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, anaemic, 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