recommendation to meticulous self-analysis, but rather we are taught
a kind of spiritual recklessness, an unquestioning confidence in what
seem to be right impulses, and that quite regardless of results. We
are not told to be careful to spend each penny to the best advantage;
but we are told that if our money is preventing us from entering the
Kingdom, we had better give it all away. We are not told to set a high
value on our lives, and to spend them with care for the good of the
Kingdom. On the contrary, we are told to risk our lives recklessly
if we would preserve them. A sense of anxious responsibility is
discouraged. If our limbs cause us to offend, we are advised to cut
them off.

The whole teaching of the Gospels is that we have got to find freedom
and peace in trusting ourselves implicitly to the care of God. We
have got to follow what we think right quite recklessly, and leave the
issue to God; and in judging between right and wrong we are only given
two rules for our guidance. Everything which shows love for God and
love for man is right, and everything which shows personal ambition
and anxiety is wrong.

What all this means as far as the trenches are concerned is
extraordinarily clear. The Christian is advised not to be too
pushing or ambitious. He is advised to "take the lowest room." But
if he is told to move up higher, he has got to go. If he is given
responsibility, there is no question of refusing it. He has got to do
his best and leave the issue to God. If he does well, he will be given
more responsibility. But there is no need to worry. The same formula
holds good for the new sphere. Let him do his best and leave the issue
to God. If he does badly, well, if he did his best, that means that
he was not fit for the job, and he must be perfectly willing to take a
humbler job, and do his best at that.

As for personal danger, he must not think of it. If he is killed, that
is a sign that he is no longer indispensable. Perhaps he is wanted
elsewhere. The enemy can only kill the body, and the body is not the
important thing about him. Every man who goes to war must, if he is to
be happy, give his body, a living sacrifice, to God and his country.
It is no longer his. He need not worry about it. The peace of God
which passeth all understanding simply comes from not worrying about
results because they are God's business and not ours, and in trusting
implicitly all impulses that make for love of God and man. Fe