then, and
compact organisation, like that of the legions whom Paul, from his
prison among the Praetorian guards, had often seen shining in steel,
moving like a machine, grim, irresistible. The cause for which we are to
fight is the faith of the gospel, an expression which almost seems to
justify the opinion that 'the faith' here means, as it does in later
usage, the sum and substance of that which is believed. But even here
the word may have its usual meaning of the subjective act of trust in
the gospel, and the thought may be that we are unitedly to fight for its
growing power in our own hearts and in the hearts of others. In any
case, the idea is plainly here that Christian men are set down in the
world, like the frontier guard, to push the conquests of the empire, and
to win more ground for their King.

Such work is ever needed, never more needed than now. In this day when a
wave of unbelief seems passing over society, when material comfort and
worldly prosperity are so dazzlingly attractive to so many, the solemn
duty is laid upon us with even more than usual emphasis, and we are
called upon to feel more than ever the oneness of all true Christians,
and to close up our ranks for the fight. All this can only be done after
we have obeyed the other injunctions of this text. The degree in which
we feel that we belong to another order of things than this around us,
and the degree in which we live by the Imperial laws, will determine the
degree in which we can fight with vigour for the growth of the dominion
of the City. Be it ours to cherish the vivid consciousness that we are
here dwelling not in the cities of the Canaanites, but, like the father
of the faithful, in tents pitched at their gates, nomads in the midst
of a civic life to which we do not belong, in order that we may breathe
a hallowing influence through it, and win hearts to the love of Him whom
to imitate is perfection, whom to serve is freedom.

IV. The last exhortation to the colonists is, Be sure of victory.

'In nothing terrified by your adversaries,' says Paul. He uses a very
vivid, and some people might think, a very vulgar metaphor here. The
word rendered _terrified_ properly refers to a horse shying or plunging
at some object. It is generally things half seen and mistaken for
something more dreadful than themselves that make horses shy; and it is
usually a half-look at adversaries, and a mistaken estimate of their
strength, that make Christians af