Soldier of Christ, thou wilt have to do hard battle. There is no bed of down for thee; there is no riding to heaven in a chariot: the rough way must be trodden; mountains must be climbed; rivers must be forded; dragons must be fought; giants must be slain; difficulties must be overcome; and great trials must be borne. It is not a smooth road to heaven; those who have gone but a very few paces therein, have found it to be rough and rugged. Yet it is pleasant; it is the most delightful journey in all the world; not because it is easy in itself, it is only pleasant because of the company; because of the sweet promises on which we lean; because of our Beloved who walks with us through all the rough and thorny brakes of this vast wilderness. Christian soldiers, expect conflict: "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." As truly as thou art a child of God, thy Saviour hath left thee for His legacy—"In the world ye shall have tribulation." Yet remember that this "tribulation" is the way to "enter the kingdom;" therefore "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
Usefulness.
Christ, my Master, goes about doing good, and if you would walk with Him, you must go about upon the same mission.
The Church and the World.
Christian men ought so to live that it were idle to speak of a comparison between them and the men of the world. It should not be a comparison, but a contrast. No scale of degrees should be possible: the believer should be a direct and manifest contradiction to the unregenerate. The life of a saint should be altogether above and out of the same list as the life of a sinner. We should compel our critics not to confess that moralists are good, and Christians a little better; but while the world is darkness, we should manifestly be light; and while the world lieth in the Wicked One, we should most evidently be of God, and overcome the temptations of that Wicked One. Wide as the poles asunder, are life and death, light and darkness, purity and sin. There should be as much difference between the worldling and the Christian, as between hell and heaven, between destruction and eternal life. As we hope at last that there shall be a great gulf separating us from the doom of the impenitent, there should be here a deep and wide gulf between us and the ungodly. The purity of our character should be such, that men must take knowledge of us that we are of another and superior race. If we were what we profess to be, there would be no difficulty in detecting the Christian from the worldling. But, alas! the Church is so much adulterated, that we have to abate our glorying, and cannot exalt our character as we would. O, for the time when "our conversation shall be in heaven," and the ignoble life of the worldly man shall be rebuked by our Christ-like character! God grant us more and more to be clearly a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that we may show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.