A number of years ago, at an orphan asylum in a Northern State, there lived
a boy whom we shall call Will Jones. He was just an ordinary boy. No, he
was not so in one respect, which I must point out, to his discredit. Will
Jones had a temper that distinguished him from the general run of boys.
Will's temper might have been inherited from a Spanish pirate, and yet Will
was a boy whom every one loved; but this hair-trigger temper at times
terribly spoiled things. It would be tedious to recount his uprisings of
anger, and the direful consequences that often followed.
Mr. Custer, the superintendent of the asylum, had hopefully striven to lead
Will to the paths of right; but it was a difficult task.
Sometimes it needs but one small breach to begin the overthrow of a giant
wall. One small key, if it is the right one, will open the most resisting
door. One small phrase may start a germ-thought growing in a human mind
which in after-years may become a mighty oak of character. So Will Jones,
the incorrigible fighter was to demonstrate this principle, as we shall
see.
On a Sabbath evening, as the hundred or more orphans met at vespers and
sang, "Onward, Christian Soldiers!" they saw a stranger seated at the
speaker's desk in the home chapel. He was a venerable old Wan, straight and
dignified, his hoary head a crown of honor; for he was all that he
appeared--a father in Israel.
In a brief speech he told the boys that he had once been a Union soldier,
and had fought in the battles of his country. He told of the courage it
required to face death upon the battle-field. He described the charges his
company had made and met, the sieges and the marches, the sufferings they
endured, and, lastly, the joys that victory and the end of the conflict
brought.
Then, when the boys were at the height of interested expectancy, he
skilfully drew the lesson he wanted them to learn. He told of a greater
warfare, requiring a higher courage, and bringing as a reward a larger and
more enduring victory. "Boys," he said, "the real soldiers are the
Christian soldiers; the real battle is the battle against sin; the real
battle-ground is where that silent struggle is constantly waging within our
minds." Then he told of Paul, who said, "I have fought a good fight." "Did
any of you boys ever fight a bad fight?" Every head but one turned to a
common point at this juncture, and the eyes of only one boy remained upon
the speaker. Will Jones had the record for bad fights, and that is why
about ninety-nine pairs of eyes had involuntarily sought him out when the
speaker asked the question, which he hoped each would ask himself. And the
reason Will Jones did not look around accusingly at any of the other boys
was because he had taken to heart all that had been said; and, because of
this, the turning-point had come; his conversion had begun. Henceforth he
determined so to live that he could say with Paul, "I have fought a good
fight."
No sooner does a boy determine to fight the good fight than Satan accepts
the challenge, and gives him a combat such as will seem like a "fiery
trial" to try him. These struggles develop the moral backbone; and if a boy
does not give in, he will find his moral courage increasing with each moral
fight. Just let that thought stay in your mind, underscored in bold-faced
italics, and printed in indelible ink; and if you have a tendency to be a
spiritual "jelly-back," it will be like a rod of steel to your spine.
The fear of Will Jones's knuckles had won a degree of peace for him. He had
lived a sort of armed truce, so to speak. Now he was subjected to petty
persecutions by mean boys who took advantage of his new stand. He did not
put on the look of a martyr either, but kept good-natured even when the old
volcano within was rumbling and threatening to bury the tormentors in hot
lava and ashes. The old desire to fight the bad fight was turned into the
new channel of determination to fight the good fight. Today Will Jones is
still a good fighter, and I hope he always will be, and some day will be
crowned with eternal victory; for he who fights the good fight is fighting
for eternity.
Will you not try so to live each day, subduing every sinful thought, that
at night when you kneel to pray you can say to the Lord, "I have fought a
good fight today"?