indeed long a nation at all. And
it is alive among us. Not that we, any of us, have enough of it--God
forgive us for all our shortcomings. And God grant it may remain alive
among us; for it is, as far as it goes, the likeness of Christ, the Maker
and Ruler of the world.

"Christian," said a great genius and a great divine,

"If thou wouldst learn to love,
Thou first must learn to hate."

And if any one answer--"Hate? Even God hateth nothing that He has made."
The rejoinder is,--And for that very reason God hates evil; because He
has not made it, and it is ruinous to all that He has made.

Go you and do likewise. Hate what is wrong with all your heart, and
mind, and soul, and strength. For so, and so only, you will shew that
you love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength,
likewise.

Oh pray--and that not once for all merely, but day by day, ay, almost
hour by hour--Strengthen me, O Lord, to hate what Thou hatest, and love
what Thou lovest; and therefore, whenever I see an opportunity, to put
down what Thou hatest, and to help what Thou lovest--That so, at the last
dread day, when every man shall be rewarded according to his works, you
may have some answer to give to the awful question--On whose side wert
thou in the battle of life? On the side of good men and of God, or on
the side of bad men and the devil? Lest you find yourselves forced to
reply--as too many will be forced--with surprise, and something like
shame and confusion of face--I really do not know. I never thought about
the matter at all. I never knew that there was any battle of life.

Never knew that there was any battle of life? And yet you were
christened, and signed with the sign of the Cross, in token that you
should fight manfully under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and
the devil, and continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant to your
life's end. Did it never occur to you that those words might possibly
mean something? And you used to sing hymns, too, on earth, about
"Soldiers of Christ, arise, And put your armour on." What prophets, and
apostles, and martyrs, and confessors meant by those words, you should
know well enough. Did it never occur to you that they might possibly
mean something to you? That as long as the world was no better than it
is, there was still a battle of life; and that you too were sworn to
fight in it? How many will answer--Yes--Yes--But I thought that these
words on