Girding the Loins

‘“WHEREFORE, gird up the loins of your mind,’’ is the stirring exhortation of that same enthusiastic disciple who had once ‘girded his fisherman’s tunic about him and leaped out of the boat to swim to his Master. ‘The ancients, as our readers know, were accustomed. to wear loose, flowing garments, and when any strenuous exertion: was required, they gathered the folds of their drapery and bound a girdle about their waist. A spiritual process similar to this is essential to a vigorous, effective Christian life.

Jesus Christ does not put you or me into his church just to make us comfortable. Nor is getting to heaven the sole object or even the chief

object of becoming a Christian. Obedience ta

Fesus Christ is the first thing. ‘This is the core of Christianity. The phrase ‘‘girding the loins”?

implies readiness for duty. On that last night in Egypt the children of Israel were commanded to stand with girded loins and sandalled feet, with staves in their hands, ready to be off on their exodus at a moment’s notice. Paul at the start of his grand career inquired, ‘‘ Lord, what wilt thou have me todo?’ At the finish he exclaimed, ‘‘ Now I am ready to be offered up!” We pastors soon discover who are the minutemen in our churches. Whether it be work or money or service of any kind that is required of them, their cheerful response proves that Christ has the first hold on their hearts. Eagerness for the fight marks the true soldier; eagerness for the run made the successful Olympic racer; eagerness to do Christ’s will, or even to endure hard blows for his Master, marks the happy, ready-hearted Christian. The moment that a minister counts sermon-making a drudgery his girdle has broken.

2. Another idea suggested by the apostle’s phrase is the compacting of all our powers upon the work we have in hand. Consecration is not enough without concentration. Paul’s “‘this one aaa =o thing I do”’ tightened his resolves and kept him from frittering away life on trifles. Sir Isaac Newton’s secret of success was ‘‘intending his mind upon the thing.’”? Pericles only knew one street in Athens, the street that led from his own house to the Executive Chamber. At this season of the year the feeble sun-rays may be so

‘focused by a burning-glass as to set wood on fire.

I know some men and women of moderate abilities, who under the concentrating power of the love of Christ make wonderfully useful Christians. This compacting of one’s self for the duty at hand is well described by the current phrase of a man’s “‘ pulling himself together.”’ Some church members go to pieces for want of a stout girdle.

3. Loin-girding also implies a wholesome idea of restraint. Waxity is the curse of the times in doctrine, in preaching, in social life, and in church life. Loose thinking leads to loose living. The very word ‘‘religion’’ signifies something that holds us together and binds us to God. We cannot do just as we like. The people who clamor for liberty to do as they please and who scout at Bible restraints as a yoke of bondage, are the very people who drift away into vagabondage. A robust Christian, like a robust soldier, understands the value of drill and discipline, and learns to obey the higher powers. It is not a good sign when a follower of Christ begins to loosen his girdle. He is preparing to shirk or.skulk or go to sleep. Tighten the loins, brother, and make up your mind that a noble, victorious Christian life is not the easiest thing in this world.

Easy things, like cheap things, are of small value. The best attainments must be paid for. God has put some pretty steep hills on his roads to heaven, and you will need to gird your loins if you expect to climb them. He provides the girdle; you have but to clasp it about you. He offers you a belt embroidered with these words: ‘“My grace is sufficient for thee.’’ Clap it on, and you will find that the things which seem impossible become possible to a resolute, unshrinking faith, Mr. Moody’s negro woman was about right when she said that if God ordered her to jump through a stone wall, the jumping was her part, and thé getting through was his look-out and not hers. God promises that he will ‘“‘gird us with strength,’? and that strength is always equal to the load to be carried or the cliff to be clambered.

It may be a timely text to preach about in this age of ‘‘liberal’’ thinking and mucilaginous theology. Some people are falling all apart and going to pieces from very looseness of principles. Weakness becomes wickedness. All backsliding in the church starts from loosening the hold on Christ. Conscience loosens its grip. The very garments which the Christian wears become entangled in all manner of worldly and sinful practices, until he can no longer make headway.

Wherefore, let us gird up the loins of our souls and ‘“‘be sober.’’ Life is not a frolic, and the service of our crucified Lord is not child’s play. The end of all things is at hand with each of us. ‘There is an exultant joy in the daring and the dash, the push and the climb, the conflict and the victory, of a well-girded soul on his way to his crown. ‘The prize is for the racer and none else. ‘They who would fain go to heaven in what Rutherford calls a ‘‘close-covered chariot’? may not gain admission at the gate; or if they do, they will be ashamed to look God’s heroes there in the face. Let your loins be girded and your lamps be burning, and ye yourselves be like unto men who wait for their Lord. ‘‘Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching; he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them.”’

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