I can fancy some of you saying, 'These gloomy views of yours will lead
to nothing but absolute despair. You have been telling us that success
is impossible; that we are bound to fight, and are sure to be beaten.
What are we to do? Throw up the sponge, and say, "Very well! then I may
as well have my fling, and give up all attempts to be any better than
my passions and my senses would lead me to be."' And if there is
nothing more to be said about the fight than has been already said,
that _is_ the conclusion. 'Let us eat and drink,' not only 'for
to-morrow we die,' but 'for to-day we are sure to be beaten.' But I
have only been speaking about this self-distrust as preliminary to what
is the main thing that I desire to urge upon you now, and it is this:
You do not need to be beaten. There is no room for boasting, but there
is room for absolute confidence. You, young men and women, standing at
the entrance of the amphitheatre where the gladiators fight, may dash
into the arena with the most perfect confidence that you will come out
with your shield preserved and your sword unbroken.
There is one way of doing it. 'Be of good cheer! I have overcome the
world.' That was not the boast of a man putting on the harness, but the
calm utterance of the conquering Christ when He was putting it off. He
has conquered that you may conquer. Remember how the Apostle, who has
preserved for us that note of triumph at the end of Christ's life, has,
like some musician with a favourite phrase, modulated and varied it in
his letter written long after, when he says, 'This is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith.' My dear young friends, distrust
yourselves utterly, and trust Jesus Christ absolutely, and give
yourselves to Him, to be His servants and soldiers till your lives'
end. Then you will not be beaten, for it is written of those who move
in the light, wearing the victor's palm: 'These are they who overcame
by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony.' That blood
secures our victory in a threefold fashion. By that great death of
Jesus Christ all our past sins may be forgiven, and they no longer have
power to tyrannise over us. In His sacrifice for us there are motives
given to us for noble, grateful, Godlike living, stronger than all the
temptations that can arise from our own hearts, or from the evils
around us. And if we put our humble trust in Him, then that faith opens
the door for the entrance into our hearts, in simple reality, of a
share in His conquering life which will make us victorious over the
world, the flesh, and the devil.
'This is the victory that overcometh the world,' and the youngest,
feeblest Christian who lays his or her hand in Christ's strong hand,
may look out upon all the embattled antagonisms that front them, and
say, 'He will cover my head in the day of battle, and teach my hands to
war and my fingers to fight.'
Dear young friends, people sometimes preach to you that you should be
Christians, because life is uncertain and death is drawing near, and
after death the judgment. I preach that too; but the gospel that I seek
to press upon you now is not merely a thing to die by, but it is _the_
thing to live by; and it is the only power by which we shall be sure of
overcoming the armies of the aliens. This confidence in Christ will
take away from you no shred of your natural, youthful, buoyant
elasticity, but it will save you from much transgression and from
bitter regrets.
One last word. There is possible a triumph which is not boasting, for
him who puts _off_ the harness. The war-worn soldier has little heart
for boasting, but he may be able to say, 'I have not been beaten.' The
best of us, when we come to the end, will have to recognise in
retrospect failures, deficiencies, palterings with evil, yieldings to
temptation, sins of many sorts, that will put all boasting out of our
thoughts. But, whilst that is so, there is sometimes granted to the
man, who has been faithful in his adherence to Jesus Christ, a gleam of
sunshine at eventime, which foretells Heaven's welcome and 'Well
done!', before it is uttered. He was no self-righteous braggart, but a
very rigid judge of himself, who, close by the headsman's block that
ended his life, said: 'I have fought a good fight; I have finished my
course; I have kept the faith.' 'Put on the whole armour of God,' and
when the time comes to put it off, you will have a peaceful assurance
as far removed from despair as it is from boasting. Distrust
yourselves; do not underestimate your enemies; understand that life is
warfare; trust utterly to Jesus Christ, and He will see to it that you
are not conquered, will give you the calm confidence of which we have
been speaking here, and a share hereafter in the throne which He
promises to him that overcometh. If you will trust yourselves to Him,
and take service in His army, you cannot be too certain of victory. If
you fling yourself into the battle in your own strength, with however
high a hope, and fight without the Captain for your ally, you cannot
escape defeat.