Every child knows the long Eastern dress; and that the first sign
that a man is in earnest about any work would be that he should
gather his skirts around him and brace himself together.
The Christian service demands concentration. It needs the fixing of
all a man's powers upon the one thing, the gathering together of all
the strength of one's nature, and binding it with cords until its
softest and loosest particles are knit together, and become strong.
Why! you can take a handful of cotton-down, and if you will squeeze
it tight enough, it will be as hard and as heavy as a bullet and
will go as far, and have as much penetrating power and force of
impact. The reason why some men hit and make no dint is because they
are not gathered together and braced up by a vigorous concentration.
The difference between men that succeed and men that fail in
ordinary pursuits is by no means so much intellectual as moral; and
there is nothing which more certainly commands any kind of success
than giving yourselves with your whole concentrated power to the
task in hand. If we succeed in anything we must focus all our power
on it. Only by so doing, as a burning-glass does the sun's rays,
shall we set anything on fire.
And can a vigorous Christian life be grown upon other conditions
than those which a vigorous life of an ordinary sort demands? Why
should it be easier to be a prosperous Christian than to be a
prosperous tradesman? Why should there not be the very same law in
operation in the realm of the higher riches and possessions that
rules in the realm of the lower? 'Gird up the loins _of your
mind_,' says the Apostle, echoing the Master's word here. The
first condition of true service is that you shall do it with
concentrated power.
There is another requirement, or perhaps rather another side of the
same, expressed in the figure. One reason why a man tucked up his
robe around his waist, when he had anything to do that needed all
his might, was that it might not catch upon the things that
protruded, and so keep him back. Concentration, and what I may call
detachment, go together. In order that there shall be the one, there
must be the other. They require each other, and are, in effect, but
the two sides of the same thing contemplated in regard to hindrances
without, or contemplated in regard to the relation of the several
parts of a man's nature to each other.
Observe that Luke immediately precedes the text with:--'Sell that ye
have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a
treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief
approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about.' That
is to say, do not let your affections go straggling anywhere and
everywhere, but gather them together, and that you may gather them
together tear away the robe from the briars and thorns which catch
you as you pass, and gird the long flowing skirts close to
yourselves in order that they may not be caught by these hindrances.
There is no Christian life worth living except upon condition of
wrenching oneself away from dependence upon idolatry of, or longing
for, perishable things. The lesson of my text is the same as the
solemn lesson which the beloved Apostle sharpened his gentle lips to
pronounce when he said, 'If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.' 'Gird up your loins,' detach heart, desire,
effort from perishable things, and lift them above the fleeting
treasures and hollow delusive sparkles of earth's preciousness, and
set them on the realities and eternities at God's right hand. 'For
where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,' and only that
heart can never be stabbed by disappointment, nor bled to death by
losses, whose treasure is as sure as God and eternal as Himself.
'Let your loins be girded about.'
And then there is another thing suggested, which is the consequence
of these two. The girding up of the loins is not only the symbol of
concentration and detachment, but of that for which the
concentration and the detachment are needful--viz. alert readiness
for service. The servant who stands before his lord with his belt
buckled tight indicates thereby that he is ready to run whenever and
wherever he is bid. Our girded loins are not merely in order to give
strength to our frame, but in order that, having strength given to
our frame, we may be ready for all work. That which is needful for
any faithful discharge of any servant's duty is most of all needful
for the discharge of the highest duty and the noblest service to the
Master who has the right to command all our service.
There are three emblems in Scripture to all of which this metaphor
applies. The soldier, before he flings himself into the fight, takes
in another hole in his leather belt in order that there may be
strength given to his spine, and he may feel himself all gathered
together for the deadly struggle, and the Christian soldier has to
do the same thing. 'Stand therefore, having your loins girt about
with truth.'
The traveller, before he starts upon his long road, girds himself,
and gathers his robes round him; and we have to 'run with
perseverance the race set before us'; and shall never do it if our
garments, however delicately embroidered, are flapping about our
feet and getting in our way when we try to run.
The servant has to be _succinct_, girded together for his work,
even as the Master, when He took upon Him the form of a servant,
'took a towel and girded Himself.' His servants have to follow His
example, to put aside the needless vesture and brace themselves with
the symbol of service. So as soldiers, pilgrims, servants, the
condition of doing our work is, girding up the loins.