If The one thing needful — whether we seek the love of God or of man — ^is unfaltering courage, that quality which alone places great things within our reach.^
^ When William Wilberforce was brought to Christ, he went with fear and trembling to his friend, the great statesman of the day, William Pitt, to tell him of the change. For two hours his friend endeavoured to convince him that he was becoming visionary, fanatical, if not insane. But the young convert was steadfast and immovable. He had spent his twenty-fifth birthday at the top wave and highest flow of those amusements — the race- course and the ballroom — which had swallowed up a large portion of his youth. He had laughed and sung, and been envied for his gaiety and happiness. But true happiness he had never found till he found Christ. And now he laid his wealth and wit and eloquence and influence at the feet of his Lord, his motto being — " Whatsoever others do, as for me, I will serve the Lord."
2. The phrase thus tends to put before us a certain contrast and separation. The speaker places himself, in some respects, aside and apart. He looks around him, and sees other men
* Lady Dilke, TUt Book oj the Spiritual Life, 164.
156 AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE
following this or that line of thought and action. Their numbers are large. Their action, their spirit and sentiment, have all the weight and force of a fashion. He cannot help it. He must take another line. However singular he may make himself, so must it be. " As for me, I will serve the Lord."
Light words they were, and lightly, falsely said;
She heard them, and she started, — and she rose,
As in the act to speak ; the sudden thought
And unconsidered impulse led her on.
In act to speak she rose, but with the sense
Of all the eyes of that mixed company-
Now suddenly turned upon her, some with age
Hardened and dulled, some cold and critical;
Some in whom vapours of their own conceit,
As moist malarious mists the heavenly stars,
Still blotted out their good, the best at best
By frivolous laugh and prate conventional
All too untuned for all she thought to say —
With such a thought the mantling blood to her cheek
Flushed up, and o'er-flushed itself, blank night her soul
Made dark, and in her all her purpose swooned.
She stood as if for sinking. Yet anon
With recollections clear, august, sublime,
Of God's great truth, and right immutable,
Which, as obedient vassals, to her mind
Came summoned of her will, in self-negation
Quelling her troublous earthy consciousness,
She queened it o'er her weakness. At the spell,
Back rolled the ruddy tide, and leaves her cheek
Paler than erst, and yet not ebbs so far
But that one pulse of one indignant thought
Might hurry it hither in flood. So as she stood
She spoke. God in her spoke, and made her heard.^
3. Joshua, like his friend Caleb, " followed the Lord fully"; he might have taken for his motto the word " thorough." He belonged to Jehovah, heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. As the successor of Moses, and the type of the Lord Jesus, he put on zeal as a cloak, and girded himself with fidelity as with a garment. His appointed duty was fulfilled with martial strictness and un- swerving steadiness ; he had a single eye and a firm hand. He
^ Clough, Poems, 11.
JOSHUA XXIV. 15 157
was strong and of good courage, and the Lord was with him. It was no idle boast when the old warrior and prince in Israel said, " As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
IT Among modern soldiers there is not a more honoured name than Henry Havelock. In the words of the Governor-General of India, " He was every inch a soldier, and every inch a Christian." From the time of his religious decision he was not ashamed to own his heavenly Father, but was concerned only to walk worthy of Him. Show him the path of duty, and he held consequence as light as air. He had only one object of fear, and that was sin. Personal danger was as the idle wind. When the deliverance of our Indian Empire from a fearful rebellion seemed to depend on the success of the army which he led, he could find time before the earliest march to commune with his God in prayer, and in the reading of His word, and thus to strengthen himself for the terrible work he had in hand. His motto was, " As for me, I will serve the Lord."
^ Sir "Walter Scott, quoting a Scottish proverb in his journal says: "Hain your reputation, tyne your reputation," i.e. to be very careful and timorous about reputation is the way to lose it. Is it not he also who testifies : " I never knew name nor fame bum brighter for over chary keeping " ?
4. Never for a moment is the Christian called to isolation, peculiarity, opposition, for their own sake. " Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good, to edification." It is the believer's business to be the most considerate, sympathetic, courteous, and companionable of people, within the lines of the wiU of God. Let this be well remembered, with reflection, and sanctified good sense, and prayer. Otherwise, we may be merely disagreeable, and mistake this for fidelity to principle. We may be justly avoided for our own sakes, and think that this is " bear- ing the reproach of Christ," and " going forth to him without the gate." But when all this is said, how great and sacred is the place in our hearts and wills which must be kept for " as for me " ! Considerateness and sympathy are as different as possible from*^ drift and compromise. They should be, and often are, most con- spicuous in lives which are all the while governed absolutely by personal surrender to the will of God, such surrender as can lay quietly down at His feet all that is most cherished in reputation and ease, when it comes to a real alternative between Him and the world.