'[Men that] could keep rank, they were not of double heart.'--1 CHRON.
xii. 33.
These words come from the muster-roll of the hastily raised army that
brought David up to Hebron and made him King. The catalogue abounds in
brief characterisations of the qualities of each tribe's contingent.
For example, Issachar had 'understanding of the times.' Our text is
spoken of the warriors of Zebulon, who had left their hills and their
flocks in the far north, and poured down from their seats by the blue
waters of Tiberias to gather round their king. They were not only like
their brethren expert in war and fully equipped, but they had some
measure of discipline too, a rare thing in the days when there were no
standing armies. They 'could keep rank,' could march together, had
been drilled to some unanimity of step and action, could work and
fight together, were an army, not a crowd, and not only so, but also
'they were not of double heart.' Each man, and the whole body, had a
brave single resolve; they had one spirit animating the whole, and
that was to make David king, an enthusiastic loyalty which made them
brave, and a discipline which kept the courage from running to waste.
I take, then, this text as bringing before us two very important
characteristics which ought to be found in every Christian church, and
without which no real prosperity and growth is possible. These two may
be put very briefly: organisation and enthusiastic devotion. These are
both important, but in very different degrees. Organisation without
valour is in a worse plight than valour without organisation. The one
is fundamental, the other secondary. The one is the true cause, so far
as men are concerned, of victory, the other is but the instrument by
which the cause works. There have been many victories won by
undisciplined valour, but disciplined cowardice and apathy come to no
good.
These two have been separated and made antagonistic, and churches are
to be found which glory in the one, and others in the other. Some have
gone in for order, and are like butterflies in a cabinet all ticketed
and displayed in place, but a pin is run through their bodies and they
are dead; and others have prided themselves on unfettered freedom, and
been not an army, but a mob. The true relation, of course, is that
life should shape and inform organisation, and organisation should
preserve, manifest and obey life. There must be body to hold spirit,
there must be spirit to keep body from rotting.