It was her way at such times to let the conversation flow on according to the pleasure of the young people, only she put in a word now and then as it was needed for counsel or restraint.
“It sounds awful, don’t it?” said Jem, who was always amused when his cousin received as a new thought something that the rest of them had been familiar with all their lives. “And that isn’t all. What is that about ‘the law in our members warring against the law in our minds?’ What with one thing and what with another, you stand a chance to get fighting enough.”
His mother put her hand on his arm.
“But, mamma, this thought of life’s being a battle-field, makes one afraid,” said Violet.
“It need not, dear, one who takes ‘the whole armour.’”
“But what is the armour?” said Frank. “I don’t understand.”
Violet opened the Bible and read that part of the sixth chapter of Ephesians where the armour is spoken of; and the boys discussed it piece by piece. David, who had scarcely spoken before, had most to say now, telling the others about the weapons and the armour used by the ancients, and about their mode of carrying on war. For David had been reading Latin and Greek with his father for a good while, and the rest listened with interest. They wandered away from the subject sometimes, or rather in the interest with which they discussed the deeds of ancient warriors, they were in danger of forgetting “the whole armour,” and the weapons which are “not carnal but spiritual,” and the warfare they were to wage by means of these, till a word from the mother brought them back again.
“‘And having done all to stand,’” said Frank, in a pause that came in a little while. “That does not seem much to do.”
“It is a great deal,” said his aunt. “The army that encamps on the battle-field after the battle, is the conquering army. To stand is victory.”
“Yes, I see,” said Frank.