nour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ";[11] and the
Epistles of the Beloved Disciple, tender and full of all gentleness as
they are, ring with the suggestion of the Satanic antagonism, the
warfare and the victory. What a trumpet call there is to the elect
lady and her children: "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those
things which we have wrought."[12] It is like an echo of the
revelation on Patmos, the message to the faithful Philadelphians, "Hold
that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."[13]

II. _Enduring Hardship_

It is a part of the temptation itself that, as we contemplate the fact
of its universality, the question should arise in the soul, weary with
the battle, sore with long buffeting, "Is there no rest, no cessation
from the strain and stress of the warfare?"

The question comes from Satan. Assuming the role of a comforter, he
whispers to us of the hardness of the ceaseless struggle. It is a
temptation to induce us to forget our character as the followers of our
Lord. When we were baptized we were signed with the Sign of the Cross
in {49} token that we should "manfully fight under Christ's banner
against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue Christ's faithful
soldier and servant unto our life's end."[14]

In short, at our Baptism we were enlisted and sealed as soldiers, and a
soldier who never fights has no reason for existing. A soldier who
turns himself back in the day of battle is not only unworthy of his
name and character, but is by this act reversing the whole principle of
his life and vocation. We are members of the Church Militant,--the
fighting Church. The Son of God has gone forth to war, the
trumpet-call to His soldiers has sounded. It were shame upon the
soldier of an earthly army should he, at such a time, linger and repine
because of the battle, and surely those who contend for no earthly
laurel, but for the "crown of glory that fadeth not away,"[15] cannot
afford to do less.

Let us never forget that we are members of an army, that it is a time
of war; our Captain has gone forth with His host; "The ark and Israel,
and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord
are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house to eat
and to drink?"[16]

We must not, however, leave the matter at {50} this point, lest some be
"swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,"[17] and find only despair where
they looked for consolation.