Class ^ Book - Goppght}^". o Z4 • 1 -J V COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV TAPS TAPS A BOOK FOR THE BOYS IN KHAKI BY J. GREGORY MANTLE, D.D. Author of "The Way of the Cross," " According to the Pattern," " God's Tomorrow," etc- New Yohk Chicago Toaoirro Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1917, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 31 5-2.4 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago : 17 N. ' Wdbash Ave. Toronto : 25 Riclrriiond St., W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street JAN (5 1918 ©CI.A4814iO ^iV ,^A NOTE I have printed the President's noble Message to the Sol- diers of the National Army to face the Foreword. You will find it worth while to read his challenging words again and again. He tells you that you are undertaking a great duty, and the heart of the whole country is with you. He bids you remember that the eyes of the whole world will be upon you. He calls upon you not only to show yourselves " good soldiers but good men," " clean and pure through and through." If you are men of this character you will, in his closing words, " add a new laurel to the crown of America." Sound a gentle " taps " to your own soul, and having shut out the lights of the garish day, think on these things. Soon the transports will carry you to those shores where many of your comrades have already gone. How eager we shall be for news of you. " Wives, sisters, mothers, watch by day, by night. In many a cottage, many a stately hall, For those dread posts, too slow, too swift, that haste O'er land and sea the messengers of doom; Theirs, who ten thousand times would rather hear Of loved forms stretched upon the bloody sod. All cold and stark, but with the debt they owed To that dear land that bore them duly paid. Than look to enfold them in strict arms again, By aught in honour's or in peril's path Unduly shunned, for that embrace reserved." Remember that there are ills far worse than the bullet or the blade. Far better will it be for you to die an honourable, nay a glorious death, on the field — for " greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends " — than to come home as alas, so many have done, maimed of soul, " ravaged and marred by that terrible thing that is death in life and life's worst sting." " God keep and guard you," says our beloved President, to which prayer the author of " Taps " adds a fervent, Amen. 121 North Bayly Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky, November, 1917. The White House, Washington To the Soldiers of the National Army : " You are undertaking a great duty. The heart of the whole country is with you. Everything that you do will be watched with the deepest in- terest and with the deepest solicitude not only by those who are near and dear to you, but by the whole nation besides. For this great war draws us all together, makes us all comrades and brothers, as all true Americans felt themselves to be when we first made good our national inde- pendence. The eyes of all the world will be upon you, because you are in some special sense the sol- diers of freedom. " Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men everywhere not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are, keeping your- selves fit and straight in everything and pure and clean through and through. Let us set for our- selves a standard so high that it will be a glory to live up to it and then let us live up to it and add a new laurel to the crown of America. " My affectionate confidence goes with you in every battle and every test. God keep and guide you! " WooDBOw Wilson. A FOREWORD WHY "Taps"? Should it not rather be Reveille, the morning call, instead of the night ; the call to activity instead of to repose? I have called my hook ''Taps" for several reasons. I wanted a title that would catch the ear, just as the music of "Taps" did when it was first sounded in the Army of the Potomac in 1862. Then I wanted to warn my readers that they are surrounded by the lights of a garish day ; lights that dazzle and deceive. Many years ago ' ' the wreckers, ' ' as they were called, burned lights on the Cornish coast to lure vessels to their doom. Many a ship- master, deceived by what he thought was a guiding light, found his vessel on the rocks, where he was surrounded by a lawless band who plundered his ship, and if necessary took the lives of the men who sailed her. There are many "wreckers" along the coast past which you will have to sail ; and this book is written to warn you of your danger. The coast, moreover, is strewn with wrecks; and the danger of the voy- age is so great that I want again to chart the rocks, and to entreat you to put your life under the control of the One who has Himself sailed these stormy seas, and who because He knows the perils of the voyage, and was in all points tempted like as we are, is now able to succour them that are tempted. He died that He might win the right to control your life ; and He lives to exercise that right at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Only make Him Saviour and Lord and all will be well. 7 CONTENTS . CHAPTEB PAGH Battle Calls of the Nations . . 11 I. The Origin OP "Taps" ... 21 II. Reveille 27 III. Soldiers of Freedom .... 37 IV. Good Soldiers 47 "V. The False God of Germany . 57 VI. The Gathering of the Vultures . 67 VII. The Story of the Sirens ... 77 yill. The Beast-Life 87 IX. Playing the Fool .... 97 X. The Ruin of a Hero . . . 109 XI. The Sword of Damocles . . . 119 XII. Three of King David 's Generals . 129 XIII. The Fight for Mansoul . . . 139 XIV. Guarding the Outposts . . . 149 XV. "Pure and Clean, Through and Thrugh" 159 XVI. The Soldier's Drill Book No. 1 .169 XVII. The Soldier's Drill Book No. 2 . 179 XVIII. The Soldier's Drill Book No. 3 . 189 XIX. The Soldier's Drill Book No. 4 . 199 XX. The White Comrade . . . .209 XXI. Our Invisible Allies . . . .219 XXII. The Key to Your Heart . . .229 XXIII. Gordon's White Handkerchief . 239 XXIV. The Comradeship of Greatheart . 247 XXV. Saints in Nero's Household . . 257 9 BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS In Scotland 1705 WHEN a Scottish chieftain desired to sum- mon his elan upon any emergency in the old days, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, he seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. This was called the "Fiery Cross" or the "Cross of Shame," because disobedience to what the symbol implied, inferred infamy and shame on the part of the clansman. The Fiery Cross was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran with it at his top speed to the next hamlet, where, with a single word, indicat- ing the place of rendezvous, he presented it to the principle person. He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward with equal despatch to the next hamlet or village, and thus the Fiery Cross passed, with in- credible speed, through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief. At the sight of this symbol, every clansman capable of bearing arms was obliged instantly to repair to the place of muster. He who failed to appear at the rendezvous suffered the extremities of fire and sword, as indicated by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal. No portion of Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake" is more thrilling than the description of the progress of the Fiery Cross as it speeds on its errand. 11 12 BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS " Fast as the fatal symbol flies In arms the huts and hamlets rise; From winding glen, from upland brown They poured each hardy tenant down. Nor slacked the messenger his pace; He showed the sign, he named the place, And, pressing forward like the wind Left clamor and surprise behind. The fisherman forsook the strand. The swarthy smith took dirk and brand; With changed cheer, the mower blithe Left in the half-cut swath his scythe; The herds without a keeper strayed. The plow was in mid-furrow stayed, The falconer tossed his hawk away, The hunter left the stag at bay; Prompt at the signal of alarms. Each son of Alpine rushed to arms." The poet then describes how ..." unheeding all The henchman burst into the hall; Before a dead man's bier he stood Held forth the cross, besmeared with blood: ' The muster-place is Lanrick mead. Speed forth the signal! clansman speed! ' Angus, the heir of Duncan's line. Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign. In haste the stripling to his side His father's dirk and broadsword tied; One look he cast upon the bier. Dashed from his eye the gathering tear, Breathed deep to clear his labouring breast, And tossed aloft his bonnet crest. Then, like the high-bred colt when, freed, First he essays his fire and speed. He vanished, and o'er moor and moss Sped forward with the Fiery Cross." A bridal procession is just coming from the church where the marriage has taken place. The gallant bridegroom is escorting his young and bonny bride: BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS 13 " Who meets them at the churchyard gate ? The messenger of fear and fate! All dripping from the recent flood, Panting and travel -stained he stood, The fatal sign of fire and sword Held forth, and spoke the appointed word: ' The muster-place is Lanrick mead : Speed forth the signal! Norman, speed!' Yet slow he laid his plaid aside. And lingering eyed his lovely bride. Until he saw the starting tear Speak woe he might not stop to hear. Then trusting not a second look In haste he sped him up the brook." In Italy 1849 The story of the freeing of Italy from the tyranny under which the people had groaned for so long is one of the most thrilling stories in history. No name shines brighter on those pages than the name of the patriot Garibaldi, who gathered around him a host of brave spirits who never rested until Italy was free. When he had been defeated in Rome Garibaldi issued his immortal appeal: "Soldiers, I am without money and without rewards. I have nothing to offer you but cold, hunger and hardship. Let him who loves his country follow me!" Let Mrs. Hamilton King tell the story: "Then Garibaldi gathered all his troops Around him, in Saint Peter's Place, and said: ' My place is here no longer. Rome has fallen. I will not stay to see The foreign army pass along her streets Victorious. Still against the foreigner Shall never struggle cease in Italy, While I can live for her. I go to bear Her last resistance through the provinces, God helping us alone. Whoever wills To follow me I will receive to-day. Nothing I ask from them to make them mine, But love for Italy and faith in her. They will have neither pay nor rest with me; 14 BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS But bread and water, — if we have the chance To find so much. I cannot promise them Even a grave; nothing is sure but death. Whoever is not satisfied with this Had better come no further. Every step Will be a step towards death, when once the gates Of Rome have closed behind us. Who will come? — Meet me at six o'clock this evening, here.' These are the words that Garibaldi wrote Long afterwards, remembering this day: ' Four thousand men on foot, nine hundred horse Ranged themselves round me.' " — From "The Disciples.' In the American Civil War 1861 Ho, woodsman of the mountain-side! Ho, dwellers in the vales! Ho, ye who by the chafing tide Have roughened in the gales! Leave barn and byre, leave kin and cot. Lay by the bloodless spade; Let desk and case and counter rot, And burn your books of trade! The despot roves your fairest lands And till he flies or fears, Your fields must grow but armfed bands. Your sheaves be sheaves of spears! Give up to mildew and to rust The useless tools of gain. And feed your country's sacred dust With floods of crimson rain! Come with the weapons at your call — With musket, pike, or knife; He wields the deadliest blade of all Who lightest holds his life. The arm that drives its unbought blows With all a patriot's scorn. Might brain a tyrant with a rose Or stab him with a thorn. Does any falter? let him turn To some brave maiden's eyes, And catch the holy fires that burn In those sublunar skies. BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS 15 Oh, could you like your women feel. And in their spirit inarch, A day might see your lines of steel Beneath the victor's . arch ! What hope, O God! would not grow warm When thoughts like these give cheer? The lily calmly braves the storm, And shall the palm-tree fear? No! rather let its branches court The rack that sweeps the plain; And from the lily's regal port Learn how to breast the strain. Ho, woodsman of the mountain-side! Ho, dwellers in the vales! Ho, ye who by the roaring tide Have roughened in the gales! Come, flocking gayly to the fight, From forest, hill, and lake; We battle for our country's right And for the lily's sake! — ^Henby Timbod In America 1917 *' Fisherman, mend your nets For the day's trawling! Cod and menhaden run Thick for your hauling! " " Yes, hut beyond the mists Bugles are calling ! " " Writer, the world would count You with its sages! Far from the shock of war. Toil for the ages! " " 'No — I must write my life On Freedom's pages!" " Surgeon, you cannot go ! Hear the sick pleading! 'Tis not for such as you Bullets are speeding! " " Hush — for I see in France Liberty bleeding!" 16 BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS " Mother, keep back your lad, Tho his mates scorn him! Better their jeers than that Your heart should mourn him! " " Cease — for his country's cause My arms have borne him!" " Pastor, now more and more Men need your preaching! How shall they find their souls If you stop teaching?" " Yet, on His battle line God is beseeching ! " — Daniel M. Henderson. In Outlook. America in the World Wae 1917 There wasn't much excitement 'roiind our way 'Bout th' war. We tuk th' papers an' read 'em through, When we hadn't nuthin' better t' do. We didn' know which side wuz right. An' didn' much care who won th' fight. So th' ole war run along until Th' President said he needed Bill. Seems like th' Dutch wuz a-killin' our folks Out on th' sea. A-sinkin' our ships an' a-sendin' 'em down, An' lettin' th' wimmin an' children drown. Th' President writ 'em a note er two, A-tellin' 'em what they'd better do. But they kep' right on until Th' President says, "It's up t' Bill." So he sent out word t' count th' men Ez wuz fitten t' fight. An' Bill he wuz right off fer town. An' found a feller 'at writ it down 'Bout where he wuz born — what town an' State. An' Bill he give 'im his age an' date; " Born up yonder an' livin' there still. Scratch out ' exempt ' — I'll fight," says Bill. BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS 17 There wan't any fellers much straighter than Bill — Er better built. A hundred an' eighty an' five foot ten — Th' mould God used when makin' men. Bill's hair wuz black, an' his eyes were blue — That wuz his Irish showin' through. A' th' captain said, ez captains will, " Send me a million men like Bill." So Bill he's packed an' ready t' go 'Way over there. A-shoulderin' gun an' his soldier's kit — Able an' willin' t' do his " bit." Ready t' see th' ole war through, An' do th' fightin' there is t' do. They've fought together, an' always will — God an' the U. S. A.— an' Bill." — Kenneth Graham Duffield, Memphis Appeal. In Great Britain 1915 From peak and golden weald, From good red earth and brown, From forest, fen, and field, From villa and from town, Come, come, come! Leap to the solemn call; For Liberty Speed fast and free. And each for the love of all. Your plowshares beat to sworda On anvil of the heart. No time is this for words; Arise and play your part. Come, come, come! Fly upon feet of flame. Swift to fulfil Your o\vn goodwill For love of your own fair fame. Shall they who gave their all And now so peaceful lie Dream that the trumpet's call Brightens no brother's eye? Come, come, come! 18 BATTLE CALLS OF THE NATIONS Forget not those who led When the evil woke And the battle broke — Boys — For the love of the dead. Who harbors the vain thought That one on this red day, Can England have for naught And Freedom without pay. Come, come, come! Join up with them that stand To bear the brunt Of the battle-front For love of their fatherland. — Eden Phillpotts, London Daily News. In Canada 1915 It is time! Come, all together, come! Not to the fife's call, not to the drum; Right needs you; Truth claims you — That's a call indeed One must heed! Not for the weeping (God knows there is weeping!) Not for the horrors That are blotting out the page: Not for our comrades ( How many now are sleeping ! ) Not for the pity nor the rage. But for the sake of simple goodness And God's laws, We shall sacrifice our all For the Cause! — Lloyd Robebts, Ottawa Citizen. THE ORIGIN OF " TAPS Taps Halt! — the march is over. Day is almost done; Loose the cumbrous knapsack, Drop the heavy gun. Chilled and wet and weary. Wander to and fro, Seeking wood to kindle Fires amidst the snow. Round the bright blaze gather Heed not sleet nor cold; Ye are Spartan soldiers, Stout and brave and bold. Never Xerxian army Yet subdued a foe Who but ask a blanket On a bed of snow. Shivering, 'midst the darkness, Christian men are found, There devoutly kneeling On the frozen ground — Pleading for their country. In its hour of woe — For its soldiers marching Shoeless through the snow. Lost in heavy slumbers. Free from toil and strife, Dreaming of their dear ones — Home, and child, and wife, Tentless they are lying. While the fires burn low — Lying in their blankets, 'Midst December's snow. — Margaret J. Preston. Written during the Civil War. I THE ORIGIN OF "TAPS" A SHORT time ago in the Youth's Companion there appeared an interesting article on the ■ origin of the bugle-call known as Taps, writ- ten by P. W. Burrows. In a book of personal letters and memorials printed for circulation among his friends, Oliver W. Norton gives us this piece of his- torical information, which, at this moment is par- ticularly timely. Mr. Norton is a veteran of the Civil War, and at the beginning of his military career was brigade bugler to General Daniel Butterfield's command. General Butterfield was especially interested in the invention of bugle calls, and what is considered the most beautiful of those calls, known as "taps," came into existence in the following manner: In the month of July, 1862, the Army of the Potomac rested in camp at Harrison's Landing, a point of the James River in Virginia. It was imme- diately after the seven days of fighting before Rich- mond. The losses had been heavy, and the army was recruiting its strength after the long struggle. Day and night the long, winding valley and the hills on either side echoed to the bugle calls that marked the rhythm of the camp life. The old order for "lights out," which had been inherited from the earliest West Point memories, sounded discordant and unsuitable to the sensitive musical ear of General Butterfield. 21 22 TAPS He immediately began turning over in his mind such musical phrases as seemed to convey the sug- gestion of the peace and quiet of the camp — of rest after labour, a sense of pause after the activities of the day. Having settled upon a combination of notes that seemed to him to be in tune with the sentiment of a sleeping camp of soldiers, he summoned his bugler, Norton, and began to teach him the new call, whis- tling the notes over many times, and correcting their time and phrasing. At last satisfied with the result, he jotted notes down with a pencil on the back of an envelope. That same night Butterfield's old brigade was the first to hear the lingering refrain of the new call, and the next morning the buglers of other camps nearby — for its music had carried far among the hills^ began to inquire as to its meaning, and to ask per- mission to learn it. Wherever it was heard it ar- rested immediate attention and lingered in the memory. It passed from army corps to army corps with great rapidity, and was finally substituted, by general orders, for the old "lights out" call, and printed in the army regulations. Its use in the military burial service, both by the veterans of the war, and by the United States regu- lar army, has added greatly to the tenderness of its THE ORIGIN OF "TAPS" 23 associations. There are few musical phrases in the world held in deeper reverence, and the sounding of "taps" when the day's work is done will hush the noisiest and most boisterous throng. Blow, bugles, blow— soft and sweet and low. Blow a " lights out" call for those who bravely faced the foe; Taps will tell of truce to pain, Where they sleep nor wake again, 'Neath the simshine or the rain Blow softly, bugles blow! I REVEILLE The night is far spent, the day is at hand: Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. And let us put on the armour of light. Night for the dead in their stiffness and starkness! Day for the living who mount in their might Out of their graves to the beautiful land. Far, far away lies the beautiful land: Mount on wide wings of exceeding desire, Mount, look not back, mount to life and to light. Mount by the glow of your lamps all on fire, Up from the dead men and up from the night. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. — Christina Rossetti. n KEVEILLE THE word reveille is French in its origin and comes from the word reveiller to awake. It is the beat of the drum, the bugle call, or other signal given about break of day, to give notice that it is time to rise, and for the sentinels to forbear challenging. There is an incident recorded in "The Great War Treck" by James Barnes which took place at the battle of Magersfontein, South Africa. In the early hours of a December morning of pelting rain, the Highland brigade was almost annihilated by a party of Boers lying in ambush. Column after column of brave Highlanders went down that hill to certain death. Before the morning had passed no fewer than 856 of them were killed, and as many more desper- ately wounded. During a lull in the battle, when it almost seemed that the Highlanders had lost heart and were hope- lessly beaten, there came wandering into an open space a piper with his pipes under his arm. A wounded officer, Major Anson, who was killed an hour afterwards, rushed up to the piper, and said in Scotch dialect: "Blaw, man blaw your pipes!" The piper replied : " I eanna ; my lips are dry. ' ' The wounded officer tried to pull out his water bottle from his belt and give the piper a drink, but he was unable to do so. The piper then knelt down, and 27 28 TAPS putting his mouth to the neck of the officer's bottle, drew a long draught. Then in the muggy, misty air, the skirl of the pipes was heard once more playing the well-known tune, ''Hey, Jolinny Cope, are ye wakin' yet?" As the solitary piper stood there, marking time with the stamping of his foot, gradually from different places, his comrades began to gather round him. Other pipers took up the call, and presently the tide was stemmed. The men who had grown discouraged were sifted into regiments and then into companies. Parched with thirst and weary with the long fight, they stood there in line, mopping their faces on their coat-sleeves. And then once more they charged, and though at an enormous loss, the advance was made, and the foe was conquered. That is the message of this chapter : ' ' Hey, Johnny Cope, are ye wakin' yetf" Let me quote the reveille of the Apostle Paul: ''You know the critical period at which we are living, and that it is now high time to rouse yourselves from sleep. . . . The night is far advanced, the day is about to dawn. We must therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, and clothe ourselves with the armour of Light. Living as we do in the broad daylight, let us conduct ourselves becom- ingly, not indulging in revelry and drunkenness, nor in lust and debauchery, nor in quarrelling and jealousy. On the contrary, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for gratifying your earthly cravings" (Rom. 13:11-14. Weymouth's translation). Paul was a prisoner in Rome when he wrote these words. He was chained by the wrist to a fresh sol- dier every week. For two years and a half he was thus guarded by the soldiers of the Imperial Guard. Probably more than a hundred men had charge, in REVEILLE 29 turn, of this wonderful captive during his detention at Rome. It must have resembled being chained night and day to a holy angel, to be chained to such a man as Paul, so wise, so winsome, so strong, so saintly, so devoted, so divine was he. That chain became a means of evangelizing the camp of the Imperial Guard. So Paul tells the Philippians that his "bonds were manifest in Christ, through the whole Imperial Guard, and to all others, so that many of the brethren, being confident of the truth through his bonds" — in other words, more convinced of the truth for which he was willing to labour and suffer so much — were "more bold to speak the Word of God without fear." Probably most of these soldiers became converts to Christianity, and all of them were willing witnesses of the gentleness, the graciousness, the goodness, yes, and even the glad- ness of this noble prisoner, this martyr of the Lord Jesus. The Roman soldier was permitted to lay aside his armour when the night came and spend the night as he would. But in the morning he was required, when the Reveille was sounded, to gird on his armour, and with the dawning of the day to appear at the barracks or at any post to which he was assigned. It would frequently happen that a soldier after laying his armour aside, would spend the night in riotous carousing and in drunken revelry. He would sleep heavily after the excesses of the night, and as the day dawned he would awaken or be aroused ; would hurriedly put on the armour, remove from it any mud or dust which had accumulated on it, and then march off to the post where he was ex- pected to appear. 30 TAPS 1. The first call of the Reveille is to Activity. "We are living," says the Apostle, "in a critical period." If that was true in Paul's day it is much truer to-day, for the night is much farther spent and the dawning of the day is consequently much nearer. It is high time for us to rouse ourselves from sleep. The night is the time of inactivity and lethargy ; sleep is the cousin of death. It is also a time of illu- sion. The repulsive and the beautiful, friend and foe are all one, when night has drawn her sable curtains round us. So in the night men mistake the counterfeit for the real, the false for the true. Possibly you have read the old story from Roman mythology — of Charon the boatman, whose business it was to row the dead across the river Styx. He no- ticed that when his passengers came to him they were invariably sad. He wondered why, so he determined he would come to this earth and discover, if possible, the reason. Taking a seat on a high place he looked down on the cities man had built and the fortunes they had accumulated, and then remarked :" It is no wonder that those people are sad when they come to me. They spend all their time here building birds' nests." Birds ' nests ! these things that absorb our energies and engross our thoughts to the exclusion of other things. That is not the way these things look to us from the low level of earth, but if we could look down upon them from the summit of heaven we should see that Charon was not so far wrong. What are you building? Birds' nests that perish in the storm, worthless and unsubstantial ? Or are you wide awake, ' ' knowing the time, ' ' and building that inde- structible thing we call character? REVEILLE 31 2. The second call of the Reveille is to Amendment. " Lay aside the deeds of darkness and clothe your- self with the armour of light." When the Roman soldier awoke in the morning, he first cleansed his armour from everything that had stained or defiled it. He polished it so that when he put it on and went out into the light, every part of that burnished armour became a reflector of sunlight, a veritable armour of light, or a shining armour. There are six forms of sin arranged in three couplets or pairs ; all of them deeds of darkness ; all of them stains and iniquities on the soldier's shining armour which must be removed. Woe to the Roman soldier who was careless about his dress or accoutre- ments when the inspection took place ! Not a stain must be seen anywhere! Not a buckle must be unstrapped! Not a button must be missing! Carelessness in dress meant carelessness in other directions. The first pair of the six forms of sin to which the Apostle refers are "revelry and drunkenness," those are sins which have to do with the indulgence of the bodily appetites. Think of a soldier, called to so great an undertaking; with the eyes of the whole world upon him ; challenged by his President to add a new laurel to America's crown, found guilty of revelry and drunkenness ! One of my saddest memo- ries of military life is the sight of soldiers, under arrest for drunkenness and other offences, looking out from between the bars of the guard-room win- dow, evidently longing for their liberty and writing bitter things against themselves because they, for a time at any rate, had lost it. The second pair of deeds of darkness, "lust and debauchery, ' ' are sins which relate to the indulgence of carnal lusts. I will reserve what I have to say 32 TAPS about their peculiarly hateful and destructive forms of evil for a later chapter. The third pair of deeds of darkness, ** quarrelling and jealousy," relate to the indulgences of evil tem- pers and malignant dispositions. These equally with the more repulsive forms of sin must be cast off. How are these evil things to be "cast off" or "laid aside"? May they not be gratified within fixed and defined limits? Am I to engage in a per- petual struggle with them, in which sometimes I shall be the victor and sometimes the vanquished? To all of these questions a sufficient answer is given in the tense employed by the Apostle in his arousing call. The tense is known in the Greek lan- guage as the aorist tense. There is no tense in the English language like it. It denotes "singleness of act." This tense never indicates a continuous, habit- ual, or repeated act, but one which is momentary, and done once for all. ''Cast off the works of dark- ness, and put on the armour of light." That is to say, there must be a definite, sudden and entire abandonment of the works of darkness and the immediate, final and irrevocable acceptance of the armour of light. It can be done, or the Word of God would not enjoin it. The Holy Spirit is hovering over you, as you read these words, to turn your feebleness into strength, your disability into Divine ability. Once and for ever you can put off the old and put on the new. Put on the costume of the day. These works of darkness are like an infested garment ; cast them off ; they are worse than no cover- ing at all. 3. The third call of the Reveille is to Conflict. "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for gratifying your earthly cravings." REVEILLE 33 What a wonderful protection light is against dark- ness. You will often see a store where the lights are left burning all through the night, for better than bolts or bars is the protection of the light. In your conflict with the powers of darkness there is no armour like the Light. When a Roman soldier put on his armour, in a sense he put on Rome. On the various parts of that shining armour there were the emblems of the Em- pire and of the Emperor whose servant he was. On his helmet the silver eagles spread their wings as if for flight ; those eagles being the symbol that floated from the standard that was unfurled over Rome's victorious battalions. How often had the very sight of those Roman eagles struck terror into the hearts of her enemies ! On the soldier's breastplate was the coat-of-arms of the Roman Empire. On every part of the armour you might have seen some mark or stamp of Roman authority or ownership. So in every piece of the shining armour you are exhorted to put on, there is something that reminds you of Christ. Every part of the armour, the breast- plate, the helmet, the shield, the sword, is impressed with heaven's coat-of-arms. The armour of Light is just the Lord Jesus Christ. Put Him on as the Saviour, Jesus ; as the Master, Lord ; as the Anointed, Christ. Jesus to save you; the Lord to rule over you ; the Christ to anoint you with His Holy Spirit, and to cover your head in the day of battle. Put on the whole armour of God. God's Truth, Righteous- ness, Peace, Faith, Salvation and Sword. (See Eph. 6:14-17.) Do not only resist impurity, but learning the more excellent way, put on the Lord Jesus Christ as your purity. Putting Him on thus you will have no diffi- culty in being freed from the taint and stain of that 34 TAPS hateful sin impurity. Make no provision for falling into sin. If you expect to fail you will fail. Burn all your bridges behind you, and step, just now, by an act of daring, appropriating faith into a life of victory. SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM God Who callest our nation To battle for the right, Enfold us with Thy mercy, And strengthen us with might, That in the day of trial Our spirit may be strong To strive and never falter, To overcome the wrong. Not in the pomp of armies That shake the world with dread, Not in the blood of heroes In conflict freely shed. But in the clear assurance That this our cause is just. We call our God to witness And in His mercy trust. When 'mid the din and darkness The hissing bullets fly, And strong men face the issue. To conquer or to die; Be near the deadly stricken And bless the brave who bleed, And may the dust of heroes Be Freedom's deathless seed. Be on the lonely waters With those who guard the deep. And where the watchful sentries Their wide-eyed vigil keep. O bind us in Thy service To honor, truth and Thee; And keep this Land of Freedom Inviolate and free. — Lauchlan Maclean Watt. Ill SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM IN his inspired and inspiring message to the Sol- diers of the National Army, President Wilson says : * * The eyes of the world will be upon you, because you are in some special sense the soldiers of Freedom. ' ' That expression "Soldiers of Freedom" is so sug- gestive, and gives such elevation and distinction to the duties devolving upon you, that I am making it the text of this chapter. When I thought of the phrase my mind instinc- tively travelled back to the first Soldiers of Freedom who landed on these shores. It was as far back as the year 1620, but we must continue to keep the memory of those Pilgrims green, and find inspiration and stimulus in their splendid example and heroism. What brought th) Pilgrim Fathers to this land? The answer can be given in the one word. Freedom. Freedom of Thought; the Right of Private Judg- ment ; the Liberty of each individual mind to discover for itself the Truth of God — these were the principles for which they fought. These sturdy, old Puritans refused to have a price put on either their principles or their liberties; and to save both themselves and their posterity from such prostration, they took the field and fought the battle like true Soldiers of Free- dom. And they not only fought, but won. The Civil and Ecclesiastical powers of England were both arrayed against them, and they had to 37 38 TAPS choose between being bruised and broken under the heel of oppression, or seek a distant retreat where they would be beyond the reach of tyranny. They did not seek separation. They only sought a purer altar and a more spiritual worship. They wanted less of the letter and more of the spirit ; less of cere- monial and more of Christ. In their own language they "admitted no voucher but the Bible" and for these principles they passed through the fire and em- braced the flame. Despite persecution, imprisonment, exile and death, these Soldiers of Freedom multiplied. The blood of the martyrs is always the seed of the Church. Their increase being considered dangerous to the State, it was proposed to banish them from England, as the Moors had been banished from Spain. That wretched monarch, James the First, vowed he would either make them conform or harry them out of the land. That was how the term Non- conformist, so familiar in England, originated. In the eyes of James Nonconformity was a crime which could only be expiated by death or by exile. Frowned on by the monarch and his miserable courtiers, and disowned by the Church, these Sol- diers of Freedom entered into a solemn Covenant to stand or fall by the ark of Liberty. They had to choose between subjugation and extermination if they remained in their own country, Refused a foot- ing on England's long-loved soil they turned their faces towards the New World, and on September 6, 1620, one hundred and one souls went on board the Mayflower and set sail on stormy seas. They drew up, on the voyage, a solemn compact, which was signed by the whole of the men — forty- one in number — and as some one has said: "In the cabin of the Mayflower humanity recovered its rights, SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM 39 and instituted government on the basis of equal laws for the general good. ' ' They were all humble men ; but all of them men of spirit; all of them men of God ; all of them ready to die for Freedom. It always thrills me to read the story of their land- ing on that tempestuous December 22, 1620, at Plymouth. They had been sixty-three days on their boisterous and uncomfortable voyage. The weather was wild and wintry throughout. Think of it for a moment. They had left their comfortable English homes, which nestled amid the beautiful trees. They turned their backs on the hallowed haunts where their loved ones had lived for generations, and where their sainted dead were buried. "What did they find ? On Saturday, December 20th, they were on a little island, lashed with sea and storm, the abode of sav- age men. As they tried to land the waves broke over them, and as the water struck them it froze, and they stood in ice, clothed as in coats of mail. They were far from the associations and endearments of home, yet they kept the Sabbath most sacredly. No church bell fell on their ears to remind them of the hour of Divine worship; no sanctuary was open to invite them to its altar, yet they passed the hours of the sacred day in prayer and praise, in holy con- verse and uplifting conversation. Let us ponder it, and never let us allow the mem- ory of it to perish. Before a single hut or habitation of any kind was erected to cover their homeless heads, when, as yet, they occupied nothing but a desert, they met to worship God amidst the wide- spreading forest and under the open canopy of heaven. Was ever ground more hallowed ? Was ever an altar more sacred? Was ever worship more spiritual and true? 40 TAPS " Amidst the storm they sang, And the stars heard and the sea; And the sounding aisles of the dim wood rang To the anthem of the Free. " The ocean-eagle soared From its nest, by the white waves' foam! And the rocking pines of the forest roared — This was their welcome home! " What sought they thus afar ? Bright jewels of the mine? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a Faith's pure shrine. " Aye ! call it holy ground, The spot where once they trod! They have left unstain'd — what there they found — Freedom to worship God." We have travelled a long way since the landing of those Soldiers of Freedom on this soil three centuries ago. What with our Sunday newspapers, our Sun- day ball-games, our Sunday theatres and our Sunday pleasure-seeking, we are in terrible danger of selling this part of our birthright for a mess of pottage. Pause, when temptations to Sabbath desecration pre- sent themselves, and think of the first Sabbath those Soldiers of Freedom spent on these shores; and re- member the price they paid after their landing in pursuance of their purpose, for more than half of that little colony fell a sacrifice to exposure, priva- tion and disease. The men of the Mayflower, and their successors, will live forever in the foundations which they laid, and in the immortal principles which they taught. Beside the church they placed the school, in the heart of their schools they placed the college, and there they multiplied and grew, freedom-loving; feeling that the very air they breathed gave them freedom. And now the lessons of Freedom for which they SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM 41 sacrificed, which they taught and for which they so bravely fought, when it was necessary, are being incarnated in the creation of an army more thor- oughly representative of our citizenship than any other army we ever had. Well may the President say: "The eyes of all the world will be upon you, because you are in some special sense the Soldiers of Freedom. ' ' What a noble heritage ! Let us prove not unworthy of it. This is how Mary Perry King, in Collier's Weekly, describes your errand who are the latest Soldiers of Freedom : "Unfurl the flag of Freedom, Fling far the bugle blast! There comes a sound of marching From out the mighty past. Let every peak and valley Take up the valiant cry: Where, beautiful as morning. Our banner cuts the sky. " Free-born to peace and justice. We stand to guard and save The liberty of manhood, The faith our fathers gave. Then soar aloft, Old Glory, And tell the waiting breeze No law but Right and Mercy Shall rule the Seven Seas. " No hate is in our anger. No vengeance in our wrath, We hold the line of Freedom Across the tyrant's path. Where'er oppression vaunteth We loose the sword once more To stay the feet of conquest, And pray an end of war." Freedom ! What a word it is ! Do you ask for a definition: "He alone is free," says Philo, "who taketh God alone for his Commander. The good man alone is free ; for the evil man, though he deny it, is 42 TAPS the slave of as many lords as he has vices. All vices come — lust, avarice, luxury, ambition, and one by one they chant, ' Thou are mine ! ' He whom so many claim, how vile a slave is he!" The whole Bible is a Magna Charta of Freedom. It rings with the music of Freedom from beginning to end. Its great men are all Soldiers of Freedom. The prophets, the psalmists and the poets are always preaching and singing about Freedom — the com- plete enfranchisement of the life of man. Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of Freedom. * ' In His own personal life, and in everything that He did and said. He was for ever uttering the great Gospel that man in order to become his completest must become his freest; that what he did when he entered into a new life was to open a new region, in which new powers were to find their exercise, in which he was to be able to be and do things which he could not be and do in a more restricted life." This then is Freedom, that which puts you in the place where you can live and be your best. The true Soldier of Freedom, therefore, must be a follower of Jesus Christ. To purchase this Free- dom for us the Son of God shed His precious blood. He must be a regenerated man, for he is a free man whom Christ makes free and all are slaves beside. He alone can free you from the yesterday that haunts you, for He says in language which is almost too good to be true, and yet is too good not to be true : "Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more." He will deal with the to-day that enslaves you. He says : * ' Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace." The Law can give to the transgressor nothing but its curse. It knows nothing of forgiveness, no matter SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM 43 how penitent you may be. The Law demands pay- ment to the uttermost farthing for every transgres- sion and disobedience. But the claims of the Law have all been met in the death of Jesus Christ. He has "redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us. ' ' We are now under grace : "Grace flowing from Calvary; Grace fathomless as the sea; Grace for time and eternity; Grace enough for me." **And now shall mine head be lifted up above my enemies round about me ; therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." He will deal with the to-morrow that menaces you. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet. ' ' You need have no fear about the future. If my Saviour so mercifully takes the threat out of yesterday, and not only banishes my sins from His memory but helps me to banish them from mine also; if He comes into my life to-day with His boundless stores of grace, why should I fear the to- morrow of my life ? "If the Son therefore shall make you free you shall be free indeed. ' ' "Get rid," says that great preacher. Bishop Phillips Brooks, "of the glamour of sin; get rid of the idea that it is a manly thing to be dissipated. Get rid of the idea that profanity and drunkenness and lust are true expressions of human life. They are devilish; for he that committeth sin is of the devil. Sin is imprisonment. Purity is freedom. The emancipated life is that over which sin has no dominion. ' ' "When you bring a flower out of the darkness and 44 TAPS set it in the sun, and let the sunlight come stream- ing down upon it, the flower knows the sunlight for which it was made, and it unfolds its beauty and sheds abroad its fragrance. You can almost hear it singing in the sunshine. And shall not man consent that his nature be brought out of the darkness and bondage of sin into the fullest illumination and Freedom of Jesus Christ? You are just as much Soldiers of Freedom as any soldiers who have ever fought, and to go forth to the conflict assured of the approval and blessing of your Great Captain, you must be Christian soldiers. It is not sufficient to make the world safe for democ- racy, we must strive to make democracy safe for the world. We have been slow to grasp the situation, but it is now becoming clear to us, that we are combating an attempt, which has been cleverly matured for forty years, to reduce the world to medievalism, to crush all individual liberty everywhere, and to replace it by a cruel and ruthless military autocracy. All are looking to you to take your part in restor- ing international decency to the world. I am not at all surprised that w^hen the American boys marched through the streets of France, the eyes of the Pa- risians were too full of tears to heed the criticism of a French officer as to the angle at which they carried their rifles; nor that a French girl flung her arms about the neck of her mother and exclaimed: ''Chere mere, Us sont venus pour la France" (Darling mother, they have come for the sake of France). GOOD SOLDIERS Mediation If Thou, Lord God, wiliest to judge This, Thy very piteous clay Which to save Christ did not grudge His last dying. I shall say: Lord, I interpose Christ's death 'Twixt these children and Thy wrath. Then if Thou shouldst say: Their shame Is as scarlet in Mine eyes — I shall ask: Who took their blame? Look, Lord, on this Sacrifice! Is Thy Son's Blood not more bright Which hath washed their scarlet white? Then, if Thou Thy wrath should'st keep And Thy gaze should'st still avert From Thy Son's most piteous sheep, I shall ask: Who bare the hurt? I present Christ's death and pain 'Twixt Thine anger and these men. Lord, they die by millions. And they look to Thee — take thought! This dear flock, that is Thy Son's By Thy richest ransom bought. See, Thy dead Son lies between Thee, the High Judge, and their sin. — Katharine Tynan. IV GOOD SOLDIERS Let it be your pride, to show all men everywhere, not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are. — President Wilson Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. — Saint Paul. TO be chained to a soldier every day and every night for two and a half years must have greatly familiarized the Apostle Paul with military service. He must have frequently seen soldiers under drill, on parade, on guard, on the march. He must have watched them polishing, cleaning, mending and sharpening their weapons; putting on their armour and putting it off. What wonder that during his hours of enforced inactivity, he compared these details with the details of the Christian life, and noticed how strikingly they cor- respond with one another. Military service was also suflSciently familiar to those to whom he addressed his letters to enable them to appreciate his frequent reference to it. Roman troops were to be seen throughout the length and breadth of the Empire, and there were few civilians who did not know the kind of life a soldier had to live. Dr. Plummer says: "The Roman Army was the one great organization of which it was still possible, in that age of boundless and nameless social corrup- tion to think and speak of with right-minded admira- tion and respect. It was often, no doubt, the in- 47 48 TAPS strument of wholesale cruelties as it pushed forward its conquests, or strengthened its hold upon resisting or rebelling natives. But it promoted discipline, and esprit de corps. Even during active warfare it checked individual license, and when the conquest was over, it was the representative and mainstay of order and justice against high-handed anarchy and wrong. ' ' When Roman officers appear, as they do several times, in the New Testament narratives, they always favourably impress us. If they may be taken as fair specimens of military men in the Roman Empire at that period, then the Roman Army must have been a fine service. The reasons for Paul's preference for this simili- tude are suggested by all that the service involved, and still involves. The life of a good soldier must be characterized by self-sacrifice, endurance, hardness, discipline, vigilance, obedience, sympathy, enthusi- asm, courage, loyalty and ready co-operation with others. It is marked by unwearied antagonism to a watchful unwearying and organized foe. It is either perpetual warfare or perpetual preparation for it. Paul must have had such thoughts in his mind when he addressed this letter to Timothy, his young assistant. It looks very much as if Timothy lacked courage and energy; that he was too easily beaten down and needed a tonic for his mind and heart as well as for his body. If any one imagines the life of the Christian soldier is an easy one let him study this letter. Listen: "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace, that is in Christ Jesus" . . . "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him, who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And GOOD SOLDIERS 49 if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." Let us think of some of those requisites that will make, to quote again President Wilson's words, "not only good soldiers but good men." 1. Hearty Service It is of the utmost importance that every soldier should have an intelligent and proper appreciation of the purposes of the war. Only by a just apprecia- tion of the object in view can men fight with enthu- siasm. We are fighting in common with our Allies for our hearths and homes ; for equal rights ; for fair play; for the right of the smaller nations to exist; for the future sanctity of international agreements; for a principle established at the beginning of time ; a principle embodied in the American Constitution; for all that is embraced in a word that has in it the music of the trumpet, the harp and the high-sounding cymbals of heaven and earth — Freedom. We are not a warring people. We are not fighting for ter- ritory, for material compensation, for indemnities. We have no selfish ends to serve. This crusade is being pursued, and must be pursued to the bitter end, so that the world shall be a better place to live in than before — dominated, as Lord Curzon said, "by other law than the law of the jungle." "The time has come for us to conquer or suhmit," says President Wilson. "For us there is hut one choice, we have made it." What was written of the individual is true of the nation: " Thou must rise or fall, Thou must rule and win. Or else lose and serve; Suffer or triumph, Be anvil or hammer." 50 TAPS The American people have enthusiastically chosen to be hammer and not anvil. 2. Patience A good soldier is not made in a few days. There must be time and pains spent upon him. He must be disciplined and drilled, taught and trained, marched and manoeuvred, before he is fit to take his place at the battle-front. One of Lord Kitchener's distinguishing character- istics was his patience and thoroughness. He knew by experience that to send out new men imperfectly trained and equipped was to court disaster and de- feat, and he refused to be hustled and hurried in the formation of what will be known in history, as * ' Kitchener 's Army. ' ' The results of all that pains- taking preparation have since been seen. There will be moments when the young soldier is tempted to revolt against the discipline and drill. He will possibly imagine that much that he is re- quired to suffer and to do is unnecessary. But the constant cultivation of a patient spirit will be his strength in what may appear on the face of it to be irksome and uncalled for. As soon as he is ready, and not before, the routine of the camp will be changed for the excitement of the battle-front. All this is equally true of the Christian soldier. He does not leap into a full-orbed sainthood in a few weeks. Character — that most precious of all posses- sions — grows day by day, and all things tend to its unfolding. The wiles and subtleties of the cruel enemy, who seeks at every turn to harass and hinder, are not discov ered excepting by some sad experiences of failure and ignorance of his devices. The young Christian must be patient with himself; and having GOOD SOLDIERS 51 resolved to die rather than commit wilful sin, he must remember that purity of heart and maturity of Christian character are entirely different things. Purity is obtained as we shall find in the chapter on The Ruin of a Hero by obedient faith. Maturity is the result of discipline and drill, of prayer and meditation, of service and suffering. The law of the Kingdom is "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 3. Concentration Paul says : " No soldier on service entangleth him- self in the affairs of this life. ' ' The soldier is taken away from all his affairs and affections. He has now no time to plan for his personal or private interests. No matter how much he may be needed at home or in the business in which, until recently, he was the rul- ing, guiding spirit, he cannot entangle himself any longer with these things. Every military commander knows that if he lets his men go home even for a time they come back with their heads so full of family and business cares that they are temporarily incapacitated for the best service. The soldier must be shut out of the home world ; he must be circum- scribed and shut in by drill and discipline, for he is mortgaged in body and life for his country. He be- longs to Uncle Sam. He provides for him now. He serves him with rations and regimentals, with lodg- ings and armour, and much else besides, and all Uncle Sam asks in return is intelligent, hearty, con- centrated service. The Countess of Aberdeen, speaking in public on one occasion said : " If you have noticed Mr. Glad- stone as I have done, you will have found that he considers it a sacred duty never to think any part 52 TAPS of his time his own while he is in office as Prime Minister. He considers he has no right to have any- thing to do with his private affairs. He has told me himself that he never reads a book which he does not think will help him in some way to prepare his mind for the work which he has to do for his country. He never takes any relaxation or recreation, but what he thinks is necessary for doing his work efficiently. It is a life of hard, continuous work, and yet we all look upon the position he occupies as the most honourable in the country; that of being absolutely the servant of the country." Christian soldiership is equally imperious in its demands. The soldier of the Cross must strip for the war. The things that were once primary must now become secondary. Unless he lays aside the weights as well as the besetting sins, he will be easily over- come by the adversary, and will count for very little in the battles of the Lord. Because this is not suffi- ciently recognized there are so many inefficient and feeble soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ. They are still entangled with the affairs of this life, and are consequently incapable of heroic and valiant service. 4. Devotion Paul tells Timothy that the soldier's disentangle- ment is with a view to devotion * * that he may please him who has enrolled him to be a soldier. ' ' We may learn something from the ceremony of in- duction into the army of Rome. The soldiers stood in a great square. In the centre was an altar, and near by was a commanding officer whose business it was to administer the oath. The man about to be made a soldier took a handful of incense as he marched up, and threw it on the altar. As the smoke GOOD SOLDIERS 53 of the incense ascended to heaven, with uplifted hand, the Sacramentum, or oath of allegiance to the Roman Emperor was taken. Like that incense he was prepared to be consumed, to burn out in the service of Rome. From that moment he was no longer his own. He surrendered his property, his relatives, even his will to the Roman Empire personified in the per- son of the Emperor. He could hold no property ; he gave up everything, his dress, his time, his choice of food, his choice of abode; all was surrendered that his life might be one of absolute devotion to the inter- ests of Rome. "I am a man under authority," said the Roman centurion, ** having soldiers under me: and I say to this man. Go, and he goeth: and to another. Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." That is the secret of good soldiership, to be under authority. The best soldiers are those who are not only good soldiers but as the President says, "good men," and good men are those who have submitted themselves to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men who have repudiated the authority of Satan and who have deliberately, once and for ever, handed over their life with all its possibilities to Him who longs to enroll them in His service, and who will not only restore to them the years that the locust has eaten, but will crown them with immortality and eternal life. THE FALSE GOD OF GERMANY Germany O land of music and of dreams, Your songs are dead! O morning rose, twilight-gleam Forever fled ! Now through your thunder-cloud of wrath. We see but frenzy's aftermath — Stark ruin following every path Your legions tread. iWas this your dream — a baleful light In stormy space? Your soul — a threatening shape of blight. With hate-wrung face! What madness moves you to rejoice In women's woes — in terror's voice? Is this the music of your choice. Your song of grace? Now from your shattered flutes we hear A long harsh cry, The note of passion and of fear, That will not die: And ever on the desolate sea, Your shamed and haunted ships must flee Child-faces, floating silently Under God's sky. — Marion Couthoy Smith. In New York Times. THE FALSE GOD OF GERMANY IN its last analysis the tremendous and un- paralleled cataclysm in which we, in common with some twenty-five other nations, find our- selves involved, is a conflict to settle the question once for all, as to whether Might is Right or whether Right is Might. The question must be settled, if it takes the last drop of our blood to settle it, as all who know the inwardness of the situation will readily admit. The Central Powers — all of them dominated by the Kaiser — maintain that Might is Right ; the Allies, on the contrary, maintain the opposite view. We are beginning to realize that we are really at war; that our boys are marching to bloody death; that the land is full of breaking hearts; that stern dis- tress is just ahead of us ; that, to use the language of Sherwood Eddy, who is familiar with every phase of the subject, ''our Gethsemane anguish awaits us." Let us be clear as to the issues at stake in a con- flict forced upon us after the most patient and strenuous efforts for peace. For two thousand years the Gospel of peace has been proclaimed, and at the end of these two mil- lenniums we are engaged in the most ghastly, the most costly, the most stupendous struggle the world has ever known. Strange it must appear to non- Christian peoples, that in this colossal conflict Chris- 57 58 TAPS tian nations, so regarded, are taking the prominent part. The inventions and discoveries of the last hundred years have been so many and so marvellous that some leading scientists are of the opinion that there is hardly anything left to be invented or discovered. With the exception of the magnificent medical work that is being done by the vast army of surgeons and nurses, these discoveries are being brought into requisition to destroy human life and prop- erty. Dr. J, G. James says: "It is a combination of mechanism with diabolism, the devil using it all for his own base ends and purposes." I have main- tained from the beginning that the devil made this war, and he is reaping a harvest terrible to con- template. It is not a reversion to type, with which we are being confronted; it is something infinitely more bitter and cruel than that. It is not a mere lapse into savagery or animalism. It is nothing less than a devilish spirit we are fighting against. What else can explain the horrors, the orgies of "f rightfulness" on land and sea, which shocked us at first, but to which we have now grown so accus- tomed that they have ceased to produce even a shudder? In the language of the Apostle Paul: "Ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood, but with the despotisms, the empires, the forces that control and govern the dark world — the spiritual hosts of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly war- fare." (Weymouth's translation.) We are fighting against the incarnation of ambition, the cruelty of barbarism, the demon of militarism; and we must conquer or be enslaved. We are fighting for the sacredness of mutual un- derstandings and covenants among the nations. TEE FALSE GOD OF GERMANY 59 "What would become of the smaller nations if all treaties were regarded as a "scrap of paper"? What could possibly save them from extinction or absorption. It is just as wicked for a nation to break its pledged word as it is for an individual. It is even worse, for the individual can appeal against such a breach of faith and honour but for a nation there is no ultimate court of appeal. Treitschke, the German philosopher, has declared: ' ' The State is the highest thing in the external society of man, above it there is nothing at all in the history of the world." Concede that view of the State and there is no room whatever for the family of nations, as a family to exist. It becomes, then, to use a familiar saying, each State for itself and the devil take the hindmost. At the beginning of the war the saintly and scholarly Bishop of Durham wrote to the London Times telling how some seven years previously, when he was a fellow-guest with a distinguished soldier at Cambridge, he was shown a book to which the attention of the soldier had been called by King Ed- ward. It was a book written by the late Dr. Emil Reich, and "its purpose was to set out before Eng- lish readers what the author affirmed to be the pos- sessing belief of numberless Germans, — namely, that Germany was the predestined head and mistress of the human race, a belief at once so settled and so fervent, as to form a mighty sustaining force behind political and military ambitions." Two years ago a remarkable and illuminating book was written by Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer under the title, "When Blood Is Their Argument." Though the writer is closely allied to Germany and very familiar with the country, his final verdict of Kaiserism is adverse and severe. 60 TAPS He gives some startling examples of the rigid caste system in Germany, and its terrible and weary- ing financial strain. He can imagine the German business man consenting with almost a sigh of relief to be plunged into the dreadful circumstances of the war in order to get some rest, and in the hope of the ultimate national profit resulting from the war. He tells us of the incredible impatience to taste at once the flesh-pots of Egypt. He shows us how the glittering bait of indemnities amounting to thousands of millions is dangled before rich and poor alike in order to feed the war-passion. World dominance to the average German would simply mean the division of the spoils. In a world where all would be vassals — America of course included — a comfortable income would be found for every German. Still more emphatic and elaborate is Mr. Hueffer on the use made of State education by the Kaiser. From the moment of his Accession he took the sub- ject of education in hand, and turned it to his own purposes. He urged, on teachers and professors alike, that their business was to provide him with physically well-trained soldiers, and to stamp out the ideas of social democracy from the minds of the young. To the ordinary faculties of the universities he added another faculty — that of military nationalism. Professors and teachers were terrorized. They had to tell their pupils that all nations, other than the German nation, were decadent and contemptible. When it is known that this kind of thing has gone on since 1890 it will be seen that it is hardly possible for a German child to have any sense of the value of the word of any other nation. In Mr. Hueffer 's emphatic words: "the German nation has to all in- THE FALSE GOB OF GERMANY 61 tents and purposes become in these matters a nation of madmen." He says: "The great bulk of the population of Germany seriously imagined before August 4, 1914, that the French nation was so enfeebled as to be unable to offer any armed resistance to the legions of William II.; the English so sunk in sloth, decadence, and the love of comfort, as to be in- capable of armed resistance or the power of com- mercial organization in war-time; and the Russian nation a horde of negligible and impoverished bar- barians." The teachers and professors have no alternative. They are at the mercy of the Government, and if they refuse to go against their conscience they are immediately removed to the dreary and isolated vil- lages at the outposts of the empire. The more zealous and effective a teacher or professor is in preaching the supremacy of his country and its right to rule the whole world, the more certain he is to be promoted. General Von Bernhardi — of whom we have heard so much since the outbreak of the war — was the disciple of Treitschke, whose philosophy may be described as the deification of might and utter con- tempt for morality. This, Professor Cramb has clearly shown. Listen to Von Bernhardi 's actual words : *'The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish but absolutely immoral, and must be stigmatized as unworthy of the human race. . . . The weak nation to have the same right to live as the powerful and vigorous nation! The whole idea represents a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of development." 62 TAPS Listen yet again to these words, quoted by Professor Cramb in his book, "Germany and England," as il- lustrating the blasphemy of this philosophy. Von Bernhardi, the Apostle of Might against Right, is their author : "Ye have heard how in old times it was said, Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth; but I say unto you. Blessed are the valiant, for they shall make the earth their throne. And ye have heard men say. Blessed are the poor in spirit ; but I say unto you, Blessed are the great in soul, and the free in spirit, for they shall enter into Valhalla. And ye have heard men say, Blessed are the peace- makers; but I say unto you, Blessed are the war-makers, for they shall be called, if not the children of Jahve, the children of Odin, who is greater than Jahve." The whole outlook of this barbarism, nay, demonism, which has plunged Europe and America into the bloodiest war in the history of the world; this blas- phemous denial of everything that Christ taught, is summarized by Professor Cramb in the words, ''Corsica has conquered Galilee." In other words, Kaiserism has conquered Calvary. What else can be expected from an empire tyran- nized over by an Emperor who, in one of those arrogant speeches with which we are now familiar, said to a division of soldiers on their departure for the front in the present war : ' * Remember that the German people are the chosen of God. On me as German Emperor the Spirit of God has descended. I am His weapon, His sword and His vicegerent. Woe to the disobedient, death to cowards and unbelievers." THE FALSE GOD OF GERMANY 63 That famous preacher, Principal Alexander Whyte of Scotland, in a scathing and powerful sermon on the text: "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel" (1 Chron. 21:1), says: "Germany, that truly great country, has al- lowed herself to fall so far below herself during these GoD-forsaken years as to make it possible for one ill-minded man, by the mere lifting up of his finger, to let all this hell loose upon Christendom. Come to the Word and to the testimony, and you will there find the whole truth that lies at the bottom of all this terrible time. 'Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and all the glory of them ; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.' Only, alas! our devil-tempted Kaiser did not have the grace to say, 'Get thee behind me, Satan. ' And look at your newspapers every day for the fearful result to him and to the whole world of his covenant with Satan. The shining armour that the devil put upon that miserable man has so dazzled his ambitious eyes that he cannot even yet see the yawning pit that the devil has dug for him and for his domineering house. And, to all appearances, he will not humble himself, to see himself as both God and man see him, till his mailed fist has returned home on his own broken head." " Can the Kaiaer bring them back again ? Can the War Lord still the tortured wail Of wives and children for their murdered men? Oh ! the shocked world shudders at the tale. If 'twere only loss of yellow gold, Or lack of barter and of sale Why, hearts might grieve, but they'd not grow cold. 64 TAPS "When the Kaiser bids them fight, they must; They cannot, they dare not disobey. But there'll be reckoning, since God is just, For blood and iron have had their day; And out of the wreck of \\'ar for greed The German nation will be freed From the heavy hand of the War Lord's br^-^d." — New York Times, THE GATHERING OF THE VULTURES BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A Pboclamation Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recog- nizing the supreme authority and just government of Al- mighty God in all the afTairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and Whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to con- fess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is" the Lord; ^ And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastise- ments in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins. to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some supe- rior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with un- broken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my procla- mation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of Avorship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and an- swered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. " (SEAL) Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ,^/^^-tJ^'^C2^^ ^SU^txCZT-^. By the President : William H. Seward, Secretary of State. VI THE GATHERING OF THE VULTURES IMAGINE yourself for a moment under the hot sun of an Eastern sky. You are travelling with a caravan across the trackless desert. A sickly, heavily-laden camel falls under its burden and dies. It is quickly stripped of its load. Now look upwards into the clear sky! A few moments ago it was perfectly clear; now in all directions there are tiny specks which rapidly increase in size, and the caravan has scarcely moved on before the carcase of the dead beast is surrounded by hideous, rapacious vultures, who come wheeling and circling through the air, flocking to their unexpected feast from all corners of the heavens. They wrangle over their repulsive meal ; they fight with flapping wings ; they tear the carcase to pieces with their strong talons, and they greedily devour it. Their keenness of sight and of scent are almost incredible; at an enormous distance they can dis- cern their prey, and their movements are watched by others, all eager to secure food. In less than half an hour only a skeleton of the camel remains. These winged scavengers have their place in what has been called "the sanitary order of human life." Their work is really beneficent, for, unconsumed, the carcase over which they scold and fight would quickly rot and fester, infecting and poisoning the air. All the birds that prey on carrion are scav- enger . birds, and we owe them nothing short of 67 68 TAPS health and life. They are simply true to their instincts. Jesus had been talking to His disciples about the suddenness of His Second Coming. Like the light- ning flash that leaps from the bosom of the black cloud sways through the sky, and completes its journey in an instant, so will His Second Coming be. That Coming will be a time of separation. "I tell you," He says, "in that night there shall be two men in one bed ; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field ; the one shall be taken, and the other left." And the startled disciples said, "Where Lord 1 ' ' And He said unto them, ' ' Wheresoever the body is there will the eagles be gathered together." The word "eagles" should be "vultures," for the eagle does not feed on carrion, and Dr. Weymouth and others have so translated the verse. This passage is found in Luke 17 : 24-37. The in- terpretation adopted by some expositors that the "carcase" is the dead body of Christ, and that the "eagles" are His saints, may be dismissed as being not only fanciful, but alien to the context of the whole passage. The word had no doubt passed into a proverb in our Lord 's time, to express the certainty with which temptation brings crime, and crime brings punish- ment. Men were in the habit of saying, when they saw some great crime inviting judgment: "See where that carcase lies; the vultures will soon be gathered together to devour it." Our Lord meant to say that His judgments would come upon the earth necessarily, inevitably, and as by a sure and terrible instinct. The vultures of judgment would gather wheresoever and whensoever THE GATHERING OF THE VULTURES 69 they were needed. "Wherever there was a dead thing that threatened corruption and pollution, as cer- tainly would the messengers and ministers of de- struction gather together to execute judgment. Here is a law that has operated with unerring certainty through all the courses of the world's his- tory; a law that has never been repealed; a law that is in operation to-day before our eyes. Wherever there is any possibility of amendment the judgments of God are held back, for He is "slow to anger and of great mercy," "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repent- ance." But when He sees that all is in vain, that restoration is no longer possible, the sword of judg- ment is unsheathed, or in the words we have been thinking about, God's scavengers come and clear the pestilent carcase off the face of the earth. How many people have stumbled over the Old Testament story of the sweeping away of the Canaanitish nations. Think of it for a moment in the light of the Saviour's words. God had borne with these corrupt tenants of Palestine for more than four hundred years, and they had grown worse and worse all the time. The land had become a cesspool of abominations, and when the measure of their iniquities was full, God hurled upon them His brave soldiers under the leadership of Joshua and Caleb, and swept these nations, whose immoralities had become a pestilence, off the face of the earth. The Hebrews were the executioners of Jehovah's judgments. His scavengers to remove the rotting carcase. And what of the nation who had been employed as the executioners of Divine judgments? They were a small people. At the height of their power they probably never exceeded in number the popula- 70 TAPS tion of Greater New York. They had no allies and no colonies ; they had little commerce, and but few sources of wealth ; one or two small ports held all their ships. They were to all appearance a feeble and unprotected folk. They were surrounded by implacable enemies, whose increasing empires were constantly threaten- ing their borders. Compared with these great em- pires, the Hebrews were inferior in culture, in arts and sciences, in the refinements of civilization, and in military genius. They had no cavalry, having been expressly forbidden to multiply horses. They sang among their psalms this song: "Some trusFin chariots and some in horses; but we will remember the name of Jehovah our God. ' ' As long as they remembered that Name, and trusted in the arm of God they preserved their inde- pendence, and enjoyed a large measure of happiness and prosperity. This was their privilege even while one great nation after another fell to pieces, and became a prey to the vultures of judgment. Just so far as they acknowledged God and kept His com- mandments, they were promoted, exalted, and en- abled to beat back the mightiest forces that assailed them. So long as righteousness was the girdle of their loins they were strong and invincible. But when they forgot Him who had made them His peculiar heritage, that they might be a light to lighten the nations around them ; when the salt had lost its seasoning and purifying power; when they fell into the snare of the devil, and adopted the im- moral ways of the heathen, they were as feeble as a rope of sand. No sooner did they become idolaters, plunging into all the nameless iniquities associated with idol worship, than their defence departed from them. They were finally overthrown, chastised, de- THE GATHERING OF THE VULTURES 71 graded, carried into captivity and scattered over the earth. Their history is one long drama with this simple moral written on every scene: "Righteous- ness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." Then came the crowning, the damning sin of their history. For thousands of years God had been send- ing them His prophets rising early and saying, ' ' Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate!" (Jer. 44 : 4) . But it was all in vain. They persisted in that loathsome, revolting, odious thing which we call sin and which God intensely hates. The en- treaties, expostulations and warnings of God's prophets were all lost upon them. Last of all God sent His Son. But they rejected Him, and hounded Him to the shameful death on the Cross. After that there was no more that God could do. His resources were now exhausted, and the eagles of Rome be- came God's scavengers. The nation on which Jehovah had lavished such a wealth of love ; towards which He had exercised such infinite forbearance, crying: "How can I give thee up?" had now be- come such a putrid carcase that there remained nothing but to sweep it out of its place into the world's highway by the besom of the Roman con- querors; and the Jews are where they are and what they are to-day "because they knew not the time of their visitation." Then came the time when the Romans, who had been God's scavengers to destroy the Jewish people, became honeycombed with abominations and im- moralities. (See the chapter on Saints in Nero's Household.) At one time the city of Rome had a population of over two millions; and its gorgeous palaces covered the Seven Hills. Its iron legions conquered the known world, and its emperors cele- 72 TAPS brated triumph after triumph with mighty kings and captains chained to their triumphal cars. But pride, sensuality, oppression, luxury, cruelty, greed and bloody persecution of the fairest and purest of the children of men, brought down the huge Colossus with a crash ; and the Goths from the northern for- ests became God's scavengers. One of their captains called himself the "Scourge of God," as undoubtedly he was, and these vultures tore the Roman Empire to pieces, for it had become a pestilent, putrifying carcase. " Rome has perished — write the word In the blood whieh she has spilt; Perished — helpless and abhorred Deep in ruin as in guilt! " In every case — and the pages of history are full of other illustrations — we see the fulfilment of the word: "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the vultures be gathered together." And what of the outlook ? Any man that has eyes to see can discern the \Tiltures of judgment darken- ing the sky. Nations, exalted to heaven by privi- leges, have become godless, drunken, immoral, luxuri- ous and selfish. Where such sins exist they invite the judgments of God. Nor shall we escape unless we repent of our national sins and put them away. God never punishes one nation and exempts an- other. Let every man who reads these words ask himself this question: "Am I by my sins inviting the vultures of judgment?" If he is obliged to answer in the affirmative, let him turn to God before he lays down this book. The publican's prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner," offered in sin- cerity and faith, will scare away the vultures, for the dead soul will, in a moment, be quickened into life. THE GATHERING OF THE VULTURES 73 Rudyard Kipling says a very startling thing in his pamphlet, "France at War." It is this: "If the Boche (the German) had been quiet for another twenty years the world must have been his — rotten, but all his. Now he is saving the world. He has shown us what evil is. We — you and I and the rest — had begun to doubt the existence of evil. The Boche is saving us." Let us not cherish the fond delusion that we have entered this war simply as the Saviour of Europe. Our national sins have provoked the judgments of God, hence the scourge of the sword. Let me quotq again from Lincoln's remarkable proclamation of 1863. "We have forgotten God, We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self- sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." Let us seek the face of God in humble confession and earnest prayer. Let us repent from our national sins, and show the reality of our repentance by turn- ing away from them. That is the only possible way to ward off the vultures. THE STORY OF THE SIRENS Ulysses, sailing by the Sirens' isle, Sealed first his comrades' ears, then bade them fast Bind him with many a fetter to the mast. Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile, And to their ruin flatter them, the while Their homeward bark was sailing swiftly past; And thus the peril they behind them cast. Though chased by those weird voices many a mile. But yet a nobler cunning Orpheus used: No fetter he put on, nor stopped his ear, But ever, as he passed, sang high and clear The blisses of the gods, their holy joys, And with diviner melody confused And marred earth's sweetest music to a noise. — Akcubishop Trench. yii THE STORY OF THE SIRENS Part 1 ULYSSES, the hero of Troy, had won a great victory over the goddess Circe; so one of those wonderful stories of the old Greeks tells us. Circe welcomed all wanderers to her pal- ace, and set before them meat and drink. But in her viands she mixed enchantments, that could alter the shape of men. When her banqueters had eaten and drunken, she struck them with her wand, and forthwith they lost the shape of men, and were endued with the form of beasts. Her unsuspecting victims became, under her wicked enchantment, hairy swine. The comrades of Ulysses were the latest victims of her wiles, and Ulysses was sad. Hermes, the giver of wealth, put Ulysses in pos- session of an antidote to the charms of the goddess, so that her enchantments failed. The great Greek warrior, the stormer of cities, came to the palace of Circe. She came forth to meet him; and prayed him to be seated at the banquet. He feasted on her viands and wine, and then the goddess stretched forth her wand, thinking to add Ulysses, the veteran navigator and leader, to her many victims : " Go now to thy sty, son of Laertes," she said, "and mingle among the swine thy companions." But her enchantment failed; Ulysses remained himself. Drawing his sword he rushed upon the 77 78 TAPS enchantress and the palace echoed with her shrieks. "Who art thou!" she said; "how hast thou escaped my wiles. Never mortal man avoided them before; but thou hast thy wisdom from the gods." "Disenchant my companions, goddess!" said Ulysses, "else thy punishment is at hand; and thou shalt not be treacherous again." Circe trembled and obeyed. She went forth into the court, and Ulysses followed her. With her wand she touched his companions, and spoke the mystic word ; their shape came again, and they stood trans- formed from swine to men, before their mighty leader. Then was there great joy in their hearts. Part 2 When Circe saw that her charms availed not to retain Ulysses in her palace, she spoke a word in his ear, a word of prudent counsel: "Avoid the Sirens," she said, ' ' that dwell in the island of Pelorus. Their voice is sweet, but deadly; none ever listened to it and lived. He that tarries to hear that song, can never tear himself from it. He is rooted as a tree to the island, till he pines and dies of hunger. But since thou must needs pass their dwelling, I will show thee a refuge from destruction. Fill the ears of thy comrades with wax, and bid them lean on the oars. Thyself, if thou wiliest it, listen to the song; but first be well bound to the mast." ' ' Spread the sails to the wind ! ' ' said Ulysses, "and let the ship bend her course to Ithara." Ithara was his home. Presently night came down on the sea, and Ulysses told the story of the Sirens to his companions, and of the counsel of Circe. "And if," he said, "the melody beguiles me also, so that I make signs to you THE STORY OF THE SIRENS 79 to stay your speed, I charge you to disobey my words, and to bend more strongly to your oars. I myself am a mortal man; and may err like mortal men." So saying he laid him down to sleep, and his comrades were stretched in the hold of the vessel. But when Aurora drove forth her chariot from the glorious gates of day, Ulysses sprang up from his hard couch. Calling his companions around him, he gave pure white wax to each with which they filled their ears. Then they bound Ulysses to the strong mast ; fastened him with thongs and cables, lest he should yearn for the melody of the Sirens, and should cast himself into the sea. Having done this they addressed themselves to their daily labours. Ulysses stood imprisoned at his own mast. When mid-day was bright in the sky, and the sun looked down fiercely on land and sea, Sicily arose, like a blue cloud from the horizon, lovely in the hazy dis- tance. Capes and headlands jutted out upon the foaming sea, but chief among the thousand prom- ontories was the giant height of Pelorus. Less than a league from its foot, an island lifted itself up from the deep. Thither, sped by a favouring gale, the vessel bent her way. When he was as far from the beach as an archer, at three shots, might send a winged arrow, Ulysses caught a distant strain, sweet and luscious as honey. It stole into his mind,— it overpowered all his re- solve, — he was captive to the melody of the Sirens. Louder and still louder came the strains of melody and evermore sweeter. It was not as the melody of earth, and every moment Ulysses listened, his love for his home in Ithara grew less. The voice of the Sirens came still lovelier and more enchanting over the waters. A long time he struggled with his 80 TAPS shame; at last the melody prevailed. The music of the Sirens had conquered Ulysses. ''Loose me! Loose me!" he cried. "Speed the vessel whither ye will; but let me abide with the Sirens!" He threatened, he wept, he sued, he en- treated, he commanded. He cried out with tears and passionate imprecations to be loosed, but the oars of his men only moved the faster. Despite his signs, motions, gestures and promises of mountains of gold, if they would only set him free, the men only bound him the faster to the mast, and confined him by threefold thongs. The mind of Ulysses was torn within him ; and it was agony to depart from the island. When they were at the nearest point he raged and tore at his bonds like an imprisoned lion. But onwards and still onwards the vessel went, and at last the enchanting notes of the Sirens died away and the zone of temptation was passed. Not, how- ever, till the island had faded in the horizon did his comrades unbind his arms. Part 3 The Argonauts, in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, came near this fatal island. The shores were strewn with the bones of the victims of the Sirens, for all who yielded to their enchantments perished. Jason, one of the noblest of the heroes, who was possessed of great comeliness and terrible manhood, was in command of this expedition. As they neared the island all on board the vessel caught the songs of the Sirens. ''Beware!" cried Medeia, "beware all heroes; these are rocks of the Sirens! You must pass close by them, for there is no other channel ; but those who listen to that song are lost ! ' ' THE STORY OF THE SIRENS 81 Then Orpheus, the king of all the minstrels, spoke : "Let them match their song against mine. I have charmed stones, and trees, and dragons, how much more the hearts of men!" They could see the Sirens ; three fair maidens sit- ting on the beach, beneath a red rock in the setting sun, among beds of crimson poppies and golden asphodel. Their silvery voices stole over the golden waters, and all things stayed and listened ; the gulls sat in white lines along the rocks; on the beach great seals lay basking, and kept time with lazy heads; and shoals of silver fish came up to listen, and whispered as they broke the shining calm. As the heroes listened, the oars fell from their hands, their heads drooped on their breasts, and they closed their heavy eyes. They dreamed, till all their toil seemed foolishness and they thought no more of their honour and renown. They were fast yielding to the enchantment, when Medeia cried: * ' Sing louder, Orpheus ! sing a bolder strain ! Wake up these hapless sluggards, or none of them will ever see the land of Hellas again." Then Orpheus lifted his harp, and crashed his cunning hand across the strings ; and his voice rose like a trumpet through the still evening air; into the air it rushed like thunder, till the rocks rang and the sea; and into the souls of the infatuated heroes it rushed like wine ; till all hearts were thrilled and beat fast within their breasts. So Orpheus sang, till his voice completely drowned that of the Sirens, and the heroes caught their oars again; and they cried: "We will be men like Perseus, and we will dare and suffer to the last. Sing thy song again, brave Orpheus, that we may forget the Sirens and their spell!" And he sang his song again. 82 TAPS And as Orpheus sang, the heroes dashed their oars into the sea, and kept time to his music ; faster and faster they sped, and the Sirens' voices died behind them, in the hissing of the foam along their wake. But Butes, who had leaped from the vessel before Orpheus drowned the song of the Sirens with his music, had reached the fatal island. "I come," ho cried, "I come, fair maidens, to live and die here, listening to your song ! ' ' They saw him kneel down before the Sirens. He cried, "Sing on! sing on!" But he could say no more, for a charmed sleep came over him, he forgot all heaven and earth, and never looked at that sad beach around him, all strewn as it was with the bones of men. Then slowly rose up those three fair sisters, with a cruel smile upon their lips ; and slowly they crept down toward him, like leopards who creep upon their prey; and their hands were like the talons of eagles as they stepped across the bones of their victims to enjoy their cruel feast. And Butes was added to their many victims. Part 4 And now for the lessons of these stories which are found among the beautiful myths that cloud the daw^n of Grecian history. I think it is more than likely you have been reading the lessons as you have been reading the stories. The first lesson is that all kinds of intemperance, whether in eating, drinking, money-making, politics, or in any other direction, has a tendency to turn men into swine. And, as Dr. J. H. Jowett so strikingly says: ''That men are contented to be as pigs in the mire, is the clearest evidence THE STORY OF THE SIRENS 83 that their crowns and dignities have been burnt away. ' ' The second lesson is that negations and prohibi- tions are not sufficient. Ulysses longed to answer the enchanting voice of the Sirens. Had he not been bound he would have cast himself into the sea, and would have perished with their victima. His men were only saved by the white wax with which their ears were filled. Not long ago, in a certain city in Indiana, a woman was talking to the prisoners behind the bars. She told them there were ten "don'ts" in the Bible, and, if they would only obey those ''don'ts," when they got out of prison, they would never get in again. Confucius and Buddha could have given advice equally as good. It is not by negation that men are saved. There is a glorious positiveness about the Christian life. That is the teaching of the third lesson. *'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Welcome Jesus, the Divine Orpheus on board; and as He makes His heavenly music in your soul, the voices of the Sirens will lose their charm ; you will have no ear for their enchantments, and the islands of temptation will be passed in safety. He waits for your call to take control ; and to become not only Saviour, but King of your life. The part played by Ulysses was heroic, but Jason, by havnig Orpheus on board, acted a much wiser part, for the Orphean lyre is always better than the Ulyssean w?i?. THE BEAST-LIFE God, take the reins of my life! 1 have driven it blindly to loft and to right, In mock of the rock, in the chasm's despite, Where the brambles were rife In the blaze of the sun and deadliest black of the night, God, take the reins of my life. For I am so weary and weak, My hands are a-quiver, and so is my heart, And my eyes are too tired for the tear-drops to start. And the worn horses reek With the anguishing pull and the hot, heavy harness' smart. While I am all weary and weak. Now, Lord, without tarrying, now! While eyes can look up, and while reason remains; And my hand yet has strength to surrender the reins; Ere death stamp my brow And pour coldness and stillness thro' all the mad course of my veins; Come, Lord, without tarrying, now! 1 yield Thee my place, which is Thine, Appoint me to lie on the chariot floor; Yea, appoint me to lie at Thy feet, and no more; While the glad axles shine. And the happy wheels run on their course to the heavenly door; Now Thou hast my place which is Thine! — Amos Russell Wells. VIII THE BEAST-LIFE IT almost gives you a start to discover that in the Bible, man in his depravity and corruption, his sensuality and indifference to holy things, is compared unfavourably to no fewer than nineteen or twenty forms of animal life. There is the list, for which chapter and verse could be given in every case. The ass, the bear, the boar, the bullock, the dog, the fox, the jackal, the goat, the horse, the horseleech, the leopard, the lion, the mule, the ox, the serpent, the swine, the vulture, the viper and the wolf. The whole round of the animal creation is ex- plored to find types of the sins of which men are guilty : stupidity, violence, rage, obstinacy, ferocity, rapacity; bloodthirstiness and cruelty, malice and malignity, cunning and fraud, depredation and de- struction, stubbornness and insensibility, wilfulness and waywardness, insatiate greed and selfishness, treachery and stealthiness, wrath and hate, insinuat- ing flattery and subtlety, sensuality and beastliness, slander and venom, and every conceivable form of wickedness. That is a catalogue that makes one shudder. ' * The natural man," says Dr. W. L. Watkinson, "is a menagerie. The scientist stands by us in saying that. He tells us that man's heart is a dark forest, where wild beasts roam, and where they hiss and snarl, scream and bite. He says they came out of 87 88 TAPS those primeval forests in your ancestral days and are the survival of the animality of your origin. "We won't quarrel with him about that. But the wild beasts are there, the ape, the cockatrice, the wolf and the leopard — all the wild passions are there — and Jesus Christ is the tamer of these wild passions." Long centuries ago Plato depicted the soul under the figure of a many-headed monster, a lion, and a man combined in one form. The man representing the higher nature, the reason; the lion representing the passionate element; and the many-headed mon- ster representing the lusts and appetites. ' ' Some will remember Tennyson's description of the isle of Britain "till Arthur came." " There grew great tracts of wilderness, Wherein the beast was ever more and more, But man was less and less, till Arthur came. . Then he drave The heathen; after, slew the beast, and felled The forest, letting in the sun, and made Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight. And so returned." Which picture is an allegory. "Wherein the beast was ever more and more, but man was less and less." — Is that a picture of your life? If you are sorrowfully obliged to confess it is, this chapter is written to tell you that you need not despair — God will forgive you all but your despair — for by welcoming the Divine King Arthur as your De- liverer, and by crowning Him as your King, you will find to your exceeding joy, that He will slay the beast, and drive out the foes that have van- quished you and spoiled your life. He will restore all the waste places of the soul, letting in the sun; and out of wild confusion He will bring forth settled peace and ordered beauty. THE BEAST-LIFE 89 A man came to one of the best known preachers in this land and said: "Again and again the passion of my flesh rises up and faces me, even in the midst of my work. Sometimes I have to get up at night and walk for hours to fight this beast, this animal, this flesh." But he said, "Slowly I am getting the mastery, and Christ is being crowned in my life." The man who made that confession had the leader- ship of over two thousand students, and one of those students said: "That man can do anything he wants to do in this University." It was a desperate fight with the beast-life. I can imagine some one saying, "That is what I have tried to do scores of times, but the beast has obtained the mastery over me, and I have gone down in the conflict." Not for a moment would I suggest that the strongest determination on your part not to be mastered is unnecessary, but I would strongly emphasize the glorious fact that your beast-life, in all its hateful manifestations, was taken by Jesus Christ to the Cross of Calvary, so that, in identifica- tion with Him, you may be absolutely victorious over it. His victory was for you. His overcomings are all reckoned to your account, if, by intelligent faith, you will that it should be so. I like to think of myself as lying in His arms when He hung for my transgressions on the rugged Cross. I think of myself as dying with Him. I lie there still, and am carried with Him to the rocky sepulchre, being buried with Him ; for burial is the seal and certificate of death. Still in His loving arms I lie, and come forth with Him from the tomb in resurrection victory, to walk henceforth in "new- ness of life." My beast-life is dead in the reckon- ing of God. It died in Christ's death to sin. It shall be dead in my reckoning too. That is a reckon- 90 TAPS ing that always comes out right, and it is a reckoning God cannot fail to honour, because He commands it: "Likewise — once for all — reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin and alive to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Ponder the sixth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans if you would know still more about the wondrous secret. Satan loves to get us to fight against the beast in our own strength, just as if no victory had ever been won for us. He knows the beast will master us, unless we call in the Victor of Calvary. The wail of the man who is fighting the beast is : "0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me" from this beast-life ? The shout of the man who has seen that the victory was won for him on Calvary, is: *'I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." "Thanks be to God who always leadeth me in tri- umph in Jesus Christ." Dr. J. H. Jowett once told his congregation in New York the following remarkable story: Late one evening there came to him his dearest friend, as he now is. He was filled with spiritual misery and unrest. They talked about the deepest things until far on into the night. On going home this friend flung himself into the chair by his study fire, and he said: "Lord, wilt Thou reveal to me what there is amiss." And then he says: "As clear as anything I ever saw in this world, I saw a range of mountains, snow-clad mountains of tremendous height, shining in the light of God." He went to bed, and in the night this vision was continued in a dream. In his drrim he went down into the valley, and when he got to the very bottom, he found himself surrounded, to his horror, with all manner of loathsome things; savage beasts were THE BEAST-LIFE 91 there, showing their teeth, and glowering upon him. He looked at them and then he saw that they were incarnations of his own past sins. He recog- nized them, that one and this one and the other; his impurity, his deceitfulness, his pride, his pas- sion. And he said: "I was so ashamed!" And then he heard a footfall. "Instinctively I knew it was Jesus. He came nearer and nearer, and I was so consumed with shame, that I took a kind of cloak I was wearing and I threw it over my head. "The footfalls came nearer and nearer, until at last they stopped beside me. I knew it was my Lord, and I was too ashamed to look up. After what seemed to me a long time, I threw back my cloak and looked, and lo! all the unclean beasts had fastened themselves upon Him." Then he awoke, and lo! the burden of his sin was gone. " My sin, O the bliss of that glorious thought, My sin, not in part but the whole, Is' nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more;^ Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. One of the most instructive of the fairy tales we learned in our childhood, is that of Beauty and the Beast. You remember how the merchant was to be put to death, for plucking the bunch of roses in the garden of the Beast, and how his youngest and fairest daughter, whom he loved the most, offered to take his place and suffer his doom. When Beauty first saw the frightful form of the Beast, she was dreadfully afraid, and shrank from him; but by and by, as she got to know him better, she began to feel pity for him, and was touched with his gentleness and kindness. At last she agreed to marry him; and then a wonderful thing happened. Instead of the ugly 92 TAPS Beast, she saw a graceful and handsome young Prince, who thanked her with tenderest expressions for having delivered him from the wicked enchant- ment that had transformed him into a beast. The moral of this familiar story, which is as old as the hills, is that it is the pure, disinterested, unfathomable love of Jesus, who consented to take upon Him our nature, and die in our room and stead, and who unites Himself to every surrendered and believing soul in an everlasting union, that takes away all the marks of the beast nature, and transforms us into His own lovely likeness. In- stead of the beast-life we become partakers of the Christ-life. Slightly altering Paul's words in the seventh of Romans we may say : ' ' We are become dead to the beast by the body, or death of Christ; that we should be married to Him who is raised from the dead, and so bring forth fruit unto God." The legend runs that there once stood in an old baronial castle a musical instrument upon which no one could play. It was very complicated in its mechanism, and during years of disuse the dust had gathered and clogged it, while dampness and varia- tions of temperature had robbed the strings of their tone. Various experts had tried to repair it, but without success, and so when the hand of a player swept over the chords it awoke only discordant and unlovely sounds. But there came one day to the castle a man of another sort. He was the maker of the instrument and saw what was amiss, and what was needed for its repair. With loving care and skill he freed the wires from the encumbering dust and adjusted those that were awry, and brought the jangling strings into tune, and presently the hall rang with bursts of exquisite music. TEE BEAST-LIFE 93 It is so with these souls of ours, so disordered by- sin that everything is in confusion and at cross- purposes. It is not until the Divine Maker comes and begins the task of repair and readjustment that our threefold nature can be set right and made capable of the harmonies for which it was originally constructed. He alone can remove the encumbering dust, and bring melody and harmony out of what has been so discordant and inharmonious. He can make your life one long Hallelujah Chorus. Will you not allow Him to work this miracle in your nature ? PLAYING THE FOOL Men think it is an awful sight To see a soul just set adrift On that dread voyage from whose night The ominous shadows never lift, But 'tis more awful to behold A helpless infant newly born, Whose little hands unconscious hold The keys of darkness and of morn. Mine held them once : I flung away Those keys that might have open set The golden sluices of the day. But clutch the keys of darkness yet; I hear the reapers singing go Into God's harvest; I, that might With them have chosen, here below Grope shuddering at the gates of night. O glorious Youth, that once was mine! O high Ideal! all in vain Ye enter at this ruined shrine Whence worship ne'er shall rise again; The bat and owl inhabit here, The snake nests in the altar-stone, The sacred vessels moulder near, The image of the God is gone. — J. Russell Lowell. IX PLAYING THE FOOL WHEN a fool is off his guard he frequently lets the eat out of the bag and reveals himself in his true character without in- tending it. King Saul had slept so heavily that when David and Abishai made their way to the trench where he slept, and took from his bolster his spear, which was stuck in the ground, and a cruse of water that was also lying there, they awoke neither the King nor any of his body-guard who were sleeping near him, and who were responsible for his safety. Putting the valley between them, David stood on the top of a hill afar off "a great space being between them : And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, ' Answerest thou not, Abner ? ' Then Abner answered and said, 'Who art thou that criest to the King?' David replied: 'You are a valiant man, why then do you not look after the safety of your King? Some one has been in the trench, and it would have been easy enough to have taken the King's life. You are worthy to die be- cause you have kept so poor a guard upon the life of the Lord's anointed. Look where his spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster!' " David no doubt exhibited them both from the top of the hill to the ashamed Abner, to whom no thanks were due that the King was not lying dead in the trench, for Abishai had proposed this to David, say- ing: "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine 97 98 TAPS hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him a second time." In other words, Abishai said, ''He will not need a second stroke. ' ' But David with beautiful self-restraint, hunted though he was by Saul *'like a partridge on the mountains," refused, and said: "Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed to be guiltless? ... As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him ; or his day shall come to die ; or he shall descend into battle, and perish." Let us leave him alone. God will deal with him. Saul was awakened by the voice of David crying out from the top of the opposite mountain. His senses were keen and acute, everything was clear to him and before he knew it he had confessed to David that he had "played the fool." The whole incident is recorded in the first Book of Samuel, chapter twenty-six. The Book of Proverbs gives us a whole picture gallery of men who play the fool. The writers of the Divine Library, which we call the Bible, were plain- spoken men, and instead of speaking of a spade as "an instrument used for the purposes of agricul- ture," they called a spade a spade. To play the fool in Scripture is never to act as an idiot or as a person mentally deficient. The word "fool" has various shades of meaning in the Hebrew, but the word most frequently translated "fool" means perverse, obstinate, incorrigible. Here is an example: "Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him" (ch. 27:22). To "bray" with a pestle is to pound, or to beat small. The process of separating the husks from the corn by PLAYING THE FOOL 99 the use of pestle and mortar is much more delicate and careful than threshing in the usual clumsy way- resorted to in the East. Hence the idea is expressed that the most elaborate pains are wasted on the in- fatuated, incorrigible fool. "His foolishness will not depart from him"; it cannot be pounded or beaten out of him. It is interesting to know that in Turkey this process of braying or pounding was actually re- sorted to. Great criminals were beaten to death in the huge mortars of iron in which the Turks usually pounded rice. Think, then, of that self-conceited, self-confident and obstinate temper which eschews counsel ; which persists in having its own way; which is so over- sanguine with fond expectations and baseless hopes, that it is sure everything will turn out according to its wish. These conceited, unteachable fools arc the despair of the instructors in the camps, as they are of the professors in the schools of learning. When I saw the words "Past Redemption Point" on a board of warning by the side of the Niagara River, I remembered a tragedy of years ago. Two young men went on the river one afternoon for a pleasure trip in a small row-boat. They had been drinking freely before they started, and they took a further supply of drink on board. Quietly and swiftly they were carried towards the Falls. Presently a loud voice was heard from the bank: "Hi there! Do you know where you are going? You are only half a mile from the Falls!" The self-confident and muddled fools only met the warning with profane laughter. Another warning, a little later, was treated with equal derision. All at once they awoke to the fact that their boat was being carried along with ever-quickening 100 TAPS speed. They were alarmed, and began vigorously to ply their oars. But it was too late. They had reached Past Redemption Point. They were being drawn irresistibly over the Falls. Their cries for help were drowned in the thunder of the waters, and their bruised and mangled bodies were found, days afterwards, near the Whirlpool Rapids. What fools they were! So the Bible says that the man who is unteaehable, and self-opinionated, who declines the guidance of Reason, is playing the fool, because Reason is God's gift, and to slight it is to slight Him. He requires of us a readiness, nay an anxiety to be taught. The Scriptures are full of denunciations against the pride, self-sufSciency and unteachableness of man. To one who knows better than the rest of men, as the self-willed, self-satisfied, self-sufficient man thinks he does, any kind of instruction and advice must appear as an impertinence. Only let a young man come under the spell of this fatal sorcery, and not only are all aspirations after higher attainments at an end, but from that moment the movement of the character becomes infallibly retrograde. Nothing makes a man so unmanageable as self-conceit; and after loving counsels are given and refused; after solemn warn- ings are repeatedly disregarded and scorned, God leaves a man to himself, and gives him over to a reprobate mind. It is this same word which is used in Proverbs 14 : 9, " Fools make a mock at sin. ' ' They are so unteaehable, so obstinate and blind, that sin either in themselves or in others is little else than a comedy. It affords food for a pleasantry, and if not quite an occasion for a jest, it is something so insignificant and slight as to be extenuated, minimized and white- washed. PLAYING THE FOOL 101 On one occasion Jesus linked blindness and folly together. He said, when addressing the Pharisees: "Ye fools and blind." The fool is blind to the les- sons of experience ; he refuses to profit by the beacon- lights, the "danger" signals that are found along life's pathway. It is all in vain that "Safety First" is ever put before his eyes. He is deter- mined, as the Scotch would say, to "gang his own gait," and he has generally to pay pretty heavily for his folly. And there are few who pity him. Refuse, I entreat you, to look at any pictures which offend against the moral proprieties and lower the moral sense, by making sin — and especially cer- tain kinds of sin — the subject of open or covert jesting, the centre around which the amusement of the play gathers, the pivot on which the humour of the plot revolves. That is to make a mock at sin. It is a notorious fact that the theatrical produc- tions that succeed the best and find the most favour with the crowd are those that are interlarded with allusions to vice, the vice that fills the Divorce Courts and that quenches the happiness of thou- sands of domestic circles. That man is a fool who mocks at that kind of sin, for of all sins it is the most degrading and blinding, and entails the in- evitable retribution of God on the persons of the transgressors. An amusement may be quite harmless to you, and yet it may be purchased by the injury or even the irreparable ruin of those who provide it. No Chris- tian can possibly enjoy a pleasure which brings spiritual or moral ruin to any of his fellow-creatures. If you frequent the theatre it is your duty to deter- mine whether the entertainment is working for the injury of those who give it. You dare not — as your brother's keeper, as one who must one day stand at 102 TAPS the bar of God to give an account of the deeds done in the body — march over the fallen souls of your brethren and sisters for a few hours' amusement, and then say when that day of accounting arrives: "I did not know." I have read of a company of settlers who were building a cabin for themselves in a South American forest. They had not dug deep enough, and they had not looked close enough, and in consequence be- gan to run up their cabin just over a nest of rattle- snakes. For a time the reptiles kept quiet, neither axe nor hammer disturbed them. But when eve- ning came and the fire was lighted, and the men proceeded to take their ease by the warmth of its ruddy glow, the hidden reptiles awoke, uncoiled their stiffened folds, and raised their evil heads through the gaps and crevices of the half-finished house. Take care lest you build on a like foundation. Take care lest you provide yourself with like com- panions. If in your conversation "fast living," as it is called, is the subject of light, profane and dan- gerous allusion, and you laugh at that kind of sin which gives spice to your daily gossip, you are play- ing the fool, because you are making mock at sin. There are young men both in colleges and camps whose speech is little short of a pestilence. "Their throat is an open sepulchre ' ' — the figure is not mine but the Psalmist's. What does a sepulchre hold? Corruption and rottenness. When the slab is re- moved and the sepulchre is opened, an offensive poison is exhaled, and the atmosphere is polluted for yards around. There is the smell of that animal of evil-odour, called the skunk, about their talk. Again I say, when you listen to that kind of conver- sation and laugh at it, you may think yourself PLAYING THE FOOL 103 "smart"; but the Bible calls you a fool, because you make a mock at sin. Keep your mouth as with a bridle, or better still, offer the Psalmist's prayer: "Set a watch, Lord, before the door of my lips, that I offend not with my tongue." In your leisure moments, when you are off guard, and the devil is consequently the most on the watch, in your recreation, in your walks, let no corrupt or profane communication proceed out of your mouth; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Never suffer that which is your distinguishing glory, that which lifts you above the animals— your power of speech, to be set on fire of hell, and so made to subserve the cruel purposes of the Destroyer of the souls of men. And be determined so to live that you will become an incarnate conscience, making putrid talk impossible in your presence. In a most suggestive sermon, Dr. David Smith points out that the word "fool" in the fourteenth psalm,— "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God,"— is another word from the one we have been thinking about. He says: "The Hebrew word for 'fool' in this instance is very interesting and in- structive; and it defines the Psalmist's attitude and sheds a flood of light on the intention of the Psalm. It means properly 'withered,' being the word which occurs in the first Psalm where it is said of the godly man that he is 'like a tree planted by the streams of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also doth not wither.' The fool here is one whose soul is withered, shrivelled and atrophied ; and if you glance at the Psalm, you will see what it is that has wrought the mischief. It is not intel- lectual aberration, but moral depravity— the blight of uncleanness, the canker of corruption." 104 TAPS And so the Psalm goes on: "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good. They are all gone aside ; they are together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no not one." So that it is those very sins we have been thinking about, the sins about which there is more coarse and covert jesting than any other, that wither the soul. It is the man whose soul is shrivelled and burnt up by sin that says "there is no God." Atheism has always a moral cause. Possibly there are those who will be reading these lines who are convicted of this sin, and whose long- ing desire is for forgiveness for the past, and for strength to live a pure, noble life for the future. Let me close with a story, A gifted lawyer, named John Carr, became a judge in one of the courts of North Carolina. One day there came before him a criminal, charged with an offence, and convicted. The judge pronounced sentence upon him: "One hundred dollars, or jail for four weeks," Then the judge looked at the criminal and said: "John, do you know me?" "No," was the reply, "I do not know your honour." Then the judge said: "Don't you remember Johnnie Carr? We both had the same name, and used to go to school together in a certain village." "Oh," said the man, "is that you?" "Yes," said the judge, "I am John Carr, and I remember all the good times we had together when we were boys ; and now here you are a criminal, and I am your judge. "Now I am going to help you out," said the judge. ' * I will pay your fine and I want you to be determined to be an honest man from this time on, ' ' The judge then wrote a cheque for one hundred dollars, gave it to the clerk of the court, and said: "Let the prisoner go free." The man burst into PLAYING THE FOOL 105 tears as he looked at the judge, and said: "Thank you, judge, I will do the best I can to be worthy of your goodness." Jesus Christ has paid your debt to the uttermost farthing; and He will do for you what that kind- hearted judge could not do. He will give you a new heart; He will give you a distaste, a disrelish for sin, and a love for holiness. He will be your strength as well as your salvation. He will fight your battles for you. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper ; and in Him you shall not only win the fight, but come off more than con- queror. He is the only one that can save you from playing the fool. " He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood avails for thee." THE RUIN OF A HERO I sat alone with my conscience, In a place where time had ceased, And we talked of former living, In the land where the years increased. And I felt I should have to answer The question it put to me, And to face the answer and question Throughout an eternity. ■ The ghosts of forgotten actions Came floating before my sight. And things that I thought were dead things. Were alive with a terrible might. And the vision of all my past life Was an awful thing to face — Alone with my conscience sitting In that solemnly silent place. 'And I thought of a far-away warning. Of a sorrow that was to be mine, In a land that then was the future, But now is the present time; And I thought of my former thinking Of the jiidgment day to be, But sitting alone with my conscience Seemed judgment enough for me. 'And 80 I have learnt a lesson Which T ought to have known before. And which, though I learnt it dreaming, I hope to forget no more; So I sit alone with mj' conscience In the place where the years increase. And I try to remember the future In the land where time will cease, And I know of the future judgment, How dreadful so'er it be. That to sit alone with my conscience Will be judgment enough for me." X THE RUIN OF A HERO THE story of Samson is told, as all the Bible stories are told, without any sort of extenu- ation or concealment. The Word of God paints its heroes as they really are ; in their strength and in their weakness; in their faith and in their failure; in their right-doing and in their wrong- doing. When Oliver Cromwell sat for his por- trait, the artist proposed that he cover a disfigur- ing wart, on one of his cheeks, by resting his head on his hand. The blunt Protector said gruffly: "No; paint me as I am; warts and all." That is just how the Bible paints its pictures. Samson's portrait is a full-length one. It is drawn from his birth to his death. It stands like a beacon-light on a rock-bound coast ; or like the red light that arrests the express train, and says: "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." The story is told in four chapters. Chapter the First The story of Samson's birth is as beautiful and as tender as a summer's morning. What more could God have done for him than He did ? From his birth, and indeed long before it, the gifts of God were showered upon him. Could any child have come into the world under happier circumstances? We see his father and mother resolving that they wiU 109 110 TAPS not take God's gift apart from God's purposes. They will not plan their boy's life to please them- selves. He must of course be the arbiter of his own destiny, but they determine they will do all they can to guide him into the destiny God has prepared for him. A deliverer was badly needed in Israel, for this was one of the darkest hours in the nation's his- tory. The Ammonites, the Midianites and the Moabites had all conquered them in turn, and now the Philistines were their oppressors. Here is an ominous verse recorded in the same chapter that tells of Samson 's birth : * ' And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philis- tines forty years" (Judges 13:1). As in the days of Saul and Jonathan, all the weapons of war were taken from the Hebrews, and if a man wanted to sharpen his ploughshare he had to take it to a Philis- tine forge (see I. Sam. 13:19-22). Well might Samson's parents hope that they had given to Israel the deliverer who was so greatly needed. Samson was a Nazarite. The word simply means separated or set apart. A Nazarite was forbidden the fruit of the vine in every form (see Num. 6: 1-8). That prohibition was simply intended to teach the Nazarite that one who was separated to God must not become intoxicated with the world's draughts of pleasure. It was the Old Testament putting of the Apostle Paul's admonition: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." A Nazarite must not allow a razor to come on his head. His flowing locks openly announced his sepa- rated state. Those unshorn locks revealed the fact that he was not his own. THE RUIN OF A HERO 111 A Nazarite was forbidden to touch the dead. He must be found among the living, not among the dead. All human relationships had to be sub- ordinate to higher claims (see Luke 14: 26-33). So Samson grows up, separated to God, and known by his very appearance to be so separated. Chapter the Second We see Samson now as a young man in the Camp of Dan (Judges 13: 25). This was the place where the men of his tribe were wont to assemble for such military training as was possible without weapons of war. This was where the older men held council concerning their deplorable condition, and discussed the possibilities of deliverance from their cruel op- pressors. Around the camp-fires Samson heard the wondrous stories of the brave days of old. The story of Gideon, his dream, his barley cakes, his brave three hundred, his pitchers and torches, would be- come as familiar to him as it is to us. How these stories of heroism must have moved his heart ! So we read: "The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the Camp of Dan." Will there not be some such gracious visitations of the Holy Spirit upon the Soldiers of the National Army in the camps where they are now assembled for training? We have no doubt there will. Many will look back upon the camp as a sacred spot, for there they received, under some inspiring message, in some quiet hour of meditation, or perchance, as they perused a letter full of loving solicitude from father or mother, a clear call to a clean, noble and devoted life. Many have had such hours. Their eyes have been opened. In God's eternal whiteness they have seen 112 TAPS their own blackness and corruption; things have been appraised at their proper value; and a scorn for the world, with its gilded toys, has taken pos- session of the soul. They have cried out: "I have done at length with trifling; Henceforth, thou soul of mine, Thou must take up sword and gauntlet Waging warfare most Divine ! " If no such moving of the Spirit has come to you, pray that you may not be any longer fooled by the devil ; and that your eyes may not be so blinded as not to see of how much greater worth are the things that endure, compared with those that are but for a moment. Chapter the Third Now we see Samson in the city of Gaza. Gaza was a big commercial city, the chief seaport of the Philis- tines. It was like all such seaports a gay, wicked, pleasure-loving place, contrasting strikingly with the quiet of Dan, and its monotonous and uneventful home life. Gaza lay very near the Camp of Dan. It always does. There is no escaping it. It is at Gaza that your Nazariteship will be put to the test. It is at Gaza that tens of thousands of soldiers, who might have "been heroes, have been ruined physically, morally and spiritually. Across the hospital doors, where hundreds of boys lie to-day, the victims of their own folly, you might write in letters of fire: RUINED IN GAZA. It is the same shameful story: "Then went Sam- son to Gaza and saw there a harlot, and went in unto her" (ch. 16:1). You find the duplicate of it THE RUIN OF A HERO 113 in the beginning of the Book. Our first parents gaze eagerly at the forbidden fruit. That fruit has an in- toxicating fascination. It exercises over them its fatal spell. To the wandering eyes and heart its sweetness is positively maddening. The serpent injects his venom into their minds. The restraining bands of conscience are fused, and drop away. The fires of passion flash and flame uncontrolled. The jewel of innocence is flung away. The sin is sinned, and at that very moment the glamour of the indulged passion is disenchanted, and the deluded and en- snared victim knows that he has eaten death, and that life can never be the same again: " Alas ! how easily things go wrong ! A word too much, or a glance too long, And there cometh a mist and a weeping rain And life is never the same again." My brother, you will be tempted as you go down to Gaza. The evil of impurity will confront you there as it did Samson. There can be no half meas- ures. To dally is often to be damned. To parley is to become a prey to the demon of lust ; hesitation to many has been hell. Tens of thousands of bright, promising lives have been ruined at Gaza. Sam- son's story is written for your warning. Impurity is the only sin that you cannot grapple with; you have to run away from it. "When Lowell said: "My life shall be a challenge not a truce," he did not mean that a man should mount a war-horse, and go searching for evil that he might combat it. He meant that his life should be a challenge to im- purity, not a truce with it. If you laugh at the indecent story; if you read the immoral book; if your familiars are unclean men, your life is a truce with this damning sin and not a challenge to it ; and 114 TAPS this searing, destructive sin of young manhood will soon reckon you among its victims. Chapter the Fourth Samson has fallen. Delilah has wormed the secret out of him. "Tell me," she says, ''what is the secret of your strength ? What makes the difference between you and other people ? What prevents you from coming and joining us?" Then her unholy hands are laid upon Samson's holy secret for an unholy purpose, and the hero of Israel is ruined. He gave himself away to a harlot. He thought, as thousands of young men have thought, that he could easily escape from the meshes of the snare which the devil was weaving about him. He thought that he, the Nazarite, could touch pitch and not be defiled; he could play with fire and not be burned ! others might be hopelessly ensnared, not so with him. That is Delilah's way. She gives her victims a long chain, certain that they Avill come back, even though they know her house is the way to hell. One day they find the chain has tightened upon them, and they have to stay where they are. The ruin is complete. ' ' Now I will retrieve ! ' ' says Samson -. ' * Now I will go out as at other times before, but he wist not that the Lord had departed from him." He had gone too far. He had sinned once too often. God is very patient and longsuffering, but you may overstep the bounds of His forbearance, for sin must be pun- ished or He would cease to be God. If you sow wild oats you cannot expect to reap tame wheat. Samson is again in Gaza, but his cruel enemies have now put out his eyes, and he is their prisoner. Look at him ! The man, who in the strength of God THE RUIN OF A HERO 115 had struck terror into their hearts, and who had slain thousands of Philistines, is bound and blind, and is actually grinding corn for the very Philis- tines whose hosts he had routed, scattered and slain. Not satisfied with that degradation, the lords of the Philistines resolved that at a great feast held in honour of their god Dagon, and to celebrate their victory over Samson, the blind, fallen hero shall be called in to play the fool before them, for that is what "making sport" really means. Samson is brought out of prison with the bitter- ness of death in his soul. He has, however, one resource. He has broken his Nazarite vows; he has renounced his covenant ; he has cast away a glorious opportunity of delivering his people; he has de- stroyed himself; but he has still the resource of prayer. There he stands resting for a moment after play- ing the fool, while the thousands look on in con- tempt and amusement. His hands are on the pillars that support the building and he prays: "0 Lord God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once." It is a prayer that breathes penitence, dependence and humility. The prayer is answered, and putting forth the super- natural strength, once more restored to him, Sam- son sways himself backwards for a moment. The pillars tremble and give way; and amid shrieks, groans and curses, the whole building collapses, and the blind hero lies buried, with his enemies, amidst the hideous ruins. The record closes with the words : "And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." 116 TAPS SECRETARY DANIELS ON IMPURITY Dealing with the social evil as a menace to the nation's military efflciency. Secretary Daniels, in an address before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America at Chicago, spoke in condemnation of the unpardonable pru- dery that endured a festering evil rather than have it exposed and eradicated. " There is not an army in the field," said he, " whose effectiveness is not reduced by reason of immoral diseases." The Secretary's figures are simply appalling. " During the last statistical year men of the American navy ios*- 141,- 387 days' sickness from a small group of absolutely pre- ventable diseases, contracted by sin. This means thai- every day throughout the year there were 45(5 men disabled by this disgraceful malady. Add to that the number of those required to care for the disabled, and we have enough men on the non-efCective list each day to man a modern battleship. " In the navy in 1915 there were admitted for treatment for venereal diseases 112 persons in every 1,000. In the army 84 for every 1,000, the number in the army having decreased irom 145 to the 1,000 after the passage of an act, stopping the pay of all soldiers admitted for treatment for a venereal disease. " It has been stated that at one time the equivalent of three entire Austrian divisions of 60,000 men was under treatment for venereal diseases, while the German army in Belgium, representing only a small part of the total German forces, is reported during the first five months of its occu- pation to have furnished 35.000 such patients. " Canadian and Australian officers deplore the ravages of this disgraceful and disgusting disease, while the latest figures from the British army gave 78.000 cases, and all other countries have also been weakened. " A Canadian authority says its ravages to-day are more terrible for Britain and Canada than Vimy Ridge, the Somme and Lens. The time has come to realize that this subtlest foe of humanity, more deadly than smallpox or cancer or tuberculosis, must be conquered. " To-day, as never before, American manhood must be clean. We must have fitness ! America stands in need of every ounce of strength. We must cut out this cancer if we would live." THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES There is no strange handwriting on the wall, Through all the midnight hum no threatening call Nor ou the marble floor the stealthy fall Of fatal footsteps. All is safe. " Thou fool ! The avenging deities are shod with wool." — Without a hiding-place To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face. — " Thy hiding-place is here In Mine own heart; wherefore the Roman spear For thy sake I accounted dear." — My Jesus! King of Grace. -Without a pool wherein To wash my piteous self and make me clean. — " jMy Blood hath washed away Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day: Only take heed to trust and pray." — lobd, help me to begin. — Chbistina Rossetti XI THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES ONE of the courtiers of an ancient monarch was full of envy at his King's supposed prosperity and immunity from peril. He thought that there was not a particle of truth in the saying, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." The King's elevated rank, his great wealth and in- fluence, the luxuries he enjoyed, and the homage he received were such delightful experiences that no room could possibly be left for anxious thought or care. So Damocles thought. A hard experience had, however, taught the King that no station in life was exempt from life's sor- rows and anxieties, its perils and trials. He had found that he could no more boast of i:o-morrow than the meanest peasant in his realm, and he resolved to impress this lesson on his discontented courtier. The King therefore invited Damocles to share his gifts and honours, together with the fortunes of royalty. The wealth of a kingdom was placed at his disposal; royal robes of softest texture w^ere pro- vided for him ; the servants of the King waited upon him, and Damocles sat down to a royal banquet. For a while he dismissed the cares and vexations of life; the responsibilities which had oppressed him were forgotten; his cup of enjoyment was full to the brim, and he was just concluding that his sur- mise as to the exemption of the King from all care and peril was correct, when something led him to 119 120 TAPS look for a moment towards the ceiling of the banquet- ing-hall, and he saw a sharp and heavy sword dangling over his head, suspended by a single hair. In a moment the Sicilian delicacies on which he had been feasting lost their flavour. The music of the royal orchestra ceased to charm him. What heart could he have for anything with that sword hanging over him, ready at any moment to fall upon his head. He was simply panic-stricken and terrified, such fear and trembling took possession of him, that with a pallid face he turned away from the feast which had promised him so much enjoyment. However was it that a single hair had carried the weight of the, sword so long? Let him but escape from the banquet, which, at any moment, might prove a banquet of death, and he vowed he would never again envy the happiness of kings, nor imagine that they possessed immunity from anxiety or peril. The experience of Damocles at the banquet has served to warn many a thoughtless soul. It speaks still to those whose judgment is darkened by a fatal blindness; whose soul is benumbed into insensibility by the poison of sin ; who have not the faintest con- ception of the solemnity and responsibility of life; who have lost all sense of the relative value of things, and says. Remember the sword! There may be but a step between thee and death. Belshazzar, the last of the Chaldean kings, mighty monarch though he was, forgot the sword. He lived in the greatest splendour. His servants were princes ; his concubines were the daughters of kings. He could have had the counsel of wise men in ruling his vast empire, Daniel among the number, but he preferred the companionship and counsel of profli- THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 121 gates. Here is the story of how the forgotten sword fell. It was night in Babylon. The shadows of her two hundred and fifty towers began to lengthen. The Euphrates rolled on, touched by the splendour of the setting sun. The gates of brass, burnished and glittering, opened and shut like doors of flame. The hanging gardens of Babylon, wet with the dew of the night, began to pour forth their fragrance. There is a Toyal feast at the King 's palace ! The chariots, with their prancing horses, dash up to the gates, while a thousand lords dismount with their ladies dressed in all the splendours of Tyrian purple and Syrian emerald. Their robes are enriched with princely embroideries brought from afar by camels across the desert, and by ships of Tarshish across the sea. Belshazzar's guests sat down at no common ban- quet that night. All parts of the earth had con- tributed their richest viands to that table. This is how the story reads in the old Book : * ' Belshazzar the King made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the King and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels . . . and they drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone." "Who ever read of anything so blasphemous and . defiant ? Even Nebuchadnezzar, in all his might, never dreamt of any such profanity as this. We will venture to adapt Byron 's description of the scene in 122 TAPS Brussels on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, for slightly altered it applies to the scene in Babylon. " There was a sound of revelry by night, And Babj'lonia had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry; and bright The lights shone o'er fair women and brave men. Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spoke again. They drink, they praise their gods in cups of wine; They dare to put to this vile iise, vessels Divine. On with the feast! Let joy be unconfined; That tramp of stealthy feet without, is but the wind. But look! What ails the King! Support him lest he fall! He sees the hand that writes his doom on yonder wall." "In the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the King 's palace ; and the King saw part of the hand that wrote. Then the King's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him ; and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. . . . And this is the writing that was written and the inter- pretation : MENE ; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end. TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. ' ' When the enchanters failed to interpret the writ- ing, Daniel quickly put an end to the King's sus- pense as to its meaning. He also reminded the panic-stricken King of Jehovah's dealings with his father Nebuchadnezzar. "When his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him : and he was driven TEE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 123 from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses ; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven ; until he knew that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that He setteth over it whomsoever He will." Then, coming to the conduct of the crowned criminal who trembled before him on his golden chair, in the presence of his thousand lords and ladies, his wives and concubines; the fearless prophet of God said: "And thou his son, Bel- shazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, . . . and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold . . . which see not, nor hear, nor know : and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified." What about the sword? There it had been, as he sat at the banquet, like the sword of Damocles, sus- pended over his head by a single hair, and the hair had broken! Cyrus with his mighty army was at that very moment in possession of the palace. For two years he had been laying siege to the city. He took advantage of Belshazzar's carousal, and at the very time when the sacrilegious revelry was at its height, the warriors of Cyrus turned the Euphrates out of its channel ; they marched up the bed of the river beneath the walls ; they found the great brazen gates left open by the drunken Chaldean guards; and with a thousand gleaming swords they rushed upon the banqueters; the sword fell, and "that night was Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans, slain. ' ' "What admonitory words those words of Daniel's were: "Thou has not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this." All Jehovah's disciplinary dealings with his father Nebuchadnezzar were lost 124 TAPS upon him. He knew all about the burning fiery fur- nace, and the appearance of a fourth in the midst of the flames like unto the Son of God ; he knew all about his father's madness and its cause; he knew of his father 's proclamation on his recovery from his insanity; he knew it all, but he forgot the sword. He trifled with God, crossed the dead-line and was lost. Daniel does not charge Belshazzar . with drunken- ness, though he was drunk; nor with sacrilege, though he used those sacred vessels so profanely; nor with lasciviousness though there were tokens of it on every hand. Daniel passes from the superficial to the central. He lays no stress on the form of evil ; that is largely accidental. All the emphasis is thrown on the essence of sin, which consists in man's failure to glorify God, for to glorify God is the chief end of man. The supreme charge Daniel makes is: "The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified." It is a startling summary of man's wickedness ; and it is all the more startling because of its severe simplicity. Sin con- sists not so much in definite acts of wrong-doing as in a wrong relation to God, and if any man is not making it the definite business of his life to glorify God, his life is a ghastly failure, no matter what he or others may think or say about it. He is weighed in the balances of God and found wanting. There is another man, who, like Damocles, is feast- ing, oblivious of the fact that the sword is hanging over him. Listen ! He is talking to his soul. What a prosperous year he has had ! His barns are filled and bursting ; his bank account is bulging and swell- ing; his acres are constantly increasing, and his labourers are becoming more and more numerous. THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 125 "Soul," he says, "thou has much goods laid up for many years." He has had a strenuous life, now h6 is going to have many years of respite. ' ' Soul, take thine ease!" He has been too busy to enjoy life; all his energies have been devoted to making his for- tune. "Soul, eat, drink and be merry." "But God!" He had forgotten there was a God. "This night," said the God he had ignored and failed to glorify, "this night shall thy soul be required of thee." That night the sword fell, and he lost four things. He lost his name, his neighbours and friends called him clever but God called him "fool." He lost his possessions. "Our last garment," says a grim Italian proverb, "is made without pockets." He dragged a poor, starved, shrivelled soul out into the darkness. His possessions went one way and he went another. He lost his "soul." "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" asks Jesus. He lost heaven. "So is every one that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS "I have done at length with trifling; Henceforth, thou soul of mine, Thou must take up sword and gauntlet Waging warfare most Divine. "Life is struggle, ceaseless conflict; Wherefore have I slumbered on, With my forces all unmarshalled. With my weapons all undrawn? " Oh, how many a glorious record Had the angels of me kept, Had I done instead of doubted. Had I warred instead of wept! " Yet my soul, look not behind thee; Thou hast work to do at last; Let the brave toil of the present Overarch thy crumbling past. " Build thy great deeds high and higher, Build them on the conquered sod Where thy weakness first fell bleeding, And thy first prayer rose to God." XII THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS IT is quite customary to this day, for monarehs, on eventful occasions in their reign, to publish a list of the names of those whom they delight to honour. David had just been anointed at Hebron, king over all the twelve tribes. He was anointed three times as king. First of all, as you remember, he was anointed privately among his own family (I Sam. 16:33). Then he was anointed at Hebron. This time it was not a private but a public act, but it was only over Judah (II Sam. 2:4). Then there came this third anointing to which I have referred. It took place twenty years after the first, and seven years after the second. So we read: "Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron . . . and they anointed David King over Israel" (II Sam. 5:1-3). "He reigned in Hebron over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah" (ver. 5). We can well understand that on an occasion so memorable David should found the first order of chivalry, and give his thirty knights, as they would at one time have been designated, their special rank and high privileges; recording their names on the Roll of Honour. Hence we read : ' ' These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, and with all Israel to make him King, according to 129 130 TAPS the word of the Lord concerning Israel" (I Chron. 11:10). David's elevation to the throne of all Israel was of course largely due to his own character and heroic deeds. But he could never have attained to this position of responsibility and dignity, had not these mighty men strengthened themselves with him to make him King. They did this we read, "Ac- cording to the word of the Lord," that is to say, they took their part both then and afterwards, solely on the ground that they were carrying out the Divine will. It is instructive to note that fact. The heroes whose deeds of valour are recorded here were render- ing, whether they fully realized it or not, a real service to their race. The reign of King David had an important bearing upon the whole plan of God's Providence. It was an essential link in the whole redemptive chain. That fact invests the ex- ploits of these "mighty men" as they are called, with great significance. They helped to place David on the throne, and they sustained him on the throne, contributing to the prosperity of the nation, the glory of God, and the emancipation of their fellows. That eloquent preacher. Bishop Phillips Brooks, said, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated: "If ever the face of a man writing solemn words glowed with a solemn joy, it must have been the face of Abraham Lincoln as he bent over the pages where the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was growing into shape, and giving manhood and freedom as he wrote it to hundreds of thousands of his fellow- men. Here was an act that crowned the whole cul- ture of his life. All the past, the free boyhood in the woods, the free youth upon the farm, the free manhood in the honourable citizen's employment — • THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 131 all his freedom gathered and completed itself in this. "As the swarthy multitudes came in, ragged, and tired, and hungry, and ignorant, but free for ever from anything but the memorial sears of the fetters and the whip ; singing rude songs in which the new triumph of freedom struggled and heaved below the sad melody that had been shaped for bondage ; as in their camps and hovels there grew up to their half- superstitious eyes the image of a great father almost more than man, to whom they owed their freedom — were they not half right?" And all who enlisted themselves, in response to Abraham Lincoln's call in the sixties, as Soldiers of Freedom, have a place on the roll of honour, like those whose names are written in the twenty-third chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. But for their valour the pen of Lincoln would never have signed that Emancipation Proclamation. They are gone, but . . . " To us are left Our buried heroes and their matchless deeds. These cannot pass; they hold the vital seeds Which in the far, untracked, unvisioned hour Burst forth to vivid bud and glorious flower." Are we not to-day witnessing this "bursting forth to bud and flower" in the formation of a great Na- tional Army, designated by President Woodrow Wil- son, "Soldiers of Freedom"? King David's heroes were divided into several classes: "This is the number of mighty men whom David had : Jashobeam, an Haehmomite, the chief of the captains : he lifted up his spear against eight hundred slain by him at one time." He well de- serves to be remembered as General Jashobeam, for 132 TAPS as the record tells us he was "the chief of the cap- tains" (II Sam. 23:8). He was appointed com- mander of the first brigade of twenty-four thousand men. (See I Chron. 27:2.) Then came General Eleazar. He was "one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines that were gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away: he arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword : and the Lord wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil" (II Sam. 23:9, 10). Instances of a similar kind are recorded in his- tory, where there are also examples of sword-cramp like that from which the brave Eleazar suffered after his wonderful exploit. We are reminded of Ajax who beat down the Trojan leader with a rock which two ordinary men could scarcely lift; of Horatius defending the bridge against a whole army ; of Richard the lion-hearted who spurred along the whole Saracen line without finding an enemy to stand his assault, and of many others, of whom time and space forbid the mention. Next in order of the first three comes General Shammah. Of his mighty deeds we read: "And the Philistines were gathered together for foraging (see margin) where was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it and slew the Philistines and the Lord wrought a great victory" (II Sam. 23:11, 12). Let us not overlook the significance of the last words of this record which are found also in verse ten. "Jehovah wrought a great victory." "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say ; if it had not been the Lord who was THBEE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 133 on our side, when men rose up against us: then had they swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. . . . Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth" (Psalm 124:1-6). It may be wise to listen to Cowper just at this time: " Hast thou not learned what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Vnblest, and that the battle is the Lord's ! " The incident just recorded is all we know of Shammah, but it is enough to put him into the list of immortals. The scene is described in a few strokes of the pen by the historian. There is a com- mon piece of ground outside one of the towns of Israel, a piece of ground cultivated by the people. Just now it is covered with a fine crop of lentils. Suddenly 'there is a cry, ''The Philistines! the Philistines!" A troop of them are out foraging, and they have crept along the bed of a dry water- course, thinking the field of lentils fair prey. With a rush and a shout they break cover. Down go the spades! Away scuttle the frightened Israelites — anywhere to escape from the cruel Philistines. All fiy but one. There is one man who stands his ground. No troop of Philistines will make him run. He has no sword, but he seizes his mattock and all round that plot of lentils when he has finished using that mat- tock is a ghastly ring of slain Philistines. The way Shammah 's spade swung round his head that day was marvellous. He seemed to be everywhere at once. No braver stand in Israel had been made since the day when Samson slew a whole heap of Philis- tines with the jawbone of an ass. Well did Sham- 134 TAPS mah deserve to be promoted, and to receive from his King the rank of Major General. What a lesson there is in this story! Shammah plus Jehovah spells victory. Some young man is reading this who has perhaps fallen a prey to the Philistines. Like hundreds of others, you have gone down before those malignant allies of the pit — the world, the flesh and the devil. You have been de- feated so often, and so frequently put to shame in spite of your good resolves, that the very cry: "The Philistines! the Philistines!" fills you with panic, and you fall a victim to their assaults with- out striking a single blow. Are you for ever going to be trodden under foot by the enemy? Is it not time you learnt the mean- ing of that verse: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet?" Yielded to Jesus Christ, whose victory over Satan was absolute, you will find that His victories become yours. Instead of flying from the enemy; instead of yielding to the cruel oppressor, and giving him the opportunity of forging another link in the chain that binds you in degenerating captivity, try the method of Shammah. Resist the onset that has hitherto swept you off your feet, and then see what will happen? This is what will happen: "Resist the devil, and he ivill flee from you." Call upon Jesus Christ, and tell Him you would rather die than run ; that you would rather die than yield, and you will soon see who will do the running. The devil will flee from you. Does Satan whisper: "It is too late now to re- trieve that past ! ' ' Thank God it is^ not too late. I look into the faces of the young men I meet, and how many tell the sad story of dissipation. How many of those faces have written upon them in let- ters of fire: "Overborne!" "Overcome!" "De- THREE OF KING DAVID'S GENERALS 135 feated!" ''Dispirited!" The Philistines have been out on their foraging expeditions, as in the days of Shammah, — they are always out on this errand, — and there does not seem much left in many a life of manliness and purity and nobility and chivalry. Courage, brother, though the outlook be dark as night. Stand up in the middle of the wreck, like Shammah did, and you will soon be tasting the sweets of victory. And the years that have been devoured by the locust God will restore. One who had been overcome again and again by a besetting sin heard a message when bowed one day in the shame and contrition before God because of another defeat; and the message was this: "The Egyptians whom you have seen to-day, you shall see again no more for ever." That Christian soldier believed the word, and thanked God for it. The vision became a glorious reality, and the name of that victor stands high on the roll of God's valiant ones to-day. Where will your name stand? THE FIGHT FOR MANSOUL "Men don't believe in a Devil now, as their fathers used to do; They've forced the door of the broadest creed to let his majesty through: There isn't a print of his cloven foot, or a fiery dart from his bow To be found in the earth or air to-day, for the world has voted so. But who is it mixing the fatal draught that palsies heart and brain. And loads the bier of each passing year with ten hundred thousand slain? Who blights the bloom of the land to-day with the fiery breath of hell, If the Devil isn't and never was? Won't somebody rise and tell? Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint, and digs the pit for his feet? Who sows the tares in the field of Time wherever God sows the wheat? The Devil is voted not to be, and, of course, the thing is true; But who is doing the kind of work the Devil alone should do? Won't someone step to the front forthwith, and make their bow and show How the frauds and crimes of a single day spring up? We want to know. The Devil is fairly voted out, and of course the Devil's gone. But simple people would like to know who carries his business on." XIII THE FIGHT FOR MANSOUL OUR Lord's teaching about Satan is exceed- ingly important in view of the heresy which is being so widely propagated, even in some of the great universities of this land, that the devil is simply a principle of evil, a malign influence, and that as a real person he does not exist. The devil can achieve no greater triumph than to innoculate men and women with the notion that he is non- existent. Personality, with all its attendant attributes, is ascribed in the Scriptures both to Satan and to that innumerable army of demons who do his bidding. It is ascribed to them just as unmistakably as to men or as to God Himself. The wickedness of any other method of interpretation is that it destroys the truth and honesty of God's Word. What, for ex- ample, can be plainer than these words of our Lord's: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, be- cause there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar and the father thereof" (John 8:44). These words ought to settle beyond all controversy the question of Satan's personality. Jesus says he is a sinner from the beginning ; he is an homicide from the beginning ; he is an arch-liar, and a renegade for "he abode not in the truth." 139 140 TAPS It has often been said that the great doctrine of the Atonement runs like a scarlet thread through the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelations. It is equally true that there is a black thread running throughout the Book. You can trace the slimy trail of the Serpent from the opening words of the third chapter of Genesis: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." You can follow it on and on for thousands of years, until it is lost in one of the clos- ing chapters of the Revelation in the welcome words : "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). As God and the agencies He has at His disposal, by a thousand means and ministries, seek man's salvation, so Satan and his agents in ways that are diabolical in their cunning and subtlety, seek man's ruin and destruction. God is perpetually working for order and separation, Satan is perpetually work- ing for disorder and confusion. It is simply through his agency that the Church to-day, instead of being absolutely separate from the World, is nothing but a mixed multitude. Instead of being the chaste virgin, the Bride of Christ is seen flirting with the same World that put Jesus to death, for because the World 's character is unchanged and unchanging, she would do so again to-morrow if she had the oppor- tunity. What a stupendous conflict is taking place around us! Here is an arena where the forces of darkness and light are engaged in the fiercest battling, not for empires but for souls; and weighed in the bal- ances of God, empires are but as the small dust of the balance compared to souls. THE FIGHT FOB MAN SOUL 141 Our Lord gives us a picture of this conflict in the following words: ''Whenever a strong man, fully armed and equipped, is guarding his own castle, he enjoys peaceful possession of his property; but as soon as another stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away that complete armour of his in which he trusted, and distributes the plunder he has collected. Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever is not gathering with Me is scattering abroad" (Luke 11:21-23, Wey- mouth's translation). 1. The first picture is Mansoul possessed ly Satan and in peace. Note that our Lord never underestimates the power of Satan. He speaks of him in this passage as "a strong man, fully armed and equipped." There is no surer way to suffer an ignominious de- feat than to underestimate the strength and skill of the enemy. The people of Great Britain laughed at the Boer farmers at the outbreak of the South African War, but when the brave British soldiers bit the dust again and again, the laughter ceased, and they learned to respect the skill and prowess of their foe. The devil loves to hear men laughing and joking about him. Only let them take liberties with him, and treat him as a huge joke, and before very long they will have abundant cause to repent of their folly. Satan, with his six thousand years' experi- ence in the art of seducing and destroying men, is an adversary not to be despised or trifled with. Our Lord pictures him in the passage "guarding his own castle, and in peaceful possession of his property." He enjoys undisturbed possession. He is as much at home as you are in your own house. 142 TAPS You put your key in the lock and the door opens to you, and when you have closed it none can have entrance without your consent. You go to and fro in its apartments, furnishing them as suits your taste and convenience. It is your house and you do what you like with it. The unsaved man is, in the same way, Satan's own castle, and he enjoys peaceful possession of his prop- erty. He just as truly incarnates himself in a man 's nature as the Holy Spirit does; and every man is either the castle of Satan, or the temple of the Holy Spirit. Satan is described by the Apostle Paul as "the spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- obedience." Unsaved men are children of disobedi- ence, because refusing to obey God, the wrath of God is come upon them, and as the Apostle says in an- other place, they are "carried away captive by the devil at his will" (II Tim. 2:26). That is a cap- tivity a thousand times worse than Egyptian bondage. The sonl is in captivity, and it is bound in fetters which none can break but the Stronger than the strong man. Satan leads his victims on, step by step, binding tighter and ever tighter the cords of destruction, his one object being to make his captives sharers of his doom in that abode of darkness and agony, prepared, not for man, but "prepared for the devil and his angels." Everything in the castle is quiet when the strong man is thus in peaceful possession of his property. Nothing is more dreaded by Satan than a disturb- ance of that false security, that counterfeit peace. All he desires is that his captives shall be led quietly to their doom ; careless as to their immortal destiny ; blind to the redemption that has been provided at so great a cost; and unconcerned as to their inevi- table banishment from God and from the glory of THE FIGHT FOR MAN SOUL 143 His power. So he uses the armour with which he is equipped to this end. "Peace!" he cries, when the bell of Conscience rings under some awakening providence. "Peace! you are as good as others, and far better than many." "Peace!" he whispers, when the claims of Jesus Christ are presented; "if you must be re- ligious, be satisfied with the form of godliness, and don 't go to any extremes. " " Peace ! " he says, when a comrade falls at your side altogether unprepared for death; ''you have a long time to live; enjoy life while you may; attend to serious things to- morrow!" And so the poor soul is lulled to sleep, until there comes that awful awakening, when "all unfurnished for the world to come," the lost soul sinks into perdition, and enters that dread abode of the lost, over whose portals is inscribed, "All hope abandon ye who enter here!" 2. The second picture is Mansoul in a state of siege. A Stronger than he attacks the strong man fully armed and equipped. The castle has now passed from a state of peace to a state of war. It is no longer in a condition of false security. The shock of battle is felt. The Strong Son of God, to whom the castle belongs by the purchase-price of His own blood, lays siege to the castle, now by ordinary, and now by extraordinary methods. The Holy Spirit directs the powerful siege guns of the Gospel which thunder at the walls, and tear up the foundations of the soul's false confidence. Now He is in possession of the bridge-head, and then, seeing that further resistance is useless, Satan is compelled to retire, and Emmanuel takes possession of His own. Sometimes in a few moments all the strongholds and entrenchments that Satanic ingenuity has so 144 TAPS carefully erected are destroyed. I know one who was riding to the race-course, when at the entrance, a little tract was put into his hand with this ques- tion printed at the top as a title, "Where will you spend Eternity?" That question broke up all the devil's positions in a moment; and riding back swiftly to his home, and handing his horse to the groom, that young man decided on his face before God, that he would spend Eternity in the realms of bliss and in the company of the redeemed. He has been for many years one of the foremost preachers in London, and has led thousands into a saving ac- quaintance with Jesus Christ. Is this conflict going on in your heart at this mo- ment? Beseech the Stronger than the strong not to leave you to the power of your cruel adversary. And while hell is moved from beneath at the conflict; while angels look on with deepest interest and pro- foundest sympathy; while tens of thousands of prayers ascend to the throne of grace on your behalf, let the castle be surrendered. Run up the white flag of submission, and all the bells of heaven will be set a-ringing, for "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." 3. The third picture is Mansoul conquered and pos- sessed. As soon as another, Stronger than Satan, attacks him and overcomes him, "He takes away that com- plete armour of his in which he trusted, and dis- tributes the plunder he has collected." The vic- tory is won. The black flag of rebellion has been hauled down, and the crimson standard of the Cross flies in its place. All Satan's armour is taken from him, and, as Emmanuel enters the castle in triumph, He divides the spoil. The lips that once THE FIGHT FOB MAN SOUL 145 blasphemed now sing Emmanuel's praise; the feet that were swift to do evil, now run on the King's errands; the hands that were defiled with sin, are now holy hands, lifted up in earnest intercession or outstretched in loving ministry ; the chambers of imagery are purified and new pictures are hung upon the walls; the windows and observatories, darkened by sin, are cleansed, and reveal visions which uncir- cumcised eyes never saw ; the sociable and winsome disposition — once Satan's favourite weapon — is now used to win men to God. All the armour in which Satan trusted, and which he employed for his hellish purposes is taken from him, and the government of the castle is now in the hands and upon the shoulders of Jesus. When Mansoul had to be surrendered to Em- manuel, according to John Bunyan in the Holy Wa)% Diabolus sent his ambassador with this among other suggestions at compromise: ''Behold, sir, the condescension of my master! He says he will be content if he may but have a place assigned to him in Mansoul, as a place to live in privately, and you shall be lord of all the rest." Then answered Em- manuel: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me ; and of all that He giveth Me I will lose noth- ing ; no not a hoof nor a hair. I will not therefore grant him, no, not the least corner in Mansoul, to dwell in, I will have it all to Myself." Blessed be His name that He so determines! The part we have to play in this fight for Man- soul is suggested by the closing words of the re- markable passage we have been considering. "He that is not with Me is against Me." You can be in confederacy with Satan or with Emmanuel. You can refuse to surrender the castle to Him, who bought the right to cleanse and possess it with His 146 TAPS own precious blood ; or you can say as you make an unreserved submission : " Through grace I hearken to Thy voice. Yield to be saved from sin; In sure and certain hope rejoice, That Thou wilt enter in." GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS The following lines were written as a prayer, by Thomas EUwood, the Quaker friend of John Milton: GUAEDINQ THE OUTPOSTS " Oh ! that my eyes might closed be To what becomes me not to see! That deafness might possess my ear To what concerns me not to hear. That truth my tongue might always tie From ever speaking foolishly! That no vain thought might ever rest Or be conceived in my breast! That by each word, each deed, each thought Glory may to my God be brought! But what are wishes? Lord, my eye On Thee is fixed, to Thee I cry: Oh purge out all my dross, my sin. Make me more white than snow within. Wash, Lord, and purify my heart, And make it clean in every part: And when 'tis clean. Lord, keep it so. For that is more than I can do." XIV GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS NO small part of military success depends on the care taken of the outposts. There is noth- ing of the magnificence of the crowded camp about them. Each outpost is occupied by a few soldiers at the most, often by a single sentinel. It may seem a very trifling business to do nothing but to watch, and to send an occasional report to head- quarters. The romance of war in an open country is associated with the thunder of great guns, the sharp rattle of musketry, the ringing sound of the trumpet, the drawing up in battle-array of armies, the waving banners, the rush of cavalry, the deadly assault, the smoke of conflict, the shout of them that strive for the mastery, the huzza of victory. How unlike all this is the still life at a distant out- post ! There is no romance in mere vigilance. Pas- sion is stirred by attack. A soldier feels that he is part of a host, and himself an element of power when marching in the ranks of the main army ; but there is little to stir enthusiasm in being sent away into the woods, or to distant hills to watch for what may never appear; to guard what may never be attacked. Just as though the enemy would trouble himself about insignificant outposts, when there is a central camp to be assaulted. But who that is at all familiar with warfare does not know that danger begins at the outposts ? These must be passed before the camp can be reached, and 149 150 TAPS if the enemy meditates a surprise, nothing can pre- vent it but the vigilance of the distant sentries. They have the honour and responsibility of being nearest the foe. Many an army has been lost by the neglect of the commander to take sufficient precautions against a sudden night-attack. Many a city has been captured through the absence of even a single sentry from his beat. The rules of war are severe on this point. One man must not be allowed to endan- ger an army. This was one of the military regula- tions to which Napoleon the Great gave personal attention, frequently going the rounds in the dark- ness to see that all the outposts were well guarded, and death was the penalty of a sentinel found asleep at his post. All these facts have their counterpart in the spiritual conflict. The danger usually begins at the outposts. There the enemy first shows himself, and many a citadel has been taken because there has been carelessness, a relaxing of the necessary vigilance at the outposts. The thoughts are among the most important of the outposts in our spiritual life. **As a man think- eth in his heart so is he," says the Word of God. All activity is the result of thought. Everything you do in any relationship of life is the direct outcome of some underlying thought. Put it like this: At the back of all activity is reason; behind every choice that man makes there is an impelling cause; that impelling cause is a thought. I watch what you do. I cannot watch what you think, but I know what you think from what you do. You stand in the streets of a city. Here is a man who crosses from one side of the road to the other. Before he crossed he thought of crossing, and you know his prior thought by that action. Yonder is a GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 151 man who is arrested by a sensational placard of a play at the theatre. He thought before he decided to stop and read it. The principle applies in all realms of human activity. What you think is mani- fest in what you do. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. ' ' Dr. J. H. Jowett puts it thus: "A man's thoughts determine the moral climate of his life, and will settle the question whether his conduct is to be a poisonous marsh or a fertile meadow, a fragrant garden or a stretch of barren sand. The pose of the mind determines the disposition, and will settle whether a man shall soar with the angels in the heavenlies, or wallow with the sow in the mire." The sin does not consist in the mere act; it lies back of the action, in the thought, the intention, the motive that inspired it. You sinned in thought first and then you sinned in deed. In that black cata- logue of sins in Matthew 15:19 Jesus puts evil thoughts first in the list, and says : * ' Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornica- tions, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man." That is the true generation of crime. Thoughts are the parent of deeds; good thoughts of good deeds and bad thoughts of bad deeds. The real difference between a good man and a bad man is this — the one fosters and cherishes the thought of evil; the other repudiates and repels it. During the Revolutionary War the same tempta- tion was offered to two men, Reed and Benedict Arnold. Reed said: "I am a poor man, but no king is rich enough to buy me." Benedict Arnold clutched the gold, and his name drifts down through American history, an object of obloquy and con- tempt. The difference is here, the one was hospitable 152 TAPS to a bad thought and the hospitality he gave to it ruined him. The other refused to entertain it, and said to the damnable proposal, ' ' Keep out ! ' ' Many a man would start with horror from a full-grown sin, and say with Hazael: "Is thy serv- ant a dog that he should do this thing?" But he nurses and dandles the infant sin in his heart in the form of a bad thought, and like Hazael he does it. The sensualist is only a filthy thinker; the miser is only a covetous and grasping thinker; the glutton is only a greedy thinker. Tell me what your soul turns to, and thinks about when left alone, and I will determine your spiritual character, for "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." All good and evil commences at the outposts of the thoughts. Relax your vigilance at the outposts, suffer the evil thoughts to pass unchallenged, and you have taken the first step to the ruin of your char- acter. Let me tell you of one of the tragedies of nature. There is a certain fly that lives in a very ingenious manner. Some rude instinct impels it to make provision for its progeny in this way : When it wishes to lay its eggs it pierces the soft body of a certain caterpillar and deposits them there. Ap- parently this action causes the caterpillar no dis- comfort. But soon the warm body of the grub hatches the eggs, and then the doom of the eater- pillar is sealed, for the wretched lodgers, awakened to life, at once commence to feed upon the body of their benefactor, and continue doing so until life is extinct. Many a man who has given hospitality to evil thoughts has found in after years that, like these horrible parasites, they have fed upon his best nature and ruined it. A few practical suggestions may be useful. GUARDING THE OUTPOSTS 153 1. Eememher that you control the material of your thoughts. There is a common idea cherished that suggestions and thoughts are absolutely put into our mind by God or Satan, and some find this an easy way of accounting for the good and bad thoughts that pos- sess them. It is more convenient to cast the respon- sibility elsewhere than to admit that no one is to blame but ourselves. Thought is really the comparison, selection and association of the actual contents of our minds, under the guidance of our will. All that has im- pressed us by the eyes, the ears, the feelings has passed into our mental treasury. It is all there, and it is all linked together by the subtlest and strangest connections. You are adding to that treasury every day by your reading, and by all the other uses you make of eyes and ears. What we call thinking, is simply taking from that treasury what you will of its contents, and arranging them to form new ideas and purposes. With what stores are you en- riching that treasury? Your life is so far in your own hands that you can provide the material for your thoughts. Put yourself in association with things that are pure and good, cherish holy thoughts and aspira- tions, and you will become pure and good. Read unclean books, indulge in stories that are suggestive of filth, engage in impure conversation, and you fill your treasury with corruption, a corruption that will sooner or later blossom into action, and poison your life. Do not imagine for a moment that you are innocent if you love to meditate upon anything which you would blush to avow before men, or fear to unveil before God. Remember that what is in- side, in the way of settled, persistent thought will 154 TAPS be sure to be reproduced in the outward life. There- fore, ' ' Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what- soever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4:8). 2. Remember that character originates in thought. All character originates in thought. Was it not Butler who said: "Sow the act and you reap the habit; sow the habit and you reap the character; sow the character and you reap the destiny"? But as we have seen there is something farther back than the act in the outpost of the thoughts, so that we may add, "Sow the thought and you reap the act." Your thoughts not only reveal what you are, they make you what you are. Nothing seems less sub- stantial, yet nothing is of greater consequence, for your thought-life is the factory where character is manufactured. The face is like the dial face of the watch, it tells you of what is going on within. You can read character in the countenance. Those coarse, foul thoughts make a sensual, repulsive face. Holy thoughts will make the face shine like the face of an angel, because the cultivation of holy thoughts in- evitably produce a holy character. Tell me what you thought life is and I will tell you what kind of character you are building for eternity. 3. Remember that you cannot think two thoughts at once. Many a young man is puzzled as to how to rid him- self of evil thoughts. You cannot will such thoughts out of your mind; a mere act of volition is not enough. The very effort to eject the intruder by the GUARDING TEE OUTPOSTS 155 action of the will only fastens it there more firmly. You can, however, displace it by another, for you cannot think two thoughts at once. The parable of the unclean spirit is very suggestive. The man out of whom the evil spirit went, neglected to fill up the empty, swept and garnished spaces with good spirits so that there was room for the returning evil, and in sevenfold worse forms than before. You have this measure of control over the outposts that you may garrison them with thoughts that are pure and good ; you can hang on the chambers of your imagination pictures that elevate and inspire to higher and nobler achievement, or you can hang there pictures that will blight and blast your life. Some men are so mentally impoverished that when they reach out for some great thought to displace an intruder from hell, they cannot find it. Time that might have been spent in enriching the mind and furnishing the treasury with good thoughts has been idled away in gossip and frivolity. ' * Thy Word have I hid in my heart," says the Psalmist, "that I might not sin against Thee." The Word of God packed away in the heart, day by day, will furnish you with ammunition for the day of battle; for the mightiest weapon in this fight for the outposts is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. "PURE AND CLEAN THROUGH AND THROUGH " A Pbateb fob Pubitt With aching heart and spirit sore distressed, I came to Thee and Thou didst give me rest; Now, Lord, I pray and long with deep desire To be made clean by Thy refining fire. make me clean! make me clean! Mine eyes Thy holiness have seen; Oh, send the burning, cleansing flame. And make me clean in Jesus' name. 1 hate the sin which grieves Thy loving heart; Speak, precious Lord, and bid it all depart; Thy temple cleanse, and make my heart Thy home; Come King of Kings and reign Thyself alone. Dear Lamb of God, I yield my all to Thee. Thine, wholly Thine, for ever more to be; Now in my heart I feel the sacred flame He makes me clean, O Glory to His name! He makes me clean, He makes me clean, Mine eyes the glorious King have seen; Just now I feel the sacred flame glory to His precious Name. — Geoeqe Bennabd. XV "PURE AND CLEAN, THROUGH AND THROUGH" " Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men everywhere, not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are, keeping your- selves fit and straight in everything, and pure and clean through and through." — President Wilson's Message to the Soldiers of the National Army. THOUSANDS of Christian people have thanked God for this ringing challenge from the Presi- dent to our soldiers to live a clean life, for no more subtle and powerful temptations beset our boys than those to lower this standard, and so to become a reproach instead of a pride. My purpose is to show how the splendid ideal of the message at the head of the chapter may become real ; how these possibilities may become actualities in the experience of every man who will take as much pains to observe the directions of God's Word as he does to observe the directions of his instructors in military strategy. If I were asked to preach a sermon on the subject of this chapter — "Pure and clean, through and through" — I should turn first to the Book of Proverbs, for in chapter 4, verse 23, I find these words: "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life." It is as if the inspired teacher said: "Guard your money, your property, your health, your body, everything in which you have a legitimate interest, or which is advantageous to your welfare, hut before and above everything 159 160 TAPS else, keep a guard on your heart." The word "for" introduces the reason, "for out of it are the issues of life." That is to say, the moral conduct of life, its actions and proceedings are all determined by the condition of the heart. If the heart is "pure and clean through and through," the life will be pure and clean. If the heart is impure and corrupt, the life will be impure and corrupt. The heart is here com- pared to a fountain, and if the streams are to be pure so must be the fountain. No one expects sweet and pure water from a bitter and brackish fountain. Physically the heart is the central organ of the body. Just as from the heart the blood is propelled to every part of the body, keeping the red stream of life always moving, so, spiritually, out of that part of our nature which is called the "heart" the "issues," the Sowings or streams of life proceed. The Old Testament locates the heart in the centre of the personal being. It is not merely the home of the affections, it is also the throne of the intellect and the seat of the will, or the moral purpose. The issues of life flow from it in all their multitudinous forms. The stream parts into many heads, but it has one fountain. It avails little to plant watchers on the stream half-way to the sea. If control is to be effectual it must be exercised at the source. That is a commonplace of all wholesome teaching since the beginning of the world. The Scriptural conception of the heart is that it is the centre where three things are perpetually being focussed; the mind or the intellectual powers; the emotions or the affectional powers; the will or the volitional powers. What you think about, what you delight in, what you purpose. You are what you are in these three things; mind, desires and will. ''PURE AND CLEAN " 161 A cleansed heart simply means the purification of the stream of your thoughts ; the cleaning of your desires, and the adjustment of your will. To be "clean and pure through and through" means, therefore, to have a cleansed mind, cleansed desires and a cleansed or loyal will. How can this purity, without which all challenges to a clean life are utterly in vain, be obtained ? Jesus Christ is exactly to you what your faith takes Ilim to be. The law of the spiritual life always is '^ According to your faith he it unto you." One of the familiar words in the literature of to-day is, "Attain!" "Attain!" "Attain!" I would sub- stitute another word, "Obtain!" for nothing in the kingdom of grace is first of all by attainment but by obtainment. The only one who ever attained to a righteous life was Jesus Christ; and we obtain His righteousness by faith. The only one who ever at- tained to holiness was Jesus Christ, and we obtain His holiness by faith. In one sentence, His attain- ments were all for us, and become our obtainments by faith. One of the greatest passages in the New Testament is this: "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us a Wisdom con- sisting of Righteousness and Sanctification and Re- demption" (I Cor. 1:30). Wisdom is the casket, and in the casket are these three precious jewels. Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption. All are to be had for the claiming. How strange that we should be content with so little when we might have so much! I have read of a German prince who once gave to his betrothed, on the eve of their marriage, an iron egg. In her disgust at such a gift she threw it on the ground. In contact with the ground a spring was released and the egg flew open, revealing a sil- 162 TAPS ver lining. She picked it up, and found another spring which revealed a golden yolk. Still another surprise awaited the no longer indignant but curious princess. In the golden yolk she detected a tiny spring which brought to light a priceless diamond ring. Wisdom is the iron egg. The silver lining is Righteousness, the golden yoke is Sanctification and the diamond ring is Redemption, for Redemp- tion embraces Christ's whole work, from our rescue from sin to our final glorification. Endeavour to grasp the meaning of this great Scripture: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just (righteous) to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). God has made ample provision for the complete and glorious pardon of all your sins, and until this word of pardon is spoken to your heart it is vain to expect peace or purity. What a wonderful pardon it is! "According to the height of the heavens above the earth, so great is His mercy towards them that fear Him" (Ps. 103:11 margin). "According to the height of the heavens above the earth" — you cannot measure that distance; no astronomer can do it. The as- tronomer can tell you, for example, how distant the sun is from the earth. Sir Robert Ball tells us that the actual distance of the sun from the earth is about 92,700,000 miles. We are talking much in these days about millions and billions. Ninety-two millions is a very large number. It would be necessary to count as quickly as possible for three days and three nights before one million was completed; and you would have to repeat this nearly ninety-three times before you had counted all the miles between the earth and the sun. But when you have travelled from the earth' to " PURE AND CLEAN " 163 the sun, if such a journey were possible, you have not reached the height of the heavens. No matter how far you could go there are worlds and heights and distances that are simply immeasurable by any calculation of ours, and God says: ''According to the height of the heavens above the earth so great is His mercy towards those that fear Him. ' ' Well may the poet exclaim, ''Who is a pardoning God like Thee?" Every man knows that he needs more than pardon. Pardon alone will not make a man ' * pure and clean, through and through." He needs cleansing also, and cleansing means more and goes further than par- don or forgiveness. God has made as large and as full and as adequate provision for our cleansing from all unrighteousness as for the pardon of our sins. Cleansing means more and goes deeper. Forgive- ness is something which takes place in God's heart; cleansing is something which takes place in mine. Forgiveness deals with the acts of transgression, and the guilt that is incurred thereby; cleansing deals with the inward dispositions from which the outward acts spring. Forgiveness deals with the punishment of sin; cleansing deals with its defile- ment and domination. Forgiveness restores me to a right relation to God; cleansing fits me for com- munion with Him. Never forget that the cleansing is as complete as the pardon; that it rests upon the same foundation as pardon, and is therefore just as certain, and that whoever puts cleansing in doubt, puts pardon in doubt also. What are the conditions upon which this pardon and purity may be yours? There are two, Confes- sion and Faith. " If we confess our sins He is faith- ful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That does 164 TAPS not mean a hasty confession, a partial confession, an apologetic confession, a hesitating confession. It means a frank and full confession, like David's in the fifty-first Psalm. The greatest living theologian. Professor James Denny, D.D., says: "There is power in the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin, and there is no power to cleanse us anywhere else, but it needs the condition of openness and sincerity. We cannot be cleansed from the sin we do not confess. We cannot be cleansed from the sin we excuse. We cannot be cleansed from the sin to which we are secretly re- solved to cling. There is no such thing as negotia- tion, transaction or compromise possible in the rela- tions of God and man. Everything is absolute. We may take the Gospel or leave it, but we cannot bar- gain about it. We may be cleansed from all sin, or from none, but not from some on condition of retain- ing others. Renounce with all your heart every- thing secret and insincere. Let there be nothing hidden in your life, no unavowed ends, no prevarica- tions, no reserves. Insincerity, the dark atmosphere in which so many souls live, is in its turn one of the forms of sin from which the blood of Christ cleanses ; and as we confess it, and disown it, and bring it to the cleansing blood, it also loses its power. This is the way in which all the wealth of the Gospel be- comes ours." Those are golden words and well worth pondering. After this frank, full, free confession, rest in the faithfulness of God. Have you been faithful in your confession? Infinitely more faithful is He in your forgiveness and cleansing. Do not look for feelings, and do not think of your faith, but let the faithful- ness of God fill the whole circle of your vision, until you grow blind to feelings, blind even to faith, blind " PURE AND CLEAN " 165 to all but the loving faithfulness of a God who can- not break His Word without ceasing to be God, Without the slightest procrastination, hesitation or misgiving, take upon your lips that prayer of the penitent King, whose shameful story of sin is told in God 's Word in all its naked ugliness : ' ' Wash me thoroughly from my transgressions, and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a right spirit within me. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." As in his case so in yours, the prayer will be answered, and your tongue will sing aloud of His righteousness. " Lord, I lift that passionate prayer of old, My sins as scarlet are ; my life, to Thee An open page, how deeply marred! yet bold I plead for cleansing. Jesus' blood shall free This soul of mine from shame, from guilt, from woe. O wash me, Lord, yes, whiter than the snow." THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 1. ** Watch Ye!" Along the beaten path I pace, Where white rags mark my sentry's track; In formless shrubs I seem to trace The foeman's form with bending back, I think I see him crouching low: I stop and list — I stoop and peer, Until the neighboring hillocks grow To groups of soldiers far and near. With ready piece I wait and watch. Until my eyes, familiar grown, Detect each harmless earthen notch. And turn guerrillas into stone; And then, amid the lonely gloom. Beneath the tall old chestnut trees. My silent marches I resume. And think of other times than these. Till over stubble, over sward, And fields where lay the golden sheaf, I saw the lantern of the guard Advancing with the night relief. " Halt ! Who goes there ? " My challenge cry. It rings along the watchful line; "Relief! " I hear a voice reply; " Advance, and give the countersign ! " With bayonet at the charge I wait — The corporal gives the mystic spell; With arms aport I charge my mate, Then onward pass, and all is well. Bu;/ in the tent that night awake, I ask, if in the fray I fall, Can I the mystic answer make When the angelic sentries call? And pray that Heaven may so ordain, Where'er I go, what fate be mine. Whether in pleasure or in pain, I still may have the countersign. — Anonymous. XVI THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 1. "Watch Ye!" AT the close of Paul's first letter to the Corin- thians (I Cor. 16: 13) there is an exhortation ^ consisting of four short, impetuous, impera- tives, revealing a sudden outburst of emotion as the writer draws to a close. They ring sharp and clear like pistol-shots. They are like the word of com- mand shouted from an officer along the ranks, and there is a military metaphor running through them all. The associations of battle breathe in every word. As the enemy gathers in the distance, half hidden by the brow of a hill or beneath the shadow of the forest, and it remains doubtful for the moment at what quarter the storm will break, and the attack be made, the warning to vigilance rings out — "Watch ye!" As the foe advances, and the threatening masses roll onwards, as the strong columns of the enemy threaten to overwhelm the slender line of the de- fenders, the clear, strident voice of the officer is heard in the momentary hush of suspense, exhorting his men to steadiness and constancy — "Stand fast!'* And when the battle is joined ; and like two angry tides, the opposing lines meet, clash and break, war- rior contending with warrior in hand-to-hand con- 169 170 TAPS flict for the mastery, amid the shouting and the tumult, the same clear voice is heard calling — "Quii you like men!" Beneath the fury of the assault, the line of the defenders shakes and wavers. Now is the time for every man to strike a man's stroke, and to display the heroism that is ready to die, but is resolved never to yield. So the dauntless leader cries aloud' to his brave warriors — ''Be strong!" This page in the Soldier's Drill Book containa therefore these four stirring challenges, upon each of which we propose to dwell. The first is a call to vigilance, * ' Watch ye ! " or as Dr. Weymouth trans- lates it: '* Be on the alert!" Patrick Henry's axiom ought to be in the memory of every soldier: "Eternal vigilance is the price of safety." "Watch ye!" The figure is undoubtedly a military one. No matter what massive walls, or what carefully concealed guns guard yonder fortress something more is necessary. And so up and down those ramparts, by day and by night, paces the sen- tinel, ready to give the alarm at the first sign of approaching danger, that the troops within the fortress may be warned, and put themselves in readiness to receive an atack. If you have ever visited the Heights of Abraham in Quebec, and looked down on those precipitous cliffs which make it the strongest natural citadel in Canada, you cannot but feel amazed that General Wolfe and a little company of English soldiers were able to capture it with comparative ease. ' ' It would seem," said a visitor to a guardsman, "as if a band of schoolboys might have held this fort against an army. How did it happen that the French were defeated?" "Oh," he replied, "the soldiers got careless about the watch, they were overconfident TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 1 171 and pleasure-loving, and when, one dark night, they were off guard, the citadel was taken." That is the story of many a disaster. We forget that the enemy of our souls never sleeps, and that when we are most off guard he is most on the watch. It was just at this point that Peter failed. You remember how self-confident he was, and the Master, who knew the unguarded place in Peter's character, used once again as He passed into the shadows of the Garden of Gethsemane the word He had so often used: "Watch!" ** Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." "Watch," that is your responsibility. "Pray that ye enter not into temptation"; that is the way you may avail your- self of your resources. But instead of watching Peter slept; and something happened which he believed never could under any circumstances have happened. It might happen to others but never to him ; but the citadel was taken, and, with oaths and curses, Peter denied that he ever knew Jesus at all. Then the cock crew and Peter remembered his Lord's warn- ing words and went out and wept bitterly. No won- der, when he writes his letter, he says: "Be sober, be vigilant!" These words "Watch ye!" have been written in letters of fire on the signal-posts of life by the hand of God. ' * Watch " ; " Watch unto prayer " ; " Watch, for ye know not the day or the hour"; "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch!" "Watch, for ye know not when the time is ! " Vigilance — which is watchfulness combined with alertness — is the price of everything good and great in earth and heaven. It seems as though there was no word so far-reaching as the word, "Watch." It was for his faithful vigilance that the sentinel at Pompeii is embalmed in poetry and recorded in his- 172 TAPS tory. On that fatal day on which Vesuvius, at whose feet the city stood, burst out into a iSery eruption that shook the earth, a sentinel kept watch by the gate which looked towards the burning mountain. Amidst the dreadful disorder and panic which ensued, the sentinel was forgotten, and as Rome re- quired her sentinels, happen what might, to hold their posts till released by the guard, or set at liberty by their officer, the Pompeian sentinel had to choose between death and dishonour. He chose death. Slowly but surely the ashes rise on his manly form, now they reach his breast, and now covering his lips they choke his breathing. He was * ' faithful unto death, ' ' and after seventeen centuries they found his skeleton, standing erect in a marble niche, clad in its rusty armour, the helmet on his empty skull, and his bony fingers still closed upon his spear. ' i I have referred to the necessity of alertness. It is that state of attention to duty and to danger which we familiarly speak of as "wide awake"; a state in which we are keenly alive to every duty, and quick to detect the most subtle assaults of the enemy. Such is the vigilance required when an army is on the march or resting in camp. Advanced guards are thrown out. The picket line is established by day and by night. So vigilant must the sentries be, that becoming accustomed to the darkness, they can de- tect the movement of an advancing foe even in the darkest night. I remember reading an incident when the United States soldiers were in conflict with the Indians. Night after night the sentry at a certain post was shot, and no one could explain how the tragedy hap- pened. The report of a gun was heard, a sentry lay dead at his post, but no foe was ever seen. One night, with his senses all quickened by what had TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 1 173 happened to his comrade at that post, the sentry saw what seemed to be a bear moving towards the camp from the brushwood. The movements of the animal were so erratic that the sentry took aim and killed what he thought was a bear, but which proved to be an Indian disguised in a bear-skin. The enemy will come upon you in all sorts of dis- guises. He comes sometimes, as Paul tells us, as an angel of light, and deceives even experienced soldiers. We are placed here to be trained and developed for larger and nobler service by exposure to the forces of evil. If we were so sheltered from evil that there would be no need for constant watchfulness, we should lose the moral benefit which a habit of con- stant watchfulness induces. Depend upon it in the high and holy service which awaits the true soldier of the Cross, we shall need all those faculties that are now being quickened and trained by our contact with danger, and our exposure to apparently hostile conditions of existence. Our Lord's frequent use of the exhortation to watchfulness refers, in almost every case, to our atti- tude in view of His Second Coming. He has told us so much about this, and has given us so many warnings against carelessness in view of His return, that we shall do well to be found among those, who in these dark and tragic days, are constantly looking for His appearing. So delighted will He be to find His servants watching that He uses remarkable words to express that delight: "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them " (Luke 12: 37). It is the picture of a nobleman who has gone away to a marriage feast ; the time of whose return is 174 TAPS uncertain. He has commanded his servants to watch, so that return when he may, morning, noon or night, he wUl find them ready to welcome him. One night, when all the world is sleeping, the vigilant watchers hear the sound of an approaching cavalcade. They joyfully exclaim, "It is he!" Flinging open the gates and doors, he enters, to find his faithful serv- ants at their post, the table spread for refreshment, and a welcome from all. Makarios, says the Master, not only "Blessed," but ''Supremely blessed are those servants," and he shows his delight at finding them so vigilant, that he makes them sit down at the feast which they have prepared for him, while he waits upon them. Watching is never pleasant work. No soldier likes it. Men infinitely prefer the excitement and danger of the battlefield to long hours of unsleeping vigi- lance. But the work of the sentries has sometimes as much to do in deciding the history of a campaign as a victorious battle. No general ever realized this more than Napoleon the Great. I have seen a picture which strikingly illustrates this. It was the Emperor's custom to steal out in the darkness, in disguise, to see whether the pickets were all at their post. One night he found a sentry fast asleep at a post of danger. There he lay on the ground, his rifle in his arms. Napoleon took the rifle, without awaking the sleeping soldier, and then took his place as sentry until the man awoke. The picture represents the soldier awaking with the coming of the dawn. He is on one knee, shading his eyes, and looking at the martial figure standing close beside him. "My God," he cries in horror, "it's the Emperor!" and he knows that with such a S^itness to his faithlessness he can look forward to THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 1 175 nothing but the penalty of death for being found sleeping at his post. "Watch ye!" lest when the Lord Jesus comes again you be found sleeping. " Christian ! seek not yet repose. Cast thy dreams of ease away; Thou art in the midst of foes : Watch and pray. "Principalities and powers, Mustering their unseen array, Wait for thy unguarded hours: Watch and pray. " Gird thy heavenly armour on, Wear it ever night and day; Ambushed lies the evil one: Watch and pray. " Hear the victors who o'ercame ; Still they mark each warrior's way; And with one sweet voice exclaim. Watch and pray. "Hear, above all, hear thy Lord, Him thou lovest to obey; Hide within thy heart His word, Watch and pray. " Watch, as if on that alone Himg the issue of the day; Pray that help may be sent down: Watch and pray." THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 2. "Standfast!" How goes the fight with thee, — The life-long battle with all evil things? Thine no low strife, and thine no selfish aim; It is the war of giants and of kings. Goes the fight well with thee, — This living fight with death and death's dark power ? Is not the Stronger than the strong one near. With thee and for thee in the fiercest hour? Does it grow slacker now? Then tremble; for be sure thy hellish foe Slacks not. 'Tis thou that slackest in the fight; Fainter and feebler falls each weary blow. Dread not the din and smoke, The stifling poison of the fiery air; Courage! it is the battle of thy God; Go, and for Him learn how to do and dare! What though ten thousand fall, And the red field with the dear dead be strewn! Grasp but more bravely thy bright shield and sword ; Fight to the last, although thou fight'st alone. What though ten thousand faint. Desert, or yield, or in weak terror flee? Heed not the panic of the multitude; Thine be the Captain's watchword — Victory! Look to thine armour well! Thine the one panoply no blow that fears; Ours is the day of rusted swords and shields. Of loosened helmets and of broken spears. Say not the fight is long: 'Tis but one battle and the fight is o'er; No second warfare mars thy victory, And the one triumph is for ever more. — HOBATIUS BONAB. XVII THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 2. "Standfast!" AT the critical moment in the Battle of Waterloo, ZA when everything depended on the steadiness •^ -^ of the soldiery, courier after courier kept dashing into the presence of the Duke of Wellington announcing that unless the troops at an important point were immediately relieved or withdrawn they must yield before the impetuous onsets of the French. By all the couriers the Iron Duke sent back the same spirit-stirring message, "Stand Firm!" Once an officer galloped up and replying to the Duke's com- mand to "Stand Firm!" exclaimed: "But we shall all perish!" "Stand Firm!" repeated the iron- hearted chieftain. "You'll find us there!" rejoined the officer, as he put spurs to his charger and fiercely galloped away. The result proved the truth of the officer's forecast, for every soldier of that doomed brigade fell, fighting bravely at his post. They "Stood Firm," to the last man. Take the exhortation "Stand Fast!" first, as being opposed to cowardice, to fainting, to a dishonourable and inglorious retreat. Having taken your place in the fighting-line you must stand fast. The militant position must be maintained to the very end. You may as well throw away the scabbard of your sword for you will never again need it. There is no dis- 179 180 TAPS charge in this war. You may be weak, but you must stand fast. You may argue, like the officer in the battle of Waterloo, "But I shall perish!" yet you must stand fast. You may be weary and tempted to faint in the hour of conflict, but you must resist the temptation, and stand fast. You may see others fall about you, but you must stand fast. Some may sell their swords, prove cowards and run for their lives, but you must stand fast. The position allotted to you may seem exceptionally perilous and critical, but you must stand fast. The day of victory may be long delayed, but you must stand fast. When the Chinese soldiers returned after the con- flict between China and Japan, it was found that many of them had wounds in their back. There was no need to ask them what they had done. Those wounds in the back told the sad story of cowardice and of dishonourable retreat. You will have noticed that in the Christian's armour there is nothing for the back. Take the "Stand Fast!" as being opposed to all irregularity and disorder; all unwarranted license on the part of the soldier. "If any man strive for the mastery, ' ' says Paul in another place, ' ' yet is he not crowned unless he strive lawfully." There are fixed rules for warfare and by them the soldier must abide. He is sometimes tempted to rebel against the rigid and unbending discipline to which he is subjected. But without discipline an army becomes an unmanageable horde, one part of which is as likely as not to turn its destructive energies against the other. In those dark days through which Russia has re- cently passed nothing was more distressing to her friends than to read that her soldiers had become so lawless, and demoralized, and undisciplined, that THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 2 181 they were actually shooting their own oflScers. Noth- ing strikes a civilian's eye more quickly, as he watches a regiment of soldiers passing through a city, than the presence or absence of discipline. When he sees a lack of rhythm in the movements, with here and there a man who is in danger of almost falling out of the ranks, he knows that the rigid discipline, which is not merely the perfection of form, but which is also an essential condition of power, is to some extent lacking. In his great sermon on ' ' The Military Discipline, ' * Horace Bushnell asks : ' ' Does it then reduce the sol- diers and all the subordinate commanders of an army to mere ciphers, when they are required to march, and wheel, and lift every foot, and set every mus- cle, by the word of authority; when even the music is commandment, and to feed and sleep, and not sleep are by requirement? Why, the service rightly maintained invigorates every manly quality; for they are in a great cause, moving with great emphasis, having thus great thoughts ranging in them and, it may be, great inspirations. Not many of them ever had as great before, or ever will have again. ' ' When our soldiers return from their campaign, how often is it remarked of one and another, that his good-for-nothingness, the slouchiness, is somehow taken away, and that his very gait is manlier ; as if he were a man squared up by discipline and com- mand, and the new-felt possibility of being of some consequence to his country. So it is in the Christian life. Our very restrictions are our enfranchisement. We attain our highest liberty by becoming the bond slaves of Jesus Christ. "If ye abide in my Word," He said, "then are ye truly my disciples, and ye shall know the truth and 182 TAPS the truth shall make you free." Accept then His ideals; and submit to His Saviourship. Instead of discussing "Heaven's easy, artless, unincumbered plan" of salvation by faith, unhesitatingly submit to it. Do as the Israelites did, when Moses told them the conditions on which their emancipation could be obtained. It is said : * ' And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away and did so" (Exod. 12:27-28). Having sub- mitted to the Saviourship of Jesus Christ, submit next to His Sovereignty. Then instead of the old ' ' I can- not do this," you will find that He so possesses and empowers the soul that you will exclaim, "I can do all things in Christ who strengtheneth me." This is what it means to "stand fast in the faith." So the blind preacher-poet sings : "Make me a captive, Lord, And then I shall be free; Force me to render up my sword. And I shall conq'ror be. I sink in life's alarms When by myself I stand Imprison me within Thine arms, And strong shall be my hand." Four times in that wonderful appeal to the Christian soldier in the sixth chapter of Ephesians Paul urges him to stand : "Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. "Stand" TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 2 183 . "withstand" . . . "stand" . . ." stand there- fore" . . . (vers. 10-14). Not against flesh and blood have you to wage war, but against a superhuman enemy. You are not fighting against a fallen world, but against a fallen heaven. Of those evil spirits there is a countless mul- titude. " They throng the air, they darken heaven And rule the lower world." We have some idea of the armies of Europe, but we have a very faint conception of the legions of God's adversary and ours. A legion is sometimes associated with a single man (Mark 5:9), and a legion consisted of six thousand soldiers with its complement of cavalry. Under the direction of their rulers these fallen spirits ceaselessly strive for ascendancy over the hearts and reason of men. There are no human souls which are not more or less subject to their influence. You never enter your place of prayer, or stand before the altar of God, but Satan is there, in the person of his emis- saries, to resist you. Their greatest triumph consists in persuading men that they are on no ground of danger or warfare, but in a paradise of delights for the gratification of the senses and appetites. Most men prefer to believe in the reasonings of these evil spirits rather than in the Word of God. Consequently they abandon themselves to immediate pleasure. They lose the battle and go into the darkness, to discover, when it is too late, in what relation those stand to heaven whose time on earth was a frivolity, a loving of the garish day, a holiday instead of a conflict. Your only hope is to put on the Divine armour. Jesus is the only man who ever prevailed in this war. 184 TAPS To meet this enemy in actual combat and to over- come him, was one of the grand ends of the Incarna- tion, therefore "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." If you put on Christ, you put on armour clothed in which the weakest and feeblest cannot fail, and without which the mightiest and shrewdest cannot succeed. There is no finer illustration in history — excepting the appearance of Paul before Nero — of what it means to "stand fast in the faith," than Luther's appearance before the Diet of Worms on April 17, 1521. Many of Luther's friends tried to dissuade him from going but he said: "Were there as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses I would go in God's name. ' ' The people crowded the windows and housetops as the monk went to the Hall of the Diet, some of them calling out to him in solemn words not to recant. Carlyle suggests that this was really the petition of the whole world lying in dark bondage of soul, and paralyzed by the Papal power. In an inarticu- late voice they all said : * ' Free us ; it rests with thee ; desert us not ! ' ' Five thousand people had crowded the ante- chamber and other approaches to the Hall. Every avenue, and every door were completely blocked up with the crowds, and it was only when the imperial soldiers had forced open a way for him that Luther could enter. As he entered the Inner Hall, where the crowd was scarcely less dense, an old general and valiant knight laid his hand on Luther's shoulder, and said to him in true military style: "Monk! Monk ! thou hast before thee a march, and an affair such as myself and many a captain have not seen the like in the bloodiest of our battles; but if thy cause TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 2 185 is just, and thou art assured of it, advance in God's name : — God will not abandon thee. ' ' Luther entered. There sat the world's pomp, pageantry and power. It was the most imposing and magnificent assembly that has ever gathered at any one time. There sat the young Emperor Charles the Fifth, whose dominion embraced two worlds, all the Princes of Germany, six electors of the Empire, eighty dukes, eight margraves, thirty prelates of various ranks, seven ambassadors, the deputies of five cities, with the Papal nuncias and others. All those were on one side. On the other, standing up for God's Truth one solitary monk, the son of Hans Luther the poor miner. This very appearance there was a victory. The Pope had condemned him, excommunicated him, and given him over to eternal death, but now he has to do with an assembly of men, who, like himself, placed themselves above the Pope. As he advanced in front of the throne on which the Emperor was seated, every eye was fixed upon him. Here is his portrait: he is of middle size — in the prime of life — emaciated by care and study — calm and benignant in aspect — with a clear and pene- trating voice. The rustle and hum dies away into the most solemn stillness. Two questions were addressed to Luther by the Archbishop's Chancellor: ''Dost thou admit that these books were written by thee? Wilt thou retract these works and their contents, or dost thou persist in the things thou hast advanced?" When, after long discussion, the Diet found that it could not by any means remove the Reformer from the ground which he had taken, the proceedings were wound up with the repetition of the question : ' ' Will 186 TAPS you, or will you not retract?" To which question Luther gave the immortal answer : ** Unless I am convicted of error by the Holy Scriptures, I neither can nor dare retract anything; for my con- science is held captive by God's Word. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me Amen." The Diet of Worms was over. The great and glori- ous day was ended. The victory in which we are sharers was won, and the voice that spoke to that august assembly speaks to you and to me and says : "Watch ye; Stand fast in the faith; Quit you like men; Be strong!" I THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 3. "Quit you like Men!" Wendell Phillips, the Boston orator, who helped so nobly by his eloquence to fuse the fetters of four million slaves, refused to practise law, because before doing so he would be obliged to take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and this he would not do, because at that time, it recognized slavery. The highest political honours were within his reach if he would only side with the party then in power, but he absolutely refused. When he was eighteen years old — already one of the most brilliant young men in his university — he heard Lyman Beecher preach on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Without hesitation he submitted himself to the rule of his Lord. Before he died he left this testimony, " from that time forward he had never seen a thing to be wrong without hav- ing an aversion to it; and he had never seen a thing to be right without having an attraction to it." This is James Russell Lowell's tribute to him: " He stood upon the world's broad threshold ; wide The din of battle and of slaughter rose; He saw God stand upon the weaker side. That sank in seeming loss before its foes; Many there were who made great haste and sold Unto the cunning enemy their swords: He scorned their gifts of fame, and power, and gold. And, underneath their soft and flowery words, Heard the cold serpent hiss ; therefore he went And humbly joined him to the weaker part; Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content So he could be the nearer to God's heart. And feel its solemn pulses sending blood Through all the wide-spread veins of endless good." I I XVIII THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 3. **QuiT YOU LIKE Men!" THESE words, "Quit you like men," are a ringing challenge to Christian manliness. The word which expresses the challenge is only found in this place, and might be translated, "Play the man!" For our phrase of four words, Paul uses but a single word, anSr. The primary meaning of which is simply man as distinct from woman ; its secondary meaning is man as a person of mature years in contrast with a child. For its third and supreme meaning, the word broadened and blos- somed into the larger conception of man, as a being possessed of intelligence, wisdom, moral light and force; possessed moreover, of a spiritual nature, in contrast with creatures of an inferior order who are devoid of these endowments. Long before Paul's day the word had been used, somewhat as he uses it, to spur and inspire men to great, worthy and difficult deeds. In Homer and Herodotus, for instance, the word comes up again and again, when some great chieftain at a moment of danger, and in the presence of some tremendous task, turns to his followers and exhorts them to ' ' play the man ! ' ' Paul charged the word, as he often does, with a far richer meaning, because his conception of the 189 190 TAPS spiritual range and possibilities of man's nature was far grander than theirs. The basis of his appeal is, however, the same as theirs. The primary use of the word is a protest against effeminacy. If in any direction a man is expected to have more courage and strength than a woman, let him acquit himself like a man. The secondary use of the word is a protest against childishness. If a grown man is expected to have more intelligence, wisdom, force, self-control or forti- tude than a child ; if, since becoming a man, he claims to have put away childish things, then let him ' * play the man." But the word is charged, as we have seen, with a greater meaning. Its supreme and consummate signification is that men are to act as creatures hav- ing reason, conscience, power of choice and the meas- ureless possibilities of an immortal life ; and not like creatures of mere instinct, impulse and irresponsi- bility. Here the protest is against animalism or brutishness, which may be defined as existence un- regulated by intelligent and conscientious self- direction. Paul 's conception of playing the man, is to acquit ourselves like beings who act above effeminacy, above childishness and above brutishness ; to be under the control of Another, thus finding our true en- franchisement, and not to be the sport of whims and fancies; of frivolities and foolishness; of accidents and impulses ; of emotions and passions. A hundred years ago a young man from Peter- borough, England, entered Christ College at Cam- bridge. His head was clear and his ability was un- doubted, but he fell into bad company, and his precious time and University privileges were passing away in idleness. He had spent his evening in THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 3 191 frivolous company, eating, drinking and making merry. At five the next morning he was awakened by one of his better companions, who was standing at his bedside. "Paley," he said, ''what a fool you are to waste your time in this way! I could do nothing if I were to try, for I lack the ability. You could do anything. I have had no sleep with thinking about you. Now I have come to tell you that unless you renounce this frivolous, idle, prodigal life, I shall renounce your society." This plainspoken admonition, coming from an un- expected quarter, was not lost. That very day the startled sluggard and prodigal came to himself. He formed a new plan of life. He put himself by a de- liberate act of will under the Saviourship and Sov- ereignty of Jesus Christ. He rose every morning at five ; he worked till nine at night. He kept his reso- lutions. His industry was unconquerable ; his prog- ress was unrivalled. "When the examinations were held, at the top of the list, in the highest place of honour known as Senior Wrangler, stood the name of William Paley, whose great book on Christian Evidences is known to all students of Theology; as a work that has rendered the cause of Truth service which is simply invaluable. 1. Manliness is Chivalry Away back in the Middle Ages was a beautiful and radiant thing named Chivalry — partly real and partly ideal. The ideal part is just as precious to us as the real. One great purpose lay at the founda- tion of Chivalry. It was the cultivation of the finest and most stately type of manhood, that ever trod up and down the world. 192 TAPS The dream of chivalry was embodied by King 'Ar- thur and the knights who sat with him at the Round Table. Let King Arthur himself tell us what chivalry meant: " I was first of all the kings who drew The knighthood-errant of this realm and all The realms together under me, their Head, In that fair Order of my Table Round, A glorious company, the flower of men, To serve as model for the mighty world, And be the fair beginning of a time. I made them lay their hands in mine and swear To reverence the King, as if he were Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it. To honour his own word as if his God's, To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, To love one maiden only, cleave to her. And worship her by years of noble deeds. Until they won her; for indeed I knew Of no more subtle master under heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid. Not only to keep down the base in man, But teach high thought, and amiable words And courtliness, and the desire of fame, And love of truth, and all that makes a man." Thus the oath of the Arthurian knighthood and manhood consisted of a loyalty, to Christ, to King, and to conscience. They were to be truthful in an age of falsehood ; courteous in an age of coarseness ; chaste in an age of unehastity ; temperate in an age of intemperance. Long before chivalry was talked about, those very truths lived in Paul's soul and were incarnated in Paul 's life ; and they live to-day in the life of every man who like the Apostle is indwelt by Jesus Christ. It matters not whether he wields the pen or the plough-handle; the sword or the sledge-hammer; it THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 3 193 matters not whether he point the rifle in defence of Freedom or steer the roadster in pursuit of pleasure ; whether he sits at a round table or a square one ; it is as true for him as it was for Sir Galahad, Sir Lance- lot, Sir Tristam or King Arthur, that unchastity is dishonour to manliness; that it is a fatal detraction from it; that it is absolutely incompatible with it. A vicious, profane, intemperate, man — no matter how bulky his pocketbook — has no more claim to be called a manly man — that is a gentleman — than a vicious, immodest woman can claim to be a womanly woman — that is a lady. 2. Manliness is Courage We must remember that military courage is only one type of courage. It is a type the world greatly needs just now, and it is deserving of our admira- tion, but it is not the highest type. It is not by any means peculiar to the age in which we are living. It existed in the days of Greece and Rome, nor have we advanced an inch in military courage beyond the standards of the Old World. Physical courage leaped full-statured into the arena of battle in the morning of the world, and it will never be possible to go beyond the heroism reached by the soldiers of Greece and Rome, or by the savages who laughed at death and faced it without quailing for a single moment. Their physical courage can never be surpassed. No man but a fool or a brute, loves war for its own sake. It is not for love of war that tens of thousands of men have responded to the call of their country. They are inspired by a sense of patriotism and duty, and when that spirit dies out of a land she is as surely doomed as Rome was in the days of her decadence. 194 TAPS The soldiers of the National Army are in some spe- cial sense, as the President says "the Soldiers of Freedom," Never before has there been a war where the right to move about freely; to do one's lawful business without interruption ; to protect our loved ones, our wives and children from the barbarity of lust and murder, has been so definitely presented to the Amer- ican people as it is to-day. " You must fight for the fire that toasts your feet, for the roof that shelters your head, For the herd that yields you its milk or meat, for the field that gives you bread; You must fight for bed, you must fight for board, for the woman you love the best. And, oh, you must fight with a tenfold will for the baby at her breast. " When a mad dog comes down your village street, with the green foam in his jaws, Do you greet him with Bibles and hymn-books, and lov- ingly bid him pause? When a rattlesnake rises amidst your path, alert with its fiery sting, Do you pet him, and pat him, and wish him well, and a song of welcome sing? " When a big-armed bully among the Powers says the folk of a little land Must sprawl in the dirt and confess to a crime that never besmirched their hand, Do you blame that people that rises up a pigmy ready to fight, A David aroused, with only a sling, defying Goliath's might ? " When a vain War-Lord with a swollen head, inflamed with a brute desire, Through a little State that was lapped in peace comes tramping with blood and fire Despoiling the fields and looting the towns — do you blame that blameless State For rousing in Godlike righteous wrath and hitting with righteous hate? THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 3 1^^ "And war is the great Arouser; it silences whimpering tongues ; It toughens the muscles, it hardens the fist, and brings fresh air to the lungs; The' it comes with torch and it strikes with steel, and shortens life's petty span, Man's life it exalts to heroic heights, so a man is twice a man." The highest type of courage is that to which the Son of God is always calling us. He calls men to war. Some one has said : " He would have no hope of getting the young men of the world if He could not promise them war, because young men have in them the fighting instincts, and it is their sphere and calling to batter down the citadels of the enemy. ' ' He came not to send peace but a sword, but lest any one should think He meant a sword of steel He corrected Peter the first moment he drew his sword of steel. "Put up that sword!" said Jesus when Peter had cut off a man's ear. "Put up that sword ; I was calling you to a higher courage. ' ' Peter found out a few hours later how different moral courage was from military courage, for he went down in the presence of a taunting servant girl. It is this moral courage we need to play the man. 3. Manliness is Robustness If those who think the religion of Jesus Christ is necessarily expressed in sanctimonious looks and phrases they are making the greatest mistake imagi- nable. Because of the lack of sanity and robustness in many a life, the religion of Jesus is regarded as something having principally to do with women, and especially old women. A famous Baptist preacher in Liverpool, once said of a certain individual, whose religion was repellant rather than attractive: "It 196 TAPS might be true that he had put off the old man, but he had certainly put on the old woman." Many popular authors — even Charles Dickens is not free from this criticism — represent ministers of the Gospel as the very opposite of robust manly men. They are often represented as sleek, oily, sneaky, sanctimonious and hypocritical ; anything and every- thing but specimens of a robust, attractive. Christian manhood. Others again have grown accustomed to think of religion — and by religion I of course mean Chris- tianity — as something associated with sickness and death-beds. To them religion is an experience that narrows and restricts; a kill-joy, a skeleton at the feast of life ; a kind of incarnate ' ' Don 't ! " That is a miserable travesty of religion; a repelling and ghastly caricature. The religion I urge upon your acceptance does not mean pushing in the stops and shutting off all the music of life ; but a drawing out of every stop; that all the music of life may swell forth in rich and full-voiced harmony. In a word, to be Christ's man, and so to be able in the highest sense to play the man. THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 4. "Be Strong!" Surrounded by a host of foes; Stormed by a host of foes within ; Nor swift to flee, nor strong to oppose, Single, against hell, earth and sin; Single, yet undismayed I am, / dare believe in Jesu's Name. What though a thousand hosts engage, A thousand worlds my soul to shake; I have a shield shall quell their rage, And drive the alien armies back; Portrayed it bears a bleeding Lamb, I dare believe in Jesu's Name. Me to retrieve from Satan's hands. Me from the evil world to free; To purge my sins and loose my bands. And save from all iniquity; My Lord and God, from heaven He came, / dare believe in Jesu's Name. Salvation in that Name there is. Salvation from sin, death, and hell; Salvation into glorious bliss. How great salvation who can tell? But all He hath for mine I claim, / dare believe in Jesu's Name. — ^Charles Wesley. XIX THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK No. 4. "Be Strong!" WHEN the Captain calls to His soldiers, in the hottest moments of the fight to "Be Strong!" what does He mean? Every command of His is conveyed to me in the form of a promise, and there must be somewhere within my reach such strength as will not only carry me vic- toriously through the fight, but as will enable me to be more than conqueror. What kind of strength is it? It is not physical strength. There is no more re- markable illustration of the folly of relying on human strength than is found in Hebrew history. A conflict with Assyria was impending, and the in- fatuated Jews sought an alliance with Egypt, not- withstanding the previous failures of Egypt to give them effective assistance. The Assyrian cavalry was very numerous and very efficient. The Jews had no cavalry worth speaking of. They were forbidden to multiply horses lest they should depend on them rather than on God. They turned in their infatua- tion to the Egyptian horses and war-chariots, for that country was possessed of a chariot-force of great strength. Now listen to Isaiah: "Woe unto them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses; and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in 199 200 TAPS horsemen because they are very strong ; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, and Jehovah they do not seek." . . . ''Now the Egyptians are men and not God; and their horses flesh and not spirit: and when the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is helped shall fall and they shall all perish together" (Isa. 31:1-3). The eyes of the Judean statesmen were fastened upon brute force. Egyptian cavalry was to them the very nerve and sinew of war, and Egypt, who pos- sessed them, a coveted ally. *'0n horses will we fly ... on the swift will we ride, ' ' was the word of these clever diplomats, who were seeking at this time to accomplish the alliance at the very court of Pharaoh. Isaiah says, "Now the Egyptians are men and not God; and their horses flesh and not spirit." In other words there is no help for you either in the men or in the horses. You are simply putting the physical against the physical, brute force against brute force ; Egyptian cavalry against Assyrian cav- alry, and it will all come to nothing. *'The arm of flesh will fail you." What is the Divine programme? "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and con- fidence shall be your strength" (ch. 30: 15). It was not alliance they needed but reliance. Not a panicky rush to Egypt for help, but a returning to God in penitence for their national sins. An abandonment of the disgusting and distracting search for human aids, and a quiet confidence in God, as the outcome of an adjusted relationship to Him. In that direc- tion alone is real strength, says Isaiah. This disposition to lean on the arm of flesh instead of trusting in the interposition of God is not Jew- TEE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 4 201 ish but human ; instead of being peculiar to any one age or dispensation, it is an abiding spiritual peril. Are there any signs of it in our midst to-day? We are justly proud of our splendid navy, but were our warships ten times as numerous that would not make us strong. "We may congratulate ourselves that hundreds of thousands of young men from every walk of life, with the fire of patriotism burning in their breast, have responded to their country's call; but were that number multiplied a hundred- fold that would not make us strong. A nation's greatness does not consist in its size, nor in the multitude of its people, nor in the vast- ness of its wealth. It is easy to be blinded and in- toxicated with an admiration of greatness of this kind, like races that hold not God in awe. Unless we persistently set our faces against that delusion we are as surely doomed as Babylon or Rome. No nation that imagined it could exist and flourish in the strength of its men, armaments and material re- sources has ever lasted in the history of the world, or ever can. That is written for our warning in letters of fire. Think of a nation involved, through no choice of its own, in a cataclysm that has no parallel in the history of the world; that has already plunged millions of homes into the deepest mourning ; that has robbed the earth of hundreds of thousands of her choicest sons ; assembling in a great city forty thousand strong, on the Sahbath day to witness one of the World's Series of ball games! When the manhood of a country has largely for- gotten God; does not worship Him in spirit and in truth ; is possessed of an insensate love of pleasure ; and imagines the summum honum to be the acquisi- tion of wealth ; the marks of degeneracy are alreadj 202 TAPS upon her. It is a spiritual, a moral degeneracy ; and such a degeneracy inevitably spells weakness. " Is it degenerate to fall from wealth, To live in straiter shores, on scantier fare. To put on homespun, and to lodge With bare simplicity, the hardy nurse of health? Nay, these are accidents which never yet Did hurt nobility, but one thing may Brand on our brow the mark ' degenerate,' To lose the vision of the truly great And lapse from effort on the starry way." ' ' You have been clever and successful, ' ' says Isaiah to the Hebrew diplomats, "but you have forgotten that God also is wise," that He too has His policy, and, as Dr. Adam Smith puts it, "works in history with as much cleverness and persistence as you do. ' ' After Moscow, Napoleon is reported to have ex- claimed, "The Almighty is too strong for me." God's snowflakes were stronger than Napoleon's battalions. What then is it to be strong ? Paul tells us in other places. It is to be "strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." This constantly recurring formula, "m the Lord/' indicates the relation to Christ in which alone the true strength can be ex- perienced. It is the strength of His might that you need; and His strength, by faith, becomes yours. Professor Drummond once put it like this: "The problem of the Christian life is to preserve the right attitude. To abide in Christ is to be in position, that is all. God creates, man utilizes. All the work of the world is merely taking advantage of energies already there. God gives the wind, the water and the heat. Man puts himself in the way of the wind; he fixes his water-wheel in the way of the river; he puts his piston in the way of the steam ; and so holding him- THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 4 203 self in position before God's Spirit, all the energies of Omnipotence course within his soul. ' ' Just as the steam engine genders the dynamic force which bolts and wheels communicate to the inert mass of machinery of the factory, so Christ is alone the source of spiritual strength which, through faith, is communicated to His people. I have seen what are called ** petrifying wells," into which people put pieces of wood and other things. The wood is not turned into stone but the 'well infiltrates into the wood mineral particles, which makes the wood as strong as stone. So my manhood, with all its impotence, may have filtered into it Divine strength which will brace me for all needful duty, enable me to stand my ground in the day of battle, and having fought to the end, to remain a victor on the field. Paul says we are "strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." The inner man! What do those words mean ? Remember you have a dual nature. I will suppose that you have often tried to change the outward man, your conduct; your appearance in the eyes of other people ; to rid your- self of some habit that has been growing with your growth and strengthening with your strength. But you have failed, because you have not gone deep enough. The inner man is what Peter calls "the hidden man of the heart." It is the soul, the unseen self as distinguished from the outward man, which the inner man animates and informs. It includes the thinking, the feeling, the resolving faculties. That inner man needs a life and a strength which is not human but Divine. It needs a strength that is not ethereal but real. It needs a might that will be diffused through our whole being and that will be available for our whole life. 204 TAPS It is in this inner self which the Spirit of God regenerates and in which He dwells. As one has said: "The point to mark is that the whole inward region which makes up the true man is the field upon which this Divine Spirit is to work. It is not a bit of your inward life that is to be hallowed. It is not any one aspect of it that is to be strengthened ; but it is the whole intellect, affections, desires, tastes, powers of attention, conscience, imagination, mem- ory, will. The whole inner man in all its corners is to be filled, and to come under the influence of this power, 'until there is no part dark, as when the bright shining of a candle giveth thee light. ' Let the Divine Spirit come, with the master key in His hand, into all the dim chambers of your feeble nature. ' ' He will come into your understanding, and strengthen your mentality, making you equal to loftier tasks of reason and intellect than you could face in your unaided powers ; He will dwell in your affections causing them to love holy things. He will reinforce your feeble, vacillating will, enabling it to lay hold upon the good, and repel the evil; He will pour a great tide of strength into your whole being, spirit, soul and body; which shall cover all your weakness, whether it be physical, mental or spiritual. Many times I have stood upon the seashore when the tide has been out. I have walked into the caves ; I have examined the inlets and indentations in the rocky shore; I have peered into the little bays and basins, hollowed in the rock by the pounding of the boulders, but now empty and dry, excepting for the remains of some stranded shellfish and withered sea- weed. I have waited until the tide has rolled majestically in ; filling every inlet and indentation ; pouring over THE SOLDIER'S DRILL BOOK NO. 4 205 and overflowing every bay and basin, I have had to climb out of the way, for the white-crested waves were flooding the caves and penetrating the clefts of the rock. The whole shore was completely sub- merged by the ever-rising sea of waters. That is a picture of what the Spirit of God will do in your nature if you will only allow Him. He will fill every void. He will flood every part of your inner man — your understanding, your emotions and your will with tides of Divine energy. He will turn your inability into ability, your incapacity into ca- pacity, your feebleness into strength, and He will do it now, if you will only ask Him, for this is His loved work. Your safety lies in your conscious helplessness, for His strength is made perfect in your weakness. All your self-conceit and self-confidence have to be taken out of you, for it is only when you are weak in yourself that you can become strong in Him. When you know yourself to be weak you have taken the first step towards strength ; and you continue strong by that humble and unceasing dependence, which we call faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. " Of your boasted wisdom spoiled, Docile, helpless as a child; Only seeing in His light, Only walking in His might." THE WHITE COMRADE Yes, I have seen the vision. That dark night When all the world seemed vanishing in flame, Wounded, I lay upon the ground — my sight Striving to pierce the blackness: then, He came. The One who walks the field of Death and Night — Who bends down to the dying; His eyes meet The closing eyes; His touch, His arm is might — Nor Death, nor darkness, check those coming feet. I hear the rifle shots, the bullets groan Fast through the air. On Him they have no power, He speaks — His arms outstretched, " If thou hadst known Thy peace . . . 'tis hidden from thine eyes, this hour." And He was close beside me — Comrade, Friend — Gently His hand had touched my throbbing breast; All pain was gone, all terror at an end. Soon, gathered in Hia arms, I lay at rest. He carried me where ran a mountain stream. He washed my wounds, bound them with tender care. 1 strove to speak my thanks — so poor they seem! But He spoke not; His hands were clasped in prayer. The while He prayed, a drop of crimson blood Fell slowly from His hands. I cried in pain: " Whence are these wounds that pierce Thy hands, my Friend ? " " An old wound, yes," He said, " but keen again." And then I saw the blessed sign — He bore Upon His feet, the cruel crimson, too. I had not known — / had not known before, But when I saw His wounded feet — I knew. Friend of the dying! Is it not like Thee To stand beside us, in our deadliest woe? Ah, when our eyes Thy radiant presence see Our hearts cry out, " We will not let Thee go ! " — Mabtha Elvira Pettus, In Watchman-Examiner. XX THE WHITE COMRADE ON February 26, 1916, The Literary Digest printed this paragraph : "At Nancy, at Soissons, in the Argonne, and at Ypres men talk with hushed voices of *Le Camarade Blanc' (The White Comrade). After many a hot engagement, a man in white has been seen bending over those who lie on the field. Shells fall around him. Nothing has power to touch him. Many of the men from the Eighty-Seventh and One- Hundred-and-Twenty-Sixth Infantry have seen him. "On several occasions he has walked through their trenches. He has been chiefly observed after severe fighting — bending over the dying, and enabling them to pass away in peace." The French soldiers have a wide-spread belief in "The Comrade in White." Here is the story of this mysterious one from the lips of a French soldier, taken from a magazine called Life and Work : "At noon we got word that we were to take the trenches in front of us. We found when we were well started that the big guns had failed in their work of preparation. Our captain called to us to take care, and just then I was shot through both legs. "I fell into a hole of some sort. I suppose I fainted, for when I opened my eyes I was all alone. The pain was horrible, but I dare not move lest the 800 210 TAPS Germans should see me, for they were only fifty yards away, and I did not expect mercy. I was glad when the twilight came. There were men in my own company who would have run any risk in the darkness if they thought a comrade was still alive. "The night fell and soon I heard a step, not stealthy as I expected, but quick and firm, as if neither darkness nor death could check those un- troubled feet. So little did I guess what was coming, that even when I saw the gleam of white in the darkness, I thought it was a peasant in a white smock, or perhaps a deranged woman. Suddenly I guessed that it was ' The Comrade in White. ' '*At that very moment the German rifles began to shoot. The bullets could scarcely miss such a target, for He flung out His arms as though in entreaty, and then drew them back, till He stood like one of those wayside crosses that we so often saw as we marched through France. "And He spoke. The words sounded familiar, but all I remember was the beginning, 'If thou hadst known,' and the ending, 'but now they are hid from thine eyes.' Then He stooped and gathered me in His arms — me, the biggest man in the regiment — and carried me as if I had been a child. "I must have fainted again, for I awoke to con- sciousness in a little cave by a stream, and The Com- rade in White was washing my wounds and binding them up. I wanted to know what I could do for my Friend to help Him or to serve Him. "He was looking towards the stream, and His hands were clasped in prayer; and then I saw that He too had been wounded. I could see, as it were, a shot-wound in His hand, and as He prayed a drop of blood gathered and fell to the ground. "I cried out; I could not help it, for that wound THE WHITE COMRADE 211 of His seemed to be a more awful thing than any that bitter war had shown me. 'You are wounded too,' I said. "Perhaps he heard me, perhaps it was the look on His face, but He answered gently: 'This is an old wound; but it has troubled me of late.' And then I noticed sorrowfully that the same cruel mark was on His feet. You will wonder that I did not know sooner. I wonder myself. But it was only when I saw His feet that I knew Him." A doctor, writing from Nice, says: "I have heard of The Comrade in White for some time past, through the wounded soldiers in the hospitals at Nice. Many of them— men from the Eighty-Seventh, and the One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Eighth Infantry who have been fighting in the Argonne— have seen Him, and on several occasions He has walked through their trenches. He has often been shot at by the enemy, but apparently He takes no heed to this." To some people these appearances will appear in- credible. What will they say to this incident which was related to me when I was in Bowling Green, Ky., some years ago, and which has since been printed in the Weekhj Reminder of the White Tem- ple Baptist Church of that city on the occasion of the funeral of the man concerned, Captain Pierce by name, by Dr. Leonard W. Doolan, who was at that time the pastor of the church, and who narrated this experience at the funeral service? "On one occasion, in the vigorous manhood days of Captain Pierce, something went wrong at the mine, and it was necessary for him to take in hand some exceedingly difficult task. When it was done, and the matters were safely through, he was found to be so entirely overcome by the overwork and 212 TAPS exposure that he was thrown into a gravely serious congestive chill. "As quickly as could be, he was hurried to the house of a near relative for treatment to save his life. In that sparsely settled country no doctor could be had for hours, and least of all on the dark stormy night which was then coming on. "According to the then approved method for re- lieving such attacks as that from which he was suffering, they packed him about with ice, seeking to reduce somewhat the high fever which was known to be so exceedingly dangerous. "He himself felt sure that the end was at hand, a fact which he grievously deplored, as his affairs just then were not in a suitable condition to be left for other hands to care for. Earnestly he and his loved ones prayed that some relief might come some way; and above all did they pray that the Great Physician might come. "Shortly after their season of prayer, what was the good housewife's surprise to hear a knock at the door. When it was opened, there stood before her an exceptionally dignified gentleman, well-dressed, despite the furious storm through which he must have come. "He explained that in the darkness and driving rain-storm he had turned aside from his way, and wished to stay for the night, if it should be pleasing, in the home. She told him that, with such sickness then in the home, it was not convenient to them; but that she could not turn him away into a raging storm and that he might stay if he would. "He replied: 'Yes, I know you have a sick man here, and that is one reason I came, and as I am a doctor of some experience, I'll help you to cure him. Let me see him now, if you please.' THE WHITE COMRADE 213 "On entering the sick room, all saw instantly that the newcomer knew whereof he spoke about such an attack. Stranger still, he asked for a tub of hot water (instead of the ice they had used) and then ordered them all to withdraw while he treated the patient. ' ' Captain Pierce said that though he then weighed some two hundred and twenty-five pounds, the guest handled him alone as if he were but a babe. After a thorough hot bath, the stranger, single-handed, wrapped Captain Pierce in a blanket and replaced him on his bed with the words: 'You will sleep well now, and be well by morning.' "He was then shown to his guest-chamber, and as usual, in that lonely mining-place, the doors were securely locked. As all went well with sick and strong alike, they all slept till sunrise, when the hostess sent the coloured boy to the stranger's room to take and black his shoes, — as was the custom. "The boy soon reported that there was no one there, and on investigation it was found that the bed had not been used, and — strangest of all — the stranger had departed in the night, leaving all doors barred on the inside. None ever knew who he was, or why or whence he came in such a time and way, but they all always believed that it was a visit of the Great Physician who had heard and answered prayer." Those who have read the Scriptures carefully must have noticed that again and again we have the record of preliminary manifestations of Him whose delights have ever been with the sons of men, and Who in the fulness of time "became flesh and dwelt among us." The Son of God frequently anticipated His In- carnation, and, as Dr. F. B. Meyer says: "He loved 214 TAPS to come incognito into the homes of those He cher- ished as His friends, even before He came across the slopes of Olivet to make His home in the favoured cottage of Bethany, vs^here His spirit rested from the din of the great city, and girded itself for the Cross and the tomb." "May it not be," asks Dr. Meyer, "that Christ comes to us often in the guise of a stranger? If He were to come in His manifested splendour as the Son of the Highest, every one would be ready to receive Him, and provide Him with sumptuous hos- pitality. But this would not reveal our true char- acter. And so He comes to us as a wayfaring man, hungry and athirst; or as a stranger, naked and sick. Those that are akin to Him will show Him kindness and mercy in whatsoever disguise He comes, though they recognize Him not, and will some day be surprised to learn that they ever ministered to Him." To a soldier, the most interesting of these pre- liminary manifestations of the Lord Jesus is the one recorded in the fifth chapter of Joshua. The leader of the Hebrew host had an army that had probably never before seen a fortified city like Jericho, the taking of which, as the key-city to Canaan, was absolutely essential to progress. The Jordan which they had miraculously crossed was behind them and there was no possible way of re- treat. It is night, and Joshua is alone under the walls of Jericho, wondering how best to proceed with its capture. Suddenly "a man with a drawn sword in his hand" appears. He is instantly challenged by Joshua: "Whose side are you on? Are you one of us, or from the camp of the enemy?" The answer of the mysterious warrior is: "I am neither on the THE WHITE COMRADE 215 one side nor the other. I am not on your side, you are on Mine, for as Captain of the Lord's host am I come up." Then Joshua falls on his face, recognizes his Com- mander-in-Chief, and in deep reverence, humble sub- mission, and prompt obedience, takes his place as a subordinate, and asks for orders: "What saith my Lord unto His servant?" It is encouraging to note that the Divine Presence always takes the form which our circumstances most require. David's fortunes were never lower than when he so hastily fled to the cave of Adullam. What is his defence, now that he is hunted by his enemies and needs protection so sorely? Not the clefts of the rocks by which he was surrounded, but the Angel of the Lord, and so he says: ^'The Angel of the Lord (not an angel) encarapeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them." Joshua's greatest need, at the moment we have referred to, was an invincible Commander, and a^ such the Lord appears to him. His loving-kindness will shape its expression according to the needs of His followers. In temptation He will make for you the way of escape ; in conflict He will cover your head, and strengthen your arm; in perplexity He will go before you, and say: "This is the way, walk ye in it." Is it to be marvelled at, that, as The White Comrade, He should appear to comfort and succour His faithful soldiers when they lie stricken and wounded unto death on the field of battle ? It is a notorious fact that not many years ago the French Republic deliberately "chased away" Jesus Christ. The names of God and of His Son Jesus Christ were expunged from all the school books. But "the scourge of the sword" has taught France many lessons. Though she deliberately told 216 TAPS Him, as the Gadarenes did, to depart from her coasts, He has come back again, as Katharine Tynan says in her poem, *'The Fields of France": " Jesus Christ they chased away Comes again another day. Could they do with Him then His poor, lost, unhappy men? He returns and is revealed, In the trenches and the field. " Where the dead lie thick He goes. Where the brown earth's red as a rose, He who walked the waters wide Treads the wine-press, purple-dyed; Stoops and cheers the piteous slain Tells them they shall rise again. " To His breast and in His cloak Bears the youngest of the flock : Calls His lost sheep to come home. And His sheep rise up and come. Jesus Christ they chased away Has come back another day." I verily believe, with Dr. Alexander Maclaren, that "at the head of all the armies that are charging against any form of the world's misery and sin,, there moves the form of the Son of Man, whose aid we have to invoke, even from His crowned repose at the right hand of God. 'Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, Most Mighty, and in Thy majesty ride forth prosperously, and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things.' " OUR INVISIBLE ALLIES Michael "Michael, Michael, Captain of all the Host, What news of the battle, and what news of the slain? Stands fast the enemy still at every post — See we not yet the ending, for they who still remain? "Low, the warfare rageth, more terrible than before; The Earth is foul with corpses, the Air is thick with cries; The spirits pass unceasing through Death's great door, And women's sobs mount endlessly into the quiet skies." " I am the Leader of all the Hosts of Heaven ; Against the I^ord of Evil I wage my deathless fight; To me the Overthrowing from the first was given; God saw the victory when still was ageless night. " There are those who join me. Of these, too, I am Lord ; They leave your human quarrels and come within our lines, And together gleaming we battle for the Lord; They are fighting in your midst — but ye know not the signs. " They fight in all the Armies — each nation gives them birth ; Ye give their names no honour — for your eyes are blind. Ye would drive them — if ye could — to the ends of all the earth ; And they fight for God among you — ye men of humankind." "Michael, Michael, will the end not come in sight? When shall we kneel in rapture before the Prince of Peace? " " When ye have joined our forces, and fight as these men fight Shall the Victory be given, and your warfare cease." — Annabel Jackson, London Westminster Gazette. XXI OUR INVISIBLE ALLIES IN the first battle of Ypres, which was fought in October and November, 1914, a thin line of British, supported on each wing by small bodies of French, stopped the push of an immense German army on Calais. From a very competent witness this story was received. On three different occasions the Germans broke through the British line, then paused and retired, for no apparent reason. On each of these occasions, prisoners when asked the cause of their retirement, replied: "We saw your enormous Reserves!" But the British had no Reserves. This story was incidentally confirmed by the re- mark of another officer in the curious conduct of the Germans in violently shelling certain empty fields behind the British lines. They thought these fields held the Reserves which they declared they saw. " The long battle thundered till a waxing moon might wane, Thrice they held the exhausted line that hold them on the plain. And thrice like billows they went back, from viewless bounds retiring. Why paused they and went backward, With never a foe before Like a long wave dragging Down a level shore, Its fierce reluctant surges, that came triumphant storming The land, and poivers invisible drove to its deep returning? On the grey fields of Flanders again and yet again The Huns beheld the Great Reserves on the old battle-plain, The blood-red fields of Flanders where all the skies were mourning." * * Margaret L. Woods. 219 220 TAPS Why should it be thought incredible that in such a conflict as this, a conflict of Right against Might, of Democracy against Autocracy, of Freedom against Enslavement, that the hosts of God should inter- pose? As Bishop Phillips Brooks says in one of his remarkable sermons: "The sky is full of unseen forces. They are about us all the time. As some of them are the friends, so others of them are the enemies, of our souls, and our best life. How wide that faith had been among mankind! IIow deeply it is imprinted upon the pages of the Bible! How it has been allowed to melt and fade away out of the belief of hosts of people, even of those who read the Bible! "And the reason, it seems to me, why the belief in a world of unseen forces Avith which we have to do, and which has to do with us, — the reason why the belief in good and evil spirits has so faded away out of men's thoughts, is not any essential unreasonableness in the belief itself. Nor is it merely the tyranny of the visible world over men's senses, and through them over men's minds. It is that very often the believers in a universe of unseen spirits have made this unseen world a field for witchcraft and magic, and the play of influences, which the common moral sense of mankind has not heen ahle to understand." Many years ago I heard from a Moravian mis- sionary the following story: It was in Sumatra among the wild Battas that this took place. Two American missionaries had been killed and eaten, and for twenty years no further effort was made to reach the Battas. Then a brave missionary named Von Asselt, with his equally heroic wife, de- termined to go among these cannibals with the story of redeeming love. They knew full well, before they OVB INVISIBLE ALLIES 221 went, the perils of their position, but they had great faith in the invisible spiritual helpers. "The jSrst two years," said Von Asselt, "were of such a character that I shudder even now as I think about them. Frequently it seemed as if we were encompassed not only by hostile men but by hostile powers of darkness. Their presence was so real, that we often had to get up in the night to pray and to find comfort and strength in the Word of God. "One day a man came to me and said : 'Now tuan (teacher) I have one request.' 'What is that?' I asked. 'I would like to have a look at your watch- men close at hand.' 'Wliat watchmen do you mean?' I asked in astonishment, 'I have no watch- men!' 'I mean,' said my visitor, 'the watchmen you station around your house at night to protect you.' 'But I have no watchmen,' I repeated. 'I have only a little herdsboy and a little cook, and they would make but poor watchmen.' "Then the man looked incredulous, as if to say: *Do not try to make me believe otherwise, for I know better.' Then he asked: 'May I look through your house, to see if they are hidden there ? ' ' Cer- tainly,' I replied, laughing, 'look through it, but you will not find anybody.' So he went in and searched every corner, going even through the beds, and at last he came out very much disappointed. "Then it became my turn to do some questioning. 'Tell me,' I said, 'about those watchmen of whom you speak?' 'When you first came among us,' said the man, 'we were very angry with you. We did not want you to live among us. So we came to- gether and resolved to kill you and your wife. Ac- cordingly we went to your house night after night ; but when we came near, there always stood, close around the house, shoulder to shoulder, a double 222 TAPS row of watchmen armed with glistening weapons, and we dare not venture to attack them to get into the house. " 'We were, however, unwilling to abandon our plan, so we went to a professional assassin belong- ing to the guild of assassins who were ready to kill for hire any one whom it was thought desirable to get out of the way. We asked him if he would un- dertake to kill you and your wife, telling him at the same time who you were, and of the watchmen we had seen protecting your house. " 'He laughed at us and at our fears, and said : "I fear no God and no devil, and I will get through those watchmen easily." So we all came together in the evening, and the assassin, swinging his weapon about his head, went courageously on before us. As we neared your house, terrified at what we had previously seen, we remained in the background, and let him go on alone. In a short time he came run- ning hastily back, and said: "No, I dare not risk to go through alone. Two rows of big, strong men are there, very close together, and their weapons shine like fire." " 'So we at last gave up the thought of killing you ; but tell me, tuan, who are those watchmen? Have you never seen them?' 'No,' I replied, 'I have never seen them.' 'And your wife, did she never see them?' asked he. 'No,' I replied, 'my wife never saw them.' 'But we have all seen them, how is thatf he eagerly exclaimed. "Then I went into the house and brought out a Bible, and said: 'This Book is the Word of our great God and in it He promises, "The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them"; "He shall give his an- gels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways." OUR INVISIBLE ALLIES 223 That,' I replied, 'we firmly believe, therefore we needed not to see the watchmen; but you do not believe, therefore our God had to show you the watchmen that you might learn to believe.' " No one can read the Bible carefully without no- ticing that from end to end it assumes the present existence of a world of spiritual beings always close to us. They are present in that Book, from Genesis to Revelations. They take their part as truly in the drama of history as the men and women who walk the sacred stage. "There is nothing of hesita- tion about the Bible's treatment of this spiritual world. There is no reserve, no vagueness which would leave a chance for the whole system to be explained away into dreams and metaphors. The spiritual world with all its multitudinous existence is just as real as the crowded cities, and the fragrant fields, and the loud battle-grounds of the visible and palpable Judea in which the writers of the sacred books were living. You take away the unseen world with all its unseen actors from the story, and you have not merely made the Bible like other books, you have set it below other books, for you have taken the colour out of all its life, the motive out of all its action." * Perhaps the most striking example, from the Word of God, of this great and comforting revela- tion is found in the history of Elisha. The story is this: The King of Syria, who badly wanted the kingdom of Israel, sent out soldiers in all sorts of secret ways to make attacks upon his Jewish neighbours. But a strange thing happened. Go about them as cunningly as he would, somehow or other his plans were always known by the King * Bishop Phillips Brooks. 224 TAPS of Israel. He seemed to possess a remarkable In- telligence Department, for whether the Syrians lay- in ambush, or marched quietly by night, the He- brews were always forewarned, and so they either escaped, or were fully prepared for the attack of their enemies. How did this happen? The King of Syria was at a loss to know and was both much aggrieved and greatly perplexed. He called a council of war, and his explanation was that there were traitors among the Syrians, who sent word to the Hebrews of every plan he laid. If only those traitors could be dis- covered, an example would be made of them that would deter any other of his people from such treachery in the future. But his advisers were wiser than their king. They knew more than he did, and they told him he need have no suspicion about his own people; the ex- planation was this : ' ' There is a prophet, ' ' they said, "in Israel, called Elisha, and he can see into things. He is the Intelligence Department of the Hebrews. He is so wise a man that he can tell even the most secret words that the King speaks in his bed- chamber. He is the man who is working all this mischief." **If that is so," said the King of Syria, "then we must catch him. Who can tell me where this troublesome prophet is to be found?" "He is lodg- ing just now," said his war-council, "in the little town of Dothan." Dothan was situated like an eagle's nest on the top of a great hill, overlooking the lovely plain of Esdraelow. The King's plan was soon made. He sent a body of picked troops, chariots, and horses to Dothan, and in the night-time they quietly sur- rounded the place on every side. There can be no OVn INVISIBLE ALLIES 225 doubt now about the capture of this defeater of the Syrian King's plans. In the early morning, when the outlines of street and wall and hill are still dim, Elisha's servant goes out to look about him. What is this that he sees? He is simply terrified at the sight. "Whichever way he looks there are the brazen chariots, and the war- horses and the Syrian soldiery. They have sur- rounded the city on every side and escape is im- possible. Panic-stricken he runs to Elisha's house, tells him the awful story, and finishes with the question, "Alas, my master! how shall we do?" Elisha has no fear; there is no sign of panic in his face. He calmly answers, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." Then Elisha offered a short and simple prayer of just eight words: "Lord, open his eyes that he may see." And in an instant the young man's eyes were opened, and he saw not only the Syrian soldiers, but a heavenly host, chariots and horses of fire, round about Elisha. Dr. Alexander Maclaren says, "It was the mani- festation, not the presence of the angel guards that was the miracle. It was a momentary unveiling of what always was, and would be after the curtain was drawn again. ' ' Thanks be to God ! These unseen allies, these heavenly legions, al- ways come to our aid in power and number sufficient to conquer. They would have made short work of that Syrian army but for the mercy of God. Need we have any incredulity as to the appearance of the hosts of God in this, the darkest hour of the world's history, when "the conflict of the ages, told by prophets and sages, in its fury is upon us"? Alas, that many have become such Sadducees as to 226 TAPS question not only the intervention of the angels, but also their very existence. Who has not seen the picture of a little child gath- ering flowers on the edge of a precipice, while one of these invisible allies, with loving hands, holds back the child from what would otherwise be certain death? It is for these guardians of the children that the highest honour is reserved. The Jews call them "the angels of the Face ' ' ; and Jesus said, when speaking of the little ones: "I say unto you that their angels do always behold the face of My Father Who is in heaven. ' ' We give but little thought to those bright forms who are ever sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. If we only knew how often they have interposed for our deliverance from some imminent peril, our reverence for them would be far greater, and our gratitude to them and to their Sovereign far deeper. " Angels our servants are, And keep in all our ways; And in their watchful hands they bear The sacred sons of grace." They fly swifter than the swiftest express. They guard that heavily-laden transport. They protect from that death-dealing submarine; and some day we shall know how much we owe to the faithful minis- try and loving interposition of these invisible allies. THE KEY TO YOUR HEART My mother's religion— oh, joy of the years! In gladness or sadness, in smiles or in tears, I think of the glory revealed from above, Divinely possessing that heart with His love. My mother's religion — how well I recall The charm and the blessing it shed upon all Who dwelt in its circle, so loving and bright — Regaled at the fountain of sweetness and light. My mother's religion — so simple and true; So old and time-honoured, yet evermore new; Her spirit suffused with the glory profound, That shines when the Master's glad mercies abound. My mother's religion — I care not to know If men seek to refute or attempt to o'erthrow That creed apostolic, that faith ever sure. Which gave to her blessing and strength to endure. My mother's religion — oh, may I resign Each folly of earth, that such blessing be mine; And when the last hour Thou shalt count unto me, My mother's religion shall bring me to Thee. — Fbancis a. Simkins. XXII THE KEY TO YOUR HEART THE Message, printed on this page, was spe- cially written by our beloved President for the guidance and encouragement of the Soldiers of the National Army. It is worth read- ing again and again. If the Japanese soldiers hold in sacred regard the Emperor's Rescript, called the Japanese Soldier's Bible, religiously mastering its entire content, and bringing their conduct into con- formity with the precepts, much more determined should the American Soldiers be to master the content of the World of Life, to regulate their life by its teaching, and so find in it those three keys of which the President speaks at the close of his message: '' the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty. Of no other writings could it be said, as Solomon said of these: "Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee ; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp ; and the law is light ; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life" (Prov. 6:21-23). Every copy of the Bible distributed by the Brit- ish Naval and Military Mission carries this message by the late Lord Roberts: "I ask you to put your trust in God. He will watch over you and strengthen you. You will find in this little Book guidance when 22Q 230 TAPS TuE President on the Bible "The Bible is the Word of Life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves — read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it. " You will not only find it full of real men and women, but also of things you have wondered about and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always, and the more you read the more it will become plain to you what things are worth while and what are not; what things make men happy — loyalty, right deal- ings, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the real approval of the Christ, who gave everything for them; and the things that are guaranteed to make men unhappy — selfishness, cowardice, greed, and every- thing that is low and mean. " When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the 'Word of God, be- cause you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty." WooDEOw Wilson. you are in health, com- fort when you are in sickness, and strength when you are in adver- sity.'" 1. The Bible is a Liv- ing Book. How else could it be said, in the passage we have quoted, 'Ht shall talk with thee.'' A dead book cannot talk, nor can a dumb book speak. The Bible is a speaking Book. A large proportion of human books are dead long ago; the mere passage of years has rendered them worthless ; in many cases their teach- ing is disproved, and they lie entombed in the public libraries as dead as their authors; and never again will they stir any man's pulse or warm his heart. You put yesterday's newspaper into the refuse heap ; it was full of interest yesterday; to-day it is dead. The ponderous volumes of THE KEY TO YOUR HEART 231 the old encyclopaedias, monuments of research and industry in their day, can be bought for a few cents. They are now obsolete. Books on scientific subjects, even books dealing with some of the great nations, quickly become out-of-date, so many and so rapid are the strides that are being made, and the changes that are taking place. Books about China and Russia, for example, are of little value to the student who desires up-to-date information about these lands. The standards of yesterday are set aside for other volumes to-day, and they will be dis- carded for others to-morrow. But the Bible never becomes obsolete. It is de- scribed as "the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." "When Isaiah was talking to the exiles on the great plains of Babylon, he said to them in their despondency, when they thought God had forgotten all about them, and hardly knew or cared where they were: "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth : because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. . . . The grass wither- eth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isa. 40:6-8). The words remind us of the sight and smell of the fields in the early summer-time. One day they shine with the glory of golden flowers, and in a little while the flowers are fallen, and swathes of grass and flowers alike are lying in the path of the mower. Still more suggestive would these words be to the exiles, for they often saw sudden blasts of scorching wind burn up the vegetation in an hour, changing fragrance, freshness and flowers into barrenness, desolation and death. Such is the transitoriness of all earthly things. Not so is it with those Divine revelations and 232 TAPS declarations, which are gathered up in the term the "Word of God. " However and whenever that Word may come into our souls, it is living, and abides for ever. All the things wiiich our souls hear and feel and know to be Divine in their origin, are perma- nent, eternal things. Our souls are like that captive English King who was discovered after months of persistent and loving search, in his dungeon, by his minstrel Blondel. The King caught the familiar strains of his minstrel out- side the walls of his prison, and he answered "Here I am ! " So the captive spirit catches the music of the living Word ; it speaks to his inmost heart ; it awakens hope where despair had begun its desolat- ing reign, and the soul answers back to God 's voice : "Here I am!" Some one has said that what makes literature living is "the streak of blood" in it. You can scarcely put your finger anywhere in the Bible with- out finding a heart beating beneath your touch. Many a Psalm embodies the essence of a life, an entire spiritual biography. There will probably come a time, when some who read these words will take up one of the Psalms written in David's anguish, and feel that it was written for them. They will be able to sob out David's pleadings for succour and help, and it will fit their case as exactly as if it had been penned expressly to meet their need. The Bible is the only book, that in the crises of life gives an assured and satisfactory answer to man's questionings. When Sir Walter Scott was dying, and desired to have something read to him, the person addressed asked: "What book shall I read?" "To one in my circumstances," said Sir Walter, ''there is only one Book." THE KEY TO YOUR HEART 233 2. The Bible is a Searching Book. "You will know it is God's Word," says the President, "because you will have found it the key to your heart." Some great books are books for the imagination ; others are books for the intellect, but the Bible is the Book of the conscience. It will tell you all about your heart ; how full of deceit and de- filement it is by nature, and how it may be cleansed, purified and strengthened by grace. It will tell you that a conflict, fiercer by far, than that in Europe, is being waged for its possession ; and that it may be translated or transferred, by the Holy Spirit and with your consent, out of the kingdom of darkness — the black world of Satan, into the white world, the Kingdom of God's dear Son. "The Word of God is quick and powerful." The word "quick" means living. "Cutting to the quick," means cutting into the living flesh. That is the characteristic of the Word of God. Dr. Livingstone tells us in his Journals that the Bechuanas are excellent patients. There is no winc- ing under pain. In any operation, even the women sit unmoved. "I have been astonished again and again," he writes, "at the calmness of the women. In cutting out a tumour an inch in diameter, they sit and talk as if tlioy felt nothing. 'A man like me never cries,' say the men, 'they are children that cry. ' And it is a fact that the men never cry. But when the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to their conscience, they cry most piteously. Some- times in church they endeavour to screen themselves from the eyes of the preacher by hiding under the forms, or covering their heads with their karosses, as a remedy against their convictions. And when they find that won't do, they rush out of the church, and run with all their might as if the hand of Death were 234 TAPS behind them." Yes, the Bible is a searching Book. "It is sharper than any two-edged sword." Sharper even than the famous Damascus sword-blade which was able to chip an egg-shell or to cut through a piece of steel ; which would bend from point to hilt without breaking, so wonderfully was it tempered. How sharp the Word of God is ! One of the great- est philosophers and essayists in Great Britian had been reading over again the parable of the Prodigal Son. When he had finished it he burst into tears, crying: "It finds me! It finds me!" It lays hold upon your conscience, and says: "Thou art the man!" It takes you into the presence of Him with whom you have to do, and to whom all things are naked and open. It dissects your innermost being, "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a dis- cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12, 13). It not only lays your innermost being bare, but it purifies it. The Word of God convicts but it also cleanses. If it were only "light," it would, by its discoveries of sin and corruption, drive you to de- spair. Thank God, it is also "salvation," showing not only the disease but the remedy. It not only hangs out the red light as a danger signal, but it says, * ' This is the way walk ye in it. ' ' The famous sword Excalibur, in the Arthurian Legends, would not only wound, but laid upon the wound it had caused, it had the virtue of healing it. So is it with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. 3. The Bible is a Saving Book. The whole of the Bible is a history of God's long, persistent effort to make Himself known to men. It THE KEY TO YOUR HEART 235 begins in Genesis with a scene in which God is found to be searching after His lost son, and pathetically calling to him, "Where art thou?" At the close of this long history you find the scene in which God has succeeded in making Himself known to His children. He has found the lost. He has gathered them about Himself; He is wiping the tears from their sorrow- ful and sin-stained faces; He is comforting and strengthening them ; having brought them back again home to Himself. "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them; and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:3-4). A colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society was working in Italy. He sold, during his journeyings, a copy of the New Testament to a poor peasant woman who purchased it with fear and trembling lest her husband should discover it. One day the husband detected her as she was reading the volume which spoke to her troubled heart. Angrily he demanded the book from her, and taking it out in the yard he laid it on the wood-block, opened it and with his axe cut it in half. He threw one half of the book to his wife, and putting the other in his blouse- pocket, he strode away to his work. The next day, at the dinner-hour, when he had almost forgotten about the book, he felt something in his blouse-pocket. He took it out and began reading at the end. It was the first part of the story of the prodigal, but only the first part. When he went home he offered his wife his half of the Testament if she would give him hers in ex- 236 TAPS change. Strange to say she had been reading the concluding half of the pearl of parables, and was just as anxious to read the beginning of the story as her husband was to read the ending of it. They both found the Word of God to be a saving Book, for as the Secretary of the Bible Society said, from whom I heard the story, ' ' There were two prodigals kneeling in that home that night, both having found their way back to the Father's heart." The Bible contains the truth that makes us "wise unto salva- tion, through faith that is in Jesus Christ." "The Bible," says the President, "is the Word of Life." It is the Word of Life just as the seed is the seed of life. There are great possibilities in the soil, but before the seed can become reproductive it must be buried in the soil. Only thus can its possibilities become actualities. Your nature, like the soil, is full of wondrous possibilities, but it must be sown with this incorruptible seed. Only give this Word of Life hospitality; only provide for it an honest, understanding and believing heart; and the wilder- ness of your life will be made glad, and all its desert places will rejoice and blossom as the rose. GORDON'S WHITE HAND- KERCHIEF The Sttppliant He prayed, but to his prayer no answer came, And choked within him sank his ardour's fiame; No more he prayed, no more the knee he bent, While round him darkened doubt and discontent; Till in his room, one eve, there shone a light, And he beheld an angel-presence bright, Who said: " O faint heart, why hast thou resigned Praying, and no more callest God to mind ? " " I prayed," he said, " but no one heard my prayer, Long disappointment has induced despair." " Fool," said the angel, " every prayer of thine, Of God's immense compassion was a sign; Each cry of thine, ' Lord! ' itself contains The answer, ' Here am I ' ; thy very pains, Ardour, and love, and longing, every tear Are His attraction, prove Him very near." The cloud dispersed ; once more the suppliant prayed Nor ever failed to find the promised aid. — From the Persian. XXIII GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF A T the funeral service of Charles George Gordon, /\ the famous British general, who died under -*• J^ such tragic circumstances in Khartoum, the Bishop of Newcastle made the following beautiful and inspiring statement about this Christian soldier. There was, each morning, during his journey in the Soudan, one half-hour during which there lay out- side General Gordon's tent a white handkerchief. The whole camp knew the full significance of that small token, and it was sacredly respected by every man, whatever his colour, creed or business. No foot dared to enter the tent so guarded. No message however pressing was carried in. Whatever the mes- sage was, whether of life or of death, it had to re- main until that guardian signal was removed. Every one knew that Gordon was alone with God, and that as the servant prayed and communed, the Master heard and answered. That white handkerchief was the secret of the saintly, fearless, unselfish life; and Gladstone summed up the character of General Gordon in this short sentence : " He was a man who lived in close communion with God." He was absolutely fearless. He feared men so little because he feared God so much. A savage monarch once had Gordon in his clutches, and told him that he had the power to take his life. The monarch was amazed beyond words that the General showed 289 240 TAPS no kind of fear, and even invited his enemy to take his life, if he thought any advantage would accrue to him by so doing. He believed that a man is immortal till his work is done, and that "though a thousand fall at his side, and ten thousand at his right hand, ' ' the arrow of death will not be permitted to come nigh to him, so long as he hides in God, and makes the Most High his Refuge. In one of the four great books of Chinese philoso- phy there is a striking definition of a man who "knowing neither sorrow nor fear, walks alone, all confident in his courage." "Such a man," says the sage, ' ' although he may love life will love something better than life, and although he may hate death will hate something more than death." That description exactly fits this heroic Christian soldier. How paltry to such a man, walking with God as Enoch did, or standing before Him as Elijah did, were the prizes of earth, the rewards and honours which loom so large in the estimate of many. He had a great number of medals, for which he cared nothing. There was one medal, however, which was given him by the Empress of China, in recognition of his splendid services to that country, for which he had a great liking. Upon this medal a special in- scription was engraved which led the General to value it highly. But the medal suddenly disap- peared; no one knew when or how. Years after- wards it was found out by a curious accident, that Gordon had erased the inscription, had sold the medal for $50, and then had sent that sum anony- mously for the relief of the sufferers from the cotton famine in Manchester. There is an entry in his Journal which came to light after his death. "Never shall I forget what I got when I scored out the inscription on the gold GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF 241 medal. How I have been repaid a million-fold. There is now not one thing I value in the world. Its hon- ours are all perishable and useless." "My dear," he says to his sister, "why do you keep caring for what the world says? Try, oh, try to be no longer a slave to it. You can have little idea of the comfort of freedom from it ; it is bliss. Hoist your flag and abide by it. In an infinitely short space of time all secret things will be divulged. Roll your burdens on Him. He will make straight your mistakes. He will set you right with those with whom you have set yourself wrong. Here am I, a lump of clay; Thou art the Potter. Mould me as Thou in Thy wisdom wilt; never mind my cries. Cut off my life, so be it; prolong it, so be it." Is some one reading this who is smarting from non- recognition? One, perchance, who sees others pro- moted, who in their judgment, are far less worthy from every point of view? Cease from all dis- appointment and fretfulness on this account, and put yourself as you read, into the loving, mighty hands of the great Potter, and tell Ilira there is but one thing you desire and are concerned about, and that is to be made a "vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use." But some one is asking how can I become so ac- quainted with God as to be at rest? How can I be rid of this thirst for human praise, and this feeling of irritation and annoyance when others are pre- ferred before me? There is only one way by which men on earth come to know one another, that is by having com- munication one with another. It need not be by talking face to face, you may become intimate with one you have never seen. But communication of some sort there must be. Something there must be 242 TAPS passing between two friends which carries to each a living knowledge of what the other is, and thinks, and feels; otherwise there can be no acquaintance, no friendship. And this communication must be con- tinual and not occasional ; hearty and not lukewarm ; sincere and not unreal; open and not characterized by concealment. This is the only way we can attain to the know- ledge of God, and we can attain to it by faith. God was as real to Gordon within the curtains of that tent, guarded by the white handkerchief, as if he saw Him f&ce to face. The common name for this eon- verse, intercourse, communication, when it is between man and God is prayer. Prayer is the only way by which man can know God. When our spirit addresses itself to God, tells out its yearnings and longings to God, He who is a Spirit listens, and not only listens but answers ; and to do this is to pray. "God's ear," said one of the Puritans, "is ever close to my lips; I have only to whisper and He will hear." Listen to these golden words by another great teacher, taken from ' ' My Life in Christ, or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation," by Father John. "If God is indeed and in truth all that we have said, then how easy it is for Him to give us all things we need when we take His ordained way of faith and prayer to receive them ! It is utterly un- pardonable, it is absolutely suicidal in us if we still doubt, and halt, and come away from God with our hearts empty. Our Lord said it as plainly as even He could say it. Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. Believe that you have received it and you shall have it. Not to believe, then, is blasphemy against God. It is making Jesus Christ a lying witness. Only feel truly and sin- GORDON'S WHITE HANDKERCHIEF 243 eerely your need of that for which you pray, and believe that it comes from God, and you will obtain anything and everything. For with God all things are possible. Whether you are sitting alone, or lying down, or walking abroad, or thinking, or writing, or working; whether you are well or ill, at home or out, on land or on sea, be continually assured that God hears the finest breathings and beating of your heart ; and that He listens to hear and help you. Has He not said to you that He waits to be gracious to you? Do you deny that? Forget, deny, despair of anything and everything but that. Remember that for Omnipotence nothing is difficult, nor for Love a trouble or a task. All things, therefore, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall surely receive. He who doubts is severely punished for his doubt, for his heart is left of God hard, and cold, and dead in sin. On the other hand, all blessings ; all life, and peace, and power, and joy come directly and immediately from God, and from God in answer to believing prayer. ' ' Think, when you are tempted to live independently of God, of Gordon's white handkerchief. Without prayer you will be as weak as water in the presence of temptation; but by prayer you will become as bold as a lion, and "the young lion and the dragon you shall trample under your feet. ' ' Every moment of communion with God will be a moment of deeper rest of soul and of increased vigour. In the old fable when Hercules fought with the giant he could not kill him. He flung him down with all his might, and he thought he had dashed him to pieces, but every time the giant got up he was stronger than before. "Surely," thought Hercules, "if I have destroyed the hydra and the lion I can kill this giant." But up sprang the giant every 244 TAPS time he was thrown, because, said the old fable, the earth was his mother, and every time he fell he touched his mother, and got new life from her. So every time you cry to God, and touch the heart of your Omnipotent and loving Father, you will get new strength. In vain the devil tries to trip you and throw you. In vain he flings you down, and says in his rage: '*I will crush him this time!" There is a secret suggestion by Gordon's white handkerchief which will completely baffle the enemy, and make you in all things more than conqueror. " I need not leave the jostling world, Or wait till daily tasks are o'er, To fold my hands in secret prayer Within the close-shut closet door. " There is a viewless, cloistered room As high as heaven, as fair as day, Where, though no feet may join the throng, My soul can enter in and pray. " No human step approaching, breaks The blissful silence of the place; No shadow steals across the light That falls from my Redeemer's face. " One, hearkening, cannot even know When I have crossed the threshold o'er; For He alone who hears my prayer, Has heard the shutting of the door." THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART Mighty Comforter, to Thee In my feebleness I flee; Oh, unveil Thy gracious face, Spread out all Thy wondrous grace! Strengthener of the poor and weak, To Thy power for strength I seek, Heavenly fulness, from above. Oh, descend in blessed love! Guider of the erring feet In the waste or busy street. Lead me thro' life's Babel-crowds, Through its pathless solitudes. Looser of the bonds of sin Oh, make haste and enter in; Break each link, till there remains Not one fragment of my chains. Loving Spirit, come, oh come! Fix in me Thy endless home; Fix in me Thy sure abode And reveal the Christ of God. With the eternal Father one, One with the eternal Son; Holy Spirit, Thee I praise, Now and through eternal days. — HOEAXroS BONAB. XXIV THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 1MET recently in my reading, a suggestion about one of the characters in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress ' ' which greatly interested me. Let me quote from that brilliant writer Harrington C. Lees of London. He says: "The point where Bunyan seems to me to have grown most in the second part is that he did not let his pilgrims go alone in a greater sense. In the first part, Christian, and Faithful, and Hopeful, though they walked step by step, still, in regard to their pilgrimage they went alone. They had a roll, which did guide them to a certain extent, but it did not prevent them from getting into Giant Despair's castle, or into the Slough of Despond. "But in the second part you have Greatheart. If there is a way to be shown, Mr. Greatheart shows it; if there is a giant to be conquered, Mr. Great- heart conquers him ; if there is guidance to be given, Mr. Greatheart gives it. Mr. Greatheart is the Com- forter, the Holy Spirit." Quite naturally I went to my "Pilgrim's Prog- ress" and began looking at the second part with this thought in my mind ; and I found to my delight that Mr. Harrington Lees had put a key in my hand which I had never before possessed. Here is Bunyan describing a portion of the jour- ney of Christiana and her boys: "So they went on a little further, and they thought that they felt 247 248 TAPS the ground begin to shake under them, as if some hollow place was there; they heard also a kind of hissing, as of Serpents, but nothing as yet ap- peared. . . . Thus they went on till they came to about the middle of the Valley, and then Christiana said, 'Methinks I see something yonder upon the road before us, a thing of such a shape as I have not seen.' . . . And now it was but a little way off. Then she said, 'It is nigh!' *' 'Let them that are most afraid keep close to me,' said Mr. Greatheart. So the Fiend came on, ar>d the Conductor met it; but when it was just come to him, it vanished from all their sights. They went therefore on, as being a little refreshed; but they had not gone far, before Mercy, looking behind her, saw, as she thought, something most like a Lion, and it came a great padding pace after; and it had a hollow voice of roaring, and at every roar that it gave, it made all the Valley echo, and their hearts to ache, save the heart of him that was their Guide. So it came up, and Mr. Greatheart went behind, and put the pilgrims all before him. The Lion also came on apace, and Mr. Greatheart addressed himself to give battle. But when the Lion saw that it was determined that resistance should be made to him, he also drew back and came no further." In the conflict with the Giant, a little farther on, it is Mr. Greatheart who does the fighting; and ■when the victory was won we read: "They, among them, erected a pillar, and fastened the Giant's head thereon, and wrote underneath in letters that passengers might read : " ' He that did wear this head, was one That pilgrims did misuse; He stopt their way, he spared none. But did them all abuse; THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 249 " ' Until that I Greatheart arose The pilgrims' Guide to be; Until that I did him oppose, That was their Enemy.' " The perpetual presence, comradeship and cham- pionship of the Holy Spirit is for all ages. "He shall abide with you for ever," Jesus said. This is the great secret of continuous victory, as Bunyan so clearly teaches. The Fiend, the Lion and the Giant, were all grappled with and conquered by Mr. Greatheart. Indeed the presence of Greatheart was enough to frighten both the Fiend and the Lion, before they came to close quarters with the pil- grims. Let him that readeth understand. One of my favourite Old Testament texts is Isaiah 59: 19, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Never shall I forget an experience I had in Dayton, Ohio, when that city was partially destroyed two years ago by a flood of waters. How suddenly the catastrophe happened ! Almost before we could remove our possessions to the upper part of the building in which we were staying, the lower part of the house was full of water, and the sound of breaking glass, and crashing window-frames told its story of the strength and volume of the waters. That flood swept before it the stables of the cattle and the cottages of the poor. It invaded every busi- ness store in the city. It spared not the mansions of the rich. What a picture of horror and desola- tion that fair city presented when I walked through it after the waters had subsided! Scores of dead horses lay in the roadway ; costly automobiles stood abandoned in the midst of the main streets; for swift though they were, the flood was swifter. What had been a beautiful garden city a few days previ- 250 TAPS ously was now a desert, with debris, wreckage and ruin everywhere. There are times in every life when the experience of Christian in the first part of Bunyan's wonderful Allegory is ours: "Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, . , . prepare thyself to die; for I swear by my infernal Den, that thou shalt go no farther; here will I spill thy soul." Some who read these words are being thus challenged to-day. Christian, unlike Christiana, had no Greatheart to fight for him. "The combat," we read, "lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent; for you must know that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker. In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did," says Bunyan, "what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight; he spake like a Dragon; and on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he per- ceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged Sword ; then indeed he did smile, and look upward ; but 'twas the dreadfullest sight that I ever saw. "So when the Battle was over, Christian said, I will here give thanks to Him that hath delivered me out of the mouth of the Lion, to Him that did help me against Apollyon. And he did so, saying : " * Great Beelzebub, the Captain of this Fiend, Designed my ruin; therefore to this end He sent him harness'd out: and he with rage That hellish was, did fiercely me engage: But blessed Michael helped me, and I By dint of sword did quickly make him fly. Therefore to Him let me give lasting praise And thank and bless His holy name always.' " TEE COMRADESHIP OF GEEATBEAET 251 The help of Michael may be good, in these hours of awful conflict, but the Championship of Great- heart is infinitely better; and by contrasting these two experiences — that of Christian and that of Christiana — it is easy to see what an advance there is in Bunyan's teaching. We have all read how King Canute had his regal chair carried down to the sea, when the tide was flowing in, to please his flattering courtiers. He commanded the waters to retreat, but they heeded not; the only retreating that was done was done by Canute and his quickly disillusioned courtiers. But we have at our call One who will triumphantly lift up a standard against the oncoming forces of the enemy. If we are only in confederacy with the Holy Spirit, He will put Jesus, the Victor of Cal- vary, between us and the adversary ; and baffled and beaten by the One who bruised His head on the Cross, the foe will vanish, as he did when engaged by Greatheart in the conflict we have referred to. That is a standard Satan cannot endure, even though in his haste to destroy us he comes on us like the rushing waters of a flood. But how can I be assured of the abiding Presence, Comradeship and Championship of this Great- heart ? There are five propositions which I have often employed in seeking to lead people into the victori- ous life, with which I will conclude this chapter. Close your eyes for a moment before you read them, and ask the Holy Spirit to interpret their meaning, and to enable you to take these attitudes ^tep by step. 252 TAPS 1. What God claims I gladly yield. He claims all. At one of the Conferences between the Northern and Southern States, at the close of the War of the Sixties, the representatives of the South stated what cession of territory they were pre- pared to make, provided that the independence of the States not ceded to the Federal Government was assured. More and more attractive offers were made ; the portions to be ceded were increased, and those to be retained in a state of independence were pro- portionately diminished. All these proposals were met by a stedfast refusal. At last President Lincoln placed his hand on the map so as to cover the whole of the Southern States, and in emphatic words de- livered his ultimatum: "Gentlemen, this Govern- ment must have the whole." It is exactly so in this matter of surrender to God. The Ransom He freely gave, in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, was for the redemption of our being in its totality from the thralldom of Satan. Our spirit, our soul and our body now belong to Him. They are bought with a price ; and He lays His hand on the whole of our nature, and claims it in its entirety for Himself. 2. What I yield God accepts. He has been waiting for this moment of absolute surrender for years. I can never sing " My all is on the altar I'm waiting for the fire: Waiting, waiting, waiting, I'm waiting for the fire." I cannot sing it because it is not Scriptural. In every case, so far as I know, when the sacrifice was laid upon the altar the fire immediately fell upon it and consumed it. It is we who by our compro- THE COMRADESHIP OF GREATHEART 253 mises and reservations keep Him waiting. He never keeps us waiting, for when the yielding is complete, the acceptance is assured. In other words if you will bring the fuel, He will send the fire, which is His token of acceptance. 3. What God accepts He cleanses. The Holy Spirit is the name of this heavenly Com- panion, Comrade and Champion. He does not ask us to make our heart worthy of His entrance; that would be salvation by works, and is impossible. He comes Himself, to cleanse us from all sin, by apply- ing to our sin-stained nature all the virtues and values of the Atoning Blood. What the meaning of the word "cleanseth" was to Frances Ridley Havergal she has described: "One of the intensest moments of my life was when I saw the force of that word 'cleanseth.' The utterly unexpected and altogether unimagined sense of its fulfilment to me, on simply believing it in its fulness, was just inde- scribable. I expected nothing like it short of heaven." . . . Will you not look up noiv, and say in simple, childlike faith, and in deepest reverence: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth me, even me, from all sin." Then "according to your faith it will be unto you. ' ' 4. What God cleanses He fills. Of course He does. The whole of the processes of Redemption are ordained with a view to our being indwelt by the Spirit of God, and our consequent recovery to the position forfeited by the Fall. Dr. A. J. Gordon used to reverse the familiar saying: "Man's extremity is God's opportunity"; and make it to read: "God's extremity is man's opportunity." 254 TAPS Yes, God is in extremity for Spirit-filled men and women, and His extremity is your opportunity. Was His extremity ever greater than it is to-day? I think not. 5. What God fills He uses. God is a severe economist, and He gives the Spirit in His fulness, not for our selfish enjoyment, not for the exhilaration of our being, not that we may obtain a reputation for uncommon sanctity and power, but always for service or for suffering. Some- times you may win a harvest of precious souls as Peter did, and sometimes you may get a shower of cruel stones as Stephen did. All that you are re- sponsible for is to be in such unbroken fellowship with the Holy Spirit that He can constantly use you, and He holds you responsible, not for success, but for fidelity. " Take me now, Lord Jesus, take me. Fill my soul with power Divine; Thy devoted servant make me, Keep me, Saviour, ever Thine." SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD " For all the saints who from their labours rest. Who Thee by faith before the world confessed. Thy name, O Jesu, be for ever blest. Alleluia ! "Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might; Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; Thou in the darkness drear their one true light. Alleluia ! " may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold. Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia ! " O blest communion ! fellowship divine ! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia! " The golden evening brightens in the west, Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest, Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest. Alleluia ! " But lo ! there breaks a yet more glorious day ! The saints triumphant rise in bright array; The King of glory passes on His way. Alleluia ! " From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host. Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — Alleluia! " XXV SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD WHAT an extraordinary salutation this is! "All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Ctesar's household." It is found at the end of St. Paul's letter to the Philip- pians, a letter from Rome, a letter from a prison. "Caesar's household"! Of all the unlikely places in the world to find saints that was the most un- likely. It is wonderful to see a snow-white lily spreading its radiant beauty, and scattering its de- licious perfume above a noisome bed of mud ! It is wonderful to find a spring of sweet water in the bitter waste? But it is far more wonderful to find saints in the household of Cjesar, and this Csesar, be it remembered, was the infamous Emperor Nero. The historian says: "The epoch which witnessed the early growth of Christianity was an epoch of which the horror and degradation have been rarely equalled, and perhaps never exceeded, in the annals of mankind. Abundant proofs of the abnormal wickedness which accompanied the decadence of an- cient civilization are sown broadcast over the pages of its poets, satirists and historians. They are stamped upon its coinage, cut on its gems, and painted on its chamber-walls. ' ' " On that hard Pagan world disgust And secret loathing fell; Deep weariness and sated lust Made human life a hell." 257 258 TAPS Rome had learnt from Greece the lesson of her voluptuous corruption only too well. The old war- like spirit of the Romans was dead. The spirit that once found delight in conquest on the plains of Gaul, and in the forests of Germany, was now sati- ated by gazing on criminals fighting for dear life with bears and tigers, or upon bands of gladiators who hacked each other to pieces on the sand, crim- soned with human blood. Two phrases summed up the character of Roman civilization in the days when Paul witnessed for his Master, a prisoner of Nero, waiting his trial — heartless cruelty and indescribable corruption. At the lowest extreme of the social scale were mil- lions of slaves, without family, without religion and without possessions. They had no recognized rights, and they passed from a childhood of degradation to a manhood of hardship, and an old age of un- pitied neglect. It is reckoned that in the Roman Empire there were no fewer than sixty millions of these miserable slaves, who could be put to death for any offence and at any moment. Only a little above the slaves Vt^ere the lower classes, forming the vast majority of the free-born inhabitants of the Empire. They were largely beg- gars and idlers. They despised a life of honest industry, asking only for bread and the games of the Circus. Th«ir life was largely made up of squalor, misery and vice. They supported any government, however despotic, if their needs were only supplied. The contrast, always to be found in a period of national decadence, of selfish luxury existing side by side with abject poverty, was startlingly exhibited in Rome. A whole population trembled lest they should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 259 corn-ship, while the upper classes squandered a for- tune on a single banquet, feasting on the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. Vitellius set on the table, at one banquet, two thousand fish and seven thousand birds, and in eight months, this Roman spent in feasts a sum that would now amount to many millions of dollars. At the head of this whole system, now so putrid that it was tottering to its fall, was an emperor who, in the terrible language of Gibbon the his- torian, was at once "a priest, an atheist and a god." Of all the damning iniquities against which Paul had often to remind his heathen converts, and against which the wrath of God ever burns, there was scarcely one of which Nero was not guilty. He was "a wholesale robber, a pitiless despot, an intriguer, a poisoner, a murderer, a matricide, a liar, a coward, a drunkard, a glutton, incestuous; so unutterably depraved that even the Pagans spoke of him as *a mixture of blood and mud.' "He had usurped a throne; he had poisoned the noble boy who was its legitimate heir; he had mar- ried that boy's sister, only to break her heart by his brutality, and then order her assassination; he planned the murder of his own mother; he treach- erously sacrificed the one great general whose vic- tories gave any lustre to his reign; he had ordered the death of the brave soldier, and the brilliant philosopher who had striven in vain to guide his wayward heart; he had killed by a brutal kick the beautiful woman whom he had torn from her own husband to be his second wife; he had reduced his capital to ashes, and buffooned and fiddled and sung with his cracked voice in public theatres, regardless of the misery and starvation of thousands of his ruined subjects; he had charged the incendiarism 260 TAPS upon the innocent Christians and had tortured them to death by hundreds in hideous martyrdom ; he had done his best to render infamous his rank, his coun- try, his ancestors, the name of Roman — nay, the very name of man." This monster of corruption and cruelty was not thirty years of age when he was stained through and through with every possible crime, and steeped to the lips in every nameless degradation. His name is the synonym of everything that is impure, cruel and despicable. Probably no man has ever lived who has crowded into fourteen years of life so black a catalogue of iniquities as Nero. At the very time when he was filling the cup of his iniquities to the full, there lay in one of his prisons a prisoner named Paul, the greatest saint, the greatest theologian, and the greatest missionary the world has ever seen. What a contrast! This letter of Paul's to the Philippians, written in that prison, with torture and death in view, is like a song in the night. As one has said: "It is a kind of prolonged echo of that midnight prayer and praise which marked Paul's first experience in the city of Philippi. The man who sang and prayed in that inner prison at Philippi is the man who in the Epistle sings, 'Rejoice in the Lord, alway ! and again I say Rejoice ! ' " I am writing about these saints in Nero's house- hold because I know some who read these words will have begun to think that it is exceedingly hard, if not absolutely impossible, to be loyal to Jesus Christ in a barracks, surrounded by scores of comrades, many of whom, possibly, have no sympathy what- ever with a profession of Christianity, and who regard the followers of Jesus as weak-minded molly- coddles, and sissies. SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 261 If you are tempted because of this to lower your colours, and to speak of your relationship to Jesus Christ and His people in whispered tones, or with bated breath, remember, I entreat you, the saints in Nero's household, and let their heroism put you to shame. The heads of departments in the royal household copied the vices of their sovereign and were almost as vile as he. Nero's court must have been a hell upon earth, and it should be remembered that the saints who shone for their Master in that hotbed of vice were not those who had been trained up from infancy in the nurture of the Lord. They were, for the most part, men and women who had grown up amidst the corruptions of paganism, and had been snatched as brands from the burning in adult life. Now in the midst of a contagion which I have only partially and imperfectly described, they were kept in loyalty to Christ by the power of God. If they could be kept under those conditions, cannot you ? There has been discovered in the catacombs of Rome an enamel which professes to represent Christ on the Cross. It has the figure of a man upon a Cross, but the head is the head of an ass. At the foot of the Cross, kneeling in adoration, is a Chris- tian, and underneath a Latin inscription which means: "The Christian worshipping his God." That shows what these Romans thought of Christianity. As the religion of Jesus spread, and as His fol- lowers multiplied, this scorn and contempt deepened into hate. Nero was deified, and, at certain religious festivals, incense was offered to him or to his image as to a god. The Christians of course refused to do anything of the sort. To them it was the veriest blasphemy, and a deadly denial of their Lord. Their refusal was at once construed into disloyalty to 262 TAPS Nero and to Rome. The Christians were then de- nounced as traitors and enemies of Rome. Spies arose in every street, almost in every house, to betray all who were suspected of Christianity. They were arrested, dragged before a tribunal, and commanded to prove their loyalty by offering incense to Nero. When they refused, they were immediately con- demned, many of them to unheard-of tortures. They were dragged to the great amphitheatre, and in sight of twenty thousand spectators, famished dogs tore to pieces some of the best and purest of men and women, hideously disguised in the skins of bears and wolves. In the tenth year of Nero's reign, a.d. 64, Rome, the most beautiful city in the world, was well-nigh destroyed by a fire that raged for six days and seven nights. Of its fourteen districts four alone escaped, some were completely laid in ashes. The evidence against Nero, as the instigator of this catas- trophe, is far too unanimous to be set aside. Feeling that he had gone too far, and knowing that when the people in the streets cursed those who had set fire to the city they meant to curse him, he endeavoured to fix the crime of destroying the capital upon the Christians, the most innocent and faithful of his subjects, the only men and women in his Empire who ever prayed for him. Popular fury then rose to a white heat, and the cry was heard on every side: "The Christians to the lions ! ' ' But something infinitely more diabolical than death by lions in the Coliseum was suggested. A huge multitude of Christians were convicted of being the disciples of Jesus Christ, on their own evidence ; and in the gardens of Nero the ghastliest scene that was ever witnessed took place. Along the paths of those gardens, on the autumn night, were SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 263 human torches. The clothing of the Christians was actually saturated with pitch and then set on fire, while Nero and his courtiers, dressed as charioteers, amused the cruel mob with chariot races, and drove in and out among them. Could devilish ingenuity invent anything more ghastly than that ? Now let us recall Paul's words: "All the saints salute you, chieflij they that are of Csesar's house- hold." Notice the word "chiefly." The chief salu- tation came from the most unlikely place. You have helpful surroundings, these Christians had none. Bad as New York, Chicago and London may be, they are heaven compared to Rome in the days of which we are thinking. Here there is some strong public opinion ranged against vice and immorality, in Rome there was none. Yet, like the white lily that springs from the muddy ooze of the river, there were those who walked with unsullied garments amid all the corruptions of a community steeped in the foulest vices. And they salute you, who complain that it is hard to live the Christian life in the camp, on board the ship, or at the front, where duty finds you. What would the saints in Nero's household think of the difficulties of which you are tempted to make so much? There were four hundred and fifty heathen tem- ples in Rome, but there was not one Christian place of worship. The Christians met in small groups in each other's houses. They came to the meeting in the darkness and by back streets lest they should arouse suspicion and be discovered. The latest to enter the little gathering would instinctively look around to see who was present and Avho was absent, for at every meeting some were missing. Think of those gaps, week after week, in that little circle of saints ! >Yhere is Ruf us, that radiant-faced 264 TAPS youth, who told us last week so exultingly of his newly-found joy? Where is that gentle maiden, Tryphena, whose testimony to the Saviour's power to keep her amid the fiercest temptations, brought tears to the eyes of all who listened ? Where is that big soldier, Amphas, who told that as he listened to the prayers of that wonderful prisoner to whom he was chained, Paulus by name, he realized that he was a sinner, and was then led to the sinner's Saviour? Where is that old man, Hermas, whose tremulous voice was always heard in praise and prayer and testimony? Where indeed were they? Some were flung to the lions, while those thou- sands in the Coliseum looked on, and gloated over their sufferings. "Others were tortured not accept- ing deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mock- ings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment." And those noble souls, faithful in the teeth of the bitterest persecution, salute you, and challenge you to a like devotion to the Saviour in the barracks, in the camp, and on the field of battle. Again I repeat, if they could follow Christ in their day, you can in yours. Do you covet an opportunity to show your bravery and courage ? Here it is. On one of the early Chris- tian monuments in Rome there is an epitaph of a young military officer, of whom it is written, he "lived long enough when he had shed his blood for Christ." Persecution is Satan's own testimony that you aro a genuine Christian. It is the world's acknowledg- ment that you are what you profess to be. And the fact that you are persecuted for righteousness' sake only proves that you are following in the foot- SAINTS IN NERO'S HOUSEHOLD 265 steps of the saints and heroes who have gone before, and that you are worthy of your Christian lineage. * ' The saints of Nero 's household salute you ! ' ' The Author of this book, one of whose boys is proud to be numbered among the soldiers of the National Army, is willing to put himself into com- munication with any soldier who on reading " Taps," longs to live a clean Christian life, in the power of the Holy Spirit. It would be strange if the father of four boys had not a father's heart. Address: Rev. J. Gregory Mantle, D.D., 121 North Bayly Avenue, Louisville, Ky. Printed in the United States of America SOCIOLOGICAL HAROLD BEGBIE The Crisis of Morals "The Weakest Link." i2mo, cloth, net 75c. "Here is a strong plea for social purity and a call fox earnest effort to educate and lead the world into purer life. 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  • .1 DR7 WILFRED T.'GRENFELLf'who'ac companied T/ie Harvard Unit to France writes: "This little book is like quaffing a draft of refreshing nector. It ex- presses my own attitude toward the problem of Christianity* and fighting." Altrailivt Bmd'mg 'VoiM a cry which has- ^ 5**=' ^^* Major-Gen Leonard Wood says: been abouled ftom ihe hilltop . /orthousandt of yeart," .The "Message to Garcia" of the Great WaTi ••They Shall Not hav' By EDWARD EARLE PfJRlNTON PETABV THE PREPARED A Message to American Manhood The great Frenchman's story is told in this little book. In these days of stress and crisis it pro- claims a message for us all. "Will put "iron in the blood of the young AmertcaB."— 5rftnfl(isry BOARDS, NET 50 CENTS ■ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: |.,y 2001 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIOM 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 1 6066 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 007 675 919 4