The hope of safety was to be his helmet, to guard his head--
the thinking part. We all know how a blow on the head confuses and
paralyses a man, making him (as we say) lose his head. We know too,
how, in spiritual matters, terror and despair deal a deadly blow to a
man's mind,--how if a man expects to fail, he cannot think clearly
and calmly,--how often desperation and folly go hand in hand; for, if
a man loses hope, he is but too apt to lose his reason. The
Christian's helmet, then,--that which would save his head, and keep
his mind calm, prudent, strong, and active,--was the hope of success.
And for their feet--they must be shod with the preparation of the
Gospel of peace.
That is a grand saying, if you will remember that the key-word, which
explains it all, is Peace, and the Gospel, that is, the good news,
thereof.
The Roman soldier had his preparation, which kept him prepared and
ready to march through the world; and of that St. Paul was thinking,
and had need to think; for he had heard the sound of it in every
street, on every high road, from Jerusalem to Ephesus, ever since he
was a child--the tramp of the heavy nailed boot which the Roman
soldier always wore. The Roman soldiers were proud of their boots,--
so proud that, in St. Paul's time, they nicknamed one of their royal
princes Caligula, because, as a boy in camp, he used to wear boots
like the common soldiers: and he bore that name when he became
emperor, and bears it to this day.
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