Taking One's Stand

Stand therefore.’’ — Epn. vi. 14.

THERE are some people who never seem to take a stand. They are always changing their ground. You never know where you have them! They shift, and they budge, and they slip, and they slide. Life is just a dodging of difficulties and never a magnificent facing of the foe. In these high and critical matters the folk who yield an inch will soon surrender a mile. They are swayed by loose opinions and not by fixed convictions. Or perhaps they are moved by sentiments and not by ideals. A comfortable feeling is more to be desired than a holy war. Indeed, they do not know anything important enough to warrant the shedding of their blood. To them there is nothing more precious than quietness. Emblazoned on their dainty, picnic banner is the legend, Anything for a quiet life!’ And “anything ’”? means indefinite surrender. While on Jesus’ blood-red banner are the burning words, ‘*“‘ Anything for a right life!” And ‘‘ anything” means not only the yielding of comfort, but even the offering up of life itself! It is the people who never take their stand who tend to emasculate the strength of a nation; and it is the same people who are accountable for any softness in the militant Church of Christ.

King Charles’ soldiers said of George Fox, “He is as stiff as a tree and as pure as a bell!’ It was a magnificent eulogy. George Fox could not be bent or twisted by the fiercest and most cruel antagonisms. His enemies tried it in a score of prisons. They could beat and bruise and harm his body, but they could not move his soul from its loyalty to the Lord. He would not swerve. He had taken his stand. He was immovable. Yes, indeed he was “as stiff as a tree,’ one of the trees of the Lord, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified.

Now George Fox’s noble stiffness was the companion of a radiant purity. Perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that the stiffness was more than the companion of the purity; it was its child. He was stiff as a tree just because he was as pure as a bell. Purity always breeds strength. Impurity always breeds weakness. When disloyalty steals into our souls the energy begins to leak from our wills. We stand not in the truth when there is no truth in us. When the truth is in us we are the unbribable foes of all iniquity. ‘“* His strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure.”

And, therefore, the way to make character more steadfast is by making it more pure. It becomes stable as it becomes clean. We are washed into strength! The blood from Immanuel’s veins rids us of both defilement and indifference. The grace which makes the saint makes the hero too. Yes, when we have knelt for cleansing we shall take our stand against the foe. ‘‘ He hath washed

us from our sins and made us kings!” .. Qh. & yo!