A great general has
said that nothing is half so terrible as a battle lost, except a battle
gained. But to be more than conquerors! to rise the stronger for the
strife even while we strive! this is what is involved in the Christian
song of jubilee in the Eighth of Romans.

We over-overcome because of the completeness of the victory. In most
campaigns it is by the balance of battles fought that the war is
decided. Seldom does it happen that all the victory is on one side:
and even then there will be virgin fortresses that never have been
stormed, over which no alien flag has ever floated, which may be
yielded indeed by treaty, but not taken by force. The over-conquering
Christian can say with the invading Israelites, "There was not one city
too strong for us: the Lord God delivered all unto us."

And in the strength of this I rode....
. . . . . . . .
And brake through all, and in the Strength of this come victor.

The triumphant scenes of the Apocalypse are not all future; but even
now we know something of living and reigning with Christ in a
fellowship above sin and above sorrow. For it was of sorrow rather
than of sin that the Apostle was speaking. Our principle is one of
holy indifference--an experience far removed from mere apathy. We do
not simply say with Buddha that sorrow drops off from him who has
finished the path, as water drops from a lotus leaf. We are not sure
whether the sorrows always do disappear from the burdened life like
that. But when they do not so pass away, the drop is turned to honey
in the cup of the flower; it is really the richer for its burden, and
so may well be content.

And now how do we come to this place of triumph? By what means is it
granted us to enter so fully into the songs which shall one day resound
through the universe? "Through Him that loved us." It is alliance
with God that is the secret. The three steps of the mystics are
_Purification_, _Illumination_, and _Union_; and simple as the
statement is, it is a better theology than many another of much larger
dimensions. Many people do not understand this alliance in which we
are led into union with God, through the Holy Spirit. They think it is
more like the old story of the dwarf and the giant, who went a warfare
together, in which expedition the dwarf lost his arms and legs, and was
only saved from imminent death in each conflict by the happy arrival of
the giant. One can scarcely blame the dwarf