nce, "Let
not your heart be troubled," adding, "Neither let it be afraid."[2]
Four times He declares in substance, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My
name, that will I do."[3] He assures them that He Himself will be
diligent in praying the Father for them that the Blessed Comforter may
{203} abide with them forever.[4] He declares that if they will but
abide in Him, they will be able to bring forth eternal fruit of
victory.[5] Sorrow indeed shall be theirs, but "Your sorrow shall be
turned into joy," a joy that "may be full," a joy that "no man taketh
from you."[6] And the great discourse concludes with a pledge of their
final victory,--words of lofty encouragement that should ever be in the
hearts of His soldiers, sustaining in them the spirit of a divine
valour: "These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I
have overcome the world."[7]

Let us therefore, as the final study we are to make of the conditions
and progress of our spiritual warfare, consider the grounds we have for
encouragement at every stage of the battle.

I. _Members One of Another_

The Church of God, "the Body of Christ,"[8] as St. Paul repeatedly
calls it, which is "the blessed company of all faithful people," is a
living {204} organism. When the Apostle says it is "the Body of
Christ," and speaks of us as members of that Body, he means that the
members bear the same relation to every other member as, for example,
my hands and my feet, members of my physical body, bear to each other;
and that all are partakers of the one life which flows through the
whole Body and which constitutes it what it is. The effect of all this
he sets forth in a brief saying: "Whether one member suffer, all the
members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members
rejoice with it."[9] When my hand is diseased my whole body is sick;
and when health and strength return to it again, my whole body rejoices
in that healing.

If we keep this principle in mind, the tempter will be powerless to
discourage us in the conflict. Rather will our hearts be ever full of
high hope, which will carry us rejoicing through the darkest hour of
the conflict.

Think of our share in every prayer and good work that is being offered
to God anywhere to-day in all the world. Think of the Eucharists in
which we share. As the sun follows its course, and looks with each
revolving day upon a