m; it is dark about you, the wind
howls, the stars vanish. What gives you comfort? It is the knowledge
that one thing is true. Thank God, you have your compass, and the
tremulous little needle can be trusted. You bend over it with your
lantern in the dark and know where you are going, and that renews your
courage. You have the spirit of the truth, and it is your comforter.

{87}

XXXV

THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

_Ephesians_ vi. 14-17.

In this passage the apostle is thinking of the Christian life as full
of conflict and warfare. It needs what he calls the good soldier of
Jesus Christ, and for the moment St. Paul is considering how such a
soldier should be armed for such a war. He is like some knight of the
Middle Ages, standing in his castle-yard and serving out to his vassals
the weapons they need for the battle which is near at hand. "Take all
your armor," he says. "This is no holiday affair, no dress parade.
You are to fight against principalities and powers. So take the whole
armor of God." And then he puts it into their hands. There is,
however, one curious thing about this armor. It has but one offensive
weapon. The soldier of Jesus Christ is given, to defend himself from
his enemies, the shield of faith, the tunic of truth, the helmet of
salvation; but to fight, to overcome, to disarm, he has but one
weapon,--the {88} sword of the spirit. Is it possible, then, that the
Spirit of God entering into a man can be to him a sword; that a man's
character has this aggressive quality; that a man fights just by what
he is? Yes, that seems to be the apostle's argument. Looking at all
the conflicts and collisions of life, its differences of opinion, its
causes to be won, he thinks that the best fighting weapon is the spirit
of a man's life. Behind all argument and persuasion the only absolute
argument, the final persuasion, is the simple witness of the spirit.
When a man wants to make a cause he believes in win, his aggressive
force lies not in what he says about that cause, but in what that cause
has made of him. He wins his victory without striking a blow when he
wields the sword of the Spirit. He comes like the soft, fresh morning
among us, and we simply open our windows and yield to it, greeting it
with joy. It is the air we want to breathe, and we accept it as our
own.

{89}

XXXVI

LIFE IS AN ARROW

_John_ xiv. 6.

When Jesus says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life