eat to-morrow dawns for us, it 'shall be as this day and much more
abundant.' With this salvation in its imperfect form brightening the
present, and in its completeness filling the future with unimaginable
glory, we can go into all the conflicts of this fighting world and feel
that we are safe because God covers our heads in the day of battle.
Unless so defended we shall go into the fight as the naked Indians did
with the Spanish invaders, and be defeated as they were. The plumes may
be shorn off the helmet, and it may be easily dinted, but the head that
wore it will be unharmed. And when the battle and the noise of battle
are past, the helmet will be laid aside, and we shall be able to say, 'I
have fought a good fight, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness.'

'THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT'

'The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'--Eph. vi. 17.

We reach here the last and only offensive weapon in the panoply. The
'of' here does not indicate apposition, as in the 'shield of faith,' or
'the helmet of salvation,' nor is it the 'of' of possession, so that
the meaning is to be taken as being the sword which the Spirit wields,
but it is the 'of' expressing origin, as in the 'armour of God'; it is
the sword which the Spirit supplies. The progress noted in the last
sermon from subjective graces to objective divine facts, is completed
here, for the sword which is put into the Christian soldier's hand is
the gift of God, even more markedly than is the helmet which guards his
head in the day of battle.

I. Note what the word of God is.

The answer which would most commonly and almost unthinkingly be given
is, I suppose, the Scriptures; but while this is on the whole true, it
is to be noted that the expression employed here properly means a word
spoken, and not the written record. Both in the Old and in the New
Testaments the word of God means more than the Bible; it is the
authentic utterance of His will in all shapes and applying to all the
facts of His creation. In the Old Testament 'God said' is the expression
in the first chapter of Genesis for the forthputting of the divine
energy in the act of creation, and long ages after that divine poem of
creation was written a psalmist re-echoed the thought when he said 'For
ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens. Thou hast established
the earth and it abideth.'

But, further, the expression designates the specific messages whic