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struggle.
To many, grace means, get off easy. But "the day of
the grace of God that brings for us the discipline of renunciation"
(Titus 2:11, 12 Arthur Way) we refuse. To be "strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus," Paul says, is to "endure hardness as a
good soldier." When he would sting Timothy, the timid, and challenge him
to "stir up the gift of God," he said: "For God gave us not a spirit of
fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline" (11 Tim. 1:7, A.S.V.).
Discipline--what an awful word! To this generation the very
thought of it is like the sting of cold rain in the face. But true
Christian discipline must be rescued from every false fear. While
true discipline will never be easy on the flesh--"no man hath a velvet
cross"--its main thought is to render us fit for a hard fight, to produce
self-control, to stiffen our renewed wills that they may act according
to divine principle. True discipline enables us to choose the hard
thing if only it will make us a better soldier for Christ.
In one of Israel's national
midnights, Gideon blew a pet blast. 32,000 responded. But 22,000
of these, the "fearful and fainthearted," slipped silently home.
Only 10,000 remained, a courageous company. But courage
Is not enough. God
has an eye to quality in selecting soldiers. God's men must be girt
up. A Canadian bridge once collapsed, killing many workmen.
The girders were not sufficiently strong to stand the downthrust and strain.
God Himself superintends the final sifting of Gideon's army. It is
a simple but remarkable test. The remaining 10,000 are taken down
to the water to & the insignificant thing of taking a drink.
Of these, 9,700 drink to the full. Facing the foe and the stern reality
of battle, they must still feel comfortable. All their lives
they had lived in the realm of their feelings, indulgent and indifferent.
They could not become soldiers overnight. They had never learned
obedience, had not learned to live in their wills. Although naturally
courageous, their fleshly indulgence manifested unfitness for the fight
of faith. Their feelings unfitted them for the fight. It is
said that during the Boer war, when England was depressed and troubled,
the government sent for Lord Roberts, and explaining the dark situation,
asked if he would undertake the campaign. His quiet answer was, "Yes."
Thinking he did not realize all the perils and problems, the chairman put
the question again. Field Marshal Lord Roberts replied: "I have been
training for this moment for twenty years." No soldier, whether for the
king, or for the King of kings, is made in a day.
But how different the three
hundred. They were self-disciplined, self-controlled spirits, eager
for a fight, their whole system set on winning the battle. They catch
a mouthful in the palm of the hand--and they are away. Gideon
has his army, fit for the fight, self-disciplined as well as courageous.
They had courage plus ordered lives. They were exposed to
odds over-whelming. They had to stand the strain, not only of battle,
but also of the ridiculous and the unreasonable. Behold a paltry
three hundred with pitchers, and lamps, and rams' horns, against men like
grasshoppers for multitude--135,000 of them.
God tests his soldiers in
the unconscious moment. Our reaction when we are under no outward
restraint is the final test of character. And character we
must have to stand strain. Christ must have soldiers so girt that
they can stand the weight, the sags, the down-thrusts of modern society.
"Our Gideon is Christ," says D. M. Panton, "He walks up and down among
the churches, watching us classify ourselves." Would we please Him
who has chosen us to be good soldiers? Then we must not collapse
and crumple up under tests. Many are called but few are chosen--because
not choice.
We are engaged like Gideon
in a midnight struggle. The darkness deepens. Dream not that
it is day. The problem of discipline, then, becomes a very practical
one and acute. The question is one of "reaction." How do we conduct
ourselves amidst the providential? How can preferences and tastes,
likes and dislikes, feelings and enjoyments enter into the drill of the
soldier! Why dream on, in a "Pearl Harbor" of a fool's paradise?
Modern society is just that. The night is dark, but we may not be
far from home. And remember that as a Christian soldier "one is forced
to travel even at noon as if one were going to battle:' Most Christians
feel (O treacherous feelings!) that we are to be carried to the skies on
flowery beds of case, while others fight on to win their prize and sail
through bloody seas.
When Napoleon addressed his
troops in his Piedmont campaign, he said: "You have gained battles without
cannon, passed rivers without bridges, performed forced marches without
shoes, bivouacked without strong liquors, and often without bread.
Thanks for your perseverances! But soldiers, you have done nothing--for
there remains much to do.' By Calvary's blood and agony, by the crying
need of millions; yea, by all the glories these unreached souls may miss,
let us lay aside all pettiness, forget our paltry sacrifices, and cease
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