II.
(Continued from p. 375.)
And then, too, how He polished and sharpened our faith. There is a great difference between a sick person, weak in body and often weary in mind facing death for a short time and one, strong in body and mind living in the presence of death over a prolonged period. Hourly you are to live within the reach of death. Daily you are to have the searchlight of God’s judgment bearing down directly on your past and present. To your mind there is only time to ask and receive an answer to one question—”Am I ready to die?” And this is asked many times a day and under the most searching conditions. And as each time the question is asked, you look out on Jesus alone; the Bible furnishes you with a complete and satisfying answer. You are ready. Under this discipline the luxuries afforded by spiritual idleness and insincerity are hustled out of your thinking. The weeds of doubt, of undue reliance on feelings, and of self-pity soon wither away and faith in Christ grows up, to be simple, direct, and strong in its habit. And how are you to test, again and again, the reliability of your Saviour. You will meet with more incidents in one day than normally you would meet with in a month’s time. I mean incidents of a kind that touch on every point of your being. And in each of these you are to find how faithful and able your loving Saviour is. These may not be your lessons; but depend upon it, you will yet see all things working together for your good and you will praise the Lord for making choice of the army for your school-room.
Have you ever thought that in your new life the Lord has opened a great door of opportunity before you? Probably you have thought on this side of the matter but not seriously. Do give it your prayerful consideration, for if this is not clear to your mind as you enter the army you must lose much of the Lord’s fellowship. Like all Christians you have been praying, not only for the unconverted in your own congregation, but for those beyond it. Up until now these have been a company of individuals, hazy and indefinite and not very real to you. But here you are. You are right among them now, and looking on your Lord’s face and on them; you must feel that He has some good purpose in bringing you together. The feeling that you are unable to do anything of real and lasting good for your fellow-soldiers need not discourage you. Indeed, this is just the proper feeling you should have. Does not the Lord make us feel our inability before bestowing His ability? What you have to seek first, is a single eye to see the door that he has opened before you. Leave the rest to Him; He will look after the openings and your ability to enter into them. First and widest opened is the door of every-day Christian living. By Christian living I mean Christianity of the most positive kind; the kind which goes out of its way to give help and to show kindness. Let your profession be one which, quite clearly, costs you something to uphold for you cannot expect that much blessing can come to you if you carry your religion in the spirit of defeatism. The army has nothing but contempt for the soldier who turns and twists in some narrow religious tunnel or other where it is difficult for anyone to say whether he is a Christian or not. I knew some of these “negative” Christians in the last war. They had a miserable time from both God and man. Without any show, just come out firmly on the side of Christ and keep on His side by His grace, specially so in your works. Leave none of your devotional habits behind, but carry them, and practice them as far as possible to the extent done by you in civil life. More than once I found a way into men’s hearts through the witness of Bible reading and prayer. Of the many such occasions two come to my mind as I write. While in charge of a tent at a base camp I was asked by one of the men to “Read that book aloud and don’t be always reading it to yourself.” An invitation I soon made use of. The reading did not go without prayer and it was then an easy step to the giving of a short explanation of the way of life. So, what began as a simple act of private worship became a nightly service for as long as we were camped there, and even although men came drunk into the tent they never interfered with us in any way.
And, here, let me dispel a fear often injected into the minds of Christian soldiers by Satan. Though he told me many times that I should get a boot, or something equally hard, flung at me while on my knees, the boot never came, and that although I prayed in all sorts of places and companies. The other incident I recall also happened in a tent. While I was reading, a young man came in, and looking at me suddenly exclaimed: “I don’t believe in those fellows who begin to pray and read the Bible just because they are going into action.” I told him that I was doing no new thing, but just following habits which I had in civil life. “Well, what is the good of it anyway?” he asked. I did not reply immediately but turned up the 91st Psalm and read it over slowly to him. Having finished I said: “Suppose Donald, that we were going into action to-morrow; and you know what that means; would you not consider yourself fortunate if you could claim the protection offered by that Psalm?” “Why, I was brought up in the Highlands and went to church regularly and yet I never knew that these words were in the Bible much less than in the Psalms. Why do our churches use hymns when they have Psalms like these to sing?” His confession of ignorance became a splendid opening for further conversation. I only mention these to show how easily the Lord can introduce a piece of work to you and you to it.
A fierce light bears down on the Christian in the army. Nothing can long remain hidden before it. Hypocrisy, cant, and all kinds of meanness just wither away before it and only a religion which is lived out by the power of Christ within can stand. Men soon come to realise that there is some inward power at work and they are quite willing to acknowledge that they themselves are strangers to it. And although they cannot understand it, most of them will come to respect it. It is not difficult to get their ears when they come to this point, and doors will then begin to open on all sides. Apart from the opportunities which arise daily you should seek to be prepared for special calls. Your billet or hut may be isolated on account of some infectious trouble, and in other ways your company may be without the regular church parade for weeks at a time. Should you not look on these as calls from the Lord to do something? In circumstances such as these I have sometimes been asked to hold services. If you are not invited, then you will find that the best way of approach is to speak about it to some kind N.C.O. Just suggest that it would be a good idea to have a service and that you are willing to do what you can. Leave it there with the Lord. My experience has been that He will make the suggestion grow. If you are unused to public speaking then select a short suitable sermon and read it. I found some of Spurgeon’s to be very good for this purpose. Then I suppose that you will make use of good tracts. I do not think that handing them round to men collectively is as good as a cautious and particular distribution to individuals. I recall how a friend and myself went round every table in a large Y.M.C.A. hut and left two tracts on each table. After a short time we returned to find that every one had been lifted by some one of the Y.M.C.A. people just in order that they should not be read. We were sorry to lose over 100 good tracts which we could have put to much better advantage if we had used more discretion in the giving of them. To my mind, the best time and way to give tracts is just after you have had a talk with a man. It is natural and easy then to say: “I have a little book here which bears on the subject of our conversation. Would you like to read it?” Very seldom will men break a promise to read a tract. And more than that, and better; the tract will be a good reason to re-open the conversation again. We had a good rule at target practice which I think is a good one for tract distribution—”Make every bullet find a billet.” Another offer which the Lord will put in your hands is to get in touch with any serving who belong to your own Church. This is not as easy as it seems, for many will keep the knowledge of their church connection from you as long as they can, as they fear that by acquaintance-ship with you they will be identified with your religion. But once you have found these men you have this advantage. They know what to expect from you when you speak to them. A stronger link may still be forged by your writing to their parents making mention that you have become acquainted with their boys.
Now let me say a word about your cross. The cross in normal life cannot be evaded and no healthy Christian would wish to do so. It seems easier to carry it in civil life than in the army, however. This is because there are means by which it may be lightened; Christian fellowship, etc. Often in army life these means are absent and on that account you will find a great temptation to compromise; to bargain with your new conditions. “Leave me to pursue my own way and I will give you the same liberty.” You will find yourself reasoning on lines something like these. “Well, conditions are too strong for me, I may as well get over the first shock sustained by hearing blasphemy, by seeing the Lord’s Day broken, and by living with men who believe not in Heaven, Hell, Christ or anything else. I will get used to these sights and sounds as soon as possible and make up my mind to shun any unpleasantness arising out of a witness to the gospel. The best I can hope for is, to be kept from falling myself and, if spared, to adjust myself again to home conditions when peace comes.” In simple words you are seeking to evade the Cross. My dear friend, in His loving care for you the Lord will not permit this desire to be fulfilled. Rather, you may expect that He will quicken your spiritual perception and so make your cross heavier; it will cut more sharply and deeply into your shoulder. Yes, and it will continue doing so until the end of the war. There will be times when you will think that you cannot carry it a step further, but much to your surprise you will find yourself still moving forward. Sufficient grace is promised. To our eyes a sufficiency appears a mere minimum but that minimum is linked up with the Lord’s intercession and that again is united to His infinite resources. “Faint yet pursuing,” has been and continues to be the mode by which the Lord glorifies Himself through His cross-bearers.
(To be continued.)