and welcomes him
with a peculiar confidence. How is it that there is given to him this
abrupt {13} commendation? Why does Jesus say that he shows more faith
than Israel itself? It was, of course, because of the man's attitude
of mind. He comes to Jesus just as a soldier comes to his superior
officer. He has been disciplined to obedience, and that habit of
obedience to his own superiors is what gives him in his turn authority.
He obeys, and he expects to be obeyed. He is under authority, and so
he has authority over his own troops, and says to one soldier Go, and
to another Come, and they obey. Now Jesus sees in an instant that this
is just what he wants of his disciples. What discipline is to a
soldier, faith is to a Christian. A religious man is a man who is
under authority. He goes to his commander and gets orders for the day.
He does not pretend to know everything about his commander's plans. It
is not for him to arrange the great campaign. It is for him only to
obey in his own place, and to take his own part in the great design.
Perhaps in the little skirmish in which he is involved there may be
defeat, but perhaps that defeat is to count in the victory for the
larger plan. Thus the religious man does not serve on his own account.
He is in the hands of a general, who overlooks {14} the whole field.
And that sense of being under authority is what gives the religious man
authority in his turn. He is not the slave of his circumstances; he is
the master of them. He takes command of his own detachment of life,
because he has received command from the Master of all life. He says
to his passions, Go; and to his virtues, Come; and to his duty, Do
this; and the whole little company of his own ambitions and desires
fall into line behind him, because he is himself a man under authority.
That is a soldier's discipline, and that is a Christian's faith.

{15}

VI

SPIRITUAL ATHLETICS

1 _Timothy_ iv. 8.

There is this great man writing to his young friend, whom he calls "his
own son in the faith," and describing religion as a branch of
athletics. Bodily exercise, he says, profiteth somewhat. It is as if
an old man were writing to a young man today, and should begin by
saying: "Do not neglect your bodily health; take exercise daily; go to
the gymnasium." But spiritual exercise, this writer goes on, has this
superior quality, that it is good for both worlds, both for that which
now is, and that whic