Do not be afraid of the mocking of your comrades: it is indeed not easy to bear; but if you really trust in Christ, he will enable you to live down their reproaches by a consistent and steady course of life. _Their_ reproaches are not to be put in comparison with _his_ smiles; and if the King of kings smiles upon you, what need you care who frowns? It will become you rather to pity, than to be offended at them. Seek, by constant prayer, for that prudence and wisdom which will enable you so to act as to put to silence their foolish scoffings; and, if you persevere, you will extort from them so much commendation as will repay you for all the reproaches you have borne, or may still be subject to. But let your faith be constant and your practice persevering. Do not take up religion by fits and starts. Those who do so show that they have not yet understood what it is. Unless your repentance be that of the Bible, and your faith in Jesus genuine, arising from a scriptural understanding of your own character as a guilty and helpless sinner in the sight of God, and a scriptural discernment of the rich grace and almighty power of Christ, you will not be able to stand: for the army is not a place for hypocrites, formalists, and self-righteous professors, to prosper in. The professions of such will generally vanish like smoke. The genuine believer in Jesus alone is able to abide the trial; and he stands, because he is upheld by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Therefore, let no soldier neglect his salvation, through fear that the temptations of the army will be too much for him. Great as they are, if he trusts in Christ, he shall be made "more than a conqueror through him that loved him;" and the more he can get his comrades to attend to the same things, the temptations will diminish. And the more the religion of Jesus prevails in the army, and the greater the number of genuine disciples are in it, the greater improvement will be made in its character, efficiency, and comfort.