GAL. VI. 17 493
Jesus, whose body told and tells of His surrender to His Father, comes to us. And with those hands eagerly outstretched, and eyes beaming with the earnestness of His great passion for men. He says, "Yoke up with Me. Let Me have the control of all your splendid powers, in carrying out our Father's will for a world." 1
^ Some scars are ornaments. I do not know a more splendid word in all the supremely splendid Epistles of St. Paul than " I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus." " Do you see this ? " he said, " I was stoned there " ; and then he would pull up his sleeve and say, "Do you see that? — it is the mark of the scourge. If you could only see my back, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus " ; he exhibited them as some men parade their degrees. His scars were his crown.*
^ Walk through Greenwich Hospital, or go down to Chelsea and talk to some of the old pensioners. Are they ashamed of their scars ? Why, I remember how, a few months back, we had, at one of our meetings, a brother who had served in the Crimean War, and he showed me how a bayonet had gone in here and come out there — how there was a mark in his arm where a ball had gone right through and a scar in his face where the sword had cut. I think he said that he had about twenty scars on him, and his eyes flashed fire as he told the story .^
^ The " marks " of valour that the soldier obtains on the field of battle are invariably a matter of pride to himself and his friends. Lord Kaglan's orderly officer, Lieutenant Leslie, was wounded at the battle of Alma. On the evening of that day Lord Kaglan said to another officer, " Do you know Tom Leslie's mother ? She is a charming woman. I must write to her. How proud she will be to hear that her son has a bullet in his shoulder ! '* At the battle of Busaco in Portugal, in 1810, Sir Charles Napier, afterwards the conqueror of Scinde, was shot through the face. His two brothers had been wounded a short time before, and when he wrote to his mother he said, "You have the pride of saying your three sons have been wounded and are all alive. How this would have repaid my father for all his anxieties, and it must do so for you. Why, a Eoman matron would not have let people touch her garment in such a case. There is no shame for such wounds. The scars on my face will be as good as medals ; better, for they were not gained by hiding behind a wall." *
1 S. D. Grordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 85.
' J. H. Jowett. » Archibald G. Brown.
* The Morning Watch, 1895, p. 62.
494 THE MARKS OF JESUS
If Thou, my Christ, to-day Shouldst speak to me and say, " What battles hast thou fought for Me ? Show Me thy scars; I fain would see Love's depth of victory;"
If Thou shouldst speak, my Christ, My Leader and my King, And bid me lay my wounds in sight, The scars borne just for Thee in fight, What love-scars could I bring ?
Printed by Morrisok &, Qibb Limitib, EdinburgS
Date Due
^w"T"r'i|auw7".dii»
RUV I" I '^'
^!!fiSfl*!f!!^^ ^littattaiiiM^
■1 MiliiliillMffi^
]iii<ii ri? n
y/^fiytiTT^ TPUH 3B ^^