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The Battle of Life.

"Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?"-1 Cor. ix. 7.

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HIS question occurs in the course of an argument. The Apostle was proving that the minister who gives all his time to the preaching of the Word is entitled to a maintenance from those people amongst whom he labours. He gives divers illustrations; among them this-that the soldier who devotes himself to the service of his country is not expected to find his own equipment and his own rations, but he is provided for by his country. And so should it be, he teaches us, in the church of God. The minister set apart to labour wholly in spiritual things should have temporal supplies found him. That is a topic, however, on which it would be superfluous for me to enlarge. Your convictions are so sound, and your practice so consistent, that you do not need to be exhorted, much less to be expostulated with on that matter.

But the same question may be asked when we have other morals to point. Is it ever expected that men who go on a warfare should pay their own charges? There

is a warfare in which all of us are engaged. What is life but a great battle, lasting from our earliest days until we sheathe the sword in death? This battle we hope to win, and yet, if we succeed, it will be a distinct and definite response to the challenge before us-"Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?" We may be quite sure that if ever we attempt the warfare of life at our own expense, we shall soon find ourselves failing, and it will end in a miserable defeat.

I. Going at once to the subject, we have here AN INSPIRITING METAPHOR. When life is represented as a warfare, some peaceful minds may feel a little alarmed at the picture, yet there are other minds with enough of gallantry in their constitutions to feel their blood pulsing the stronger at the thought that life is to be one continued contest. I do but borrow a reflection from the secular press when I say that it were ill for us if the love of peace, fostered among us as a nation, should degenerate into a fear of danger, a reluctance to bear hardships, or an indifference to the accomplishment of exploits. Craven spirits we may expect always to find, who conjure up gloomy anticipations and forbode horrible disasters. The untrodden path and the unaccuscustomed climate are dreadful bugbears. But is this the instinct of an Englishman? How else should he contemplate difficulties but as problems to be solved? capital out of which fame or fortune is to be won? And as for the British soldier, is he to be looked upon as a hot-house plant who shrinks from exposure? Far rather would I respect him as a representative individual, the type of his race, always ready for any emergency. In the days of the old Gallic wars, when we

had to fight with Napoleon in Egypt, there were just as many knotty points and critical situations to be grappled with; and, certainly, at head-quarters the War Department was not more efficiently managed than it is now. Yet British soldiers pressed forward then to the conflict, nor did they pant for fortune; what they did seek for was a career, with some opportunity of distinguishing themselves. Moreover, those who stayed at home scanned the despatches with eager interest, and full often lamented that they had not the chance given them of going forth to the fight. Well may the patriot ask— has Anglo-Saxon courage all fled, if at every call to fresh deeds of heroism we listen to the croaking of those whose nature it is to look black and utter dark portents? Our children's children may read how the haughty insolence of Theodore of Abyssinia was humbled, but I hope they will never hear the screeching of the ravens who warned us of the mountain fastnesses in which he was lodged. The Ashantee war is far behind us now, and I suppose those who were once afraid of its perils are now amazed at its prowess. Yes, and that is how I would have Christians feel with regard to spiritual conflicts. Difficulties! Well, they are things to be deciphered. Dangers! They are things to be met and encountered. Impossibilities! They are to be scouted as a nightmare, a delirious dream. The Christian wakes to find impossibility impossible. With a history behind him and a destiny before him he can say "The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Things that are impossible with man are possible with God. I like my text all the better because it implies a hostile engagement, and speaks of warfare. For me the battle-field

has no charms. With host encountering host, and carnage left behind, I have no sympathy; but spiritually my soul seems enamoured of the idea; I buckle on my armour at the very thought that life is to be a conflict and a strife in which it behoves me to get the mastery.

Do I not address many young men just commencing life? If you have thought of life at all, I hope you have thought that it is wise to begin the battle of life early. We have all so little time to live, and the first years of life are so evidently the best years we shall ever have, that it is a pity to waste them. Oh, how much more some of us might have done if we had begun betimes! Had the very flush of our boyhood been consecrated and the strength of our youth spent in our Master's service, what work we might have accomplished! Now, young men, as a comrade a little farther on the road than you, I take you to the brow of the hill for a moment, and point out to you the pathway we have to pursue, and as I point it out I tell you that you will have to fight along every inch of the road if you are at the end to win the crown which I hope your ambition pants after. Are you ready for the conflict? Then let us talk awhile about it, for as we shall always have to be on the alert, it is well for us to study the map, and to acquaint ourselves with the tactics we must practise,

Be sure, then, my friends, that if you and I are ever to be conquerors at the last, we shall have to fight with that trinity of enemies-the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is the world. Do you resolve to do the right, and to love the true, depend upon it you will get

no assistance from this world. Of its maxims nine out of ten are false, and the other one selfish; and even that which is selfish has a lie at the bottom of it. As for its customs,-well live where you may, the customs of the world are not such as a citizen of heaven can endorse. Go into what company you please, and you will find that there is much of the prevailing habit that is no friend to grace, and no friend to virtue. In the upper circles, with much pretence, there is little reality; there is a lack of sound honesty. Amongst the lower classes, go where you will, if you firmly resolve to be a Christian, to follow closely the footsteps of your Lord, you will have to breast the current. The most of men are going down the hill. You will be like the solitary traveller when you are threading your way upwards. Do you enlist for Christ to-night? Then know that you enlist against the whole world. You will henceforth be an alien to your mother's children, and a stranger to your own household, unless happily that household should have been converted too. Young man, the young men in the shop will be against you. Alas for the wickedness of the young men of London! Young woman, you will find in the workroom, aye, perhaps you will find even in your father's house, influences at work to impede, if not to thrust you back. Man of business, when you meet others on Change, if perchance the conversation should turn upon religion, you will find it far from profitable, and a good way off from genial. You will be like a speckled bird, with all the birds round about against you. As a marked man your motives will be mistrusted, your character impugned, your piety burlesqued. If you

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