The otherwise Christian is a chocolate Christian! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. Sweet they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution. Here are some portraits of Chocolate Soldiers taken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself:

He said, I go sir, and went not; he said he would go to the heathen, but stuck fast to Christendom instead.

They say and do not they tell others to go, and yet do not go themselves. Never, said General Gordon to a corporal in the midst of a battle, tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself.

To the Chocolate Soldier the very thought of war brings a violent attack of sickness, while the call to battle always finds him paralyzed. I really cannot move, he says. I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favorite lines:

I must be carried to the skies On a flowery bed of ease Let others fight to win the prize, Or sail thro bloody seas Mark time, Christian heroes, Never go to war; Stop and mind the babies Playing on the floor. Wash and dress and feed them Forty times a week. Till they’re roly poly Puddings so to speak. Round and round the nursery Let us ambulate Sugar and spice and all that’s nice Must be on our slate.

Thank the good Lord, said a very fragile, white-haired lady, God never meant me to be a jelly-fish! She wasn’t! God never was a Chocolate manufacturer, and never will be. Gods men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.

Noah walked with God, he didn’t only preach righteousness, he acted it. He went through water and didn’t melt. He breasted the current of the popular opinion of his day, scorning alike the hatred and ridicule of the scoffers who mocked at the thought of there being but one way of salvation. He warned the unbelieving and, entering the ark himself, didn’t open the door an inch when once God and shut it. A real hero untainted by the fear of man!

Learn to scorn the praise of men, Learn to lose with God; Jesus won the world thro shame! And beckons us His road.

Abraham, a simple farmer, at a word from the Invisible God, marched, with family and stock, through the terrible desert to a distant land to live among a people whose language he could neither speak nor understand! Not bad that! But later he did even better, rushing out against the combined armies of five kings, flushed with recent victory, to rescue one man! His Army? Just 318 odd fellows, armed like a circus crowd. And he won too. He always wins who sides with God. What courage! Only a farmer! No war training! Yet what hero has eclipsed his feat? His open secret? He was the friend of God!

Moses the man of God was a species of human chameleon: scholar, general, law-giver, leader, etc. Brought up as the Emperors grandson with more than a good chance of coming to the throne, one thing only between him and it Truth what a choice! What a temptation! A throne for a lie! Ignominy, banishment, or likely enough death for the truth! He played the man! Refusing to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin and success for a season, accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.

Again I see him. Now and old man and alone, marching stolidly back to Egypt, after forty years of exile, to beard the lion in his den, to liberate Pharaohs slaves right under his very nose, and to lead them across that great and terrible wilderness. A wild-cat affair, if ever there was one! When were Gods schemes otherwise?! Look at Jordon, Jericho, Gideon, Goliath, and scores of others. Tame tabby-cat schemes are stamped with another hallmark that of the Chocolate Brigade! How dearly they love their tabbies yet think themselves wise men! Real Christians revel in desperate ventures for Christ, expecting from God great things and attempting the same with exhirliration. History cannot match these feats of Moses. How was it done? He consulted not with flesh and blood, he obeyed not men but God.

Once again I see the old grey-beard, this time descending the Mount with giant strides and rushing into camp, his eyes blazing like burning coals. One man against three million dancing dervishes drunk with debauchery. Bravo! Well done, old man! First class! His cheek pales not, but his mouth moves, and I think I catch his words, If God be for me who can be against me? I will not be afraid of 10,000 of the people that have set themselves against me. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. And he didn’t. He wins again. Whence this desperate courage? Listen! Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth…the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. My servant, Moses, said his Master, is faithful in all Mine house, with him will I speak mouth to mouth. Such is the explanation of Moses the chameleon, the man and friend of God and consequently a first-class hero.

David the man after Gods own heart was a man of war and a mighty man of valor. When all Israel were on the run, David faced Goliath alone…with God and he but a stripling, and well scolded too by his brother for having come to see the battle. What a splendid fool Eliab must have been! As though David would go to see a battle and not stay to fight. They are Chocolate Soldiers who merely go to see battles, and coolly urge others to fight them. They had better save their journey money and use it to send out real fighters instead. Soldiers don’t need dry nurses, and if they did the Holy Ghost is always on the spot and ready to undertake any case on simple application. No! David went to the battle and stayed to fight, and won! Wise beyond his years, he had no use for Saul’s armor. It cramped his freedom of action. He tried it on and took it off quick. And, besides, it made such a ghastly rattle, even when he walked, that he could not hear the still small voice of God, and would never have heard Him saying afterwards, This is the way to the brook, David! and there are the five smooth stones! Trust only in Me and them. Your own home-made sling will do first class, and there! that’s the shortest cut to Goliath. The Chocolates ran away they were all Chocolates but David ran upon Goliath. One smooth stone was enough.

David’s secret was that he had but one Director, and He the Infallible One. He directed the stone, as He directed the youth. Too many directors spoil the sport, and two are too many, just the One. Thus Christ said to His soldiers: He shall teach you all things, He shall guide you into all the truth. This is My beloved Son: Hear Him. One Mediator only, between God and Man, the man Christ Jesus. One director of Christian Man God the Holy Ghost. Whose directions indeed require instant obedience, but not the endorsement of any man.

The devil needs red-hot shot, fresh from the foundry of the Holy Ghost. He laughs at sold shot or tepid, and as for that made of half-iron and half-clay, half-divine and half-human, why you might just as well pelt him with snowballs.

Whence did this raw youth derive his courage and skill? Not from military camps, nor theological schools, nor religious retreats. To know The only True God and Jesus Christ is enough. Paul determined to know only Jesus Christ, and look at the grand result! While others were learning pretty theories, David, like John, had been alone with God in the wilds, practicing on bears and lions. The result? He knew God and did exploits. He knew God only. He obeyed God only. That’s the secret. God alone gives strength. God adulterated with men entails the weakness of iron and clay Chocolate brittleness!

Yet, hero as he was, even David, alas!, once played the role of Chocolate Soldier. He stayed at home when he should have gone to war. His army, far off, in danger fighting the enemy, won. David, at home, secure, within sight of Gods house and often going there, suffered the one great defeat of his life, entailing such a bitter, life-long reaping as might deter others from the folly of sowing wild oats. David’s sin is a terrific sermon (like Lots preaching in Sodom must have been), its theme don’t be a Chocolate Soldier!

In his simple, quick and full confession, David proved himself a man again. It takes a real man to make a true confession _ a Chocolate Soldier will excuse or cloak his sin. He tumbles in the mud, flounders on, wipes his mouth to try to get the bad taste of his acted lie out of it, and then goes on his way saying, I have done no wickedness. A self-murdering fool! Killing his conscience to save his face, like Balaam beating the ass who sought to save his masters life. Being a Chocolate Soldier nearly did in David. Beware!

Nathan was another real Christian Soldier. He went to his king and rebuked him to his face, like Peters dealing with Ananias (only David embraced his opportunity and confessed), and unlike the Chocolate Soldiers of today who go whispering about and refusing to either judge, rebuke, or put away evil because of the entailed scandal. Veritable Soapy Sams. They say It is nothing! Nothing at all! A mere misunderstanding! As though Gods cause would suffer more through a bold declaration and defense of the truth and the use of the knife, than by the hiding of sin, and the certain development of mortification in the member, involving death to the whole body. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, and he that doeth sin is of the devil, and ought to be told so. He that is a second time led captive by the devil needs neither salve nor medicine, but the vigorous rebuke and summons to repentance of a righteous man to effect his salvation. We are badly in need of Nathans today, who fear God and naught else, no, not even a scandal!

Daniel was another hero. Of course he was! Was he not the man greatly beloved of God who sent an angel to tell him so? I love to watch him as he walks, with firm step and radiant face, to the lions den, stopping but once like his Master en route to Calvary to comfort his weeping and agonized emperor. God shut the mouths of the lions against Daniel, but opened them wide against those who had opened their mouths against His servant. A man is known by his works, and the works of Daniel were his three friends, who, rather than bow down to men or gold, braved the fiery furnace. Again we see him going to the banquet hall, and hear his conductor whisper in his ear, Be careful, Daniel, be statesmanlike. Position and power again for you if you are tactful and wise especially tactful! And Daniel’s simple reply, Get thee behind me, Satan! There he stands before the king, braving torture or instant death but its the king, not Daniel who tells him to his face the whole hot truth of God, diminishing not a jot.

John the Baptist a man taught and made and sent of God good old John! Who doesn’t love and admire him? Why, even Herod did. A genuine deficiency of oil and salve in his composition. He always told the bang flat truth, with emphasis. As he loved, so he warned. He knew not how to fawn. He wooed with the sword, and men loved him the better for it. They always do. The leaders of religion sent to John to ask him the dearly loved question of every Pharisee, By what authority doest though these (good) things? They asked that of Christ Himself, and crucified Him for the doing of them. Johns answer was plain and pungent, I will tell you what you ask and more. (John was always liberal) I? I am nobody, but ye and your masters are a generation of vipers. A good hot curry, that! John never served his curries with butter sauce, but he was always very liberal with chutney a man of God no sugar plum nor Chocolate Soldier he!

Thus he faced Herod after six months in an underground dungeon, and he a man of Gods Open-air Mission. Brought straight in before the king; surrounded with all the might and majesty of camp and court, blinking at the unaccustomed sight of light, but by no means putting blinders on the truth, he blurted out his hot and thunderous rebuke, Thou shalt not have that woman to be thy wife. A whole sermon in one sentence, as easy to remember as impossible to forget. John had preached like that before; like Hugh Latimer, he was not above repeating a good sermon to a king, word for word, when the king had not given sufficient heed to it.

John received the unique distinction of a first-class character from both God and the agent of the devil. Hark to the Savior indulging in an outburst of exquisite sarcasm, What think ye of John? A reed shaken by the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment? A Chocolate Soldier? (How delicious! The Chocolates were right in front of Jesus at the time Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, scribes, lawyers, and other hypocrites. How the crowd must have enjoyed it!) A prophet! Nay, much more than a prophet! Of men born of women there is none greater than John. And what did the devils agent say when, after Johns death, he heard of Jesus? This I tell you, is John risen from the dead. What a character! Fancy Jesus being mistaken for anyone! He could have been mistaken only for John. Nobody envies him the well-deserved honor, great though it was, for John was a man pure granite right through, with not a grain of chocolate in him.

Had John but heard Jesus say, Ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth, I very much doubt if Herods dungeons, or his soldiers, could have detained him. He surely would have found some means of escape, and run off to preach Christ’s Gospel. If not in the very heart of Africa, then in some more difficult and dangerous place. Yet Christ said, referring to His subsequent gifts of the Holy Ghost to every believer, He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he, intimating that even greater powers than those of John are at the disposal of every Christian, and that what John was each one of us can be a good, straight, bold, unconquerable, heroic.

But here are other foot-tracks outrageous ones: they can belong only to one man, that grandest of Christian paradoxes, the little giant Paul whose head was as big as his body, and his heart greater than both. Once he thought and treated every Christian as a combination of knave and fool. Then he became one himself. He was called fool because his acts were so far beyond the dictates of human reason, and mad because of his irrepressible fiery zeal for Christ and men. A first-class scholar, but one who knew how to use scholarship properly; for he put it on the shelf, declaring the wisdom of men to be but folly, and determined to know nothing else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The result he made the world turn somersault. His life was a perpetual gamble for God. Daily he faced death for Christ. Again and again he stood fearless before crowds thirsting for his blood. He stood before kings and governors and turned not a hair. He didn’t so much as flinch before Nero, that vice-president of hell. His sufferings were appalling; read them. He walked in his Masters footsteps, and so received (God is always just in His favors) the same splendid compliment that Jesus did. All forsook him. So there were some Chocolate Christians in those days too. Anyone who forsook Paul must have been made of Chocolate. Doubtless the Chocolates excused themselves as they do today. Who could abide such a fanatical, fiery fool? Such an uncompromising character? Nobody could work with him, or he with them! (What a lie! Jesus did, and they got on well together.) A tactless enthusiast, who considered it his business to tell every man the unvarnished truth regardless of consequences. He won his degree hands down, and without touch of the spur. A first-class one, too that of the headman’s ax next best to that of the cross.

And so the tale goes on. Go where you will through the Scriptures or history, you find that men who really knew God, and didn’t merely say they did, were invariably Paragons of Pluck; Dare-devil Desperadoes for Jesus; Gamblers for God. Fools and Madmen, shout the world and the Chocolates. Yes, for Christ’s sake, add the Angels!

Nobly they fought to win their prize, Climbing the steep ascents of heaven, Thro peril, toil, and pain O God, to us let grace be given, to follow in their train.

The Chocolate Christians of today can at least boast of having ancient pedigrees. There are Chocolates a la Reuben, who have great searchings of heart, and make great resolves of heart too. But somehow they still sit among the sheepfolds, listening to the pipings of their much-loved organs and church choirs. Its good to have a great heart searching. Its better to make a great heart resolve. But, if instead of obeying, we sit among the sheep, leaving our few hard-pressed brethren to tackle the wolves by themselves, verily we are but Chocolate Christians. You made a great resolve to go to Africa for Christ a year or two ago. Where are you now? In England? Yes! Yes! Lollipop! (Judges 5:16)

There are Chocolate Meroz, who earned the curse of the angel of the Lord. War was declared; the battle about to begin; the odds were outrageous, and Meroz remained in England attending conventions until the battle was over, then he went, in comfort and security, as a tourist! Doubtless they said, They couldn’t fight till they had been properly ordained, and besides, there was so very much to be done in fat, overfed Meroz, and surely to feed a flock of fat sheep in a safe place had always been considered the ideal training of war; as though the best training for the soldier was to become a nurse-maid!!! (Judges 5:23)

Chocolates du Balaam begin first-class, and earn the name of prophets. They develop a squint, melt, and finally run out of the frying pan into the fire, this Balaam. One day he couldn’t get his left eye to look at God. It would look at earth and mammon and that chit of a girl, Miss Popularity. He ought to have done as God told him, and plucked it out. But he said that was too much to ask any man, and besides he wanted the best of both worlds. He had a hearty desire to die the death of the righteous, but he wasn’t willing to pay the price of a righteous life. He hadn’t the courage to curse Gods people, so he made plans for others to make them sin. But one day, while his dupes were putting his chestnuts into the fire, they fell in themselves, and Balaam with them. (Numbers 22-24)

I counsel thee to buy of me eyesalve, that thou mayest once again have a single eye, and be enabled to see the folly of flirting with the world.

Chocolate Demas, who left old fiery hard-hitting Paul for an easier path. He said he though Paul should wink at, or slobber over sin, instead of rebuking it. He was so very fond of the knife, you know; and he never would use sticking-plaster, because he said it never healed the sore but made it burrow underneath and become bigger, worse, and dangerous. (2 Timothy 4:10)

Mark joined the Chocolate Brigade once. He left Paul and Barnabas in the lurch, and went back to Jerusalem for a rest cure _ a religious retreat. Thank God he got sick of it ere long, resigned his commission, and re-enlisted in Gods army and became a useful soldier. (Acts 13:13)

Many fine youngsters are tuned into Chocolate Soldiers by old prophets. Old prophets who have lost their fire, or fire off words instead of deeds, usually become Great Chocolate Manufacturers. That poor young prophet. He did so well when he obeyed God only, but it was all over with him when he listened to another voice, even though that of an old prophet. Didn’t the old prophet say he was a prophet? What a damnable lie! The floor of Christendom and elsewhere is littered with wrecks made by old prophets. God wont stand nonsense from any man. Every man has to choose between Christ and Barabas, and every Christian between God and some old prophet. Better be a silly donkey in the estimation of an old prophet than listen to his soft talk and flatter, and afterwards become a wreck. This is My beloved Son, hear HIM. No! Not even Moses, nor Elijah, nor both. Hear Him. You have an appointment from God, and you have no need that any man teach you. You say you believe the Bible! Do your deeds give the lie to your words? (1 Kings 13)

The ten spies were chocolates. They melted and ran over the whole congregation of Israel, turning them into chocolate creams softies, afraid to face the fire and water before them. God put them all into the saucepan again and boiled them for forty years in the desert, and left them there. He has no use for Chocolates. Its not small things He despises, but Chocolates; for He said, Your little ones shall inherit the promise land which you have forfeited through listening to men and despising Me. (Numbers 13)

Jonah became a Chocolate Soldier once. Told to go to Africa, he went to Liverpool and took ship for America. Luckily he met a storm and a whale which, after three days instruction, taught him how to pray and obey, and set him once again on the right track. (Jonah 1)

There’s nothing that shows up Chocolates so much as a bit of a breeze among Gods people. Paul and Barnabas had one once. Judging from experience, I guess there were some Chocolates about then who got into a fog right away! Before that, they had vowed they would go to the heathen; but this breeze between P and B put them off. If they hadn’t been made of chocolate they would have said, This affair between Paul and Barnabas only makes it more necessary for me to keep close to God, and do what He told me to do more exactly and punctually; so I shall go a bit sooner to Africa that’s all! Difficulties, dangers, disease, death, or divisions don’t deter any but Chocolates from executing Gods will. When someone says there’s a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, That’s hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go.

Chocolates are very fond of talking loud and long against some whom they call fanatics, as though there were any danger of Christians being fanatics nowadays! Why, fanatics among Christians are as rare as the dodo. Now, if they spoke out against lukewarmness, they would talk sense. Gods real people have always been called fanatics. Jesus was called mad; so was Paul; so was Whitfield, Wesley, Moody, Spurgeon. No one has graduated far in Gods School who has not been paid the compliment of being called a fanatic. We Christians of today are indeed a tepid bunch. Had we but half the fire and enthusiasm of the Suffragettes in the past, we would have the world evangelized and Christ back among us in no time. Had we the courage and heroism of the Flyers, or the men who volunteered for the North or South Polar Expeditions, or for the Great War, or for any ordinary dare-devil enterprise, we could have every soul on earth knowing the salvation of Jesus Christ in less than ten years.

Alas! What stirs ordinary men’s blood and turns them into heroes, makes most Christians run like a flock of frightened sheep. The Militants daily risked their lives in furtherance of their cause, and contributed of their means in a way that cried shame on us Christians, who generally brand the braving of risks and fighting against odds as tempting God. These are Chocolate Caramels stick-jaw, boys call them jawing, I go sir, and sticking fast in Christendom. No conquest is made in assured safety, and conquest for Christ certainly cannot so be made.

We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good, but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is naught but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism. We need as many meetings for action as for prayer perhaps more. Every orthodox prayer meeting is opened by God saying to His people, Go work today; pray that laborers be sent into My vineyard. It is continued by the Christians response, I go, Lord, withersoever Thou sendest me, that Thy Name may be hallowed everywhere, that Thy Kingdom may come speedily, that Thy Will may be come on earth as in heaven. But if it ends in nobody going anywhere, it had better never been held at all. Like faith, prayer without works is dead. That is why many prayer meetings might well be styled much cry, little wool. Zerrubbable didn’t only hold prayer meetings, he went and cut down trees, and started to build. Hence God said, From this day will I bless thee.

Report says that someone has re-discovered the secret of the old masters. Cannot we Christians re-discover, and put into practice, that of our Great Master and His former pupils, Heroism? He and they saved not themselves; they loved not their lives to death, and so kept on saving them by losing them for Christ’s sake.

We are frittering away time and money in a multiplicity of conventions, conferences and retreats, when the real need is to go straight and full steam into battle, with the signal for close action flying.

The Vox Humana plays too important a part in our Christian organs and organization today. The music, whoever plays, is bound to be thin when the tops of Instant Obedience and Firey Valor are missing or unused, and without them to play the Lost Chord of Heroism is an impossibility.

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it, said the Blessed Virgin. Do what? Not put oil and spice into the soft holy vessels inside the house, but pour the Water of Life into those empty stone ones outside. Canas marriage feast would have ended in shame had the wine run short. Christ’s marriage feast begins only when the wine is sufficient a blend from every tongue and kindred and tribe and nation. The supply is assured, as soon as the water is poured out as Christ directed, into the uttermost parts of the earth. The mischief today is the reluctance of the servants to do the outside work. They all want to serve indoors, wear smart clothes, listen to the conversations, and make a terrible lot of themselves in the butlers pantry.

Let us make a real start now at once! For years, like Mr. Winkle, we’ve declared we were just about to begin, and then never began at all. We must divorce Chocolate and Disobedience, and marry Faith and Heroism. Who shall begin the battle? asked the king. Thou, replied the prophet, and when the king and the young prince led the way, the odds against them were terrific, they won with ridiculous ease. So, too, the Apostles led in the war of God to the uttermost parts of the earth. Likewise in the Crusades, the kings and prince of State and Church led; then why not today in the Crusade of Christ to Evangelize the World?

Gods summons today is to the young men and women of Great Britain and America and Christendom, who call themselves by the name of Christ. New wine, said Christ, must be placed in new bottles. Those superfluously labeled and patched up old fashioned ones are as hopeless as the New Theology. They cant be moved lest they burst with pride and spill the wine in the wrong place. Listen: And it shall be in the last days, I will pour forth of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy; and I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; and it shall be that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how can they call on him of whom they have not even heard? Must you stay, young man? Cant you go, young woman, and tell them? Verily we are in the last, the Laodicean stage that of the Lukewarm Church.

Will you be to Christ the partner of His throne or an emetic [a medicine which induces vomiting. ed.s note] (Rev. 3:21); a Militant or a Chocolate Christian? Will you fear or will you fight? Shall your brethren go to war and shall you sit here? When He comes, shall He find faith on earth?

A thousand times you have admitted Christ’s Love so amazing, so divine, Demands your life, your soul, your all.

Will you be a miser and withhold what honor demands of you? Will you give like Ananias and Sapphira, who pretending to give all, gave only a part? Possessing and enjoying the vineyard, will you, like the husbandman, refuse the agreed rent? Will you fear death, or devil, or men? And will you not fear shame? Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Shall we refuse to emulate the heroes of old, or shall we accomplish the double fulfillment of those glorious words?

All these being men of war came with a perfect heart to make Jesus King over all the world. They were all mighty men of valor for the war! He that was least was equal to a hundred, and the greatest to a thousand! They were not of double heart! Their faces were like the faces of lions! They were as swift as the roes upon the mountains (to do their Lords commands!). Ye sought in time past, for Jesus to be King over you. Now, then, do it! (Compare 1 Chron. 12:8, 33, 38 and 2 Sam. 3:17, 18)

Shall we not reply: Thine are we, Jesus, and on Thy side, God do so to me, and more also, if as God has sworn unto Him, I do not even so to Jesus to translate the kingdom from the house of Satan, and set up the throne of Jesus Christ over all the world. (Compare 1 Chron 12:18 and 2 Sam. 3:10)

Come, then, let us restore the lost chord of Christianity heroism to the world, and the crown of the world to Christ. Christ Himself asks the question, Will you be a Malingerer or a Militant?

To your knees, man! And to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses.

He returned 21 years later, broken in health, after serving in China and India. Unexpectedly he received a new and very distinct call to the heart of Africa. At 53, leaving his invalid wife in England, he set out in utter reliance on God’s promises. His answer to all who questioned the wisdom of his action was found on a postcard on his desk: If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

Some sayings

The best training for a soldier of Christ is not merely a theological college. They always seem to turn out sausages of varying lengths, tied at each end, without the glorious freedom a Christian ought to abound and rejoice in. You see, when in hand-to-hand conflict with the world and the devil, neat little biblical confectionery is like shooting lions with a pea-shooter: one needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost. It’s experience, not preaching that hurts the devil and confounds the world. The training is not that of the schools but of the market: it’s the hot, free heart and not the balanced head that knocks the devil out. Nothing but forked-lightning Christians will count. A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ’s service. It is not so much the degree of arts that is needed, but that of hearts, loyal and true, that love not their lives to the death: large and loving hearts which seek to save the lost multitudes, rather than guard the ninety-nine well-fed sheep in the British pen.

True religion is a very practical thing if we do not adulterate it.

Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands.

The best cure for discouragement or qualms is another daring plunge of faith.

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

Our recruits come out from home vastly raw and are largely parrots. They have been crammed with religion as though for an examination, and seem to come out to carry on their education rather than finish it. So many are just taught doctrines without ever having thought them out or searched the Scriptures for themselves. They come out like infants with pop guns. They need to be trained into soldiers with real devil-defying weapons. Some arrive thinking they are the last thing in high-class Christianity and have to find out they know little. That is why I keep the newcomers here at base for a time till I can make them really think out things and settle questions, not from hearsay but from Bible-say.

Last June at the mouth of the Congo there awaited a thousand prospectors, traders, merchants and gold seekers, waiting to rush into these regions as soon as the government opened the door to them, for rumour declared that there is an abundance of gold. If such men hear so loudly the call of gold and obey it, can it be that the ears of Christ’s soldiers are deaf to the call of God? Are gamblers for gold so many, and gamblers for God so few?

How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the honours of this world, when thousands of souls are perishing every day?

Spirituality is much needed here; there is a great lack of it, too much laughing and scoffing, not a real deep spiritual power. And why? Because they are afraid of it. Fancy! They are afraid of getting strained, and so instead of giving them fewer meetings, they dilute with the ditchwater of nonsense too often.

I don’t tell these fellows to volunteer, I tell them to surrender to God and to go away rejoicing in Him, and He will in His own way make all plain. Here’s my final advice to them:

1. If you don’t desire to meet the Devil during the day, meet Jesus before dawn.
2. If you don’t want the Devil to hit you, hit him first, and hit him with all your might, so that he may be too crippled to hit back. ‘Preach the Word’ is the rod the Devil fears and hates.
3. If you don’t want to fall - walk, and walk straight and walk fast!
4. Three of the Devil’s dogs with which he hunts us are: Swelled head. Laziness. Cupidity.

We have to tell the people the truth, viz.:

1. They are bad and going to the bad place to live in torment for ever and ever because they are bad.
2. If they don’t change and become good, they cannot go to the good place.
3. Are they willing to become good, viz., to forsake all evil?
4. If so, there is a way through the love of God, by which way God is willing to hold back the operation of His just wrath against sin and sinners. Two things have to be done: a. Past sins cleansed away. b. Power given to live a holy life. How? a. By the blood of Christ. b. By the Spirit of Christ. Now the main thing is to get the eyes of the people open. They need to see hell as the result of their sin, and that produces fear, the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. Once get this fear and all will be comparatively easy; but if this fear does not lay hold of a man, his so-called conversion is a sham. True love wakens a man to reality; sham love soaps him down to hell, greases his trail, in fact, to hell. Very many are half asleep or deluded, and make up fancy doctrines of their own, which practically mean that an unholy man can get to heaven without being holy. But remember, Christ did not die to whitewash us, He died to re-create us, and none but His re-creations enter heaven.

Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God’s Holy Name let us arise and build! ‘The God of Heaven, He will fight for us’, as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.

Difficulties, dangers, disease, death, or divisions don’t deter any but Chocolate Soldiers from executing God’s Will. When someone says there is a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, “That’s hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go.”

We now use the word “hallelujah” instead of “amen” at the conclusion of a prayer. “Amen” was a very sleepy affair, something like the last moans of a dying cow. I fancy even the angels must have screwed up their faces. Our “hallelujah” lends itself to enthusiasm and is something like the triumphant shout of a herd of hefty bulls of Bashan. Nobody can remain asleep long, for he is obliged to wake up at the end of each prayer. We have also adopted an improved form of finale after the benediction. I ask the people, “Is it not true that Jesus is coming again?” Reply, “Jesus is coming.” Then we all say “Hallelujah.” Well, it is a regular raising-the-roof affair. I sometimes wish some of our dear old staid Christians at home could hear it. The shock would produce enough energy and enthusiasm to milk a whole herd of goats and make them give a double quantity.

Here’s a pretty decent prayer, “Lord, You know as well as I do what I want; what I the use of my saying more? I want to see Jesus running about in thousands of black bodies and purified hearts. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!”

If God who sits in the heavens can laugh, His children on earth should be loyal enough to do exactly as their Father does.

Don’t go into the study to prepare a sermon – that’s nonsense. Go into your study to God and get so fiery that your tongue is like a burning coal and you have got to speak.

The “romance” of a missionary is often made up of monotony and drudgery; there often is no glamour in it; it doesn’t stir a man’s spirit or blood. So don’t come out to be a missionary as an experiment, it is useless and dangerous. Only come if you feel you would rather die than not come. Lord Wolsey was right: “A missionary ought to be a fanatic or he encumbers the ground.” There are many trials and hardships. Disappointments are numerous and the time of learning the language is especially trying. Don’t come if you want to make a great name or want to live long. Come if you feel there is no greater honour, after living for Christ, than to die for Him. That does the trick in the end. It’s not the flash in the pan but the steady giving forth of light, it’s shining on and on that we need out here. Our job is to make all hear the Word. God’s job is to give penetration to His Word.

There was a depth of wisdom in our Lord’s command to turn the other cheek, but I say when you do, be sure to keep your tongue in it.

It is good to have the laugh of faith. When doubt whines and cries, faith laughs.

Certainly we should not be at all surprised if God does work miracles of all kinds and we should not limit His power, should He bestow the gift of speaking in other tongues as on the apostles at Pentecost. We should be delighted, for such would mean the speedy spreading of the Gospel. There are so many different tribes and languages that it would be most desirable.

Marriage can be a great blessing or a great curse, depending on where you place the Cross.

Some wish to live within the sound Of Church or Chapel Bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.

I can easily see why the folks at home want to eliminate Hell from their theology, preaching and thought. Hell is indeed awful unless its preaching is joined to a life laid down by the preacher. How can a man believe in Hell unless he throws away his life to rescue others from its torment? If there is no Hell, the Bible is a lie. If we are willing to go to Hell on earth for others, we cannot preach it.

I am getting desperately afraid of going to heaven for I have had the vision of the shame I shall suffer as I get my first glimpse of the Lord Jesus; His majesty, power and marvellous love for me, who treated Him so meanly and shabbily on earth, and acted as though I did Him a favour in serving Him! No wonder God shall have to wipe away the tears off all faces, for we shall be broken-hearted when we see the depth of His love and the shallowness of ours.

Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.

“C.T.’s life stands as some rugged Gibraltar–a sign to all succeeding generations that it is worth while to lose all this world can offer and stake everything on the world to come. His life will be an eternal rebuke to easygoing Christianity. He has demonstrated what it means to follow Christ without counting the cost and without looking back. C.T. was essentially a cavalry leader, and in that capacity he led several splendid charges. Three in particular stand out: when C.T. and Stanley Smith led forth the Cambridge Seven to China, in 1885; ten years later when C.T. toured the American Universities at the start of the Student Volunteers; and when in 1910 he initiated the campaign for the region between the Nile and Lake Chad (the largest unevangelized region in Africa at the time)…”

As a soldier of the Cross, C.T. is remembered for “his courage in any emergency, his determination never to sound the retreat, his conviction that he was in God’s will, his faith that God would see him through, his contempt of the arm of the flesh, and his willingness to risk all for Christ.”

Charles Thomas Studd was born in England in 1860, one of three sons of a wealthy retired planter, Edward Studd, who had made a fortune in India and had come back to England to spend it. After being converted to Christ during a Moody-Sankey campaign in England in 1877, Edward Studd became deeply concerned about the spiritual welfare of his three sons and influenced them for the cause of Christ before his death two years later.

By the time C.T. was sixteen he had become an expert cricket player and at nineteen was captain of his team at Eton College. He was further educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was also recognized as an outstanding cricketer.

C.T. was saved in 1878 at the age of 18 when a visiting preacher at their home caught C.T. on his way to play cricket. “Are you a Christian?” he asked. C.T’s answer not being convincing enough, the guest pressed the point and C.T. tells what happens as he acknowledges God’s gift of eternal life received through faith in Christ: “I got down on my knees and I did say ’thank you’ to God. And right then and there joy and peace came into my soul. I knew then what it was to be ‘born again,’ and the Bible which had been so dry to me before, became everything.” His two brothers were also saved that same day!

But there followed a period of six years in a backslidden state. C.T. relates: “Instead of going and telling others of the love of Christ, I was selfish and kept the knowledge to myself. The result was that gradually my love began to grow cold, and the love of the world began to come in. I spent six years in that unhappy backslidden state.” The Lord in His goodness worked in his life and after a serious illness of his brother and his going to hear D.L. Moody the Lord met C.T. again and restored to him the joy of His salvation.

“Still further, and what was better than all, He set me to work for Him, and I began to try and persuade my friends to read the Gospel, and to speak to them individually about their souls.” “I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted almost all the pleasures that this world can give … but those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that the saving of that one soul gave me.”

The Lord continued to work in his life, and led C.T. to go to China. C.T. seeking to comfort his mother wrote: “Mother dear, I do pray God to show you that it is such a privilege to give up a child to be used of God to saving poor sinners who have never even heard of the name of Jesus.” C.T. was one of the “Cambridge Seven” who offered themselves to Hudson Taylor for missionary service in the China Inland Mission and in February, 1885, sailed for China. Once there, they followed the early practice of the Mission by living and dressing in Chinese fashion. He and the others began at once to learn the language and to further identify themselves with the nationals by wearing Chinese clothing and eating with them.

It was while in China that C.T. reached the age (25 years old) in which according to his father’s will he was to inherit a large sum of money. Through reading God’s Word and much prayer, C.T. felt led to give his entire fortune to Christ! “This was not a fool’s plunge on his part. It was his public testimony before God and man that he believed God’s Word to be the surest thing on earth, and that the hundred fold interest which God has promised in this life, not to speak of the next, is an actual reality for those who believe it and act on it.”

Before knowing the exact amount of his inheritance, C.T. sent £5000 to Mr. Moody, another £5000 to George Müller (£4000 to be used on missionary work and £1000 among the orphans); as well as £15,000 pounds to support other worthy ministries. In a few months, he was able to discover the exact amount of his inheritance and he gave some additional thousands away, leaving about £3400 pounds in his possession.

Three years after arriving in China, C.T. married a young Irish missionary from Ulster named Priscilla Livingstone Stewart. Just before the wedding he presented his bride with the remaining money from his inheritance. She, not to be outdone, said, “Charlie, what did the Lord tell the rich young man to do?” “Sell all.” “Well then, we will start clear with the Lord at our wedding.” And they proceeded to give the rest of the money away for the Lord’s work.

They served the Lord together in inland China through many perils and hardships until in 1894 after ten years in China, ill health forced the Studds to return to England, where they turned their property over to the China Inland Mission. From 1896-1897, C.T. toured American universities in behalf of the newly formed Student Volunteer Movement. C.T. describes one of the meetings at Bucknell College in Pennsylvania:

“Had a splendid student’s meeting at 6:30. The Lord was greatly with us. After some hymns and a prayer, I spoke for about 30 minutes; then all got on knees, and one after another gave themselves to God in such sentences as ‘Lord, take me as I am,’ ‘I will go with Thee, Lord Jesus.’ There must have been a score of them. Oh, surely that is the sweetest music that can ever be heard by any ears, and if sweet to us, how much sweeter to Jesus. Afterwards I got them to sing a hymn: “The cleansing blood I see, I see, I plunge, and oh, it cleanseth me.”

In 1900 the Studd family went to South India where C.T. served as a pastor of a church in Ootacamund for six years. From the time of his conversion, C.T. had felt the responsibility upon their family to take the Gospel to India.

China, then India, and now the heart of Africa. After their return home to England in 1906, C.T. was stirred by the need for missionary pioneer work in Central Africa. But again the path was not without obstacles. Penniless, turned down by the doctor, dropped by a Committee of businessmen who had agreed to support him, yet told by God to go, once more C.T. staked all on obedience to God. As a young man he staked his career, in China he staked his fortune, now he staked his life. His answer to the Committee was; “Gentlemen, God has called me to go, and I will go. I will blaze the trail, though my grave may only become a stepping stone that younger men may follow.” Leaving his wife and four daughters in England, C.T. sailed, contrary to medical advice, for the heart of Africa in 1910, where he continued to work until his death in 1931.

C.T. bore much fruit for the Saviour while in Africa as he endured weakness and sickness; loosing most of his teeth and suffering several heart attacks; but he endured hardness as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ!

In a letter home, C.T. gave a last backward look at the outstanding events of his life:

“As I believe I am now nearing my departure from this world, I have but a few things to rejoice in; they are these:

1. That God called me to China and I went in spite of utmost opposition from all my loved ones.

2. That I joyfully acted as Christ told that rich young man to act.

3. That I deliberately at the call of God, when alone on the Bibby liner in 1910, gave up my life for this work, which was to be henceforth not for the Sudan only, but for the whole unevangelized World.

My only joys therefore are that when God has given me a work to do, I have not refused it.”

Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on a July day in 1931, C.T. Studd went home to be with His Lord whom he had loved so dearly and served so faithfully! The last word he spoke was “Hallelujah”!

Only one life, yes only one, Soon will its fleeting hours be done; Then, in ’that day’ my Lord to meet, And stand before His Judgement seat; Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, the still small voice, Gently pleads for a better choice Bidding me selfish aims to leave, And to God’s holy will to cleave; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, a few brief years, Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears; Each with its clays I must fulfill, living for self or in His will; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

When this bright world would tempt me sore, When Satan would a victory score; When self would seek to have its way, Then help me Lord with joy to say; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Give me Father, a purpose deep, In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep; Faithful and true what e’er the strife, Pleasing Thee in my daily life; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Oh let my love with fervor burn, And from the world now let me turn; Living for Thee, and Thee alone, Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne; Only one life, “twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one, Now let me say,“Thy will be done”; And when at last I’ll hear the call, I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”; Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.

English missionary. C.T. Studd was the son of a wealthy man, Edward Studd, who was converted to Christ under the ministry of Dwight L. Moody in 1877. Young C.T. Studd became an excellent cricket player, and at the age of 19 was captain of the team at Eton. He attended Cambridge University from 1880 to 1883, and, while he was there, he also heard Dwight L. Moody preach and was converted to Christ. Shortly afterwards, he and six other students dedicated their lives and their wealth to the Lord Jesus Christ and offered themselves to Hudson Taylor for work in China. They sailed to China in 1885. In 1888 Studd married. He continued to work for several years before bad health forced him and his wife to return to England, where they turned over all their property to the China Inland Mission. Studd and his wife began to tour the world in order to raise funds for missions. While in southern India, on one of those tours, he found a suitable climate for him and his wife. He served there six years, after which time he returned to England to make plans to go to Africa. In December of 1912 he left his family and was gone for two years in evangelistic work on the Dark Continent. He returned home for a short time, and then once again went back to Africa for five more years. Mrs. Studd did not join him until 1928, one year before she died. Studd died in Malaga, Africa, in 1931.

“We shall go crusading for Christ. We have the men, the means, and the ways - steam and electricity and iron have leveled the lands and bridged the seas. The doors of the world have opened wide for us by our God. We pray and preach; we bow the knee; we receive; we administer the Holy Communion of the Passion of Christ; we recite the Creed triumphantly; we are optimists everyone; we shout Onward Christian soldiers, marching on to war, and then? . . . and then? . . . we whisper, I pray Thee have me excused!!! What glorious humbugs we are!”

“Follow Me, says Jesus. I will, we reply, yet somehow forget that Christ pleased not Himself, deliberately made Himself poor to save others and became the first foreign missionary. We all pray to be like Jesus, yet refuse to pay the price.”

“Five hundred million heathen have not yet been evangelized, so it is computed! Yet our great Missionary Societies have reached high water-mark, and if they have not already begun to retrench they are seriously thinking of doing so. Meanwhile, the heart of Asia, the heart of Africa, and well nigh the whole continent of South America, are untouched with the Gospel of Christ.”

“Last June at the mouth of the Congo, there awaited a thousand prospectors, traders, merchants and gold seekers, waiting to rush into these regions as soon as the government opened the door to them, for rumor declared that there is an abundance of gold. If such men hear so loudly the call of gold and obey it, can it be that the ears of Christs soldiers are deaf to the call of God, and the cries of the dying souls of men? Are gamblers for gold so many, and gamblers for God so few?”

“My Montenegrins, said King Nicholas, will henceforth spill their blood for their persecuted compatriots. When shall God be able to say to the devil, Hast thou seen My Christians of today? No longer do they seek for gold or pleasure, for honors or ease. From henceforth My Christians will spill their blood for the love and cause of My beloved Son and the salvation of the neediest of men.”

“There are more than twice as many Christian officers at home among peaceful Britains 40 million evangelized inhabitants, than the whole number of Christs forces fighting at the front among 1,200 million heathen! And yet such call themselves soldiers of Christ.”

“Yes, when? When indeed shall we see a real Church Militant here upon the earth? Christs call is to feed the hungry, not the full; to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men from the devils clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus, and make them into an Almighty Army of God. But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion, where neither Church nor State, neither man nor traditions are worshipped or preached, but only Christ and Him crucified. Not to confess Christ by fancy collars, church steeples or rich embroidered altar-cloths, but by reckless sacrifice and heroism in the foremost trenches…”

“I am more than ever determined that no ring or limit shall be placed around us, other than that of our Lord Himself, To the uttermost parts, To every creature. I belong and will ever belong to The Great God party. I will have nought to do with The Little God party…”

“Nail the colors to the mast! That is the right thing to do, and, therefore, that is what we must do, and do it now. What colors? The colors of Christ, the work He has given us to do - the evangelization of all the unevangelized. Christ wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible, by faith in the omnipotence, fidelity and wisdom of the Almighty Savior Who gave the command. Is there a wall in our path? By our God we will leap over it! Are there lions and scorpions in our way! We will trample them under our feet! Does a mountain bar our progress? Saying, Be thou removed and cast into the sea, we will march on. Soldiers of Jesus! Never surrender! Nail the colors to the mast!”

“The difficulty is to believe that He can deign to use such scallywags as us, but of course He wants Faith and Fools rather than talents and culture. All God wants is a heart, any old turnip will do for a head; so long as we are empty, all is well, for then He fills with the Holy Ghost. The fiery baptism of the Holy Ghost will change soft, sleek Christians into hot, lively heroes for Christ, who will advance and fight and die, but not mark time.”

“Believing that further delay would be sinful, some of Gods insignificants and nobodies in particular, but trusting in our Omnipotent God, have decided on certain simple lines, according to the Book of God, to make a definite attempt to render the evangelization of the world an accomplished fact. For this purpose we have banded ourselves together under the name of Christs Etceteras, and invite others of Gods people to join us in this glorious enterprise. We are merely Christs nobodies, otherwise Christs Etceteras. We rejoice in and thank God for the good work being carried on in the already occupied lands by Gods Regular Forces. We seek to attack and win to Christ only those parts of the devils empire which are beyond the extremest outposts of the regular army of God . . . Our method is to search and find out what parts of the world at present remain unevangelized, and then by faith in Christ, by prayer to God, by obedience to the Holy Ghost, by courage, determination, and supreme sacrifice, to accomplish their evangelization with the utmost despatch.”

“Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time for waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In Gods Holy Name let us arise and build! The God of Heaven, He will fight for us, as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the whole world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God; we will venture our all for Him; we will live, and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position, the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.”