_Round about the Camp_.
First: Let it be remembered that we have a responsibility to others.
Some years ago on the Irish Sea a terrific storm was raging. It was
known that just off the coast a vessel was going to pieces. Suddenly
two men, an old sea captain and his son, put out through the storm.
Everybody tried to persuade them not to do so, for it seemed to be
absolutely useless. Over the waves, which appeared almost mountain
high, they pushed along until at last amid the cheers of the waiting
throng they returned with their little boat filled with those who had
been all but lost upon the ship. When the minister said to the old sea
captain, "Why do you do this? Why take such a risk?" he answered, "I
have been there myself, and I knew the danger." It is because we have
been once in sin and now are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ
that we say something to those who are about us.
Second: We are responsible for others. When Horace Bushnell was a
tutor in Yale he was a stumbling block to all the students because he
was not a Christian. He realized this himself, and yet he said, "How
can I accept Christ or the Bible, for I do not believe in either one."
And then the question came to him as from God, "What do you believe?"
and he said, "I only know there is a difference between right and
wrong." God seemed to say to him, "Have you ever taken that stand
where you would say, 'I am committed to the right even if it ends in
death'?" and he said, "I never have." Falling upon his knees he said,
"O God, if Jesus Christ be true, reveal him to me and I will follow
him." And he began to walk in the light, which constantly increased,
and almost every student in Yale came to Christ. "No man liveth unto
himself alone." We are responsible for the souls of other men. We are
also responsible for their service; if we are half-hearted they will
surely be.
V
"_And the host ran, and cried and fled._" What hosts are against us
to-day?
First: As individuals there may be coming constantly to our minds a
question of doubt, of pride, or of secret sin, and we wonder if these
are evidences that we are not Christians. Not at all. They are but
the fruit of our old nature, and are the hosts encamped against us. We
have only to take our stand with Christ, right with him, and we shall
win the victory.
Second: In the Church we meet with indifference, worldliness,
infidelity, and we wonder how we may win the victory. The answer is
simply, "We have but to be right with God and to walk with God," and
three hundred such followers of his could put the enemy to rout quickly.
Third: There is also a battle which those of us who are Christians are
obliged to fight. It has to do with the unsaved man. Men are not
Christians to-day not because they do not believe, not because they are
without interest in the future, but simply because they have put off
and put off, and I know of no way to overcome this difficulty except by
taking one's stand with Christ and with those who are like-minded with
Christ. Having first concern for the lost, then his intense
earnestness in their salvation, the proscrastination of the sinner will
flee away. For such a victory as this we plead and pray.