all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked." Every dart Satan can fire at us we can quench by faith,
By faith we can overcome the Evil One. To fear is to have more faith
in your antagonist than in Christ.

Some of the older people can remember when our war broke out.
Secretary Seward, who was Lincoln's Secretary of State--a long-headed
and shrewd politician--prophesied that the war would be over in ninety
days; and young men in thousands and hundreds of thousands came
forward and volunteered to go down to Dixie and whip the South. They
thought they would be back in ninety days; but the war lasted four
years, and cost about half a million of lives. What was the matter?
Why, the South was a good deal stronger than the North supposed. Its
strength was underestimated.

Jesus Christ makes no mistake of that kind. When He enlists a man in
His service, He shows him the dark side; He lets him know that he must
live a life of self-denial. If a man is not willing to go to heaven by
the way of Calvary, he cannot go at all. Many men want a religion in
which there is no cross, but they cannot enter heaven that way. If we
are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must deny ourselves and take
up our cross and follow Him. So let us sit down and count the cost. Do
not think that you will have no battles if you follow the Nazarene,
because many battles are before you. Yet if I had ten thousand lives,
Jesus Christ should have every one of them. Men do not object to a
battle if they are confident that they will have victory, and, thank
God, every one of us may have the victory if we will.

The reason why so many Christians fail all through life is just
this--they under-estimate the strength of the enemy. My dear friend;
you and I have got a terrible enemy to contend with. Don't let Satan
deceive you. Unless you are spiritually dead, it means warfare. Nearly
everything around tends to draw us away from God. We do not step clear
out of Egypt on to the throne of God. There is the wilderness journey,
and there are enemies in the land.

Don't let any man or woman think all he or she has to do is to join
the church. That will not save you. The question is, are you
overcoming the world, or is the world overcoming you? Are you more
patient than you were five years ago? Are you more amiable? If you are
not, the world is overcoming you, even if you are a church member.
That epistle that