2 PETER I. 5-7 165
of correspondence between the soul and the environing God is prayer ; but prayer requires a conductor, and that conductor or line of communication is faith. That is why we read, " He that Cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." But the faith-line must not be a dead wire. It must quiver with the current of living will. Only thus can it become the conveying medium of our communica- tion, and give carrying power to our prayers.^
(2) The term is often fairly enough translated " courage." But the word " courage," again, is rather narrow. It is only at times that courage is called into request, whereas the virtue the Apostle has in view is always in request. It is that practical energy which resides in the will, and which is necessary to carry faith into action. "We may, for convenience, call it the grace of doing. "Faith cometh by hearing"; but there are many who hear and fail to do, for want of this practical energy, this deter- mination which leads on to action It is the practical, as distin- guished from the speculative or the sentimental spirit.
^ There was a moment in the French Eevolution when the Eepublic was ringed round with enemies. The Prussians were on the Ehine, the Piedmontese in the Alps, the English in the Netherlands — La Vendue had rebelled in the west, and Lyons in the east. But Danton cried, "We need audacity, and again audacity, and always audacity." It is what I must have in the Holy War — a sanctified audacity that will dare anything and everything on Christ's behalf.^
^ Once in Northern India a detachment of soldiers were led against a band of robbers who had entrenched themselves in a strong position at the head of a narrow gorge. The troops were marching along the valley between the steep sides, when a sergeant and eleven men separated from the rest by taking the wrong side of the ravine. The officer in command signalled them to return. They, however, mistook the signal for a command to charge. For a moment they looked up the rocky heights, and saw their enemies above the ramparts. Then with a ringing cheer they clambered up the steep side. At the top were seventy robbers sheltered behind a breastwork. It was a desperate en- counter, but against such odds it could not last long. Six fell on the spot — the rest were hurled backward into the depths below. Now it was a custom in that nation when any of their bravest
^ H. Howard, The Summits of the Soul, 11. * A. Smellie, In the Hour of Silence, 312.
i66 THE UNFOLDING OF CHARACTER
fell in battle to distinguish the most valiant by a thread tied round the wrist — a thread of red or green silk, red denoting the greatest courage. Some little time afterwards the English troops found the twelve bodies stark and gashed, but round the wrist of each was tied the scarlet thread — the distinction of the hero. So, even amongst a wild and savage robber horde, bravery, the bravery of an enemy, is a thing to be reverenced and honoured. I ask you to-day to come and pledge yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, because it does need courage}
(3) Among the Eomans "virtue" meant especially a manly courage in the field. How they hated cunning and artifice and guile ! It was part of the true combatant that he would never take unfair advantage of his adversary. He would beat him in fair contest, or not at all. There was a true chivalry about these old-world heroes. They would not stoop to trickery and deceit and evasion. They relied on strength and skill and endurance ; on force of hand and head and heart. They knew how to take punishment like men, and to use victory with magnanimity. And their whole idea of this true bearing, this brave and open spirit entered into the word " virtue."
^ It takes more of real manhood to confess oneself in the wrong than to forgive and forget an offence. It is easier to be generous than to be just. He was not losing his manliness, but just gaining it again, who said "Father, I have sinned." And neither the individual nor the Church is losing manliness, but gaining it, that can be great enough to say " I am wrong." J. H. Green says that few scenes in English history are more touching than the one which closed the long struggle between Edward i. and the barons over the Charter, " when Edward stood face to face with his people in Westminster Hall, and, with a sudden burst of tears, owned himself frankly in the wrong." Aye, they were kingly tears ! and it was the confession of a king ! 2
3. We need this " virtue " in our faith. That is to say, we want to believe in an honest, robust, straightforward, manly way. Our convictions are to be held in a way becoming a man — frankly and manfully confessed, and based on a thoughtful and candid consideration of the various problems that we have to face. In
1 M. G. Pearse, Short Talks for the Times, 98