ased him better
than the Roman stories of many gods, who were capricious, and
fretful, and quarrelled with each other in a fashion which ought to
have been shocking to the conscience and reason of a disciplined
soldier.

There was a great deal, besides, in the Old Testament, which would,
surely, come home to a soldier's heart, when it told him of a God of
law, and order, and justice, and might, who defended the right in
battle, and inspired the old Jews to conquer the heathen, and to
fight for their own liberty. For what was it, which had enabled the
Romans to conquer so many great nations? What was it which enabled
them to keep them in order, and, on the whole, make them happier,
more peaceable, more prosperous, than they had ever been? What was
it which had made him, the poor common soldier, an officer, and a
wealthy man, governing, by his little garrison of a hundred
soldiers, this town of Capernaum, and the country round?

It was this. Discipline; drill; obedience to authority. That Roman
army was the most admirably disciplined which the world till then
had ever seen. So, indeed, was the whole Roman Government. Every
man knew his place, and knew his work. Every man had been trained
to obey orders; if he was told to go, to go; if he was told to do,
to do, or to die in trying to do, what he was bidden.

This was the great and true thought which had filled this good man's
mind--duty, order, and obedience. And by thinking of order, and
seeing how strength, and safety, and success lie in order, and by
giving himself up to obey orders, body and soul, like a good
soldier, had that plain man (who had certainly no scholarship,
perhaps could barely read or write) caught sight of a higher, wider,
deeper order than even that of a Roman army. He had caught sight of
that divine and wonderful order, by which God has constituted the
services of men, and angels, and all created things; that divine and
wonderful order by which sun and stars, fire and hail, wind and
vapour, cattle and creeping things fulfil his word.

Fulfil God's word. That was the thought, surely, which was in the
good soldier's mind, and which he was trying to speak out; clumsily,
perhaps, but truly enough. I suppose, then, that he thought in his
own mind somewhat in this way. 'There is a word of command among us
soldiers. Has God, then, no word of command likewise? And that
word of command is enough. Is not God's word of command enough
likewi