^[ " I asked Kang Yu Wei, who has studied the Gospels profoundly, what seemed to him the most striking quality in Jesus.
1 Ganon Hay Aitken.
508 THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT
He answered, somewhat to my surprise, that what appealed to him most, in the personality of Jesus, was His courage." 1
And who the bravest of the brave;
The bravest hero ever born? 'Twas one who dared a felon's grave,
Who dared to breathe the scorn of scorn. Nay, more than this: when sword was drawn,
And vengeance waited for His word, He looked with pitying eyes upon
The scene, and said, "Put up thy sword." 0 God ! could man be found to-day As brave to do, as brave to say?
"Put up thy sword into its sheath,"
Put up thy sword, put up thy sword! By Kedron's brook thus spoke beneath
The olive-trees our' valiant Lord, Spoke calm and kinglike. Sword and stave
And torch and stormy men of death Made clamour. Yet He spake not save
With loving word and patient breath The peaceful olive boughs beneath,
"Put up thy sword within its sheath."
IV.
Be Strong.
It would seem, at least at first sight, as if only an artificial distinction could be drawn between those two injunc- tions, "Quit you like men," "Be strong." But, looking more closely into the meaning of the words, we find that, not only are they not synonymous, but they do not even overlap. The Greek word translated " Quit you like men," a word which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, has an obvious and definite meaning. It is an appeal to self-respect, and a call to us to show forth our moral strength. The word translated " Be strong," on the other hand, in the only three other passages in which it is used, definitely refers to a different kind of strength. Twice it is used of our Lord Himself growing strong in spirit, and once I it is used by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians, in the
1 Hibbert Journal, October 1908, p. 22.
i CORINTHIANS xvi. 13, 14 509
Strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner The word thus becomes almost synonymous with another favourite word of St. Paul's, constantly translated by the English "strengthened," or " made strong," and always with reference to Diyine strength. " Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of hisj might." "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." It refere definitely to that strength which made St. Paul himself strong for his work, even as spiritual heroes in all ages out of weakness have been made strong.
Mk Let us, then, live in no dou/t of Tvhat is gtrer jtii and what 'mess. It is stre igth to w;l and to do; it is weakness to
m
and not to do ; to wish arid not to will ; to wish to break a habit and still to live in it; to wish to fix the thoughts and them wander ; to wish for the command of a faculty and to ire no efficient use of it. And strength is not the vehement ulse of one part of us, but the final consent of all that is in Wm -^ *8 no^ *n ^e tenderness of a yielding man; nor in the resignation of a cold one ; nor in the prudence of a selfish man ; ^Hin Jihe open-handedness of a spendthrift. The tender must IjHrnf ; the resigned, loving ; the prudent, generous ; the charit- able, self-denying. It was seen in Christ when the morning of ^^fcreatest glory dawned upon Him — watching in trembling and ^^wayer — in His humility testing His weakness, and collecting His strength in God. Ptemember what He said to the disciples, who all failed Him in that great crisis, not because their hearts ■jH evil, but simply because their wills were feeble : " What, could ye not watch with me one hour ? Watch and pray, that HBter not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
r"Quit you like men, be strong." Yes, strength will come: ^^Hio weeps at night will fight as well to-morrow ;
fjps good to stand a-wrestling with the world;
j|e loses much who knows not care nor sorrow; yJTSs good all day to keep the foe abreast, <n5s good at night to fall on dreamless rest.
jgnL
3L " Be strong." — The original means rather " Become strong."
What is the use of telling men to " be strong " ? It is a waste of words, in nine cases out of ten, to say to a weak man, "Pluck
5io THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT
up your courage, and show strength." But is it so vain to tell a poor, weak creature like rue to become strong, when you. can. point me to the source of all strength, in that spirit " of power and of love and of a sound mind"? We have only to take our weakness there to have it stiffened into strength; as people. put 7 bits of wood into what are called "petrifying wells," wh. infiltrate into them mineral particles, which do not turn the wood into stone, but make the wood as strong as2 stone. So my aaan- hood, with all its weakness, may have filtered into it Divine strength, which will brace me for all needful duty, and make mi more than conqueror through Him that loved me. Then, 1 not mockery and cruelty, vanity and surplusage, to preach, "VH you like men; be strong, and be a man"; because if we will observe the plain and not hard conditions, strength will come to us according to our day, in fulfilment of the great promises " My grace is sufficient for thee," and " my strength is niao1 perfect in weakness." /