To these thoughts on the use of time we may fitly add the great words of Scripture, "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom," Ps. xc. 12. "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil," Ephes. v. 16. We transform time into eternity by using it aright. [1] These illustrations are given by Mr. Davenport Adams. [2] _Beginning Life_. CHAPTER VII. COURAGE. We all know what is meant by courage, though it is not easy to define it. It is the determination to hold our own, to face danger without flinching, to go straight on our way against opposing forces, neither turning to the right hand nor the left. It is a quality admirable in the eyes of all men, savage and civilized, Christian and non-Christian--as admirable as cowardice, the opposite quality, is detestable. The brave man is the hero of the savage. Bravery, or, as the Scriptures term it, _virtue_, is a great requisite in a Christian. If it is not the first, it is the second characteristic of a Christian life. "Add," says St. Paul, "to your faith virtue," that is to say, courage. It is the very glory of youth to be courageous.--The "sneak" and the "coward" are the abhorrence of youth. It is youth which climbs "the imminent deadly breach" and faces the deadly hail of battle, which defies the tyranny of custom and the hatred of the world. One may have compassion for age, which is naturally timid and sees fears in the way, but youth which is cowardly is contemptible. There are two kinds of courage--the one of a lower, the other of a higher type. (_a_) The first, the lower kind of courage, is that which has its root and foundation in our physical nature. It is constitutional; there is little or no merit in it. Some men are born to know no fear--men of strong nerve, of iron constitution, and powerful physique. Such men laugh at danger and scorn opposition. Theirs is the courage of the lion or the bull-dog, and there is no virtue about it. They cannot help being what they are. (_b_) But there is another kind of courage which is not so much physical as _moral_. It has its foundation not in man's bodily constitution so much as in his higher nature. It draws its power from the invisible. "Are you not afraid," was a question put by a young and boastful officer to his companion whose face was blanched and pale, as they stood together amid the thickly falling shot of a battle-field. "I _am_ afraid," he replied, "and if you were half as afraid as I am, you would run." In his case there was little physical courage, but there was the higher courage drawn from a sense of duty which made him stand firm as a rock. When our Lord knelt in His mysterious anguish in Gethsemane, His whole physical nature seemed broken down, "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." "Suffer," He said, "this cup to pass from me"; and His strength came from the invisible. "Not my will," He cried, "but thine be done."