True Words for Brave Men: A Book for Soldiers' and Sailors' LibrariesKingsley, Charles
Religion
True Words for Brave Men: A Book for Soldiers' and Sailors' Libraries
Kingsley, Charles
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English
My good friends, if you by doing wrong hurt other people, and make other
people unhappy, are you doing Christ's work or the devil's? Are you
fighting for Christ, who wishes to make all good, or for the devil, who
wishes to make all bad? Are you Christ's faithful soldier and servant,
or are you a traitor to Christ who has gone over to the devil's side, and
is helping the devil to make this poor world (which is bad enough
already) worse than it is?
Oh, think of this now, while you have time before you. Remember all that
Christ has done for you, and remember that all He asks of you in return
is to do for Him nothing but good, which is good for you as well as for
your neighbours. The devil's wages now are shame, discontent,
unhappiness, perhaps poverty, perhaps sickness, certainly punishment as
traitors to Christ after we die. Christ's wages are love, joy, peace,
the answer of a good conscience, the respect and love of all good men, as
long as we live, and after death, life everlasting. Choose; will you be
traitors or deserters, and serve the worst of all masters, the King of
Hell, or be honest, honourable, and brave men, and serve the best of all
masters, the King of Heaven, the Lord of Life, and love, and goodness
without bound, whose ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are
peace?
XXIV. HOLY COMMUNION; CHRIST AND THE SINNER.
"Have mercy upon, me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness;
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me
from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever
before me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."--PSALM li. 1, 2, 3, 17.
This Psalm was written by David when he was sorrowing for sin, and if
there are any such among you, my dear friends, let me speak a few words
to you. Would to God that I had the tongue of St. Paul to speak to you
with--though even when he preached some mocked, as it will be to the end.
But if to one of you God has brought home His truth, then to that one
conscience-stricken sinner I will say, "You confess with David that all
your sorrows are your own fault. Thank God that He has taught you so
much."
But what will you do to be saved from your sins? "I cannot wait," you
say in your heart, "to go home and begin leading a new life. I will do
that, please God, but I want to know at once that I am forgiven. I want
to be saved. I cannot save myself. I cannot save myself from hell
hereafter, or from this miserable sinful life, nearly as bad as hell
here. Oh! wretched being that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death?"
Friend, dost thou not know it is written, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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