The Fight of Faith.
Like the Spartans, every Christian is born a warrior. It is his destiny to be assaulted; it is his duty to attack. Part of his life will be occupied with defensive warfare. He will have to defend earnestly the faith once delivered to the saints; he will have to resist the devil; he will have to stand against all his wiles; and having done all, still to stand. He will, however, be but a sorry Christian if he acteth only on the defensive; he must be one who goes against his foes. He must be able to say with David, "I come against thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied." He must wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He must have weapons for his warfare—not carnal—but "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." He must not be content to live in the stronghold well-guarded, but he must go forth to attack the castles of the enemy, and to drive the Canaanite out of the land. But there are many ways in which the Christian may, to a great degree, forget his martial character. And, alas! there are not a few who, if they be Christians at all, certainly know but very little of that daily warfare to which the Captain of our salvation calleth His disciples. They have a soft religion; a religion which shuns opposition; a reed-like religion, which bows before every blast, unlike that cedar of godliness which standeth aloft in the midst of the storm, and claps its boughs in the hurricane for very joy of triumph, though the earth be all in arms abroad. Such men lack the faith which shares the glory. Though saved, yet their names shall not be found written among the mighty men who, for our Great Commander's sake, are willing to suffer the loss of all things, and to go forth without the camp bearing His reproach. O, let us never be contented with such inglorious ease, but earnestly and manfully fight the Lord's battles. Is it a little thing for a follower of Christ to be losing the immortal honor of serving the Lord? What will not men do to win fame? and shall we, when it lies at our doors, turn idly aside and cast our glory to the ground? Let us be up and doing, for it is no light thing to be losing the honor of a faithful servant of Christ.