The true soldier does not debate his cause. He is rightly supposed to have settled upon its justice and righteousness before he enlisted to serve it. Thereafter he avouches it and defies contradiction of it. He is ready to spend all and be all spent in its defense. It is glorious to serve Christ in honesty and in fullness of fidelity. There is an ineffable joy in being on the right side, in knowing that beyond the field of blood and the valley of shadows is an abundant entrance into the joys and peace of the triumphant King of kings. For that hope none should shrink from the hardness of battle, none quail before the rage of the enemy, and none tremble before the certainty of hunger, thirst, nakedness, wounds or death.
The Lord's people are soldiers in that army of which Jesus is the Commander. Their warfare requires strong endurance because of the many hardships to which they are exposed. Self-denial must be persevered in amid their many privations. Their many defects tax their endurance almost unto fainting. Their faults call for endurance against discouragement, and the strenuousness of their trials and sufferings can be borne only by a spirit that is inured to hardship and is sustained by the Lord.
Heb. 2:10; Isa. 59:16, 17; 54:17; Eph. 6:10-17; Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:7; 10:4, 5; 1 Thes. 5:8; 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7; 1 Cor. 16:13; 1 Pet. 5:8, 9; Phil. 1:27; 4:1; Josh. 1:6, 7; Dan. 11:32.
