Still they conquered at last--for God was with them, and the Spirit
of God; and they put on again and again the armour of God, AFTER they
had cast it off for a while to their own hurt.
And so shall we conquer in the battle of life just in proportion as
we fight our battle with the armour of God.
My friends, each and all of you surely wish to succeed in life; and
to succeed, not merely in getting money, still less merely in getting
pleasure, but with a far nobler and far more real success. You wish,
I trust, to be worthy, virtuous, respectable, useful Christian men
and women; to be honoured while you live, and regretted when you die;
to leave this world with the feeling that your life has not been a
failure, and your years given you in vain: but that, having done
some honest work at least in this world, you are going to a world
where all injustice shall be set right.
Then here, in St. Paul's words, are the elements of success in life.
This, and this only, is the way to true success, to put on the whole
armour of God. Truthfulness, justice, peaceableness, faith in God's
justice and mercy, hope of success, and the sword of the Spirit, even
that word of God which, if you do not preach it to others, you can
and should preach to yourselves all day long, continually asking
yourselves, 'What would God have me to do? What is likely to be his
will and message upon the matter which I have in hand?'--all these
qualities go to make up the character of the worthy man or woman, the
useful person, the truly able person, who does what he can do, well,
because he is what he ought to be, good; and all these qualities you
need if you will fight the battle of life like men, and conquer
instead of being conquered therein.
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