fter a sign or two of favour, it was said to him: 'I have made
thee lieutenant over all the forces in Mansoul; so that, from this day
forward, all men in Mansoul shall be at thy word; and thou shalt be he
that shall lead in and that shall lead out Mansoul. And at thy command
shall all the rest of the captains be.' My brethren, you will have the
whole key to all that in yourselves if this same war has gone this length
in you. Faith, your faith in God, and in the word of God, will, as this
inward war goes on, not only lead the van in your heart and in your life,
but just because your faith so leads in all things, and is so fitted to
lead in all things, it will at last be lifted up and set over your soul,
and all the things of your soul, till nothing shall be done in any of the
streets, or gates, or walls thereof that faith in God and in His word
does not first allow and admit. And then, when it has come to that
within you, that is the best mind, that is the safest, the happiest, and
the most heavenly mind that you can attain to in this present life; and
when faith shall thus lead and rule over all things in thy soul, be thou
always ready, for thy speedy translation to a still better life is just
at the door.

2. 'The second was that famous captain, Good-hope. His were the blue
colours. His standard-bearer was Mr. Expectation, and for a scutcheon he
had three golden anchors; and he had ten thousand men at his feet.' The
time was, my brethren, when all your hopes and mine were as yet anchored
without the veil. But all that is now changed. We still hope, in a mild
kind of way, for this thing and for that in this present life; but only
in a mild kind of way. It would not be right in us not to look forward,
say, from spring-time to summer, and from summer to harvest. If the
husbandman had not hope in the former and in the latter rain he would not
sow; and as it is with the husbandman so it is with us all: so ought it
to be, and so it must be. But we say God willing! all the time that we
plot and plan and hope. And we say God willing! no longer with a sigh,
but, now, always with a smile. In His will is our tranquillity, we say,
and we know that if it is not His will that this and that slightly
anchored hope should be fulfilled, then that only means that all our
hopes, to be called hopes, are soon to be realised. Our green and salad
days in the matter of hope are for ever past. If we had it all
absolutely secured