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Soldiers
We have
already pointed out that life was not intended for us
merely to have a good time, to seek pleasure and to enjoy
ourselves. It is a time for building Christian character
and for accomplishing things. Some people think a
Christian ought to have no trouble, no conflict,, no
difficulties. Some who become Christians expect to have a
joyful, easy, satisfying time as Christians. There is joy
in becoming a Christian. There is much inner satisfaction.
There is peace, rest, victory. But the Christian life has
another side. The young Christian who starts out joyfully
with God's blessing upon him finds sooner or later that
life will challenge him. It will take strength, courage,
and determination to meet its many problems and
difficulties and to conquer its enemies.
It has been said, "When we are converted we mount up
with wings as eagles, then we run and are not weary, and
later we must learn to walk and not faint."
We are in the midst of a great conflict. The hosts of good
and evil are in deadly combat. The sound of this battle
comes to our ears from every direction. Whether we will or
not we are in this conflict upon one side or the other. It
was said that on the battlefields of France the larks
would sometimes fly up into the heavens and sing even
amidst the roar of battle. Likewise the Christian can
ascend to the heights of God and sing even in this world
of conflict. His song need not be quenched; his spirit
need not be broken. He is in this battle and he cannot
help himself; so he should be worthy soldier.
It is impossible that we be neutral. Jesus said, "He
that is not for me is against me." The weight of our
influence, the result of our actions, the force of our
example, are on one side or the other. We must "show
our colors." The cry that echoed in the camp of
Israel still echoes in the world, "Who is on the
Lord's side?"' Those who really are on one side yet
pretend to be upon the other are hypocrites. There is a
line of clear distinction, in life, spirit, and character
between a true Christian and a sinner no matter how moral
that sinner may be. That distinction is always clear to
the eyes of God. Sometimes it may be obscured to the world
but the distinction is real just the same. We are on
Christ's side and with him against all evil, or we are
against him.
There are some who desire to be secret Christians. In my
youth I was very timid. I desired to be a Christian, yet I
feared to say anything about it; so I thought I would be a
Christian in my own heart and take no part in the public
worship of God. This was an unsatisfactory life, but I
counted myself a Christian. Later when I was brought face
to face with the facts I found that I was not a Christian
at all. When I truly became a Christian through the saving
grace of God I was ready immediately to identify myself
with the Christians of my community. I was no longer
ashamed to be called a Christian.
Jesus said that if we be ashamed of him before men he
shall be ashamed of us before his Father and the holy
angels. A truly loyal Christian does not want anyone to
think he is on the world's side. In our Civil War it was a
great offense to question the loyalty of an individual.
This was also true in the World War. I remember a fine
Christian woman saying years ago publicly, "I do not
want anyone to mistake me for a sinner." That is the
spirit that ought to animate us all and that will animate
us if we are vigorous, courageous Christians.
Paul speaks of the conflict being waged: "For we
wrestly not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places" (Eph. 6:12). The forces of evil beset
every Christian. They are animated by an intense hatred of
God. They cannot attack God directly; therefore they
attack his children. There is a devil in the world. Verse
11 says, "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
According to this text we shall be able to stand against
him no matter if he may have power and use it in a wily
way. One thing is sure—if we put on the armor of God and
boldly face our foes the outcome of the fight will be
victory for us.
Many people fear the devil. The Bible does not say to fear
him. It says, "Fear not." Many people have wrong
ideas of the devil. They imagine he is almost if not quite
as powerful as God. They imagine that he is everywhere at
the same time. In other words, that he is infinite and
omnipresent. He is finite; therefore like all other finite
personalities—very limited in his powers. There are many
evil angels—how many we do not know —but they also are
finite creatures, evil, yet limited. Many people lose
sight of the fact made plain in the Scriptures that tho
the evil angels work against us and try to destroy us
"the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them
that fear him" to protect and keep them.
The conflict is real, not only with the powers of Satan
but with the evil influences that come from the unsaved
people about us. We cannot but be influenced by these;
therefore we must stand steadfast against them and
overcome them.
Then, too, there are those things within ourselves that we
must fight. Paul said, "I keep under my body and
bring it into subjection." No matter how good
Christians we become we shall find within ourselves some
troublesome things that will give us occasion to exercise
our strength and courage. Full salvation takes all sin out
of us but it does leave our disposition, our physical
desires, and the desires of the mind, to be brought into
subjection and governed. All these things make life a
battle. But it may be a winning, not a losing battle, all
along the line of life. It will be a battle of victory if
we do our part.
It is not God's will that a Christian be on the defensive
all the time. He should not be cornered fighting for his
life. He should wage aggressive warfare against his many
foes. God gives us offensive and defensive weapons
sufficient that when we use them properly we need fear no
foe. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of
strongholds" (II Cor. 10: 4). We do not use natural
weapons but since our foes are spiritual foes we fight
them with spiritual weapons. The "sword of the
Spirit," we are told, is the Word of God. Jesus used
it triumphantly against Satan in the time of Jesus'
temptation. It will often serve us to put our enemies to
flight Sometimes we can quote Scriptures as Jesus did. At
other times we can use them as bulwarks of faith. We can
anchor our faith in them.
Our mightiest weapon of all is faith. We are to
"fight the good fight of faith" (I Tim. 6:12).
Paul fought a victorious fight all through life and when
nearing the end he said, "I have fought a good
fight" (II Tim. 4: 7). The writer of the Hebrew
epistle has something to say about this warfare. He calls
to remembrance "the former days, in which, after ye
were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions,
partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by
reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became
companions of those that were so used" (Heb. 10:
32-33). Paul told Timothy to "endure hardness as a
good soldier."
The life of a soldier in many respects is a hard life.
Likewise the life of a Christian has its hard elements in
things to be endured, things that will try courage and
endurance. But what are we—dress parade soldiers or real
soldiers? What are we—courageous Christians or cowards?
What are we—people of spirit and vigorous manhood, or do
we dwell in the caves of fear? No, we shall "quit
ourselves like men." We shall be good soldiers of
Christ Jesus.
But this fight is a fight of faith. It is through faith we
conquer. Faith gives confidence. We must believe that we
shall win. General Marion said of his men in the
Revolution, "If I saw my men sitting up on their
horses straight, with their heads up and with their eyes
flashing, I knew I could attack a greatly superior force
with certainty of success." Gideon's three hundred
are examples of what all God's people should be.
"Confidence is half of conquest, but only the first
half." We must have confidence that we shall win;
then we must do the things that bring victory. We must
fight man. fully. This we can do, and doing it we shall
win.
A soldier's life does not consist altogether in fighting.
Battles are fought only at intervals. There are things to
be endured by a soldier besides the perils of battle. When
Garibaldi led his troops to fight for the freedom of Italy
he stood before them and said, "I will give you
hunger, wounds, death, but Italy shall be free." They
followed him enthusiastically and won. If we have the love
that endureth all things we shall not be deterred by the
comparatively few hardships of the Christian life. We
shall have the courage to meet them and to go through
them.
Before a soldier is ready for battle he must be drilled.
He must be taught to cooperate with others. So God puts us
through the drilling process in life. Soldiers often get
tired of their drills, nevertheless they must keep them up
if they would be good soldiers. So the Christian must have
the drill of the daily repetition of the little
troublesome things of life. He must go through the various
processes of becoming a soldier, and these drills must be
kept up continually through life.
Sometimes in our Christian life we seem to be making DO
progress. We mark time. At other times we find it
necessary to go upon the double quick. We then realize
we are making real progress. But running is often no more
important than marking time. So whichever we are doing let
us be content to obey our Commander.
Soldiers are often kept in garrisons. Frequently it is as
important to hold some position without fighting as to be
at the battlefront. Garrison duty often becomes irksome.
In like manner there are irksome things in the Christian
life. There is the daily recurrence of the same duties;
things must be repeated over and over. Perhaps we cannot
always enter into these things with zest, but it is just
as much a test of our loyalty and our soldierly qualities
to do well the uninteresting things of life, the things
that come again and again, the things we weary of, as to
do those that interest us most.
Again, soldiers are often held in reserve. The battle is
raging in front of them. They are doing nothing. Sometimes
it is harder to be held in reserve than it is to fight.
There are times when God lets us be in reserve. For a time
at least we are inactive. We may not understand why. We
may think we are useless; but not so. God is only waiting
for the time when he can use us effectually. He is only
waiting until he needs us for some definite thing.
It is important that we have soldierly qualities. The
demand of a soldier's life is for the manifestation of the
sterner side of his nature. The coward may make a pretty
good soldier until he faces the enemy. Only the man of
courage faces unfalteringly what may come. Therefore we
have need of courage. The old song says.
"Sure
I must fight if I would win,
Increase my courage Lord."
Well, the Lord is ready to do that if we take the right
course. How can we be courageous, even tho we ma, not feel
courageous? Marshal Foch said, "Don't stop to have
any fear, but when you are sure that you are right
approach the issue with confidence and fight and fight on
until victory." Marshal Foch won enough victories to
know how it is done. If we follow his advice our victories
will be won and we shall know no defeat.
Good soldiers do their part everywhere. They are not
merely good soldiers when no enemies are in sight. They
are ready, obedient, confident. Of one thing we can always
be sure—we have a good General. We need fear no foe when
we follow him. We need fear nothing but that we may not
properly follow him. He requires nothing more than he
ought to require. He leads us nowhere but where we ought
to go. He goes forth "conquering and to
conquer." Let us follow him through life's conflict
without fear, with the assurance that we shall be filled
with his might, that we shall be kept by his protecting
power, and that nothing shall by any means hurt us while
we obey and trust him.
The fact that there are dangers and hardships and
wearisome toil in the army does not stifle its song. There
are songs in the camp, songs on the march, songs in the
battle, and songs of victory. These songs differ.
In life we have the songs of the camp. There are songs for
the quiet hour, songs of safety, songs of contentment,
songs of a restful soul. There are songs of anticipation,
of hope, and of fellowship. These songs may gladden our
hearts day by day even tho we are in God's army, for God's
army is a joyful army.
In life there are songs of the march, songs of
accomplishment, of endeavor, of determination. There are
songs that make us forget our weariness. There are songs
of the land that lies before us. Let us learn to sing
these songs on the march so that as we go onward in our
Christian journey it shall not be a dragging forward
through the difficulties and sometimes darkness of the
march, and up through discouragements and fear, but
looking beyond the things that surround us we may see the
end of our march and the great review after the campaign
is over.
Then there are songs of the battle, songs of courage, of
determination, songs of the power of our Leader, of his
greatness, of his glory, and of his care of his soldiers.
There are songs to encourage us, to create in us
enthusiasm, to inspire us. There are songs that flow from
the will to win. Let us learn to sing the songs of battle.
They will help us on the Christian way. They will cause
our foes to fear us.
And, finally, there are the songs of victory. These are
the songs we all desire to sing. We may sing these songs
in our anticipation of victory but it is when the victory
actually has been won that we can sing them from our
hearts and have them mean something to us. These are ever
glad songs, songs of rejoicing and triumph. The Christian
life is a victorious life. It could not be victorious
without battles. So we shall face its battles, march its
marches, do our garrison duties, and whatever may come to
us through the will of our Leader, and then from time to
time we shall sing the song of victory and shall at last
when the war is over and we have laid down our weapons,
join with those above in singing the grand hallelujah
chorus of victor, through all eternity.
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