
+of mine, quite a simple one, is required, and that when the action has
+been performed the waiting spirit will reveal itself in radiant beams.
+And so I bring my will into play, and I push a button, or I lift a tiny
+lever, and my action completes the circuit, and the subtle energy leaps
+into the carbon filament and turns my darkness into light.
+
+That is it! My action completes the circuit! And when I turn my will to
+pray, when I seek the holy, sanctifying power of God, my prayer
+completes the circuit between my soul and God, and I receive whatever
+the inexhaustible fountain of grace is always waiting to bestow. And so
+do I say that prayer is first of all, and most of all, the establishing
+of a vital _communion_ between the soul and God.
+
+Lord Tennyson, in what must have been a wonderful conversation on the
+subject of prayer with Mr. Gladstone, and Holman Hunt, and James
+Addington Symonds, said that to him prayer was the opening of the
+sluice-gates between his soul and the waters of eternal life. It is
+worth while just to dwell upon Tennyson's figure for a moment. The
+figure may have been taken from a canal. You enter a lock and you are
+shut up within its prison. And then you open the sluice-gates, and the
+water pours into your prison and lifts you up to the higher level, and
+your boat emerges again on a loftier plane of your journey.
+
+Or the figure may have been taken from a miller's wheel: There are the
+miller and his mill. And the wheel is standing idle, or it is running
+but sluggishly and wearily at its work. And then the miller opens the
+sluice-gate, and the waiting water rushes along, and leaps upon the
+wheel, and makes it sing in the bounding rapidity of its motion. Prayer,
+says Tennyson, is the opening of the sluice-gates and the letting into
+the soul of the waiting life and power of God. Prayer opens the
+sluice-gates, and the water of life floods the sluggish affections, and
+freshens the drowsy sympathies, and braces and speeds the will like the
+glorious rush of the stream upon the miller's wheel.
+
+That, to me, is the dominant conception of prayer. Prayer opens the
+soul to God. Prayer opens the life to the workings of infinite grace.
+And now I see why the Christian soldier should be so urgently counselled
+to pray. Prayer keeps open his lines of communication. Prayer keeps him
+in touch with his base of supplies. Without prayer he is isolated by the
+flanking movements of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and he will
+speedily give out in the dark and cloudy day. "Men ought always to pray
+and not to faint."
+
+If that is one reason why the Christian soldier should pray in order to
+maintain the bounding health of his own spirit, we are now faced with
+the second question as to when he should pray. And here is the answer of
+the veteran warrior Paul: "Praying always." Not at some time, but at all
+times! "Praying always." But can we do that? "Always"? But I am called
+upon to earn my daily bread. I have to face a hundred different
+problems. Every bit of gray matter in my brain is devoting its strength
+to the immediate task. Is it possible for us to think of two things at
+once? Can we be thinking out some absorbing question in business, and at
+the same time be praying to God? One thing is surely perfectly clear, we
+cannot always be thinking of God: It is constitutionally impossible.
+
+But now, while we cannot always be thinking of God, and always speaking
+to God, we can always be mentally disposed toward Him, so that whatever
+we are doing there can be a mental leaning or bias towards His most holy
+will. Let me show you what I mean. We must reverently dare to reason in
+this great matter as we reason in other relationships. Turn, then, for
+an illustration, to common gymnastics. In physical gymnastics there is
+no need for us to be always exercising, to be at it every moment of the
+waking day. The body does not need it. Indeed, it would resent it, and
+rebel against it. But here is the healthy genius of gymnastic exercises.
+Regular exercises give the body a certain healthy pose, a certain vigour
+and excellence of carriage, which the body retains between the exercises
+when we are going about our accustomed work. That is to say, conscious
+exercise makes unconscious habit. Our conscious exercise forces the body
+into attitudes which persist as habits when we are doing something else.
+We can retain the pose of the gymnasium on the street, and we can retain
+it without thinking.
+
+And so it is with spiritual exercises when they are as real as the
+exercises in the gymnasium. When a man prays, and prays as deliberately
+and purposely as he practices physical exercises, when he drills his
+soul as he drills his body, he gives his mind and soul a certain pose, a
+certain attitude, a certain stateliness and loftiness of carriage. He
+gives his soul a healthy bias towards God, and the soul retains the bias
+when he is no longer upon his knees. His soul carries itself Godward
+even when he is earning his daily bread. God can get at him any time and
+anywhere! The way is open, the communion is unbroken!
+
+That is the vital logic of the matter. By regular spiritual exercises
+we can subdue the soul to spiritual habit. Again and again throughout
+the day it is possible for us, by a conscious upward glance, to confirm
+the habit; until it happens that the soul is always in the posture of
+prayer,--in business, in laughter, in trade, at home, or abroad, always
+in prayer,--and therefore, in every part of the wide and varied
+battleground of life receiving the all-sufficient grace and love of God.
+And so the Christian soldier is to be "Praying always, with all prayer
+and supplication in the spirit."
+
+But the Christian soldier is not only a suppliant for his own spiritual
+health. He is much more than this. The apostle counsels him to be a
+suppliant for the health of the entire Christian army. "Praying always,
+with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto
+with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." That is to say,
+the Christian soldier not only prays for the health of his own spirit,
+but for a healthy "esprit de corps" throughout the whole militant Church
+of Christ. It is his duty and privilege to be prayerfully jealous for
+all the saints, and for the spiritual equipment of all his
+fellow-soldiers on the field.
+
+Now this is a very wonderful privilege entrusted to the disciple of
+Christ. To every believer there is entrusted the marvellous ministry of
+helping others to receive the energies of divine grace, and to
+strengthen them in the fierce combats of their own "evil day." For the
+character of our evil days is very varied. Your evil day may not be
+mine, and my evil day may not be yours. What makes an evil day for you
+may never trouble me, and what makes my day difficult and tempestuous
+may leave you perfectly serene. It is to be accounted for in many ways.
+The differences in our circumstances account, to some extent, for the
+differences in our evil days. The differences in our occupations create
+great differences in our daily warfare in the spirit. The differences in
+our temperaments make no two persons' battles quite alike. And yet, with
+all our differences, we are all called upon to stand in our own evil
+day, "and having done all, to stand." Peter's evil day would be very
+different from John's. Thomas' evil day would be very different from
+Nathanael's. Dorcas' evil day would be quite different to the evil days
+which gloomed upon Euodia and Synteche. But blessed be God, by the holy
+ministry of prayer we can strengthen one another to "stand in the evil
+day." We can help every soldier to keep his spiritual roads open and to
+prepare the way of the Lord. We are called upon to be sentinel
+suppliants on their behalf, "watching thereunto with all perseverance
+and supplication for all saints." We are to be ever on the look-out,
+vigilant for the entire army of the Lord, divinely jealous for its
+healthy spirit, and seeking for every man in the ranks the grace and
+glory which we seek for ourselves. What a magnificent man this true
+soldier of the Lord must be!
+
+And then, just to finish it all, and by one example to show us how deep
+and wide is this ministry of supplication, the apostle Paul asks the
+young Ephesian soldiers to pray for him. "And for me, that utterance may
+be given unto me." Let us carefully note this, and let us observe its
+heartening significance. These young, immature Christians in Ephesus,
+trembling in their early faith, are asked to pray for the old warrior in
+Rome. He is now "an ambassador in bonds," held in captivity in imperial
+Rome, and the young soldiers in Ephesus are asked to be
+sentinel-suppliants for the stricken soldier far away. Do you believe
+this? And what does he want them to pray for? Listen to him again. "And
+for me, that utterance may be given unto me." Have you got the real
+inwardness of that appeal? A poor slave in Ephesus may, by his own
+prayer, anoint the lips of a great apostle with grace and power. What a
+vista of powerful possibility! Do all congregations realize that
+privilege and service concerning their ministers? "For me, that
+utterance may be given unto me." Do I realize that my prayers, obscure
+and nameless though I be, can give utterance to a Paul, a Livingstone, a
+Moffatt, or a Chalmers? Do I realize that I can pour grace upon their
+lips? What a brave and splendid privilege! Am I using it? I cannot get
+out of my mind the vision of some poor slave in Ephesus pouring grace
+and truth upon the apostle's lips in Rome, and I cannot get out of my
+imagination the surprise which awaited the slave in glory, when Paul
+asked him, as a fellow-labourer, to share in gathering in the sheaves.
+
+"And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my
+mouth boldly." And can we do that for a man, and do it by prayer? Can
+one soldier give another soldier nerve, and can he do it by prayer? Can
+he chase away his fears? Can he change timidity into pluck? Can he
+transform a lamb into a lion? What a marvellous power has God given to
+me and thee! The unbounded privilege of it all! Some slave in Ephesus
+giving new boldness to Paul in Rome, and enabling Paul to take some new
+ground and conquer it for the Lord! And once again I say, to be called
+to share in the apostle's triumphs! If any one has prayed for me, your
+fellow-soldier, that utterance and courage may be given unto me, and if
+by my ministry some depressed and retreating soldier finds heart again,
+and takes up his fallen sword, and fights anew the good fight, then that
+suppliant shall share my holy conquest in the Lord, and the joy of the
+Lord shall be his strength.
+
+So once again, let us hear the apostle's counsel, and keep it in our
+hearts. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
+and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all
+saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open
+my mouth boldly, to make known the mysteries of the gospel."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+"WATCH YE!"
+
+
+    _Eternal God, we bow before Thee as the children of grace and
+    love. Purify our souls, make our eyes keen and watchful, in
+    order that we may discern Thy purpose at every turning of the
+    way. Help us to hallow all our circumstances whether they appear
+    friendly or adverse, and may we subdue them all to the King's
+    will. We pray that we may obtain new visions of the glory of
+    Christ. May His gospel of grace become more exceedingly precious
+    as we gaze into its unsearchable wealth. Let in the light as our
+    eyes are able to bear it. Tell us some of the many things which
+    are yet withholden because we are not able to bear them. May we
+    exercise our senses in discernment, that so we may be led into
+    the deeper secrets of Thy truth. And wilt Thou graciously grant
+    unto us new possibilities of service. May we light lamps on many
+    a dark road. May we give help to many a tired pilgrim who is
+    burdened by the greatness of the way. May we give cups of
+    refreshment to those who are thirsty and faint. And may our own
+    faith and hope restore the flickering light where courage is
+    nearly spent. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+WATCH YE!
+
+    "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be
+    strong." I Corinthians 16:13.
+
+
+This is the counsel of a brave warrior, experienced and weather-beaten,
+writing to raw and comparatively untried recruits. One is reminded of
+the veteran Lord Roberts when he lately spake to young English recruits
+who had not yet been baptized in the actual flames of battle, advising
+them about their own warfare of the spirit, and counselling them on no
+account to forfeit their self-respect and self-control. And this tried
+warrior, Paul, is addressing a little company of Christian recruits in
+the city of Corinth. Corinth is now wiped out, buried in the accumulated
+débris of the centuries. Here and there an excavated column bears
+desolate witness to the glory of former days, but Corinth as a city is
+sealed up in an unknown grave. But just behind the site of the city
+there appears the Acrocorinthius, rising to the height of two thousand
+feet. I climbed this famous hill in the spring because I wanted to see
+the panorama on which the apostle had gazed, and also to see the setting
+and relations of this once imperial city. It was a wonderful vision of
+natural glory, with deep, far-stretching valleys, and distant gleams of
+the sea, and range upon range of hills, many of them snow-covered and
+glistening in the blazing sunshine of a splendid noon. There below was
+the plain on which Corinth found her shelter, and beyond the plain the
+narrow water-way, which gave her such intimate relations with the
+commerce of the Mediterranean; and beyond the water-way there is a touch
+of old romance, for there rise the shrines of the muses, the twin peaks
+of Helicon and Parnassus.
+
+Standing on this elevated eminence I tried to realize the conditions in
+which this little company of Christian recruits had to live the
+consecrated life. They had to fight the Christian warfare amid the soft
+luxuriousness of Corinth, a luxuriousness which relaxed the moral fibre,
+and made the Corinthians conspicuous for their depravity, "even amid all
+the depraved cities of a dying heathenism." Corinth was a city of
+abyssmal profligacy; "it was the Vanity Fair of the Roman Empire, at
+once the London and Paris of the ancient world"! And it was in this
+city, away there on the plain before me, that these untried Christian
+recruits had to "fight the good fight of faith."
+
+Then I thought of the little church in which they found their
+fellowship. It was besieged by continual assaults of their Jewish foes.
+It was torn with internal divisions. It was honeycombed by deadly
+heresies. It was defiled by sensuality. Nearly all the members of the
+church were of obscure origin and standing. Many of them were slaves. It
+was in these conditions of fierce and growing difficulties that these
+disciples had to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. And it is to this
+little company of Christian recruits that the apostle sends this
+challenging letter in which is found the rousing bugle-peal of my text.
+"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."
+
+Now I will confess to you that times and again during the last few
+months this trumpet-blast has sounded in my ears, as though it were a
+clarion-call to the Christians of to-day. For we too have our warfare
+upon a most exacting field. We have fallen upon gravely troubled times.
+We are witnessing a resurgence of devilry that is perfectly appalling.
+The baser passions have become frightfully aggressive, and a crude
+animalism is at large like a surging, boiling sea which has burst its
+dykes. Some of us had begun to dream that the sweet angel of peace was
+almost at our gates, and that nothing could happen to drive her away;
+and now, when we look out of the gate, it is no fair angel-messenger
+which we see, but the red fury of unprecedented strife and slaughter.
+And amid all this we have to live the Christian life.
+
+But it is not only the "fightings without" which trouble us. There are
+also "the fears within." Many of our venerable assumptions are lying in
+ruin. Our spiritual world has suffered an upheaval as though with the
+convulsion of an earthquake, and many of us are trembling and confused.
+What then shall we do in this terrible hour? What path shall we take?
+Can we settle our goings upon any promising road of purpose and
+endeavour? Along what lines shall we pull ourselves together? And in
+answer to all these questions I bring you this well-tried counsel of the
+great Christian apostle, this bugle-peal from the first century, and I
+ask you to let it be to you as the inspired word of the living God.
+"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." Let
+us examine the counsel in order that we may buckle it on to our souls.
+
+Here then is the first note of this soldierly blast. "Watch ye!" The
+phrase literally means "keep awake!" You perhaps think there is no need
+of that counsel to-day. You probably think that in times like these our
+difficulty is not to keep awake but to go to sleep. I am not so sure
+about that. If we have loved ones at the war there will not be the
+remotest peril of our going to sleep. Every post that comes to our door
+will startle us like the crack of doom. Every headline in the daily
+press will tighten our nerves in sleepless attention. But when we have
+no flesh and blood at the front, when many miles roll between us and the
+fields of war, when we are only spectators, a certain drowsiness is not
+so far away as we may suppose. When we only read about things, things
+become familiar, and the familiar is apt to lose its terror. Custom is a
+dull narcotic, and frequent repetition dims our apprehension. When the
+Titanic went down the whole city spoke in whispers, such a dread was
+resting over our souls. But now a dreadnought goes down, or a half dozen
+cruisers, and we scarcely catch our breath at the news. The cushion of
+familiarity is thickening between us and realities, and awful facts do
+not hit us on the raw. The awful becomes less awful by repetition, and
+we grow less sensitive as the tragedies increase. The newspaper
+statistics cease to be significant, and the descriptive adjectives
+become the tamest blanks. And therefore there is need for the apostle's
+trumpet blast to sound in our ears. "Keep awake!" Do not let familiarity
+become an opiate, so putting the senses to sleep that the direst woes
+become a painless commonplace. "Keep awake!" Make it a matter of will.
+Bring the stream of vital thought to bear upon the field. Exercise the
+imagination. Nourish the sympathies. We must keep awake, for our primary
+hope of emancipation in this dark hour is to remain sensitive, to be
+capable of being shocked and wounded with the appalling blows of every
+succeeding day.
+
+But it is not only wakefulness, but also watchfulness which the apostle
+enjoins in the counsel of our text. The soldier of Jesus is to be awake
+and watchful with all the keen quest of a sentinel peering about him
+night and day. But our watchfulness must be intelligent and disciplined,
+and we must carefully survey the entire field. We must keep awake, and
+we must diligently watch for all enemies of the sanctified brotherhood
+of the race, as a sentry would watch every suspicious movement in the
+night. What are the real enemies behind all the appalling desolation and
+sorrow of our time? Is it militarism? Then "Watch ye!" Is it something
+deeper than militarism? Is it racial animosity and jealousy and
+prejudice? Then "Watch ye!" Is it something even deeper than racial
+antipathy? Is it a profound and deadly materialism in all the nations--a
+materialism which has been tricked out in the ribbons of culture, and
+disguised in the glamour of progress? Then "Keep awake, Watch ye!" Or is
+it a faithless church, muttering many shibboleths, but confessing no
+vital faith; a church which has been too much a pretense, offering no
+strong moral and spiritual preservatives, and supplying no saving salt
+to social fellowships, and, therefore, not exercising any restraint upon
+moral degeneracy and corruption? "Keep awake, and Watch ye!" And amid
+all the horrors and agonies of our day fasten your eyes upon the real
+enemy of the Lord Jesus, the outstanding antagonist of His kingdom of
+righteousness and truth.
+
+But there is a further word to say about our vigilance. We must keep
+awake and watchful, not only to detect the busy lurking, ambushed foes,
+but also to see all the bright and wonderful things of the hour, all the
+splendid happenings which are favourable to the holy will and Kingdom of
+our Lord. What should we think of a sentinel who could not distinguish
+between enemy and friend? And what shall we say of a soldier-sentinel of
+Christ who has no eye for the great and friendly happenings on the
+field? Watch ye, and behold the growing seriousness of the world;
+frivolity has almost begun to apologize for itself, and tinselled gaiety
+is ill at ease. Watch ye, and behold the unsealing of multitudinous
+springs of human sympathy, and the flowing of holy currents from the
+ends of the earth. Watch ye, and behold the magnificent courage which in
+every land of strife is purging families from the dross of indolence and
+indifference, and educing the gold of chivalry and sacrifice. Watch ye,
+and behold the marvellous re-equipment of Christian motive--thousands
+upon thousands of Christian disciples realizing as they have never done
+before that the world needs the vital redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus,
+and that without Him human brotherhood will remain a phantom and a
+dream. A real wakeful watchman will see these things. He will not only
+record the things of the night and the nightmares, but he will be as
+"they who watch for the morning." The Moslem priest appears on the tower
+of his mosque half an hour after sunset to call the people to prayer,
+but he also appears on the tower half an hour before sunrise, when the
+grey gleams of morning are faintly falling upon the night. And we too,
+watchmen of Jesus, must watch for the sunrise as well as for the
+sunsets, and we too must tell what fair jewels of hope we see shining on
+the dark robe of the night. Brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ is abroad!
+"Watch ye, for at such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man will
+come."
+
+Now let us consider the second note of the counsel which is given by
+this warrior, Paul. "Stand fast in the faith." Just try to realize that
+bracing counsel coming to these young recruits in the city of Corinth.
+Let me try to paraphrase it as I think it would be interpreted to them.
+"When the soft, enervating air of Corinth's luxuriousness steals over
+you like the mild air of Lotus-Land, 'Stand fast in the faith'! When the
+cold wind of persecution assails you like an icy blast from the north,
+'Stand fast in the faith'! If some supercilious philosopher comes along
+and breathes cynically upon your new-found piety and devotion, 'Stand
+fast in the faith'! Stand fast in your faith and meet all your
+antagonisms there."
+
+And has that counsel no pertinency for the Christian believers of our
+own time? There are some among us who are ready, because of the
+unspeakable horrors through which we are passing, to throw their faith
+away like obsolete arms and armour. Now men who can drop their faith in
+the day of real emergency have never been really held by it. That is
+surely true; men who can drop their faith like a handkerchief have never
+known their faith as a strong and vital defence. And yet that is what
+you sometimes find them doing in modern novels. They just drop their
+faith as they would drop a pair of gloves. Robert Elsmere, in Mrs.
+Humphry Ward's story of twenty years ago, dropped his faith in about ten
+days. If my memory serves me truly, George Eliot dropped her faith in
+about the same length of time. If our faith has ever meant anything
+vital, it will be as difficult to drop it as to drop our skin. But it is
+the inexperienced who are in peril. It is the young recruit who is
+dangerously convulsed by the upheavals of our day, and it is to him I
+bring the nerving counsel of the Lord: "Stand fast in the faith!"
+
+"Stand fast in the faith!" What faith? "The faith once for all delivered
+to the saints." Stand fast in the faith of the atoning Saviour as the
+secret of the reconciliation of mankind. Stand fast in the faith of the
+risen Lord as the secret and promise of racial union and brotherhood.
+Stand fast in the faith of the Holy Spirit as the source of all the
+light and cheer which illumines the race. Stand fast in your own
+personal faith in the exalted Lord. Don't doubt Him! Don't suspect Him!
+Don't desert Him! Above all, don't sell Him! In this hour of darkness,
+when devilry seems to be pulling down the very pillars of the temple,
+stand fast in the faith, and let this be your strong but humble cry:
+
+    "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
+     Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
+     The labour of the olive shall fail,
+     And the fields shall yield no meat;
+     The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
+     And there shall be no herd in the stalls:
+     Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
+     I will joy in the God of my salvation."
+
+And the third note in the great apostle's counsel in this: "Quit you
+like men." Our translators have taken four words to express a single
+word in the original letter. We have no one English word which can carry
+the splendid load of meaning. It really means--play the man! It really
+means--no funk! All the school children will know the value of that
+word. It is a good strong vital English word, and I am sure it expresses
+the spirit of the apostle's counsel to these young recruits. Lowell uses
+it in the Bigelow Papers: "To funk right out o' p'litical strife ain't
+thought to be the thing." No funk, soldiers of Christ! I have sometimes
+heard men talk of late as though the Lord were dead, and the game is up,
+and the Kingdom is in ruins. "Play the man!" The European soldiers of
+every nation are showing the world in their own sphere what it means to
+play the man. Some of us are becoming almost afraid to call ourselves
+soldiers of Jesus when we see what a true soldier really is. Think of
+it! Think of his readiness for the front! Think of his laughter in
+sacrifice! Think of his song in the midst of danger and pain! Think of
+his endurance even unto death! And then, think how we stand up and sing
+"Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war"! And shall we funk in
+the day of darkness and disaster, and after months of appalling
+bloodshed and woe shall we talk as if the campaign of righteousness were
+ended, and the Kingdom of Jesus is overturned? Let us stop this kind of
+talk. Let us silence this sort of fear. Let us crush this type of
+disloyalty. It is an insult to our flag; it is a dishonour to our Lord.
+
+"Quit you like men, be strong!" Put strength into everything, and do
+everything strongly. Do not let us speak or serve in a faint, lax,
+irresolute, anćmic, dying sort of way. "Be strong!" Be strong in your
+prayers. Be strong in your moral and spiritual ambitions. Be strong in
+your visions and hopes. Be strong in your beneficence; strengthen it to
+the vigour of sacrifice. And if there be a devil, as more than ever I
+believe there is, let the Church surprise him by her strength. Let her
+turn the day of calamity into the day of opportunity. Let her
+transfigure the hour of disaster into the hour of deeper consecration.
+Let us make new vows. Let us enter into new devotion. Let us exercise
+ourselves in new chivalry. Let us go out in new ways of sacrifice. My
+brethren, God is not dead! "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you
+like men, be strong!"
+
+    "Stand up, stand up for Jesus!
+      The trumpet call obey;
+    Forth to the mighty conflict
+      In this His glorious day.
+    Ye that are men now serve Him
+      Against unnumbered foes,
+    Let courage rise with danger
+      And strength to strength oppose.
+
+    "Stand up, stand up for Jesus!
+      Ye soldiers of the Cross.
+    Lift high His royal banner,
+      It must not suffer loss.
+    From victory unto victory
+      His army shall He lead,
+    Till every foe is vanquished,
+      And Christ is Lord indeed!"
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+ENDURING HARDNESS
+
+
+    _Heavenly Father, may all our hearts be filled with Thy praise.
+    May the spirit of Thanksgiving fill all our days, and deliver us
+    from the mood of murmuring and complaint. Graciously remove the
+    scales from our eyes, so that we may look upon our life with
+    eyes anointed with the eye-salve of grace. Help us to discern
+    Thy footprints in the ordinary road. Grant that we may now
+    review our yesterdays and see the providences which have crowded
+    our paths. Help us to see Thy name on blessings that we never
+    recognized, so that we may now be praiseful where we have been
+    indifferent. Redeem us from our spiritual sloth. Awake us out of
+    our perilous sleep. May our consciences goad us when we are in
+    peril. May the good desires within us be so strengthened as to
+    destroy every desire that is vain. Sow in our hearts the word of
+    Thy truth. Guard the seed with the vigilance of Thy blessed
+    Spirit, and let it appear in our life as a fragrant and
+    bountiful harvest. Graciously watch us and defend us and make us
+    mighty in consecration, and may we place our all upon the altar.
+    Amen._
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+ENDURING HARDNESS
+
+    "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
+    Christ." 2 Timothy 2:3.
+
+
+Any military metaphor which is used to-day will surely have a very
+arresting significance. Many of our hymns are crowded with military
+terminology. In the Wesleyan Methodist Hymn-Book there is a whole
+section entitled "For Believers Fighting." We are all familiar with
+these martial hymns: "Onward, Christian Soldiers", "The Son of God goes
+forth to war", "Soldiers of Christ arise", "Stand up, stand up, for
+Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross", "Oft in danger, oft in woe, onward
+Christians, onward go." But too often the soldier-like hymn is only a
+bit of martial poetry which pleases the emotions but does not stir the
+will. We like the swing of the theme. It brings a sort of exhilaration
+into our moods, just as lively dance music awakes a nimble restlessness
+in our feet. Too often it is the song of the parade ground, and it is
+not broken with the awful thundering of the guns in actual war. But just
+now when we hear the phrase, "Endure hardness as a good soldier," our
+thoughts are carried away to the battlefields of Europe. We recall those
+roads like deeply ploughed fields! Those fields scooped by the shells
+into graves in which you can bury a score of men! Those trenches filling
+with the rain or snows, the hiding place of disease, and assailed
+continually with the most frightful engines of destruction! Pestilence
+on the prowl! Frost stiffening the limbs into benumbment! Death always
+possible before the next breath! These military metaphors in our hymns
+get some red blood into them when we use them against backgrounds and
+scenes like these. "Endure hardness as a good soldier."
+
+Now the apostle calls for this soldierly spirit in Thessalonica. He is
+writing to young recruits in the army of the Lord. They are having their
+first baptism of fire. Their enemies are strong, subtle, ubiquitous. To
+be a Christian in Thessalonica was to face the fierce onslaught of
+overwhelming odds. But indeed in those early days, Christian believers,
+wherever they lived, had to be heroic in the defence of their faith and
+obedience. Everywhere circumstances were hostile. Nothing was won
+without sacrifice. Nothing was held without blood. To be a witness was
+to be a martyr. If a believer would be faithful to his Lord he must
+"fight the good fight of faith"; if he would extend the frontiers of the
+Kingdom of Heaven he must endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
+Christ.
+
+What are the circumstances amid which the modern Church is placed? The
+Christian believer in our day is confronted with stupendous
+difficulties. Look at the present field on which our Christian warfare
+is to be waged. When the European war broke out I was staying at a quiet
+seaside village, from which I could see the soft green beauty of the
+mountains which encircle the English lakes. On the morning that war was
+proclaimed I felt as though some venerable and majestic temple had
+suddenly crumbled into dust. One of my most intimate friends, a noble
+German, was staying in my home, and we both felt as though some devil of
+mischief and disaster had toppled human affairs into confusion. The
+quiet sequence of human progress seemed to have been smashed at a
+stroke. The nations drew apart, and gulfs of isolation yawned between
+them, and down the gulfs there swept the cruel shrieking blasts of
+racial hatred and antipathy. Holy ministries which had been leagued in
+sacred fellowship were wrenched asunder. Spiritual communions which had
+been sweet and welcome curdled in the biting blast of resentment. The
+work of the Kingdom of our Lord was smitten as by an enemy; ploughshares
+were beaten into swords; pruning-hooks were transformed into spears; and
+instead of the fir and the myrtle-tree there sprang up the thorns and
+the briars. And then, to crown our difficulties, the red fury of war
+leaped into countries where our missionaries are proclaiming the gospel
+of peace, and the passion of battle began to burn where they are telling
+the story of the passion of Calvary, that holy passion of sacrifice
+which brought to the whole world redemption from sin, and reconciliation
+with God, and the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is
+to come.
+
+Our immediate circumstances do not offer the soldiers of Jesus an easy
+parade ground where we can just loll and sing our lilting songs; they
+rather offer us a fearfully rugged and broken field which demands as
+heroic and chivalrous virtues as ever clothed a child of God. What shall
+we do? Is it the hour for craven fear or for a noble courage? What shall
+we do on our mission fields? Shall we cry "forward," or shall we sound
+the depressing and despairing note of retreat? Shall we throw up the
+sponge, or shall we, in the spirit of unprecedented sacrifice, march
+forward in our campaign, and endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus
+Christ?
+
+First of all, we must keep our eyes steadily fixed upon the object for
+which Christ died, that solemn and holy end for which He created and
+appointed His own Church. And what is that object? It is to let "all men
+know that all men move under a canopy of love" as broad as the blue sky
+above. It is to break down all middle walls of partition, and to merge
+the sundered peoples in the quickening communion of His grace. It is to
+unite all the kingdoms of the world in the one and radiant Kingdom of
+His love. That is the aim and purpose of our blessed Lord, and in all
+the shock and convulsions of to-day we must keep that object steadfastly
+in sight. It was said of Napoleon that "he never for a moment lost sight
+of his way onward in the dazzle and uproar of present circumstances."
+That is to say, Napoleon was never blinded by the glare of victory or by
+the lowering cloud of defeat. "He saw only the object." Quietness did
+not throw its perilous spell about him. Calamity did not turn his eyes
+from the forward way. He saw only the object, and the glory of the goal
+sent streams of energy into his will and into his feet at every step of
+the changing road.
+
+Now our temptation is to permit events to determine our sight. There is
+the shimmer of gold on the right hand, and we turn to covet. There is
+the gleam of the sword on the left hand, and we turn in fear. We allow
+circumstances to govern our aims. Our eyes are deflected from their
+object by the dazzle or the uproar around us. And here is the peril of
+it all. When we lose the object of our warfare we begin to lose the
+campaign. And, therefore, one of the first necessities of the Christian
+Church in the present hour is to have our Lord's own purpose steadily in
+view, to keep her eyes glued upon that supreme end, and to allow nothing
+to turn her aside. "Let thine eyes look right on;" "Thy kingdom come;"
+"The kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of our God;" "He
+must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet." This, I say,
+is the pressing and immediate need of the good soldier of Christ Jesus,
+to refuse to have his single aim complicated by the entanglement of
+passing circumstances, and to constantly "apprehend that for which we
+also were apprehended by Christ Jesus our Lord."
+
+What else shall we do in this hour of upheaval and disaster? The Church
+must eclipse the exploits of carnal warfare by the more glorious warfare
+of the spirit. Just recall the heroisms which are happening every day in
+Europe, and on which the eyes of the world are riveted with an almost
+mesmerized wonder! Think of the magnificent sacrifices! Think of the
+splendid courage! Think of the exquisite chivalry! Think of the
+incredible powers of endurance! And then, further, think that the Church
+of Christ is called upon to outshine these glories with demonstrations
+more glorious still.
+
+This was surely one of the outstanding distinctions of apostolic life.
+Whenever hostilities confronted the early Church, whenever the first
+disciples were opposed by the gathered forces of the world, wherever the
+sword was bared and active, wherever tyranny exulted in sheer brutality,
+these early disciples unveiled a more splendid strength, and threw the
+carnal power into the shade. They faced their difficulties with such
+force and splendour of character that their very antagonisms became only
+the dark background on which the glory of the Lord was more manifestly
+revealed. Their courage rose with danger and eclipsed it!
+
+Let me open one or two windows in the apostolic record which give us
+glimpses of this conquering life. Here, then, is a glimpse of the
+hostilities: "Let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth
+to no man in this name." There you have the naked tyranny of carnal
+power, and there you have the threat that burns through carnal speech.
+And now, over against that power put the action of the Church: "And they
+spake the word of God with boldness!" They were good soldiers of Jesus
+Christ, and by that boldness the tyranny and threat of carnal power were
+completely eclipsed.
+
+Here is another glimpse of those heroic days: "And when they had called
+the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak
+in the name of Jesus." There again you have the demonstration of carnal
+power; and here again is the demonstration of the power of the spirit:
+"And they departed from the presence of the counsel, rejoicing that they
+were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And they ceased not to
+teach and preach Jesus Christ." I say that this "rejoicing" eclipses
+that beating, and the good soldier of Jesus Christ puts the Roman
+soldier into the shade.
+
+Let me open another window: "And they cast Stephen out of the city and
+stoned him." Get your eyes on that display of carnal passion and
+tyranny; and then lift your eyes upon the victim of it: "And he kneeled
+down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
+charge." Who is the conqueror in that tragedy, the stoners or the
+stoned, the ministers of destruction or the good soldier of Jesus
+Christ? The carnal power was terrific and deadly, but it was utterly
+eclipsed by the power of grace, the power which blazed forth in this
+redeemed and consecrated life. Open yet another window upon this day of
+shining exploits: "Having stoned Paul they drew him out of the city,
+supposing he had been dead." That incident seems to record the
+coronation and sovereignty of brutal strength. Now read: "And they
+returned again to Lystra." Paul went back to the place where he had been
+stoned, to tell again the good news of grace, and to carry to broken
+people the ministries of healing. And I say that this bruised man,
+beaten and sore, returning again to the scene of the stoning, is a good
+soldier of Jesus Christ, and by his magnificent courage and grace he
+eclipsed all the rough strength of the world and threw its achievements
+into the shade.
+
+But it is not only in apostolic days that you can find these brilliant
+contrasts. The Church has been distinguished by such demonstrations of
+spiritual glory all along her history. When material power has been
+riotous and rampant, when rude, crude passions have blazed through the
+earth, the chivalry of the Church has shone resplendent in the murky
+night, and she has eclipsed the dread shocks of the world and the flesh
+and the devil by her noble sacrifices, and by her serenity, and by her
+spontaneous joy. The Church has distinguished herself by her
+manifestations of spiritual strength, by her lofty Christian purpose, by
+her glowing devotional enthusiasm, and this over against gigantic
+obstacles, and in the face of enemies who seemed to be overwhelming.
+
+I think of James Chalmers, the martyred missionary of New Guinea. How
+well I remember the last time I met him; his big, powerful body, his
+lion-like head, his shock of rough hair, his face with such a strange
+commingling of strength and gentleness, indomitableness and grace! And
+what he went through in New Guinea in carrying to the natives the story
+of our Saviour's love! And then, having gone through it all, he stood up
+there in England, on the platform of Exeter Hall, and said: "Recall
+these twenty-one years, give me back all its experiences, give me its
+shipwrecks, give me its standings in the face of death, give it me
+surrounded with savages with spears and clubs, give it me back again
+with spears flying about me, with the club knocking me to the ground,
+give it me back, and I will still be your missionary." What is happening
+in Europe just now that can put that exploit in the shade? I do not
+wonder that when that man thought of heaven he used these words: "There
+will be much visiting in heaven, and much work. I guess I shall have
+good mission work to do, great, brave work for Christ. He will have to
+find it, for I can be nothing else than a missionary." James Chalmers
+went back to New Guinea to tell and retell to the natives why Jesus came
+to thee and me and all men, and he won the martyr's crown. The love of
+Christ constrained him. And again I ask, what incidents in carnal
+warfare are not eclipsed by shining heroisms like these?
+
+I might go on telling you these glorious exploits of grace, but I hasten
+to say that it is our privilege to continue the story. To-day carnal
+strength is stalking in deadly stride through a whole continent. And
+to-day the Church must do something so splendid and so heroic as will
+outshine the glamour of material war. This is the hour when we must send
+out more men and women who are willing to live and toil and die for the
+Hindu, and for the Turk, and the Persian, and the Chinese and the
+Japanese, and all the dusky sons of Africa. I verily believe that if the
+apostle Paul were in our midst to-day, with the war raging in Europe, he
+would sound an advance all along the line. He would call us in this hour
+to send out more men and women to save, and to comfort, and to heal; men
+and women who will lay down their lives in bringing life to their
+fellow-men. We must send forth new army corps of the soldiers of Christ,
+and we must give them more abundant means, endowing them so plentifully
+that they can go out into the needy places of Asia and Africa, and
+assuage the pains and burdens of the body, and dispel the darkness of
+the mind, and give liberty to the imprisoned spirit, and lead the souls
+of men into the life and joy and peace of our blessed Lord. If the
+Church would, and if the Church will, she can so arrest the attention
+and win the hearts of the natives of Africa and Asia with the grace and
+gentleness of the Lord Jesus, a grace and gentleness made incarnate
+again in you and me, and in those whom we send to the field, that the
+excellent glory of the Spirit shall shine pre-eminent, and in this hour
+of world-wide disaster the risen Lord shall again be glorified.
+
+Shall we quietly challenge ourselves amid all the awful happenings of
+to-day? Here are the terms of the challenge. Shall the good soldier of
+Christ Jesus be overshadowed by the soldiers of the world? Or shall the
+courage and ingenuities of the world be eclipsed by the heroism and the
+wise audacity of the Church? Shall we withdraw our army from the field
+because the war is raging in Europe, or shall we send it reinforcements?
+Shall we practice a more severe economy and straiten our army's
+equipment for service; or shall we practice a more glorious
+self-sacrifice, and make its equipment more efficient? Shall we exalt
+and glorify our Saviour, or shall we allow Him to be put in the shade?
+Shall we endure hardness, as good soldiers of Christ, or shall we take
+to the fields of indulgence, and allow the Church of the Living God to
+be outshone by the army of the world? Which shall it be?
+
+Our holy battlefield is as wide as the world. The needs are clamant. The
+opportunities of victory are on every side. Our Captain is calling! What
+then, shall it be? Advance or retreat? What answer can there be but one?
+Surely the answer must be that we will advance, even though it mean the
+shedding of the blood of sacrifice.
+
+One of our medical missionaries was Dr. Francis J. Hall of Peking,
+China. He had been graduated with high honours at the Johns Hopkins
+Medical School in Baltimore, and had consecrated his life to medical
+missionary work in China, where his large abilities promptly won him
+wide influence. In 1913 he said to one of his associates: "I have just
+been called to a Chinese who has typhus fever. Many physicians have
+died of that disease, but I must go." Two weeks later he was stricken.
+As he lay dying his mind wandered, and he was heard to exclaim: "I hear
+them calling, I must go; I hear them calling!" Do we hear them calling?
+Is the answer "Yes"? Then let us joyfully register a vow that, God
+helping us, the army of the Lord shall not be maimed because of our
+indifference, but as good soldiers of Jesus Christ we will, if need be,
+endure hardness, and give of our possessions, even unto the shedding of
+our blood.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE INVISIBLE COMMANDER
+
+
+    _Eternal God, we rejoice in the security that is offered to us
+    in our midnights and in our noons. Thou wilt not leave us to the
+    loneliness of self-communion, but Thou wilt hold fellowship with
+    us along the way. Come to us as the Lord Jesus came to the men
+    who were journeying to Emmaus, and make our hearts burn within
+    us in the revelation of light and grace. Especially in these
+    bewildering times wilt Thou steady our minds with Thy councils
+    and inspire our hearts in the assurance of Thy sovereign love.
+    Lead us along our troubled road. Let the heavenly light break
+    upon our darkness. Help us to believe in Thy peace even when the
+    world is at strife. Let Thy kingdom come. Even when the world is
+    filled with the smoke of battle may we discern the presence of
+    the Lord. Save us from the sin of unbelief. Reveal to us, we
+    humbly pray Thee, the sin in which this strife has been born,
+    and help the nations to turn from it in new consecration to
+    Thee. In this gracious purpose wilt Thou possess our services.
+    Help us to look beyond the seen into the strength and glory of
+    the unseen. Cheer us with Thy consolations. Uphold us with Thine
+    hand, and impart to us the gift of Thy gracious peace. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE INVISIBLE COMMANDER ON THE FIELD
+
+    "And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will
+    hiss unto them from the end of the earth." Isaiah 5:26.
+
+    "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss
+    for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of
+    Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria." Isaiah
+    7:18.
+
+
+That was a startling word to fall upon the ears of the people of Judah.
+It shocked them into confusion. It was an altogether revolutionary word.
+It played havoc with their traditional beliefs. It smashed up all their
+easy securities. It turned their world upside down, and all their
+ancient confidences were broken. Let us try to feel the shock of the
+message. The people had come to regard their land as a sort of divine
+reservation, and they looked upon their nation as a specially favoured
+instrument in the hand of the Lord. They esteemed themselves as being in
+the friendly grip and fellowship of the Lord of hosts. All their
+movements were the inspirations of His counsels, and in the strength of
+His providence their nation's progress and destiny were assured. They
+lived in the assumption that every step in their national life was
+foreseen, and planned, and provided for, and that they were always being
+led towards divinely appointed goals. There was nothing of chance in
+their journeyings, and nothing of uncertainty in their ends. For them
+there was no blind groping in the darkness, for the Lord of hosts had
+charge of their national life; and "the sure mercies of David" would
+secure it from calamity and destruction.
+
+That was what they thought about themselves. What did they think of the
+nations beyond their frontier? That was quite another story. They looked
+upon other nations as struggling blindly, and in their dark rage
+imagining vain things. These other nations had the promptings of
+passion, but they had no divine and mystic leadership. They moved
+hither and thither, but it was under no divine appointment, and a
+thousand traps were laid for their unhallowed feet. Yonder was Assyria,
+full of strength and full of movement, expressing herself in the might
+of tremendous armies, but she was under no divine command or
+inspiration. Assyria was like a boat in unknown waters, without a pilot,
+and she was marked for inevitable destruction. And yonder was proud
+Egypt, swelling with her power and renown, colossal in her material
+achievements, but she had no divinely enlightened eyes, she was blind in
+her goings, and her marching was in reality a staggering towards doom.
+And yonder were other nations from afar; but they were all just chance
+masses, looked upon as existing outside the frontier line of divine
+favour and enlightenment. They dwelt in some hinterland of life where
+God's gracious decrees do not run. They were beyond the orbit of divine
+thought and grace. Now that was the kind of thinking which the prophet
+had to meet. Judah regarded herself as nestling within the home circle
+of Providence, and all other nations were outcasts living beyond the
+sacred pale.
+
+And now perhaps we shall be able to feel something of the astounding
+effect of the prophet's words. "And the Lord shall lift up an ensign to
+the nations from far." Far-away peoples are to move under the impulse
+and inspiration of the Lord, and in the light of His guiding command.
+"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the
+rivers of Egypt." A far-away nation, thick as flies, is to move under
+the touch and ordination of God! "The Lord shall hiss for the bee that
+is in the land of Assyria." A far-away nation, thick as a hive of bees,
+is to move under the controlling purpose of the Lord! Can you feel the
+shock of the prophet's words? It is the shock of a larger thought which
+shakes the nations out of their small and cosey contentment. They had
+conceived the divine Providence as being confined exclusively to Judah's
+particular guidance and defence. They had thought within the limits of a
+country; they are now bidden to cross the frontier and conceive a
+Providence which encircles a continent and a world. The fly in Egypt,
+and the bee in Assyria, raising their wings at the touch of the
+Lord,--it staggered them into incredulity!
+
+Now we can see what the prophet was doing. He was seeking to enlarge
+their sense of the orbit of the divine movement. For the little ripples
+on their pool he was substituting the ocean tides. For the circle of
+their native hills and valleys he was substituting a line which embraced
+the uttermost parts of the earth. And that is what I wish to do in this
+meditation. I wish to proclaim the vastness of the divine orbit, the
+tremendous sweep of the divine decrees, and I wish to emphasize the
+teaching of this great prophet, that momentous destinies may be born in
+far-away places, even at the very end of the world. "The Lord shall hiss
+for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and
+for the bee that is in the land of Assyria."
+
+Well then, under the power of this teaching, let us think in wider
+orbits of the divine inspiration of nations. For we are apt to imprison
+our thought within very narrow and artificial restraints. Much of our
+thought about providential movements shuts God up to the circle of
+so-called Christian nations: But what if a fierce and decadent
+civilization is to be corrected by the inspired influence of such
+peoples as are described by Rudyard Kipling as "lesser breeds without
+the law?" What if our God will hiss for the fly and the bee among just
+such peoples as we are inclined to patronize or despise? Let us imagine
+some modern Isaiah standing up in London or New York and uttering words
+like these;--"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost
+part of China, and for the bee that is in the land of India." I know
+that such a doctrine shocks our national susceptibilities, just as a
+similar doctrine shocked the national pride of the ancient Jews. But
+such a doctrine offers the only true interpretation of the range of the
+divine orbit. It may be that the reinforcements of civilization are to
+come from the movements of the stagnant waters of China. It may be that
+rivers of vitality are to flow into our life from the meditative,
+contemplative, philosophic, mystic races of India. Just think of their
+quiet, lofty, serious brooding, stealing into our feverish materialism
+and sobering the fierceness of the quest. I cannot but wonder what the
+good Lord, in the vastness of His orbit, is even now preparing for the
+world on the far-away plains of India and China.
+
+Let your imagination exercise itself again in the larger orbit, and
+think of some modern prophet standing up in London with this message
+upon his lips;--"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the
+uttermost parts of Russia." The message strikes us as incredible, but it
+is only because, like the people of Judah, our conception of the divine
+orbit is so small and circumscribed. I for one am watching with
+fascinated eyes the movements of Russia. I am wondering what is coming
+to us from that great people, so long and patiently sad, so full of
+reverence, going on long, weary pilgrimages to bow at holy shrines.
+Superstition? Yes, if you please. But I am wondering what is going to
+happen when the dogged strength of that superstition becomes an
+enlightened faith. I am wondering what will happen when that rich,
+fertile bed of national reverence begins to bear the full and matured
+fruits of the Spirit. What then? I know it is not easy to think it. It
+is not easy to widen the orbit of one's thought. It is never easy to
+stretch a neglected or unused muscle. But the wider thought is the orbit
+of our God, and in the mysterious land of Russia untold destinies may be
+even now at the birth.
+
+And so do I urge that we think in vaster orbits of the divine
+inspiration of nations. Let us reject the atheism of incredulity, and
+let us encourage ourselves in the boundless hope of an all-encompassing
+God of the human race. The great God journeys on in His tremendous
+orbit, and who knows from what unlikely peoples the rejuvenation of the
+world is to come? "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the
+uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the
+land of Assyria."
+
+Now I want to go further, and under the power of the prophet's teaching
+I would urge that we think in wide orbits of the divine raising of the
+heroic leaders of men. In what wide and mysterious sweeps the great God
+works when He wants a leader of men! The man is wanted here at the
+center, but he is being prepared yonder on the remote circumference! God
+hisses for the fly or the bee, and He calls it from very obscure and
+unlikely fields.
+
+Here is ancient Israel. Her altars are defiled, and her balances are
+perverted. She is hollow in worship, and she is crooked in trade, and
+the people are listless in their debasement. A leader is wanted to awake
+and scourge the people. Where shall he be found? The Lord hisses for a
+fly in Tekoa, a wretched little village, in a mean and scanty setting;
+and the fly was a poor herdman, following the flock, and eking out his
+miserable living by gathering the figs of the sycamore. And this Amos
+was God's man! A prophet of fire was wanted in Bethel, and God prepared
+him in Tekoa! But what an orbit, and who would have thought that Tekoa
+would have been a school of the prophets?
+
+Stride across the centuries. The religion of Europe has become a gloss
+for indulgence. Nay, it has become an excuse for it. The Father's house
+has become a den of thieves. The doctrines of grace have been wiped out
+by a system of man-devised works. Religion is devitalized, and morals
+have become dissolute. Wanted, a man, who shall be both scourge and
+evangelist! Where shall he be found? "The Lord hissed for the fly" that
+was in Eisleben, in the house of a poor miner, and Martin Luther came
+forth to grapple with all the corruptions of established religion. But
+what an orbit! A fire was wanted to burn up the refuse which had
+accumulated over spiritual religion, and the fire was first kindled in a
+little home, in a little village, far away from the broad highways of
+social privilege and advantage. Again, I say, what an orbit!
+
+March forward again across the years. Here is England under the
+oppression of a king who claims divine sanction for his oppression.
+There is no tyranny like the tyranny which stamps itself with a holy
+seal. And in those old days of Charles I, tyranny wore a sacred badge.
+Tyranny carried a cross. It was tyranny by divine right. Wrong was
+justified by grace. I say, of all tyrannies, this is the most
+tyrannical. Wanted, a man to meet and overthrow it! Where will he be
+found? Will he be found in some national centre of learning where
+wealthy privilege holds her seat? Oh, no! The Lord hissed for a fly on
+the fens, from a little farm at Huntington, and Oliver Cromwell
+emerged, to try swords with the king on his throne! Let me give the
+familiar glimpse which Sir Philip Warwick offers us of Cromwell making
+his first speech in the House of Commons. "I came into the House one
+morning, well clad, and perceived a gentleman speaking whom I knew not,
+very ordinarily appareled, for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed
+to have been made by an ill country tailor. His linen was plain and not
+very clean, and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band,
+which was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a
+hat-band. His stature was of a good size; his sword stuck close to his
+side; his countenance swollen and reddish; his voice sharp and
+untunable, and his eloquence full of fervour." And there is God's man!
+But what an orbit! A man was wanted for the defence of liberty and
+spiritual religion, and God prepared this man in the obscurity of a
+little farm among the fens. What an orbit is marked by the goings of the
+Lord. The Lord hissed for the fly on the fen.
+
+March forward across the centuries. Here is slavery in the American
+republic. In spite of the noble words of the Declaration of
+Independence: "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
+their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are
+life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"--in spite of these ringing
+human claims slavery nestled beneath the American flag. Well, wanted a
+man to deal with it! Where will he be found? Will he be found in some
+university centre? Will he be a paragon of intellectual learning and
+accomplishment? Oh no! The Lord hissed for a fly in Harden, in a scraggy
+part of Kentucky, Harden with its "barren hillocks and weedy hollows,
+and stunted and scrubby underbush,"--and there in a dismal solitude, and
+in a cheerless home, and in the deepest poverty, the great God made His
+man, and Abraham Lincoln came forth to cross swords with the great
+wrong, and to ring the bells of freedom from the "frozen North to the
+glowing South, and from the stormy waters of the Atlantic westward to
+the calmer waters of the Pacific Main." But what an orbit of divine
+providence! Who would have guessed that just there, in that poor,
+unschooled, and unprivileged family the great God was doing His
+momentous work? And I wonder where now in the vast orbit of His
+providence He is rearing the leaders of to-morrow? Our God moves in
+mighty sweeps, and He is even now at work in the mysterious ministries
+of His grace. "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost
+part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of
+Assyria."
+
+And then, under the influence of the prophet's teaching I want once more
+to urge that we think in wider orbits of the divine presence in the
+individual life. For instance, in what sweeping orbits the Lord moves on
+His journeys in seeking to bring us to Himself, and to fashion us into
+the strength and beauty of His own image. He lifts an ensign to some
+remote circumstance, and from afar there comes an influence which sets
+me on the road to God. He calls a ministry from distant Egypt, or from
+far off Assyria, and my life is turned to the home of my Lord.
+
+Here is a careless young son of wealth in Cambridge University. Life for
+him is just an idle sport, a careless revel, a jaunty outing, an
+enjoyable extravagance. Life is just a shallow, shimmering pool; not an
+ocean with momentous tidal forces, and with the voice of the great
+Eternal speaking in its mighty tones. Wanted a man to awake this
+indolent son of wealth! And in what an orbit God moved to find the man!
+The Lord hissed for a fly in Massachusetts, and there, in Northfield,
+was a poor homestead, encumbered with mortgage; and a poor widow with
+seven children, so poor that the very kindling wood was taken by the
+creditors from the shed. And there in that poor woman's house God made
+His man, and Dwight Moody came forth, and went to Cambridge University,
+and proclaimed the evangel of grace, and by the love of God won this
+young fellow from a loose and jaunty and indifferent life, and kindled
+in him a passionate devotion to Christ which is now blazing away on the
+Southern Soudan in a campaign to light a line of Christian beacon-fires
+which shall stretch from coast to coast! But what an orbit! From a poor
+widow's homestead in Northfield to a sporting young fellow in Cambridge
+University!
+
+I met a cultured man the other day, a man who has enjoyed all the
+academic advantages that money can provide, a man of university culture
+and distinction, but whose life has been spiritually indifferent, and
+who has held coldly aloof from God and the Kingdom of God. And in the
+vast orbit of His providence the great God brought this man into
+communion with Billy Sunday, and all the stubble of his neglected life
+was burned up in the consuming fire of his kindled love for the Lord.
+But just think of the orbit! The Lord hissed for His fly, and from the
+apparently incredible circumstance of a slangy evangelist this man was
+brought to his Father's House in reconciliation and peace. Again I say,
+what an orbit! "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not," and
+under His wide and mysterious leadership the blind find themselves at
+home.
+
+And so, my friends, our God is still moving in these vast orbits. He
+hisses for a disappointment, and it comes and throws its shadow upon our
+life, but the shadow is purposed to be one of the healing shadows of
+grace. "I will command the clouds, saith the Lord." Yes, even our cloudy
+experiences move under command. They travel in the tremendous orbit of
+His providence. "I will command the ravens, saith the Lord God." Yes,
+there are diverse circumstances that come to us on wings,--kind words,
+cheering messages, bright inspirations, and they are the commanded
+ministers of God's providence. They are God's messengers on wings!
+
+We can never tell in what remote circumstances the good Lord is even now
+preparing our to-morrow. But of one thing we may be perfectly sure, the
+great Lord is at work, and He is at work over wide fields. "Rest in the
+Lord, and wait patiently for Him." "The Lord is thy keeper.... The Lord
+shall keep thee from all evil, He shall keep thy soul. The Lord shall
+keep thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for
+evermore."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE SOLDIER'S FIRE
+
+
+    _Heavenly Father, may we experience that deepest of all joys
+    which is born of holy communion with Thee. Lead us into new
+    fields of our wonderful inheritance in Christ. May we have new
+    surprises of grace. May some fresh revelations of Thy love break
+    upon our astonished vision. Remove the scales from our eyes, so
+    that we may see clearly the things which are waiting to be
+    unveiled. Graciously make known to us what Thou wouldst have us
+    be in order that we may then more clearly apprehend what Thou
+    wouldst have us do. Help us to remember what we ought not to
+    forget, and help us to forget what we ought not to remember. May
+    our minds be the servants of Thy truth. Let the beams of
+    heavenly light chase out the darkness of error and let it be all
+    glorious within. We humbly pray Thee to deliver us from our
+    selfishness, and enlarge and refine our sympathies until they
+    express themselves in willing sacrifice. May we feel the pains
+    of others, and carry their burdens and share their yokes. May
+    the circles of our compassion grow larger every day. Let the
+    ends of the earth be at our own doors, and so may we hear the
+    cry which is very far off. Illumine our lives in this service,
+    and send us forth to enlighten and kindle the lives of others.
+    Make us missionaries of Thy truth and ambassadors of Thy grace
+    and love. May we be quick to discern opportunity, and ready to
+    use it in the service of the King. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE SOLDIER'S FIRE
+
+    "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
+    Matthew 3:11.
+
+
+Such is the divine promise. Let me read the story of its fulfilment.
+"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one
+accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a
+rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
+sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire,
+and it sat upon each of them." Do not let us become victims of the
+letter and become entangled in the symbolism. It is possible so to
+regard material signs as to lose their spiritual significance. A musical
+word may conceal its own thought. Words are purposed to be the vehicles
+of mind. Symbols are intended to be transparencies, losing themselves
+in something better. They are ordained to be thoroughfares through which
+we pass to nobler destinations. The sign is to be the servant of its own
+significance.
+
+Here then are men and women who are about to receive the promised gift
+of the Spirit of God. They have been waiting as their Master directed,
+waiting in prayer, and in prayer incalculably strengthened by community
+of desire, waiting in trembling watchfulness and expectation. Then the
+much-hoped-for day arrives and their spirits receive the infinite
+reinforcement of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
+
+We have a very pale reflection of this experience when two human spirits
+are given to each other in deep and vital communion. When David received
+the gift of Jonathan's spirit, and Jonathan received the gift of David's
+spirit, each of them obtained immeasurable enrichment. When Robert
+Browning received the gift of Elizabeth Barrett's spirit, and Elizabeth
+Barrett received the gift of Robert Browning's spirit, who can calculate
+the wealth which each of them found in the other's possession?
+
+But these examples, and others even more sacred which we could gather
+from our own experience, are only pale and wan and shadowy, compared
+with the wonder which breaks upon the soul when the spirit of man
+receives the gift of the Spirit of God, and the two dwell together in
+mystic and glorious communion. What happens to the human spirit is
+suggested to us under the familiar symbols of wind and fire. "Like unto
+a rushing mighty wind;" "like unto fire." Do not let us be enslaved by
+any hampering details in the figures. Let us seek their broad
+significance. And what is the characteristic of a rushing mighty wind?
+It dispels the fog. It freshens the atmosphere. It gives life and
+nimbleness to the air. It is the minister of vitality. And the breath of
+God's Spirit is like that; it clears the human spirit, and freshens it,
+and vitalizes it; it acts upon the soul like the air of a spiritual
+spring. And as for the symbol of the fire; fire is the antagonist of all
+that is frozen; it is the antagonist of the torpid, the tepid; it is the
+minister of fervour, and buoyancy, and expansion. The wind changes the
+atmosphere, the fire changes the temperature; and the holy Spirit of
+God changes the atmosphere and temperature of the soul; and when you
+have changed the atmosphere and temperature of a soul you have
+accomplished a mighty transformation. It is about this change in the
+moral and spiritual temperature that I want to meditate, the gift of
+fire which we receive in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If the spirit of
+man and the spirit of God come into blessed communion, and the fire of
+God is given, how will it reveal and express itself? For if there be a
+gift of fire in the soul we shall most surely know it. Fire is one of
+the things which cannot be hid. You can hide a painted sun in your
+parlour and no one will know it is there, but you cannot hide a glowing
+fire. A man can hide a denominational label, he cannot possibly hide the
+holy fire of God. How, then, shall we know that the fire is there?
+
+First of all I think I should look for the holy fire on the common
+hearthstone of human love. If the fire of God does not warm up the
+affections I fail to recognize what its heat can be worth. The first
+thing to warm up is the heart. The intimate friend of the Holy Spirit
+is known by the ardour of his affections. He loves with a pure heart
+fervently. He is baptized with fire. Now I need not seek to prove the
+existence of cold hearts among us. I am afraid we must accept them
+without question. Whether there are hearts like fire-grates without a
+spark of fire I cannot tell. Personally, I have never met with anyone in
+whose soul the fire of love had gone quite out. I think that if we
+sought very diligently among the gray dusty ashes of any burnt-out life
+we should find a little love somewhere. Yes, even in Judas Iscariot, or
+in the dingy soul-grate of old frozen-out Scrooge. But there are surely
+souls so cold, and so destitute of love, that the poor fire never leaps
+up in dancing, cheering, welcome flames. Their temperature is zero.
+
+There are other souls with a little fire of love burning, but it is very
+sad, very sodden, very sullen, very dull. There is more smoke than fire.
+There is more surliness than love. Their fire is not inviting and
+attractive. There is a little spitting, and spluttering, and crackling,
+but there is no fine, honest, ruddy glow. Their temperature is about
+ten above freezing. They are not frozen but they are not comforting.
+
+There are other lives where the fire of affection is burning more
+brightly, and certainly with more attractive glow, but where it seems as
+if the quality of the fuel must be poor because the fire gives out
+comparatively little heat. The heart sends out a cheery beam across the
+family circle, but it does not reach beyond. There is no cordial warmth
+for the wider circles of fellowship. The fire burns in the home but it
+does not affect the office. It encompasses the child but it has no cheer
+for the stranger. What is the temperature of such a life? It is very
+difficult to appraise it. Perhaps it will be best to say that in one
+room of the soul the temperature is 60, while in all the other rooms it
+is down towards freezing.
+
+And, therefore, I need not say how profound is the need in the world for
+warm, glowing, affectional fires. What awfully cold lives there are in
+the city, just waiting for the cheer of "the flame of sacred love!"
+There are souls whose fires have died down at the touch of death. There
+are others whose glow has been dulled by heavy sorrow. There are others
+whose love has been slaked by the pitiless rains of pelting defeat.
+There are others again whose hearts are cold in the midst of material
+wealth. They have richly furnished dwellings, but their hearts are like
+ice. They are unloved and unlovely, and they are frostbitten in the
+realms of luxury. Wealth can buy attention; it can never purchase love.
+My God! What cold souls there are in this great city!
+
+And, therefore, what a clamant and urgent need there is for love-fires
+at which to kindle these souls that are heavy, and burdened, and cold.
+And when the Holy Spirit is given to a man, and he is baptized with
+fire, it must surely, first of all, be the fire of cordial, human
+affection. And such is the teaching of experience. When John Wesley came
+into the fulness of the divine blessing in a little service at
+Aldersgate Street, London, he said that he "felt his heart strangely
+warmed." He was receiving the gift of holy fire. And I cannot but think
+that Charles Wesley was thinking about his brother's experience on that
+day when he wrote his own immortal hymn which includes the prayerful
+lines:
+
+    "Kindle a flame of sacred love
+     In these cold hearts of ours."
+
+You find and feel the glow of that love-fire throughout the New
+Testament Scriptures. They who have the most of God's Spirit have the
+most of the fire. There was Barnabas, who was declared to be "full of
+the Holy Spirit," and he is also described as "the son of consolation."
+What a consummate title! Cannot we feel the love-fire burning and
+glowing in all his ample ministry? Full of the Spirit, and therefore
+full of consolation! The truth of the matter is this,--we cannot be much
+with the Spirit of Christ, and not take fire from His presence. In these
+high realms, communing is partaking, and we kindle to the same affection
+as fills the heart of the Lord. "We love because He first loved us." His
+fire lights our fire, and we burn in kindred passion. So do I proclaim
+that when the fire of God falls upon our spirits the sacred gift kindles
+and inflames the soul's affections. When we are baptized with the Holy
+Ghost and with fire, we receive the glowing power of Christian love.
+
+Where else shall we look for that holy fire in human life? I think I
+should look for the presence of the fire of the Holy Ghost in fervent
+enthusiasm for the cause of Christ's Kingdom. And that indeed is what I
+find. The New Testament instructs me in this, and it teaches me that
+where man is baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire his own spirit
+becomes fervent. He is declared to be "_fervent_ in spirit," and the
+original word means to bubble up, to boil, as in a boiling kettle; it is
+the emergence of the mighty power of steam. And so the significance is
+this: the fire of God generates steam, it creates driving power, it
+produces forceful and invincible enthusiasm. You will find abundant
+examples of this spiritual miracle in the Acts of the Apostles; perhaps
+the Book might be more truly named "The Acts of the Holy Spirit," for
+all the glorious activity is generated by His holy fire. Let your eyes
+glance over the apostolic record. Mark how the fire of God endows man
+with the power of magnificent initiative. Take the apostle Peter;--once
+his strength was the strength of impulse, a spurt and then a collapse, a
+spasm and then a retreat, proud beginnings bereft of patience and
+perseverance. But see him when the Spirit of God has got hold upon him,
+and what a gift he has received of initial and sustained enthusiasm!
+"And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit!" You should see him then, and
+note the strength of his drive, and the ardour of his enterprise! And
+the example of Peter would be confirmed by the examples of all the other
+apostles, if only we knew their personal history and experience. I wish
+there had been given to us just a glimpse of doubting Thomas, slow,
+hesitant, reluctant, uncertain, when the Holy Spirit had him in
+possession. "And Thomas filled with the Holy Spirit,"--I would give
+something to know the end of that sentence. And I wish we had one
+glimpse of timid, fearful, night-walking Nicodemus, when the fire of
+God's Spirit blazed in his soul. "Then Nicodemus, filled with the Holy
+Spirit,"--I wonder what notable exploits would complete that unfinished
+sentence. This we know; the holy fire transformed the timid into the
+courageous, the lukewarm into the fervent, it generated a moral steam
+which made them invincible.
+
+The first apostles drove through tremendous obstacles. Indeed, they
+never had the comfort of an open and unimpeded road. Every road was
+thick with adversaries. What then? Through them or over them! "But,
+Sire," said a timid and startled officer to Napoleon, on receiving
+apparently impossible commands, "But, Sire, there are the Alps!" "Then
+there must be no Alps," replied his audacious chief. "There must be no
+Alps!" That was the very spirit of the first apostles. Mighty
+antagonisms reared themselves in their way,--ecclesiastical prejudices,
+the prejudices of culture, social hostilities, political expediences,
+and all the subtle and violent contrivances of the world, the flesh and
+the devil. "But, Sire, there are the Alps!" "There must be no Alps!"
+Through them! Over them! What that coward Peter got through when the
+fire of God glowed in his soul! When a man has the holy fire of God
+within him he has a boiling fervency of spirit, and he can drive through
+anything.
+
+And that same holy fire gives the same terrific power to-day, the same
+driving enthusiasm, the same patient, dogged, invincible perseverance.
+If a man declares that he has received the fire of God's Holy Spirit, I
+will look eagerly for the impetus of his sacred enthusiasm. If he be a
+preacher I will look for labour in the passion, and the unsnarable
+energy and patience which he will assuredly put into his work. If he be
+a teacher, I will examine the generated steam, and note how much he can
+do, how far he can travel, and how long he can hold out in the service
+of his Lord. If he be a man who has set himself to some piece of social
+reconstruction I will watch with what ardour, and ingenuity, and
+inevitableness he is moving towards his goal. Is it the smashing of the
+saloons? "Then Peter, filled with the Holy fire;"--what if that power
+were harnessed to the enterprise? Or is it the awful plague and blight
+of impurity; or is it the cleaning up of politics; the establishment of
+rectitude in civic and national life? Whatever it be, the holy fire of
+God will reveal its presence in the soul of man in an ardent enthusiasm
+which cannot be quenched. It is the promise of our God, and shall He not
+do it? "He maketh His ministers a flaming fire,"--and that fire can
+never be blown out in the darkest and most tempestuous nights.
+
+And lastly, I shall look for the signs of the presence of the Holy
+Spirit in the fire of sacred resentment. If a man is baptized with the
+Holy Ghost, and with fire, I shall expect to see the presence of that
+fire in the capacity of hot and sensitive indignation. I need not say
+that there is a mighty difference between hot temper and hot
+indignation. Hot temper is a firing of loose powder upon a shovel. It is
+just a flare, and an annoyance, and a danger. But hot indignation is
+powder concentrated in the muzzle of a gun, and intelligently directed
+to the overthrow of some stronghold of iniquity. Hot temper is the fire
+of the devil. Hot indignation is the fire of God; it is the wrath of the
+Lamb. What is this capacity of indignation? It is the opposite to frozen
+antipathy, to tepid curiosity, to sinful "don't care," to all immoral
+coldness and calculated indifference. There are many people who can be
+irritated, but they are never indignant. They can be offended, but they
+are never nobly angry. The souls who are possessed with the fire of God
+are the very opposite to all these. I said at the very beginning of this
+meditation that the breath of God is like the quickening atmosphere of
+the Spring; but it is equally true to say that it can be like the
+destructive blast of the African sirocco--"The grass withereth and the
+flower fadeth _because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it_." The hot
+breath of God is like unto a blast that scorches things in their very
+roots. And if we share the breath of God's Spirit we too shall be
+endowed with the ministry of the destructive blast, even the power of a
+consuming indignation. Any form of public iniquity will make our fire
+blaze with purifying wrath. Corruption in civic or national government,
+inhumanity in the treatment of the criminal and the unfortunate, the
+oppression of the poor, the brutal disregard of the rights of the weak
+and the defenceless, any one of these will draw out our souls in the hot
+and aggressive indignation which is the imparted fire of the Holy Ghost.
+If any one claims to have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and with
+fire, and he is indifferent in the presence of licensed iniquity, and
+apathetic and lukewarm when gigantic wrongs glare and stare upon him,
+that man's spiritual baptism is a pathetic fiction, and his boasted fire
+is only a painted flame.
+
+But if a man suffer a personal injury, if some wrong is done to him,
+what kind of fire shall I expect to see in his life if he is filled with
+the Holy Ghost? Yes, if some one has done an injury to another, and the
+other has been baptized with the Holy Ghost, what kind of fire will he
+reveal? Listen to this: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst,
+give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his
+head!" It is the very fire that rains upon us from the Cross of our
+Lord: "And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary,
+there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and
+the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they
+know not what they do." What kind of fire is that? It is the same holy
+fire which flowed from the soul of the martyr Stephen as he was being
+stoned to death: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." It is a
+marvellous fire, a most arresting fire; and we simply cannot withstand
+it. It is the very fire of grace; it is live coal from the altar of God.
+
+So this is the sort of fire I look for when a man claims to be filled
+with the Holy Spirit,--the glowing fire of humble affection, the glowing
+fire of noble enthusiasm, the glowing fire of indignation, and the
+marvellous fire of self-forgetting grace. "He shall baptize you with the
+Holy Ghost and with fire."
+
+    "He came in tongues of living flame,
+       To teach, convince, subdue,
+     All powerful as the wind He came,
+       And viewless too.
+
+     Spirit of purity and grace,
+       Our weakness, pitying see,
+     Oh, make our hearts Thy dwelling-place,
+       And worthier Thee."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+VICTORY OVER THE BEAST
+
+
+    _Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for our knowledge that all our
+    springs are in Thee. Wilt Thou deliver us from any sense of
+    self-dependence, and lead us into an intimate fellowship with
+    the ministers of Thy grace. If any triumph has made us
+    self-confident, if any earthly success has made us proud, may
+    Thy Holy Spirit lead our spirits into the lowliness which is the
+    beginning of true wisdom and strength. We humbly ask that Thou
+    wilt deliver us from the sins which have become our masters, and
+    in which we find unholy delight. Incline our hearts unto Thy
+    law, and help us to find pleasure in obedience to Thy holy will.
+    Graciously redeem us from every care which fetters our souls,
+    and give us such an assurance of Thy providential love that we
+    may exult in the glorious liberty of the children of God.
+    Graciously remember us one by one. Be very near to those who
+    scarcely have the heart to pray. Mercifully meet with those who
+    have been stunned with sorrow, and who have not yet regained the
+    comforts of Thy peace. Remember all who are in grave perplexity,
+    and graciously light Thy lamp on their bewildered way. Receive
+    all our little ones into the circle of Thy blessing, and may
+    they early rejoice in Thy friendship and become devoted to Thy
+    holy will. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+VICTORY OVER THE BEAST
+
+    "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and they
+    that had gotten the victory over the beast." Revelation 15:2.
+
+
+The symbolism of the city of God as given in the Book of Revelation
+represents the character of its citizens, and all the glories of the new
+Jerusalem have correspondences in the souls who live and move in that
+radiant land. The sea of glass represents a spiritual character of regal
+serenity, a character transparent in its limpid depths, and reflecting
+in its stillness the very image of the Lord. And the sea of glass,
+"mingled with fire," is significant of character made fervent by holy
+love, purity made genial, righteousness changed into goodness by the
+permeating heat of affectional enthusiasm and devotion.
+
+And now I wish to examine the next descriptive sentence, which tells us
+something of the history and experiences of those who have arrived at
+the sea of glass, and who have attained the serene and genial purity of
+those who hold immediate communion with God. And this is the sentence
+which records some of the happenings which have befallen them on the
+road; "_They have gotten the victory over the beast._" It is a very
+striking conjunction, this which tells me that they who dwell by the sea
+of glass have come by the way of the beast, and that they have conquered
+the beast by the way. What was the beast which these men and women had
+faced and conquered as they moved onward to the crystal sea? I do not
+profess to know the precise historic interpretation. The beast may have
+been the malignant and vindictive antagonism of the Emperor Nero. He may
+have been the beast. The beast may have been the hostile and suffocating
+pressure of the Roman Empire. The beast may have been the stealthy
+seductions of the imperial city of Rome. The beast may have been the
+fascinating and paralyzing charm of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
+Anyone or all of these together may have been the beast which straddled
+across the road and opposed these Christians on their journey towards
+home. I do not know, and I frankly confess I am not deeply concerned to
+know. The general boldness of the figure is quite enough for me.
+Whatever else the beast may mean it must essentially mean anti-God,
+anti-Christ, the antagonist of the divine. It must mean the animal side
+of our nature seeking to invade the realm of the spirit, to force its
+way among the executive powers of the soul, and to usurp the throne of
+God. The beast is triumphant when the flesh and all the works of the
+flesh have ousted the forces of the spirit. The beast is conquered when
+the powers of the spirit never surrender their holy sovereignty, when
+the forces of the flesh have been ordered to their place among the rank
+and file, and when they are never allowed to wear the honours and
+prerogatives of the commander-in-chief. "They that have gotten the
+victory over the beast." The beast is just anti-Christ, in whatever form
+he may appear.
+
+Let us spend a little while in first of all examining this beast who
+claims the control and mastery of our souls. Everybody has a vivid
+experience of his power, but it may help to clarify our minds if we
+consider what has been said about him by the recognized masters and
+counsellors of the soul. Let us turn, then, to the pages of literature,
+and first of all let us turn to the inspired literature itself. You have
+scarcely opened the Word of God before the beast makes his appearance in
+the form of a serpent. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast
+of the field." And who has not experienced the wiles of the serpent when
+he approaches the soul in some charming seduction, in some fascinating
+crookedness, in some wriggling sophistry, in some twisted excuse, in
+some winding compromise? Who has not seen the beast when he has sought
+to persuade the soul that the wriggle is the most graceful form of
+motion, and that the curve is more acceptable than the straight line?
+Who has not heard him when he has argued that the detour is the shortest
+way home, and that a slight deviation from rectitude will lead to the
+noblest ends? Yes, this beast is the apostle of the serpentine, and this
+is his creed,--the wriggle is the best way to your goal. "The serpent
+was more subtle than any beast of the field."
+
+I turn over the pages of the old book, and I am confronted with an
+extraordinary change in the form of the beast. He is no longer a
+wriggling serpent but a prowling lion. "The devil goeth abroad like a
+roaring lion." He no longer makes a seductive approach to the intellect
+with his advocacy of the crooked way; he makes a passionate assault upon
+the spirit with all the fiery forces of the flesh. It is no longer the
+wriggle but a terrific leap. And who has not known him in this wild
+approach? It is just the tremendous weight and pounce of anti-spiritual
+impulse, the mighty onrush of carnal longing and desire. The lion is
+sheer mass and weight of hungry craving. Who has not known the lion in
+the way?... And yet beside the crystal sea are those "who have gotten
+the victory over the beast."
+
+Again I turn over the pages of the old book, and once again the form of
+the beast has changed and he appears before me in the guise of a fox. It
+is our Master's name for the foe. And who has not known the beast when
+he has assailed the soul in the manner of a fox? It is the assault of
+cunning, when things are made to appear in semblance what they are not
+in spirit and in truth. Nay, it is the very art of foxiness that the fox
+itself is made to look like a goose, and the wolf is given the
+appearance of a lamb. Vice is dressed up like virtue. Falsehood moves
+about in white robes and innocently accosts us in the dress of a white
+lie. License tricks itself out as gaiety. Sin clothes itself in the
+fashions of the hour and hides its talons in silks. I say this is the
+very genius of the fox,--he makes you think you are having converse with
+a harmless old goose! Who has not known the fox when he cunningly tried
+to persuade us that the devil was God, and that hell was heaven, and
+that death was.... But, O no, he never mentions death! In his scheme it
+is part of the trick that death shall never be known. The old fox! And
+yet, in spite of fox and lion and serpent, there were those beside the
+sea of glass "who had gotten the victory over the beast."
+
+Let me lead you further, for a moment or two, into the pages of a wider
+literature, and let it be into the pages of Dante and John Bunyan. In
+his immortal book Dante tells us that when he turned his feet to the
+pilgrim road he was successively confronted by three beasts which sought
+to stop his journey. And first he met a leopard:
+
+    "And lo! just as the sloping side I gained,
+     A leopard, subtle, lithe, exceeding fleet,
+     Whose skin full many a dusky spot did stain;
+     Nor did she from before my face retreat;
+     Nay, hindered so my journey on the way,
+     That many a time I backward turned my feet."
+
+The leopard which confronted Dante was the symbol of sensuous beauty
+which sought to block his road and ensnare his feet. Next he was
+confronted by a lion:
+
+    "Yet o'er me, spite of this, did terror creep--
+     From aspect of a lion drawing near.
+     He seemed as if upon me he would leap,
+     With head upraised and hunger fierce and wild,
+     So that a shudder through the air did sweep."
+
+The lion was to Dante the symbol of worldly pride. And next he met a
+wolf:
+
+    "A she-wolf, with all ill-greed defiled,
+     Laden with hungry leanness terrible."
+
+And the wolf was to Dante the lean symbol of a hungry greed; it was the
+beastly type of avarice. And who has not shared the experience of Dante
+on his own road and encountered the leopard, the lion and the wolf?...
+And yet there were those before the sea of glass who had got the victory
+over the beast.
+
+Turn to John Bunyan. There is a wonderful passage in the early part of
+John Bunyan's "Holy War," in which he describes the preparations which
+the beast has made for his attack upon the soul. He tells how beast held
+counsel with beast, and how it was agreed that they should assume forms
+with which the soul was quite familiar; such as were accounted harmless,
+lest the soul should be alarmed when they made their deadly approach.
+"Therefore let us assault the soul in all pretended fairness, covering
+our intentions with all manner of lies, flatteries, and illusive words;
+feigning things that will never be, and promising that to them which
+they shall never find." And so they marched toward the soul, "all in a
+manner invisible," save only one, and he took on a shape as harmless and
+familiar as a bird, and when he spoke he spake with such gentleness "as
+if he had been a lamb." And I for one put myself side by side with John
+Bunyan, for I too have known the beast when he has come disguised, and
+has addressed me with all the harmlessness and innocence of a lamb.
+
+I will add one further word in our consideration of the beast. When I
+look around on the world to-day, upon the appalling scenes of passion
+and hatred and slaughter,--it is to me very significant that so many of
+the national emblems, which represent the corporate life of peoples, are
+different types of beasts. It is the beast which still provides the
+symbols of our national life. There is the lion; there is the bear;
+there is the wolf, and I know not what besides! We talk of rousing the
+bear and of twisting the lion's tail! Our national emblems are beasts.
+The American nation has happily discarded the beast, but it has chosen
+one of the fiercest among the birds--the bird whose talons are more
+obtrusive than its song. I am suggesting the significance of the fact
+that we have found nothing above the beast to symbolize the
+individuality of national life. Perhaps some day we may "move upward,"
+and we may erase the beasts from our emblems, but it will only be when
+we have driven the beasts from our souls!
+
+Well, then, after this swift glimpse into inspired and general
+literature, and this glance upon the typical symbols of the national
+life, we are more disposed than ever to say that the beast is just
+anti-Christ, the presumptuous claim of the animal to take the place of
+the spiritual, the defiant claim of the devil to usurp the throne of
+God. But here are men and women whose triumph is recorded in my text,
+who have conquered the beast, and who have attained a strong and fervent
+purity in which the spirit is all in all. What was the secret of their
+triumph? By what means and ministries did they conquer the beast?
+Happily we are left in no manner of doubt, and the means by which they
+conquered are offered to you and me. What says the Old Book?--"They
+overcame by the blood of the Lamb." Let us tell their secret very
+quietly and very simply, without any waste of words,--they shared the
+blood of Jesus Christ and it changed them into giants. In some way or
+other a communion was formed between their life and His life, and His
+mighty life flowed into their life as vine-blood flows into the branch
+of the vine. They shared the strength of Him who fought the beast in the
+wilderness of Judea, and who fought him again in still more alluring
+forms in the courts of Jerusalem and by the shores of the Lake of
+Galilee. Yes, if you had asked these radiant victors by the sea of glass
+to tell you how they triumphed, they would have reverently turned their
+faces towards the Lord and eagerly answered, "By the blood of the Lamb!"
+
+    "I asked them whence their victory came,
+     They with united breath
+     Ascribed their conquest to the Lamb,
+     Their triumph to His death."
+
+And the second secret of their triumph is to be found in their
+continual warfare. They drank his blood to fight his fights. It is a
+fight that knows no armistice. It acknowledges no flag of truce. Eternal
+vigilance and eternal struggle is the price of spiritual freedom. Life
+is warfare; it is never parade-drill; it is never holiday review; we are
+never off duty; the contest is constant, and the close of every day
+records a victory or a defeat. Our Master never promised his soldiers a
+life of ease. The beast promises roads which are pleasant as field paths
+that lead through grassy meadows. There shall be no flints, no thorns,
+no briars; and if we choose, we can lie down in the meadows morning,
+noon and night! That is the promise that the beast makes,--a promise
+which is always broken. Our Lord always calls us to battles, to noble
+crusades and prolonged campaigns. "His blood-red banner streams afar!"
+He calls us to share the travail that makes His Kingdom come. Yes, He
+calls us to glorious, endless battles, but He promises sure and certain
+victory if we drink His blood along the way.
+
+And so they conquered the beast by the blood of the Lamb. They
+conquered by the continual battles of their faith. And lastly they
+conquered by their songs of victory. They sang their way to the sea of
+glass, and their songs were songs of victory all along the road. They
+did not moan in misereres; they did not wail in lamentations as if the
+beast were mightier than their Lord. They knew their Lord was mightier
+than all; and their songs of victory were the beginning of their
+triumph. O, the singing that abounds in the Word of God! O, the singing
+you may hear in the Acts of the Apostles! And, O, the singing that
+sounds through the Book of Revelation; the song of victory, the song of
+Moses and the Lamb! At the battle of Dunbar, in the great critical days
+of English freedom, Cromwell's troops sang their way to victory. They
+could hear the roaring of the sea. The land was swept with deluges of
+rain. But above the roar of the sea, and the sound of the pelting rain,
+they lifted their voices in praise to God, and as they swept into battle
+their song rang out; "God is our refuge and strength, a very present
+help in time of trouble; therefore will we not fear if the earth be
+removed and the mountains be shaken in the heart of the seas! The Lord
+of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge!" Their song was
+part of their armour; it was indeed the armour of their souls. I greatly
+like that word of the Christian, Appollinaris, in Ibsen's play,--"The
+Emperor Julian," which he spake when the forces of the beast were massed
+against the soldiers of the cross;--"Verily I say unto you, so long as
+song rings out above our sorrows, Satan shall never conquer!" Verily, I
+too will say that our praise is an invincible armour,--we sing our way
+to the triumph we seek!
+
+Men and women, the beast can be conquered, for the mouth of the Lord
+hath spoken it! You and I may stand at the sea of glass, pure,
+transparent, fervent with divine love, victors over the beast, through
+the blood of the Lamb, through constancy in battle, and in songs which
+ring out above our sorrows, as we push along life's way.
+
+    "Soldiers of Christ, arise!
+     And put your armour on;
+     Strong in the strength which God supplies
+     Through His eternal Son.
+
+     From strength to strength go on,
+     Wrestle, and fight and pray;
+     Tread all the powers of darkness down
+     And win the well-fought day."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE COMING GOLDEN AGE
+
+
+    _Holy Father, we thank Thee for the privilege of fellowship, and
+    for the help which we can give to one another. May the faith of
+    everyone be strengthened by the faith of all. May our penitence
+    be deepened because we are all engaged in common confession. May
+    our joys be enriched because we are all contemplating the
+    unsearchable riches of Christ. May our obedience become more
+    devoted because we all drink of the waters of inspiration.
+    Impart unto us the grace of sacred sympathy. May we reverently
+    bear one another's burdens and carry them in the arms of
+    intercession. We beseech Thee to grant unto us visions of Thy
+    glory in so far as our eyes are able to bear them. May we make
+    new discoveries among the mysteries of Thy truth. May the whole
+    worship prepare us for a larger ministry in the service of Thy
+    kingdom. Wilt Thou give us the armor we need for the great
+    campaign. Especially may we receive the endowment of the love
+    that never grows faint. Reveal to us our work, and then lead us
+    into a devotion which will never be satisfied until the work is
+    finished. Look upon the whole world in this hour of desolation
+    and woe. Enlarge our hearts to comprehend the sorrow, and may we
+    share the sufferings of our Lord in sacrificial labors. Let Thy
+    kingdom come, O Lord, and let Thy will be done on earth as it is
+    in heaven. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE COMING GOLDEN AGE
+
+    "And many people shall go up and say, Come ye and let us go up
+    to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;
+    and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:
+    for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
+    from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall
+    rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into
+    ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall
+    not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
+    any more." Isaiah 2: 3, 4.
+
+
+There is something almost unreal in these words when they are read
+aloud in the times through which we are passing. They sound like the
+voice of a mocking-bird calling from the midst of the dust and the
+débris of a ruined world. It is like hearing the gentle peal of church
+bells on the bloody field of battle. It is like anything you choose
+which has become unreal, and which has been transferred from the healthy
+book of noble prophecy to the bitter pages of satire and the sour lips
+of the cynic. Yes, I grant that the great passage unfolds ideals which
+have become mere scraps of paper, torn and retorn into a thousand
+pieces, and blown about like withered leaves in an autumn gale. What,
+then, are we to do? I am reminded of what Lord Morley said in Manchester
+a few weeks ago. "When the war is ended,--this mournful chapter of sore
+bereavement and wasted treasure, when all that is gone, I ask is there
+not a moral loss which ought to be counted, a moral loss in the wreck of
+ideals in which the men of my generation were deeply concerned? That
+loss has got to be counted and retrieved. The fabric of those ideals has
+to be built up again in the hearts and minds of men and women." Surely
+that is an opportune word, and it offers both counsel and warning to the
+Christian Church. We must not just sit down in the bloody dust, and wail
+our misereres in deadly impotence. We have got to reconstruct the ruined
+pile, and we must begin the reconstruction by rebuilding the golden
+palace of our dreams.
+
+And if we are going to rear again that stately temple of vision and
+dream, who can give us nobler help than the Hebrew prophets, and who
+among the prophets can help us more than Isaiah? Isaiah was a prophet
+interpreting the mind of God. He was a statesman with a keen and
+comprehensive outlook on human affairs. He was also a poet bringing to
+human problems the illuminating imagination of the seer. He lived in a
+time of grave national disloyalties, a time when peoples were abandoning
+their most sacred trust. His were days of international strife and
+convulsion, days witnessing vast world movements in which empires were
+seen at their birth, and empires were seen in withering decline and
+death. Isaiah was a man whose thought was distinguished by breadth and
+depth and length. He saw things broadly, he saw things deeply, and he
+also saw the things which gleamed afar. And as he looked out upon the
+world to his vision the troubled and chaotic day merged into a
+reconstituted order of active concord and peace. Isaiah was a confirmed
+optimist. He had a keen sense of the future. He felt the days before
+him. He could scent the waving harvest while yet the snow was on the
+ground. He could catch the sound of harvest-home while the wintry wind
+was whistling across the ice-bound field. And looking out over the dark
+scene of convulsion and disaster, and amid the rude and brutal clamour
+of international strife, he sang this song of the morning,--"They shall
+beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
+pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
+shall they learn war any more." If we are purposing to rebuild the
+fallen ideals of our own day, and so reconstruct our common life, can we
+do better than stand near this man for guidance and inspiration?
+
+How, then, does this man say that the golden dream is to be realized?
+Through what preparatory stages are we to pass before we reach the
+shining consummation? Isaiah declares that the fulfilment of the dream
+is to begin in _the profound revival of spiritual religion_. "It shall
+come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house
+shall be established at the head of the mountains, and shall be exalted
+above the hills." That is to say, the dominant peak in the reconstructed
+landscape is to be a shining spirituality of pure and undefiled
+religion. Man's relationship to God is to be the supreme relation
+overtopping and overseeing everything else. "And many peoples shall say,
+Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of
+the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in
+His paths." That is to say, in the golden age this is to be the common
+aspiration; spiritual desire and spiritual ambition are to be dominant;
+the biggest thing in life is to be the yearning for the divine
+communion, the gladsome craving for fellowship in the heavenly quest.
+That is how the golden dream is to begin to be fulfilled; it is to begin
+in the recovery of vital worship, in the profound revival of spiritual
+religion.
+
+Now, all the best things can be mimicked in the cheapest counterfeits!
+Pearls can be so skilfully manufactured that even the expert eye can be
+deceived. There are diamonds about, common as window glass, and their
+dancing gleams can delude the very elect. Yes, the best things can be
+cleverly imitated, and their counterfeits can move unsuspected in the
+most exalted places. It would be an amusing trait, if it were not a
+tragic characteristic of human nature, how willing we are to borrow the
+clothes of realities, and just strut about in our cheap and glittering
+attire. And it is so easily done! Anybody can borrow the jolly meters of
+Rudyard Kipling and put their own tawdry stuff into his caskets; and a
+thousand people have done it! Anybody can borrow the disorderly
+irregularities of Walt Whitman, and into his eccentric bottles they can
+pour their own cheap wine; and crowds of people have done it! It is so
+easy to borrow clothes, and bottles, and outer forms. Yes, and it is so
+easy to borrow the outer garments of religion and to move about in the
+mere trappings of devotion. We can borrow the sacramental cup and put
+into it the thinnest and the most diluted wine of life. Our apparent
+religion can be just an affair of clothes, a borrowed skin, an acted
+thing, a play, a theatricality with feigned postures and emotions,
+altogether devoid of blood-red life, and having no deep and vital
+commerce with the Infinite. Religion can be conventional, having no
+inner sanction of fine awe and godly fear. We can get religion while all
+the time religion has not got us. It can be just a light performance, a
+social convention and not a solemn travail in which the soul is doing
+great business in deep waters in communion with the eternal God.
+
+Now, is not this the religious condition into which the world has
+drifted in these latter days? I do not make exception of any country,
+not even of America. This country is delivered from the horrors of the
+European convulsion, not by a separating gulf of moral and spiritual
+condition, but by 3,000 miles of sea. If the coast line of America had
+been twenty-five miles from the coast of Europe she would have been
+involved in the woes of the boiling cauldron. And therefore do I put the
+inclusive question,--and I venture to challenge your judgments,--is not
+the religious condition which I have suggested one into which the entire
+Christian world appears to have fallen? Multitudes of Christian people
+are just wearing the clothes of religion. We have religious professions
+without spiritual possessions. We have religious conventionality without
+devotional vitality. We have the show without the life. We have the skin
+of religion without its sacrificial heart. We have the crucifix without
+the Saviour. We have the altar but not the open heaven.
+
+You may make the test in any way you please. Let us test our condition
+by any one of the primary characteristics of true and vital religion.
+Let us apply one test. Let us test our condition by our own secret and
+personal communion with the Lord. I am speaking in a Christian church,
+and I am addressing professedly Christian people; well, how do we stand
+the test? What proportion of the members of the Church of Christ in this
+country have a really living and fruitful fellowship with God? How many
+have walked the way of communion so frequently that it is now a
+much-beloved and well-trodden road, along which they can easily and
+naturally make their way in the dark, yea, even in the stormy midnight
+when the floods are out, and the tempest howls about their ways?
+
+For we cannot have religion with God wiped out! If religion is only
+beneficence, if it is only decent, respectable living, if it is only a
+comfortable conformity with accepted social standards,--if that is all
+it is, then let us say so and have done with it. Let us pull down our
+altars and fling their useless stones to the winds. But this is not
+religion. True religion is more than this. True religion is the reverent
+and most solemn recognition of the eternal God. It is the conscious
+prostration of the soul in His most holy Presence. It is the free
+because reverent fellowship of a child with the Father. It is the loyal
+acceptance of the Father's will. It is the humble reception of His grace
+as offered to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the assumption of our
+life as a sacred trust accepted from the hands of God. It is the
+anticipation of His glory in our eternal home. Religion has great human
+relationships with our fellowman, and these shall not be overlooked. But
+for the moment, I am speaking of the fontal relationship of the soul
+with God, that fundamental fellowship in which all other worthy
+fellowships are born, and I ask you whether all the peoples of all
+professing Christian nations have not wandered far from the vitalizing
+bond of this primary communion? Let your eyes roam over the darkened
+world; dense clouds are still rising everywhere on the ominous horizon.
+How is that night-time to be turned into day, yea, into a day like unto
+a lovely summer's morning? Here is the answer of the greatest of the
+prophets when he, too, was confronted with tempest and night;--the first
+thing we have to pray for, and work for, and seek for, in every
+Christian country, is a profound revival of spiritual religion, when
+"the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the head of
+the mountains, and when many peoples shall say, Let us go up to the
+mountain of the Lord, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk
+in His paths." This, I say, is needed in every country, until in every
+country all who profess the Saviour's name shall cry out in the fervour
+of a great and quenchless desire,--"As the hart panteth after the water
+brook, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!"
+
+Now look at the second stage in the realization of the golden dream.
+"He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.... And He
+shall judge between the nations." That is to say, a profound revival of
+spiritual religion will be accompanied by _loftier and more exacting
+moral standards_. He will teach and we will walk. Morals always grow lax
+when piety gets cool. When religion becomes a mere conventionality,
+morality always loses its awful sanctions. Wipe out God and your moral
+standards will surely fall. If I neglect the temperature of my
+greenhouse, or if I play fast and loose with it, my tender plants will
+assuredly droop. And if I neglect my spiritual temperature, which is the
+climate of my soul, my moral and spiritual flowers will be smitten and
+pinched. We cannot lower our spirituality and yet have our morality keep
+its winsome bloom. Let me ask you,--have you ever known anyone grow
+loose and careless in their religion, and at the same time become
+correspondingly nobler and purer, and more scrupulously faithful in
+their daily life? Have you ever known anyone drop Christ and then become
+more like Him? Have you ever had occasion to whisper this secret
+concerning any living woman,--"O, yes, she broke off communion with
+Christ, and then she put on moral grace and beauty like a robe?" The
+very question is an insult to our intelligence, as it is an affront to
+our experience; for this is the eternal law, whose workings can be
+witnessed every day,--when the spirit deteriorates the moral life
+becomes diseased.
+
+On the other hand, let there be an enrichment in vital godliness and
+our conduct will begin to shine like burnished gold. "He will teach,"
+says the prophet, "and we will walk." _He_, with Whom we hold vital
+communion, _He_ will be the teacher of the spirit, and the illuminant of
+the conscience and the inspiration of the will; a nobler conduct will be
+born of that fellowship as surely as the choicest grapes are the
+children of the healthiest vines. When we are all in living and deep
+communion with Christ, truly worshipping in the innermost secret
+place,--English, and German, and American, and Japanese,--a finer spirit
+of judgment will be abroad in the earth, a healthier moral climate, and
+we shall naturally and instinctively seek to do what Jesus did, and in
+the way that Jesus did it, when He came and dwelt among us as a
+carpenter's Son, Son of Mary, Son of Man, Son of God!
+
+Only one thing remains to be said as to the process by which the
+radiant dream of the prophet is to be fulfilled. When there has come a
+profound revival of spiritual religion, and, consequently, a loftier and
+more exacting moral standard, there will be a wonderful conversion of
+destructive forces in the personal and national life. "They shall beat
+their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks." I
+want you carefully to notice that the sword is not to be destroyed; it
+is to be transformed; it is to become a ploughshare. The spear is not to
+be broken and thrown away; it is to be converted into a pruning-hook.
+That is to say, the rudely destructive energies in human life are to be
+changed into constructive energies. What was darkly negative is to
+become brightly positive. The martial is to be transformed into the
+pastoral. The rude implement of slaughter is to become the breaker of
+the earth-clod or the helpful friend of the vine. "They shall beat their
+swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks." After the
+first historic siege of Antwerp, the cannon balls were taken and
+converted into church bells; and may the gracious and holy Lord grant
+that there may speedily come such a transformation in modern Antwerp,
+when all the ministers of carnage shall be changed into sweet and sacred
+ministers of worship and devotion!
+
+But now, if swords are to be beaten into ploughshares and spears into
+pruning-hooks, where must that work begin? It must begin in the
+individual heart. We are never going to get the swords out of the
+nations until we have got them out of the hearts. There is a sword in
+the heart, a cruel sword, a minister of destruction. There is a sword in
+the German heart, and a sword in the English heart, and a sword in the
+American heart, and that sword has got to be transformed before the
+material sword can become a ploughshare of the field! We are all
+familiar with our own swords; perhaps I had better say, we are all
+acquainted with one another's swords. There is the sword of ill-will.
+There is the spear of deadly gossip. There is the sword of evil
+prejudice. There is the spear of petty spite and contempt. Yea, surely
+there is a sordid armoury in the soul. And this has to be converted into
+a tool-house of a noble Christian culture before the material armouries
+can be emptied and the sound of war is heard no more.
+
+And therefore, the great national revolution is to begin in individual
+conversions, and these are to be the children of a vital and saving
+religion. The transformation of the world is to begin in the conversion
+of people like you and me. There is no other way. When our own
+militaristic armour, the one stored in our own soul, is changed into a
+garden tool-house,--malice changed into good-will, suspicion into
+enlightened understanding, cynicism into genial and gracious esteem, and
+foul hatred into Christ's own strong and fruitful love, then we are
+bringing the day nearer of which the herald angels sang, when there
+shall be "peace on earth and good will among men."
+
+All this cannot be done by scholarship. We cannot do it by legislation.
+We cannot do it by commerce. It is the vital work of salvation, and it
+only can be done by the Saviour of the world. And He must do it in His
+own way, and His work must be thorough, profound, fundamental. He must
+search the very cellarings of our being, seeking out our wickednesses as
+with a candle, and cleansing and purifying us in the deepest and most
+secret rooms of the soul. And when we thus come to know our Saviour, we
+shall most surely come to know our brother, for we shall see him with
+ourselves in the radiant light of the same eternal grace and love. Then
+will our swords be beaten into ploughshares and our spears into
+pruning-hooks and we shall learn war no more!
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MORE THAN CONQUERORS
+
+
+    _Heavenly Father, wilt Thou graciously redeem us from any
+    perilous mood of independence which sets our wills against
+    Thine. Help us to find ourselves in Thee, and to come to our
+    inheritance in the riches of Thy grace. Give us that lowliness
+    of spirit which will enable us to find the gate of higher life
+    and to enter in. Forgive the sin that binds our judgment and
+    enable us through a pure heart to see ourselves in Christ, and
+    to behold ourselves perfected in the power of His love. Save us
+    from low ideals. Lift us out of the thoughts that belittle us
+    and which check and destroy our powers of growth. Give us wider
+    and deeper conceptions of all things. May the experiences of our
+    life come to us as helpful disciplines, through which we may
+    apprehend more of Thy purpose, and more swiftly put on the
+    likeness of our Lord. May we not be mastered by our
+    circumstances, but may we be so strong in Thy strength, that
+    every circumstance may be our servant, adding some fresh grace
+    to our spirits, and some new influence to our lives. May we lose
+    the things we ought not to keep, and may we desire the things we
+    ought to find. Control us, O Lord, by Thy spirit, taking us away
+    from the shallows of common life into the great deep privileges
+    of communion with Thee. Amen._
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MORE THAN CONQUERORS
+
+    "In all these things, we are more than conquerors." Rom. 8:37.
+
+
+Was the writer of these words himself a conqueror? To whom is he making
+the proud boast? He is writing his letter to the people of Rome. And it
+is in this letter to Rome that the apostle claims to be a conqueror. If
+he had been writing to a little company of people living in some quiet
+and remote district in Asia Minor, far away from the movement and
+pageantry of imperial life, his boast of being a conqueror might have
+been received without surprise. But think of the daring of making his
+claim in a letter to the Romans, who were accustomed to gaze upon their
+conquerors as they returned in glory from triumphant wars of conquest,
+dragging their distinguished captives at their chariot wheels! When the
+apostle claims to be a conqueror he is using a word which to the Romans
+is weighted with pomp and glory, suggesting cities ablaze with emblems
+of festivity, and streets thronged with cheering multitudes, and a hero
+upon whom favours are being showered thick as the flowers which are
+flung upon his triumphal car. When Paul dares to call himself a
+conqueror in a letter to the Romans he is using a word significant of
+all this wealth and effulgence, and he is using it to describe the
+passage of his own life down the ways of time. "We are more than
+conquerors." Such a claim would surely strike the Roman reader with
+amazement.
+
+What was there in the apostle's life to correspond to the claim? What
+was there about it which in any way recalled the radiant entry of an
+acclaimed warrior into the festive city of Rome? Let us glance at the
+external circumstances of his Christian life. Is there anything in these
+circumstances of pomp, and flowers, and favour, and acclamation? Run
+your eye over the apostle's road. What are its features? What is it like
+as it stretches from Damascus to Rome? In peril of his life in Damascus,
+his enemies watching the gates day and night to kill him; coldly
+suspected by his fellow-believers in Jerusalem; persecuted at Antioch;
+assaulted in Iconium; stoned in Lystra; beaten with many stripes in
+Philippi; attacked by a lewd and envious crowd in Thessalonica; pursued
+by callous enmity in Berea; despised in Athens; blasphemed in Corinth
+and dragged before the judgment-seat; exposed to the fierce wrath of the
+Ephesians; bound with chains in Jerusalem, and finally imprisoned at
+Rome! Such is the character of his cold, storm-swept, painful road. And
+yet he dares to call himself a conqueror, and to so style himself to the
+men of imperial Rome! When I turn away from the gay and rapturous
+streets, through which the Roman conqueror made his tumultuous entry,
+and then gaze on the long, dark, cruel road on which this man trudged
+throughout all his public days, his life seems to be broken up in
+successive tragedies, and to sink at last in the black defeat of utter
+and complete eclipse. And yet he sings aloud in joyful pride: "We are
+more than conquerors"! Where, then, shall we look for the signs of
+conquest, and for the waving banners, and the rapturous shouts?
+
+There are two ways of estimating a triumphant life. We may trace the
+line of external circumstances, and we make an inventory of the material
+treasures, and the flattering diplomas, and the public honours that have
+been gained along the way. That road winds by the bank, and the Stock
+Exchange, through Wall Street, or Threadneedle Street, and thence it
+stretches away through fair suburbs of material comforts, and through
+gardens of enticing ease, ascending even to lofty eminences of public
+favour and regard. We may walk along this road in our desire to estimate
+a man's standing, and to reckon the degree and quality of his conquests.
+And judged by that standard Paul's circumstances were disastrous, and
+his life was just a dismal succession of appalling defeats. Indeed the
+apostle himself has given his own verdict upon his life when it is
+judged by the standard of Wall Street, and he has done it in two words
+of pregnant and sweeping brevity--"having nothing"! And yet he claimed
+to be "more than conqueror"!
+
+But there is another way of judging the failure or triumph of a life. We
+may follow the line of character. We may register the success of the
+soul in its mastery of circumstances, in its refusal to be submerged by
+evil antagonisms, in its preservation of a diamond-like translucency
+amid engulfing floods of defilement, in its buoyancy in the days of
+prolonged disappointment, in its quiet and firm ascendency over the
+beast, in its inevitable emergence from every kind of hostility in
+increasing majesty and strength. These are the two lines of
+investigation. These are the possible criteria of judgment. On the one
+hand we may measure the success of a life by the progressive enrichment
+of circumstances; on the other hand we may estimate its conquests by the
+progressive growth of the soul. We may make our valuation in the
+material world or in the spiritual world; that is to say, we may value
+the man or we may value his possessions.
+
+Now the circumstantial happenings in a life had little or no interest
+for the apostle Paul. All his concern followed the inward line of the
+spirit. He kept his eyes on spiritual processes and never on material
+results. He did not busy himself with a man's happenings; he busied
+himself with the effect of the happenings on the man. Always and
+everywhere he pressed through condition to character; his thought always
+took the short cut to the soul. If in the streets of Rome or of Ephesus
+you had pointed out to him some rich man, Paul would have immediately
+leaped the adjective and inquired about the noun. He would have had no
+interest whatever in the man's riches; riches are no criterion of
+triumph; but he would have been devouringly interested in what the
+riches had done with the man. While the man has been making riches, what
+have riches made of the man? Measure the man! Is the man who is within
+the riches a victor or a victim, a noble master or a poor ignoble slave.
+
+And so also do I believe that if you had pointed out to the apostle
+some poor man, he would have left the adjective and fixed upon the noun.
+What about the man inside the poverty? What about the soul so ill-housed
+in indigence? Is the soul royal or servile? Is it crouching or has it a
+noble and stately rectitude? That would be the concern of the apostle
+Paul. He would get behind the riches to the man. He would get behind the
+poverty to the man. For every external happening or every material
+possession is only a house, and within the happening there is the man or
+the woman, the tenant of the house. What about them? What about the
+quality of their manliness or womanliness? That was the apostle's line
+of investigation. The apostle Paul was not much concerned about the
+character of the road, whether it was bare or flowery, but he was
+vitally concerned with the spiritual condition of the traveller. How is
+it with the pilgrim soul? What spiritual conquests has the soul made
+along the road? That is the apostle's standard of measurement, and by
+its records he registers life's conquests or defeats.
+
+Well, then, what was the quality of his own life when it is measured by
+these interior standards? For, after all, these are the only standards
+worth naming, as in our sober and thoughtful moments we all very well
+know. We are not here to make fortunes, we are here to grow souls. How
+then does the apostle bear the supreme test of his own spiritual
+standards? Is he master or slave? Are the streets of his soul festive
+with triumph, or are they dull and cheerless in defeat? Is he more than
+conqueror?
+
+Let us begin the test with a day when his external circumstances were
+brilliant. Brilliant days came but rarely to the apostle Paul; they were
+as infrequent as oases in Sahara's thirsty waste. Test him then on one
+of his rare, brilliant days, for the dazzling circumstance is often our
+severest test. Some souls shrivel in the bright sunshine. They grow less
+in their enlarging circumstances as some nut-kernels contract in the
+expanding shell. Here is Paul on a great day, when by the mighty grace
+of God he has made an impotent man to walk. How is the deed regarded?
+What does the crowd think about him? Listen to the records: "And when
+the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying
+in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness
+of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because
+he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before
+their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have
+done sacrifice with the people." How now? The public favour is dazzling!
+What about the man inside the dazzling happenings? Is the man
+contracting in pride or is his soul expanding in humility? "Which, when
+the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and
+ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these
+things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you
+that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made
+heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." Do you
+mark that? This man shines in the sunshine. Popular favour made him
+kneel before his God, and God's gentleness made him great. The
+circumstances did not lessen him. His soul did not shrivel and wither in
+the popular blaze. His soul grew larger, and the man mastered his
+circumstances; he was bigger than his blazing fate, he was "more than
+conqueror."
+
+But I have said that brilliant days were rare with the apostle Paul:
+Let us test him, then, when his days were frowning, when the clouds were
+lowering, and when his circumstances nipped him like the winter frosts.
+Does his soul expand in the winter, or does it shrink like frostbitten
+fruit? Take this little glimpse of one of his days: "And there came to
+Lystra certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people,
+and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been
+dead." Having stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city. How swift
+and red is the record! Did he grow hard in the stoning? Did he become
+small and petty and peevish and revengeful? Let me read to you: "And
+when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many,
+they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming
+the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith,
+and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of
+God." This man's fruit grew sweeter at the touch of the frost. This soul
+grew larger in the season of apparent defeat. He was "more than
+conqueror."
+
+Look again through this window. Here is a very dark and bitter
+happening: "And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast
+them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely: who, having
+received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made
+their feet fast in the stocks." How now? Will this man Paul scowl in the
+darkness? Will his magnanimity sour into the bitter mood of revenge?
+Listen to the record: "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang
+praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them." Do you mark that? This
+man was a victim but he was also a victor. We almost forget his
+sufferings in the sound of his praise. Adversity did not rob him of his
+crown. He was "more than conqueror."
+
+And so I might go on introducing instance after instance, in every
+record of his turbulent life, showing how he attained to magnificent
+mastery in the spirit. When Paul speaks of being a "conqueror" he means
+that he is on the top of his circumstances and not beneath them. To be
+more than conqueror is to be on the top of your wealth and not beneath
+it; to be on the top of your poverty and not beneath it; to be on the
+top of your joy and not beneath it; to be on the top of your sorrow and
+not beneath it; to be on the top of your disappointment and not beneath
+it. To be more than conqueror is to be on the top of the old serpent,
+and, as Browning says, to stand upon him and to feel him wriggle beneath
+your feet! The real conqueror, the only one worthy of that royal name,
+is he who makes every circumstance his subject, permitting no
+circumstance to be the lord and master of his soul. He is "more than
+conqueror."
+
+And what is the secret of such conquest? Here is the secret: "We are
+more than conquerors _through Christ that loved us_." It is conquest
+through the energy of an imparted love. Nay, it is much more than that.
+It is conquest through humble yet intimate communion with the eternal
+Lover. You remember what conquests the knights of the olden time could
+achieve when they were conscious that love-eyes were fixed upon them in
+the jousts. And if this were so with knights of ancient chivalry, when
+love inspired them in the fray, how infinitely more must it be so with
+the knights of King Jesus' Order when they know that the love-eyes of
+the Lord are always fixed upon them in the field! "He loved me" sings
+the greatest of the apostolic knights. "He loved me and gave Himself for
+me." What tremendous exploits of patience and of service lie latent in
+that supreme assurance!
+
+For, mark you, all love conveys the lover to the beloved. The very
+secret of love is self-impartation to the beloved. Love can never
+content herself with the gifts of things. Charity gives things. Love
+always gives herself. Yes, the lover gives herself! And if love is thus
+self-giving tell me, then, what inconceivable giving is wrapped up in
+the love of Christ for Paul, and in the love of Christ for thee and me?
+In an infinitely deeper and richer sense than ever a loving bridegroom
+gives himself to his loving bride, our great and gracious Lover, the
+Christ, gives Himself to all who will receive Him. The Saviour's love is
+the giving of Himself.
+
+Shall I now dare to put that vast and awe-inspiring content into my
+text? Listen again to the text: "We are more than conquerors through
+Christ who loved us." Now hear it: "We are more than conquerors through
+Him who has given himself to us." That word expresses the very gospel of
+His grace. The Christian believer faces all his circumstances, not
+merely with a love but with a Lover, and with a Lover who Himself
+mastered every circumstance, and was the conqueror of sin and death. So
+this is how the Gospel music rings: "We are more than conquerors through
+Him the Conqueror"! By reverent faith we share His very love, we drink
+His very blood, and all our circumstances are made to pay tribute to the
+health and welfare of our souls. We are more than conquerors through Him
+Who is ever riding forth, conquering, and to conquer.
+
+Now I think I can go back to those streets of Rome where we began, and
+where we watched the triumphant conqueror returning home with his
+spoils. And now I am not surprised at Paul's daring to use the glowing
+word "Conqueror" to portray the glorious victories of the soul. When I
+go into the realm of his soul the roadway is lined with a cheering
+multitude; he is "compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses." A
+blood-red banner is waving triumphantly in all his goings; "His banner
+over me is love!" A garland of victory awaits the victor's brow;
+"henceforth there is laid up for me a crown." And as for his spirits,
+they are festive in the love of the Lord, and they dance in the joy of
+blessed assurance. "I know in whom I have believed!" "I can do all
+things through Christ who strengtheneth me!" We are more than conquerors
+in the conquering fellowship of our holy and gracious Lord. And this
+song of the conqueror is intended to be sung by thee and me. O, let us
+believe it!
+
+    "Shall this divinely-urgéd heart
+       Half toward its glory move?
+     What! shall I love in part--in part
+       Yield to the Lord of love?
+     O sweetest freedom, Lord, to be
+       Thy love's full prisoner!
+     Take me all captive; make of me
+       A more than conqueror!"
+
+    _Printed in the United States of America_
+
+
+
+
+DEVOTIONAL
+
+
+_JOHN HENRY JOWETT_
+
+=My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.35
+
+    A series of choice, tabloid talks--a spiritual meditation for
+    every day in the year. Dr. Jowett points every word of these
+    brief expositions so that it tells, while the lessons he seeks
+    to convey are so propounded as to enter the understanding of his
+    readers along a pathway of light. The whole volume is of true
+    mintage, bearing the impress of Dr. Jowett's ripest thought and
+    fruitful mind.
+
+
+_S. D. GORDON_
+
+=Quiet Talks About the Crowned Christ=
+
+12mo, cloth, net 85c.
+
+    After many years' study of the one book of the Bible devoted to
+    the subject of the crowned Christ--the Revelation of John--Mr.
+    Gordon has put these latest talks together. No book of the
+    sixty-six has seemed so much like a riddle, and set so many
+    guessing. Mr. Gordon, however, holds the deep conviction that it
+    is wholly a _practical book_, and concerned wholly with our
+    practical daily lives.
+
+
+_F. B. MEYER, B.A._
+
+=My Daily Prayer=
+
+A Short Supplication for Every Day in the Year. 32mo, leather, net 35c;
+cloth, net 25c.
+
+    "This is a tiny volume, in the 'Yet Another Day' series, and
+    contains a brief prayer for each day in the year. Some of the
+    petitions contain only one sentence, but each one is simple,
+    pertinent, and helpful."--_Zion's Herald_.
+
+
+_GEORGE MATHESON_
+
+=Day Unto Day=
+
+A Brief Prayer for Every Day. _New Edition._ 16mo, cloth, net 50c.
+
+    These choice prayers will be valued by the Christian world for
+    the stimulus, inspiration, and wide spiritual outlook which have
+    made the memory of their author a cherished possession.
+
+
+_HENRY WARD BEECHER_
+
+=A Book of Public Prayer=
+
+12mo, cloth, net 75c.
+
+    "A distinct addition to our devotional literature. It is good
+    for private reading; but would be especially valuable for
+    ministers as an aid to the difficult, but immensely important,
+    service of voicing the petitions of a congregation in public
+    prayer."--_Standard_.
+
+
+BIBLE STUDY, Etc.
+
+
+_B. H. CARROLL, D.D._
+
+=An Interpretation of the English Bible=
+
+=Numbers to Ruth=. 8vo, cloth, net $1.75.
+
+    "These works are designed especially for class use in the
+    Seminary, Christian Colleges and Bible Schools, as well as the
+    Sunday School. That they will make the greatest commentary on
+    the English Bible ever published, is our sincere
+    conviction."--_Baptist and Reflector_.
+
+    _OTHER VOLUMES NOW READY_
+
+    =The Book of Revelation=. 8vo, cloth, net $1.75.
+    =The Book of Genesis=. 8vo, cloth, net $2.25.
+    =Exodus and Leviticus=. 8vo, cloth, net $2.25.
+
+
+_J. FRANK SMITH, D.D._
+
+=My Father's Business--And Mine=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.00.
+
+    Dr. Smith devotes the earlier part of his book to a study of
+    Christ's historic pronouncement concerning His Father's
+    business, presenting an examination of the analogical content of
+    the word "Father," and an analysis of the Master's own sayings
+    respecting His earthly mission.
+
+
+_JOHN F. STIRLING_
+
+    _Author of "An Atlas of the Life of Christ"_
+
+=An Atlas of the Acts and Epistles=
+
+A Complete Outline of Apostolic History, Showing the Details of the
+Apostles' Journeys and the Area of the Epistles in Specially Drawn Maps.
+8vo, limp cloth, net 50c.
+
+    "Gives at a glance a complete and graphic outline of apostolic
+    history. The outline follows the narrative of the Acts of the
+    Apostles, supplemented by the data furnished in the epistles,
+    and interpreted in the light of the best scholarship. The
+    historical details are presented in their geographical and
+    chronological setting, on a series of specially drawn maps, so
+    that the student may follow easily the movements of the leading
+    figures in the growth of the early church."--_Service_.
+
+
+_JESSE FOREST SILVER_
+
+=The Lord's Return=
+
+Seen in History and in Scripture as Pre-Millennial and Imminent. With an
+Introduction by Bishop Wilson T. Hogue, Ph.D. 8vo, cloth, net $1.15.
+
+    In his Introductory Preface, Bishop Hogue of the Free Methodist
+    Church says: "An encyclopedia of valuable information condensed
+    into a convenient hand-book for ready reference."
+
+
+_PROF. EDOUARD NAVILLE, C.D.L., LL.D., F.R.S._
+
+=Archćology of the Old Testament=
+
+Was the Old Testament Written in Hebrew? _Library of Historic Theology_.
+8vo, cloth, net $1.50.
+
+    Professor A. H. Sayce says: "A very remarkable work, and coming
+    as it does from one of the leading Egyptologists of the day, who
+    is also a practical archćologist, its arguments and conclusions
+    carry unusual weight."
+
+
+_A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A._ (_Editor_)
+
+    _An Entirely New Bible Dictionary_
+
+=Universal Bible Dictionary=
+
+Large 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.
+
+    A work prepared with the definite aim of aiding the ordinary
+    reader and Bible student, rather than critic and scholar. It is
+    also arranged so as to serve as an introduction to systematic
+    theology study, and contains extended articles on the cardinal
+    doctrines of the Christian faith by such experienced teachers as
+    Prof. S. W. Green, Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas, Principal Warman,
+    and others of equal standing. On questions of modern criticism,
+    the general exposition taken by the compilers is a conservative
+    one, although exhaustive account has been taken of the
+    conclusion of up-to-date criticism and research. The volume
+    extends to about five hundred pages, and contains upwards of
+    four thousand five hundred articles.
+
+
+_PHILIP MAURO_
+
+_EXPOSITORY READINGS IN THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS_
+
+=God's Gospel and God's Righteousness=
+
+    Romans I-V. 12mo, cloth, net 50c.
+
+=God's Gift and Our Response=
+
+    Romans VI-VIII. 12mo, cloth, net 50c.
+
+=God's Love and God's Children=
+
+    Romans IX-XVII. 12mo, cloth, net 50c.
+
+    A helpful and clearly-written body of comment on St. Paul's
+    Letter to the Romans. The author is a layman whose work is known
+    and valued on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Mauro does not
+    write for scholars, but for devout and worshipful believers--for
+    men and women whose faith is simple, yet grounded on the Word of
+    the Living God.
+
+
+SERMONS--LECTURES--ADDRESSES
+
+
+_JAMES L. GORDON, D.D._
+
+=All's Love Yet All's Law=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.25.
+
+    "Discloses the secret of Dr. Gordon's eloquence--fresh, and
+    intimate presentations of truth which always keep close to
+    reality. Dr. Gordon also seems to have the world's literature at
+    his command. A few of the titles will give an idea of the scope
+    of his preaching. 'The Law of Truth: The Science of Universal
+    Relationships'; 'The Law of Inspiration: The Vitalizing Power of
+    Truth'; 'The Law of Vibration'; 'The Law of Beauty: The
+    Spiritualizing Power of Thought'; The Soul's Guarantee of
+    Immortality."--_Christian Work_.
+
+
+_BISHOP FRANCIS J. McCONNELL_
+
+    _Cole Lectures_
+
+=Personal Christianity=
+
+Instruments and Ends in the Kingdom of God. 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.
+
+    The latest volume of the famous "Cole Lectures" delivered at
+    Vanderbilt University. The subjects are: I. The Personal in
+    Christianity. II. The Instrumental in Christianity. III. The
+    Mastery of World-Views. IV. The Invigoration of Morality. V. The
+    Control of Social Advance. VI. "Every Kindred, and People, and
+    Tongue."
+
+
+_NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS, D.D._
+
+=Lectures and Orations by Henry Ward Beecher=
+
+Collected by Newell Dwight Hillis. 12mo, net $1.20.
+
+    It is fitting that one who is noted for the grace, finish and
+    eloquence of his own addresses should choose those of his
+    predecessor which he deems worthy to be preserved in a bound
+    volume as the most desirable, the most characteristic and the
+    most dynamic utterances of America's greatest pulpit orator.
+
+
+_W. L. WATKINSON, D.D._
+
+=The Moral Paradoxes of St. Paul=
+
+12mo, cloth, net 75c.
+
+    "These sermons are marked, even to greater degree than is usual
+    with their talented preacher, by clearness, force and
+    illustrative aptness. He penetrates unerringly to the heart of
+    Paul's paradoxical settings forth of great truths, and illumines
+    them with pointed comment and telling illustration. The sermons
+    while thoroughly practical are garbed in striking and eloquent
+    sentences, terse, nervous, attention-compelling."--_Christian
+    World_.
+
+
+_LEN G. BROUGHTON, D.D._
+
+=The Prodigal and Others=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.00.
+
+    "The discourses are vital, bright, interesting and helpful. It
+    makes a preacher feel like preaching once more on this
+    exhaustless parable, and will prove helpful to all young
+    people--and elder ones, too. Dr. Broughton does not hesitate to
+    make his utterances striking and entertaining by the
+    introduction of numerous appropriate and homely stories and
+    illustrations. He reaches the heart."--_Review and Expositor_.
+
+
+ESSAYS, STUDIES, ADDRESSES
+
+
+_PROF. HUGH BLACK_
+
+=The New World=
+
+16mo, cloth, net $1.15.
+
+    "The old order changeth, bringing in the new." To a review of
+    our changing world--religious, scientific, social--Hugh Black
+    brings that interpretative skill and keen insight which
+    distinguishes all his writings and thinking. Especially does he
+    face the problem of the present-day unsettlement and unrest in
+    religious beliefs with sanity and courage, furnishing in this,
+    as in other aspects of his enquiry, a new viewpoint and
+    clarified outlook.
+
+
+_S. D. GORDON_
+
+=Quiet Talks on John's Gospel=
+
+As Presented in the Gospel of John. Cloth, net 85c.
+
+    Mr. Gordon halts his reader here and there, at some precious
+    text, some outstanding instance of God's tenderness, much as a
+    traveller lingers for refreshment at a wayside spring, and bids
+    us hearken as God's wooing note is heard pleading for
+    consecrated service. An enheartening book, and a restful. A book
+    of the winning Voice, of outstretched Hands.
+
+
+_ROBERT F. HORTON, D.D._
+
+=The Springs Of Joy and Other Addresses=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.00.
+
+    "Scholarly, reverent, penetrating, human. The product of a
+    mature mind and of a genuine and sustained religious experience.
+    The message of a thinker and a saint, which will be found to be
+    very helpful."--_Christian Intelligencer_.
+
+
+_BISHOP WALTER R. LAMBUTH_
+
+=Winning the World for Christ=
+
+A Study of Dynamics. Cole Lectures for 1915. 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.
+
+    This Lecture-Course is a spirited contribution to the dynamics
+    of Missions. It presents a study of the sources of inspiration
+    and power in the lives of missionaries, native and foreign, who
+    with supreme abandon gave themselves utterly to the work to
+    which they were called.
+
+
+_FREDERICK F. SHANNON, D.D._
+
+=The New Personality and Other Sermons=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.00.
+
+    Mr. Shannon, pastor of the Reformed Church on the Heights,
+    Brooklyn, is possessed of lofty ideals, is purposeful, more than
+    ordinarily eloquent and has the undoubted gifts of felicitous
+    and epigrammatic expression. This new volume by the popular
+    preacher is a contribution of distinct value to current sermonic
+    literature.
+
+
+EARLIER WORKS IN DEMAND
+
+
+_WAYNE WHIPPLE_
+
+=The Story-Life of the Son of Man=
+
+8vo, illustrated, net $2.50.
+
+    "A literary mosaic, consisting of quotations from a great number
+    of writers concerning all the events of the Gospels. The
+    sub-title accurately describes its contents. That sub-title is
+    'Nearly a thousand stories from sacred and secular sources in a
+    continuous and complete chronicle of the earth life of the
+    Saviour.' The book was prepared for the general reader, but will
+    be valuable to minister, teacher and student. There are many
+    full-page engravings from historic paintings and sacred
+    originals, some reproduced for the first time."--_Christian
+    Observer_.
+
+
+_GAIUS GLENN ATKINS, D.D._
+
+=Pilgrims of the Lonely Road=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.50.
+
+    "A rare book for its style, its theme and the richness of its
+    insight. Seldom is seen a book of more exquisite grace of
+    diction--happy surprises of phrase, and lovely lengths of
+    haunting prose to delight the eye. Each of the great pilgrim's
+    studies is followed step by step along the lonely way of the
+    soul in its quest of light, toward the common goal of all--union
+    with the eternal."--_Chicago Record-Herald_.
+
+
+_S. D. GORDON_
+
+=Quiet Talks on Following The Christ=
+
+12mo, cloth, net 85c.
+
+    "This volume is well calculated to aid in Christian life, to
+    give strength, courage and light on difficult problems. It grips
+    one's very life, brings one face to face with God's word, ways
+    of understanding it and, even its every day application. It is
+    plain, clear, direct, no confusion of dark sentences."--_Bapt.
+    Observer_.
+
+
+_G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D._
+
+=The Teaching of Christ=
+
+A Companion Volume to "The Crises of The Christ." 8vo, cloth, net $1.75.
+
+    "One does not read far before he is amazed at the clear and
+    logical grasp Dr. Morgan has upon divine truths. Could a copy of
+    this book, with its marvelous insight, its straightforwardness,
+    its masterly appeal, be placed in the hands of our church
+    leaders, it would go far toward negativing the spiritual
+    barrenness of destructive criticism. Here is a work that may
+    profitably occupy a prominent place in the minister's
+    library."--_Augsburg Teacher_.
+
+
+_ZEPHINE HUMPHREY_
+
+=The Edge of the Woods And Other Papers=
+
+12mo, cloth, net $1.25.
+
+    "Sane optimism, an appreciation of the beautiful and a delicate
+    humor pervades the book which is one for lovers of real
+    literature to enjoy."--_Pittsburgh Post_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Whole Armour of God, by John Henry Jowett
+
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