Here are some PORTRAITS OF CHOCOLATE SOLDIERS taken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
"He said, 'I go, sir,' and went not"; he said he would go to the heathen, but stuck fast to Christendom instead.
"They say and do not"--they tell others to go, and yet do not go themselves. "Never," said General Gordon to a corporal, as he himself jumped upon the parapet of a trench before Sebastopol to fix a gabion which the corporal had ordered a private to fix, and wouldn't fix himself, "Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself."
To the Chocolate Christian the very thought of war brings a violent attack of ague, while the call to battle always finds him with the palsy. "I really cannot move," he says. "I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favorite lines:
"I must be carried to the skies
On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
Or sail thro' bloody seas.
Mark time, Christian heroes,
Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
Playing on the floor.
Wash and dress and feed them
Forty times a week.
Till they're roly poly--
Puddings so to speak.
Chorus:
Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate
Sugar and spice and all that's nice
Must be on our slate."
"Thank the good Lord," said a very fragile, white-haired lady, "God never meant me to be a jelly-fish!" She wasn't!
GOD NEVER WAS A CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURER, AND NEVER WILL BE. God's men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.
NOAH walked with God, he didn't only preach righteousness, he acted it. He went through water and didn't melt. He breasted the current of the popular opinion of his day, scorning alike the hatred and ridicule of the scoffers who mocked at the thought of there being but one way of salvation. He warned the unbelieving and, entering the ark himself, didn't open the door an inch when once God had shut it. A real hero untained by the fear of man.
Learn to scorn the praise of men.
Learn to lose with God;
Jesus won the world thro' shame!
And beckons us His road.