2. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul explains more fully what he means by the armour of the soldiers of Christ. There he speaks of it as being the armour of truth, of righteous- ness, of faith. But here, when he speaks of the armour of light,
^ Longfellow, Ladder of St. Auoniatine, ■ W. A. L. Taylor.
396 READY FOR THE DAWNING
he goes a step further; he means that men should wear this armour openly, so that others may see that they are Christ's soldiers; that they should not wear it, as in olden days men sometimes wore a coat of mail, hidden away under their tunics.
IT You know the story narrated in the Old Testament about Ahab. On going out to battle, he disguised himself, and induced Jehoshaphat to wear his armour, because he was afraid that if he wore it himself he would be a marked man. In his case, you know, the disguise was of no avail. Ahab, disguised though he was, was killed. The other king, the nobler man, escaped. Well, just in the same way I thmk some of us try to live as Christians " in disguise." Faith, hope, love — these are the three great words which Christianity has given to the world ; and yet there are some who try to hide away, as much as ever they can, their deepest faiths, their highest hopes, their purest loves. When St. Paul tells us that we should put on the " armour of light," he means that we should so live that others shall see at once that we mean to live the strong true life of a soldier of Christ.1
If life is always a warfare
Between the right and the wrong,
And good is fighting with evil For ages and seons long —
Fighting with eager cohorts. With banners pierced and torn,
Shining with sudden splendour, Wet with the dew of morn ;
If all the forces of heaven,
And all the forces of sin, Are met in the infinite struggle
The souls of the world to win;
If God's is the awful battle
Where the darkling legions ride —
Hasten to sword and to saddle! Lord, let me fight on Thy side!
1 F. de W. Lushington.
Eternally the Lord's.
397
Literature.
Alford (H.), Quebec Ghapel Sermons, vi. 260.
Barry (A.), First Words in Australia, 161.
Bourdillon (F.), Our Possessions, 62.
Boyd (A. K. H.), The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 2iid Ser., 234.
Bruce (J.), Sermons, 197.
„ (W. S.), Our Heritage, 93. Chapman (H. B.), Sin Symbols, 20.
„ (J. W.), Pocket Sermons, i. 35. Corlett (J. S.), Christ and the Churches, 193. Davidson (R. T.), Christian Opportunity, 77.
„ „ Captains and Comrades in the Faith, 276.
Fuller (M.), The Lord's Day, 376. Gibson (J.), The Lord of Life and Death, 1. Hort (F. J. A.), Village Sermons in Outline, 92. Huntington (F. D.), Christ in the Christian Year (Advent to Trinity),
280. Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year (Easter to Ascension), 44. King (E.), The Love and Wisdom of God, 155. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, i. 282. Lewis (E. W.), Som^ Views of Modern Theology, 200. M'Intyre (D. M.), Life in His Name, 271. Macmillan (H.), Ministry of Nature, 191. Moule (H. C. G.), Christ is All, 17. Neville ("W. G.), Sermons, 22.
Norton (J.), Short Sermons, 69. ^
Paget (F. E.), The Living and the Dead, 19. Perry (C. H.), Studies in the Psalms, 90. Taylor (W. M.), Contrary Winds, 341.
Thomson (W.), Sermons Preached in Lincoln's Inn Chapel, 109. Vaughan (C. J.), The Book and the Life, 139.
„ (J.), Sermons, v. (1867), 555. Wilson (J. M.), Sermons Preached in Clifton College Chapel, 52. Cambridge Review, xii.. No. 289 (Moule).
Christian World Pulpit, xxiv. 169 (Beecher) ; xliii. 104 (Munger); xliv 212 (Rawnsley) ; Ixxix. 154 (Ward).
J9«
Eternally the Lord's.
None of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. — Rom. xiv. 7-9.
1. This text is interpreted for us by the section of the Epistle to the Eomans in which it is found. That section is devoted to the elucidation of the principles by which the early Christians were to be guided as to their observance or non-observance of particular festival days, and as to their abstinence or non- abstinence from certain kinds of meats and drinks. To understand the matter fully we must have a clear perception of the difficulty with which the Apostle was seeking to deal.
Living as they were in the midst of paganism, the Gentile Christians were frequently invited to feasts at which meat was served which had been offered to an idol. Some partook of it without any hesitation, believing, as St. Paul himself did, that an idol was nothing in the world and that nothing was unclean of itself. Others, having less enlightened consciences, refused to touch it, believing that if they did eat it they would be guilty of countenancing idolatry. The Jewish converts, again, were divided on the question of the observance of their national feasts. Some of them maintained their old habits in the matter of those Mosaic appointments, and others contented themselves with the simple keeping of the Lord's Day. All of them relied upon the sacrifice of Christ for justification, and therefore are to be care- fully distinguished from those against whom the Epistle to the Galatians was written, and who insisted on circumcision as essential to salvation. No vital principle was at stake in this