Courage goes without saying. If a man expects to be beaten, and to do
nothing by his Christian witness but clear his conscience, he deserves
nothing else than what he will get--viz. that his expectation will be
fulfilled and he _will_ do nothing else _but_ clear his conscience, and
that imperfectly. That is why so many preachers and Sunday-school
teachers never see any conversions in their congregation or
classes--because they do not expect any; because they go to their work
without the enthusiastic boldness which would give power to their
utterances.
I suppose concentration, too, goes without saying. When a man is on the
battlefield with the swords whirling about his head, and the bayonets
an inch from his breast, he does not go dreaming of scenes a hundred
miles off, or think anything else than the one thing, how to keep a
whole skin and wound an enemy. If Christian men will do their work in
the dawdling, half-interested, and half-indifferent way in which so
many of us promenade through our Christian service as if it was a
review and not a fight, they are not likely to bring back many trophies
of victory. You must put your whole selves into the battle. I said we
must subdue ourselves ere we begin to fight. That is no contradiction
to what I am saying now, for, as we all know, there is a distinction
between the two selves in us--the self-centred self, which is to be
crucified, and the God-centred self, which is to be nourished. You must
put your whole selves into the battle.
There must, too, be discipline. One difference between a mob and an
army is that the mob has as many wills as there are heads in it, and
the army has only one will, that of the commander. He says to one man
'Go!' and he goes, and gets shot; and to another one 'Come!' and he
comes; and to a third one 'Do this!' and, no matter what it is,
straightway he goes and does it. So if we are soldiers we have to take
orders from headquarters, and to be sure that we pay no attention to
any other commands. Suppose a man is set at a certain post by his
captain, and a corporal comes and says, 'You go and do this other
thing; never mind your post, I will look after that,' to obey that is
mutiny. If Jesus Christ tells you to do anything, and any others say
'Do not do it just yet!' neglect them, and obey Him. If your own heart
says, 'Stop a little while and try something other and easier before
you tackle that task,' be sure of the Captain's voice, and then,
whatever happens, obey, and obey at once. Warfare is a diabolical
thing, but there is a divine beauty in one aspect of it--
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do--
even if it mean 'to die.' Thus let us wage warfare.