ation which is
absolutely false. And, if anyone of you has ever been through that
terrible trial of suffering under an imputation on your honour, which
you know to be false, but cannot prove to be false, you realize what a
field such a state as that presents for moral courage. What are we to
say to anyone we see who is under that most terrible trial? What are
we to say to ourselves if such a misfortune and trial comes to us?
Why, we can only say this, and it is enough--that if it is true that a
general places his bravest soldiers in the hottest part of the battle,
if it is true that it is only certain strokes which can reach the most
sensitive parts of our character, if it is true that this very trial
came to Jesus Christ Himself, and He had it said of Him--"He works
through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils," "He saved others, Himself
He cannot save"--then, my brother, the secret of your strange
punishment is out, it means that it is a special mark of favour, it is
a Victoria Cross for service, it is Christ coming to you and bringing
the very cup out of which He drank Himself, and saying, "Are ye able to
drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with?" Pray hard, pray with all your strength, for
the moral courage to answer back, "I am able." "Therefore," as the
poet so beautifully says:--

"Therefore gird up thyself, and come to stand
Unflinching under the unfaltering hand
That waits to prove thee to the uttermost.

It were not hard to suffer by His hand
If thou could see His face; but in the dark!
That is the one last trial--be it so;
Christ was forsaken, so must thou be too:
How couldst thou suffer but in seeming else?

Thou wilt not see the face, nor feel the hand,
Only the cruel crushing of the feet,
When, thro' the bitter night, the Lord comes down
To tread the wine-press. Not by sight but faith,
Endure, endure; be faithful to the end."

And so, once again, looking out upon our ordinary life, what shall we
need to put backbone into life? What do we need to give a little more
strength to it, to enable us to be braver and firmer and stronger? It
is just that power of being able to take our own line against others;
it is just that courage of our opinions; it is consistent with being
perfectly humble, and ever ready to learn; it implies no conceit, and
no contempt of others, but it enables this one in the workshop to stand
up