In contrasting his former ministry with that of the present, F. J. Huegel says, "I look back over the years of missionary endeavor before God had opened my eyes to these facts (concerning the dreadful foes of darkness) and hang my head in shame; but I no longer wonder why they were so sterile.  I know.  Oh, the meager fruits of those years when I blindly beat the air!  Yes, Christ was preached and some few brands were plucked from the burning.  But there was lacking a vision of the actual nature of the conflict and the awful nature of the foe.  I often wondered why so little of the seed sown bore fruit.  I never realized the meaning of the Saviour's words: 'Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts.' I wondered at the terrible death and stagnation which, in spite of years of preaching, remained unshakeable." Since those days of crisis, this man of God has witnessed mighty rivers of living water flowing out into the parched places of Mexico.  Thousands of soldiers have come to the Lord Jesus Christ.  There has been a call to battle.  The power of Satan has been manifestly dreadful.  But God's truth marches on.  "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty.... But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee." Realizing this eternal wastage of souls, and how the great Captain of our salvation is so straitened within the narrow confines of our self-centeredness, little wonder that this missionary from Mexico, with his eyes open to see the war on the saints, longs for the Church to become as "terrible as an army with banners," liberated from the "swaddling clothes of Christian babyhood."

Surely the lost chord in the Christian church is that of good soldiery.  Of all the symbols employed by the great apostle to call the church to activity, this seems to be the uppermost.  The Christian must be first and always a soldier.  
must cease the civilian life of the worldling.  "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life." He is forever engaged in an aggressive, relentless and deathless warfare.  Only the soft pussyfoot dislikes to hear about Christian warfare.  But Paul talked in terms of the military.  "His epistles bristle with figures drawn from battle." We make no apology for quoting further from Mr. Huegel.  He says,

How sweet to go on singing about God's love when the Cross is calling to sacrifice and suffering, and a bleeding ministry on behalf of dying souls--and how devilish!  If there were not so many Christians being rocked in the cradle of the infancy of the faith, content with their own personal salvation, cooing to the sweet lullabies of spiritual babyhood, the world would not be reeling like a drunkard toward another international deluge.  John 14 is your favorite chapter? Have you ever wondered if the devil would not have it so?  Why not shake off the swaddling clothes and move on to Romans 6, Mat-thew 28:18-20, Colossians 1:24 and a host of similar passages that cut like a knife into our silly self-satisfaction.

Oh, the pity of it, the shame, the awful tragedy of it all!  Emancipated, redeemed, and blood-bought, but still in bondage to the world, to the flesh, and to the devil.  In retreat and defeat, flouted and routed!  How long, 0 Lord, how long?

Soldiers of Christ, halt!  About face!  Claim your freedoms--crucified to "the world," crucified to "the flesh," crucified just where the serpent was crushed.  Three glorious freedoms!

Now we are ready to fight the good fight.  "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12:11).  Three all-sufficient weapons!

We plead the Blood to bind and foil the foe--to quench his fiery darts.  Before the Blood he cannot stand.

We declare openly "the word" of our testimony.  Only those who "say so" ran slay the serpent.

We love not our lives unto death.  Let the devil do his worst.  We already stand in Death, where death was done away and the devil was destroyed.  All-victorious "victim-victors!"