The Project Gutenberg EBook of Victory out of Ruin, by Norman Maclean

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Title: Victory out of Ruin

Author: Norman Maclean

Release Date: September 4, 2010 [EBook #33637]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VICTORY OUT OF RUIN ***

Produced by Al Haines

VICTORY OUT OF RUIN

BY

NORMAN MACLEAN

HODDER AND STOUGHTON LTD.

LONDON -- NEW YORK -- TORONTO

MCMXXII

Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD.
at the Edinburgh University Press

PREFACE

There is a joy in battle; but the greatest of all joys is to take some
part, however humble, in the fight for the triumph of righteousness.
There is a thrill such as can be found nowhere else in facing a mass of
people whose prejudices and social customs are as an unscalable wall,
in compelling their attention and, at last, in winning them to espouse
your cause. To fight your opponent, loving him all the time, is the
essence of Christianity. The excitement of betting on races or
watching football matches is nothing compared to the excitement of
facing an audience not knowing whether you are to be trampled on or to
be applauded. Those who have fought under the banner of the King of
Kings know the indefinable joy there is in it. That is why the young
and the chivalrous give a swift response when the call is to a forlorn
hope in the service of Christ.

And the joy of it is this, that, whatever may happen, you are bound to
win. The Infinite has infinite resources. Those who array themselves
against Him are up against all the forces in the universe. The fight
for the Kingdom of God is the greatest in which man ever fought; it
goes on ceaselessly without any discharge; the big battalions seem
always on the other side; but God always wins. There never has been a
fight for deliverance, a struggle for progress, but the forces of
righteousness conquered at last.

This book is the third of a series. The Great Discovery portrayed the
spiritual emotions of the Great War; Stand up, Ye Dead dealt with the
soul of the nation in the midst of its travail; and this third book
seeks to point out the way of del