God,
why hast Thou forsaken me?"

Above all, you have felt how difficult it was to die, not fighting sword
in hand, but slowly and idly, and helplessly, by cholera or fever, hunger
or cold. Terrible it is; but the Lord Jesus Christ has felt that too.
For three years He looked death in the face--a death of shame and misery
such as you can never die--and faced it, and gave Himself up to it of His
own free will; and though He had the most horrible fear of it to the very
last, He determined to submit to it, in spite of His own fear of it; and
He did submit to it, and died, and so _showed_, _even in His very fear_,
_the most perfect and glorious courage_. So if any one of you has ever
felt for a single moment _afraid_; even in _that_, the Lord Jesus Christ
can feel for you; for He, too, has gone through the agony of fear, when
His sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground, that He
might be able to help you, and every man that is tempted, because He can
be touched with the feeling of your infirmities, having gone through
every temptation which flesh is heir to, and conquered them all.

This, then, is one half (and only one half) of my good news; that you
have a Friend in heaven who feels for every trouble of yours, better than
your own mothers can feel for you, because He has been through it all
already; you have a Friend in heaven who is praying for you day and
night, more earnestly, lovingly, wisely, than your own wives and children
are praying for you. But that is not all. God forbid! You have a
Friend in heaven, for whose sake God will forgive you all your sins and
weaknesses, as often as you heartily confess them to Him, and trust in
Him for a full and free pardon. You have a Friend in heaven who will
help you day by day, where you most need help, in your hearts and
spirits; who will give you, if you ask Him, _His Spirit_, the same spirit
of duty, courage, endurance, love, self-sacrifice, which made Him brave
to endure ten thousand times more than any soldier or sailor can endure,
for the sake of doing His Father's will, and saving a ruined world.

Oh! open your hearts to Him, my brave men, in your lonely
night-watches--on your sick beds; ay, in the very roar of battle itself,
ask Him to make you true and good, patient, calm, prudent, honourable,
obedient, gentle, even in the hottest of the fight. Commit to Him your
own lives and fortunes, and the lives and fortunes of those who have been
left at h