Marching Orders, No. IX

“The Captain of their salvation.” — Hebrews ii. 10.

Who gives the marching orders? Ah! that is the secret of their force, that is the secret of the thrill with which they have reached the hearts of men and women who have hazarded their lives to carry them out, faithful unto death, in their noble, literal obedience. For it was the voice of the Captain of their salvation that they recognised and followed, as the “Go ye therefore” fell upon their opened ears.

Of their salvation only? Is He not also the Captain of our salvation? Has not the Father given Him to be a Leader and Commander, and exalted Him to be a Prince and a Saviour for us? And shall His marching orders be disregarded, whatever they are, by one whose salvation He brought with His own arm, whose life He bought with His own blood?

For think how His Divine captaincy was won! No lightly or easily assumed leadership was that. A solemn and mysterious qualification of unknown sorrows and agonies was necessary. “For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation, perfect through sufferings.” Through wounding for our transgressions, through bruising for our iniquities, through chastisement and stripes,” through death, “yes,” the suffering of death,” did our Lord Jesus Christ pass to be made our perfect Captain, so that no soldier of His should ever have to endure any hardness or any fight of afflictions, without that real, personal sympathy from his Master which can only be the outflow of real, personal experience of the same. Oh, think of “the things that He suffered,” over and above the great atoning suffering on the cross, just that He might personally know our little sorrows, and personally enter into our insignificant sufferings, and succor us in them with His own mighty help!” For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted,

He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Think of all that detail of suffering through His lonely life and lonelier death being just the detail of love, — love freshly marvellous in this aspect.

And now that the suffering is over, and the Captaincy is won, and we are enrolled to be His faithful soldiers and servants unto our lives’ end, is it to be merely a nominal thing on our side? It was no nominal thing on His side. The sufferings of the Lord Jesus were not nominal, and His exaltation to be a Prince as well as a Saviour is not nominal; then shall we dare to treat His orders as merely nominal, and as something to be comfortably explained away, according to circumstances? Oh, if our loyalty were as literal as His love, if our obedience were as literal as His sufferings, would there, could there be such want of volunteers to go where He has plainly set up His standard, and such want of free-handed pouring into His treasury, and such want of brave speaking out of heartabundance, and such want of fervent, faithful, persevering echoes of the great prayer, “Father, glorify Thy Son!”

But if, by His grace, we are seeking honestly to obey His marching orders, we shall find that the very effort of obedience will quicken our faith and love; the more we listen the more real and familiar will the voice of our Captain become, and the closer we follow the clearer will be our realization of His Leadership. And then we shall take up the exultant words: “Behold, God Himself is with us for our Captain!” and know the full blessedness of being ranged under, the victorious banner of Immanuel.

Fierce may be the conflict,

Strong may be the foe,
But the King’s own army

None can overthrow.
Round His standard ranging

Victory is secure,
For His truth unchanging

Makes the triumph sure. Joyfully enlisting, I We are on the Lord’s side,

By Thy grace Divine, I Saviour, we are Thine.

Chosen to be soldiers

In an alien land,
“Chosen, called, and faithful”

For our Captain’s band,
In the service royal,

Let us not grow cold;
Let us be right loyal,

Noble, true, and bold. Master, Thou wilt keep us, I Always on the Lord’s side, By Thy grace Divine, I Saviour, always Thine I ‘Say amongst the heathen, that the Lord reigneth.’1 Ps. xcvi. 10.

SUCCOTH. 87, 87, 77.

i Heralds of the Lord of glcry!

Lift your voices, lift them high:
Tell the gospel’s wondrous story,

Tell it fully, faithfully;
Tell the heathen midst their woe
Jesus reigns, above, below.

2 Haste the day, the bright, the glorious!

When the sad and sin -bound slave
High shall laud, in pealing chorus,

Him who reigns, and reigns to save.
Tempter, tremble! Idols, fall!
Jesus reigns, the Lord of all!

3 Christians! send to joyless regions

I leralds of the gladdening word; Let them, voiced like trumpet legions,

Preach the kingdom of the Lord;
Tell the heathen, Jesus died!
Reigns He now. though crucified.

4 Saviour, let Thy quickening Spirit

Touch each herald lip with fire:
Nations then shall own Thy merit,

Heart shall glow with Thy desire:
Earth in jubilee shall sing,
Jesus reigns, the eternal King!

Rev. William Henry Havergal, 1827.

(No. 881, “Songs of Grace and Glory.”)