Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 4 (1883 - 1886)

Ms 37a, 1886

Additional Counsel to the Chaux-de-Fonds Church

1886

Previously unpublished.

Principle is always exacting. Our country claims of fathers and mothers, their sons, the brothers, the husbands, to be given up, to leave their home for the field of carnage and bloodshed. They must go and face peril, endure privation and hunger, weariness and loneliness; they must make long marches, footsore and weary, through heat of summer and through winter’s cold; they run the risk of losing life itself. They are compelled to follow the commander. Sometimes they are not even allowed time to eat. And all this severe experience is in consequence of sin. There is an enemy to meet, an enemy to be resisted; enemies of our country will destroy her peace, and bring disaster and ruin, unless driven back and repulsed. Conquer or die, is the motto. 4LtMs, Ms 37a, 1886, par. 1

Thus it is in the Christian warfare. We have an enemy to meet who is vigilant, who is not off his guard for a moment. The claims of our country are not higher than the claims of God. If hardships are borne and trials are endured by our soldiers when fighting in behalf of the country to obtain the mastery and bring into obedience the rebellious, how much more willingly should the soldiers of Christ endure privation, self-denial, and any taxation for Christ’s sake! The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, that He might bring many sons and daughters to the Lord. We are standing under the blood-stained banner of the cross of Christ. We are to meet Satan and his host. We must conquer in the name of Jesus, or be conquered. 4LtMs, Ms 37a, 1886, par. 2