resented its being preached to men of another colour, in spite of the direct command of Christ Himself.

Nor, again, is the Christian race limited to those whose past has been blameless. Christ's kingdom was open to all; no sinner was too vile to be accepted if he did but come in penitence and in faith.

The training for the heavenly race is no temporary matter like that for the earthly race, but it is lifelong. Its importance is often forgotten. Men think that they can run the Christian race very well untrained, without troubling to learn what are its conditions and its rules, and without study of the laws laid down for their guidance. They forget the fundamental law of even earthly success that every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things; they forget that if they are gross feeders, or drinkers, or loose livers they could not even win an earthly race, much less a heavenly, and that other forms of intemperance, anger, pride, foolish talking, extravagance, pleasure seeking, are just as destructive of spiritual advance.

Again, though the Christian race be not run before a vast throng of interested spectators, yet the issue of the race is of more deeply thrilling interest, both to the competitor and to those who watch him. It is not only one that wins-each and all have the chance of winning the prize-but the consequences of failure are far more disastrous; for failure means justly earned condemnation, and utter ruin. Thou wicked and slothful servant is the judgment, and the sentence is, " Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness where is the weeping and gnashing of teeth." The spectators are not mere men, but God and the holy angels, and the end of the course is at the portals of eternity.

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Again, the prize of the victor is no mere fading crown of leaves, but the incorruptible crown of eternal life, which God has reserved for those that love Him. The reward is not the thunderous applause of a human crowd, but the welcoming song of the triumphant saints, and the approving voice of the Most High God, the sentence of Christ Himself when He says: "Well done, good and faithful servant,

thou hast been faithful in few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Let us now note St. Paul's application of his image of a race, "So run that ye may obtain." It is vital and muchneeded advice. If we think of the ordinary Christians that we know, how few of them seem to be really running that they may obtain. There is no lack of runners. There are hundreds of thousands of people, nay millions, who profess, and imagine themselves to be running the Christian race, but how few of them ever say to themselves when they wake in the morning, "I must run the Christian race to-day, and I must so run that I may obtain," or words that are equivalent! How few make any real effort to concentrate their attention on this the most important business of their lives! The attention of most is so easily distracted by their business, their pleasures, their friends, their troubles, their aches and pains, their wrongs and grievances. These things are apt to fill up all their thoughts, and to leave no room for the Christian race at all. They do not ask themselves at night: "Have I run well or ill to-day?" because they never remember to ask whether they have been running at all. This is why they are absent so often from church and sacrament. As they do not realise that they are running a race it does not occur to them that they need spiritual food and refreshment. They do not run so as to attain and yet very many hope to attain, though they have never made any effort to do so. This hope is vain.

If we want to attain we must so run that we may attain. We must remember that our whole life is a spiritual contest, and make up our minds that we are going to be what we promised to be in baptism and confirmation, God's faithful soldiers and servants. We must concentrate our minds on this business of the spiritual contest, giving it at least as much thought as we give to our own business, remembering that Christ said: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Since the running of the Christian race in dead earnest is a difficult and exhausting thing, we shall naturally seek spiritual strength as often as we

can in prayer, in worship, and especially in the Holy Communion. These things will not seem to us spiritual extras, but the ordinary and necessary condition of our efforts, and we shall always remember the example of St. Paul contained in the words which immediately follow our text: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway."

VIII.-WAR IN HEAVEN

There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not.-REVELATION XII. 7.

WAR

AR in heaven! The thought seems altogether incongruous. "War," said a great general, "is hell." What has war with all its violence and cruelty to do with heaven, which is all peace and goodness? Well, hell in the shape of its emissaries, the evil angels, had crept into heaven and it had to be cast out, or heaven would have ceased to be heaven, so Michael, the great archangel, fought and his angels fought, and the dragon and his angels fought and prevailed not. Milton has described the defeat of Satan and his hosts in immortal verse

"Now storming fury rose

And clamour such as heard in heaven till now
Was never. Arms on armour clashing brayed
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise
Of conflict. Overhead the dismal hiss

Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew

And flying vaulted either host with fire."

Of course Milton is not intended to be taken literally any more than is St. John. What both wish to express

is that sense of frightful conflict, of will and determination, of opposition pushed to the sternest limits, of disregard for death and danger, of will to conquer or die, which, so far as we men are concerned, finds its ultimate expression in war. What exact form the conflict between good and evil angels may have taken is beyond our understanding, and we can only express it and make it real in some such way as St. John and Milton have done.

When we read the Bible we find in it two different sides or aspects of the religious spirit, and they are both true. Isaiah speaks of One Who will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax, but he also speaks of One coming with dyed garments from Bozrah, travelling in the greatness of His strength. The Psalmist says: "The meek shall He guide in judgment, the meek shall He teach His way," but he also asks: "Who is the King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." Our Lord says: "Blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers" but also: "I came not to bring peace, but a sword." He says: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart," but also: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words of him will I also be ashamed." He says: "Resist not evil," but also: "Whosoever hath not a sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." St. Paul says: 66 Charity suffereth long and is kind," but also: "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

The truth is that there is and always has been a need of the soldier spirit among Christians. It is true that our weapons are not those that require arms of flesh to wield them, but they are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds," if there is the right spirit behind them.

It is too often assumed that the spirit of Christianity is all gentleness, meekness, and humility, but this is to leave out all that sternness, that courage, that unflinching resolution which is equally characteristic of the spirit of Christ. When we find our Lord sending a message to Herod: "Go, tell that fox"; when we find Him making a scourge of small cords and driving the merchants out of

the Temple; when we hear Him denouncing the great men of the Jews in words of scathing indignation, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, blind fools, whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones; ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" When we see Him standing calmly before Pilate, disclaiming the help of His own twelve legions of angels, and telling His judge that his boasted power was not really his at all-then we realise that the spirit of Christ was the spirit of the soldier as well as the spirit of gentleness and peace.

No image was more often employed by St. Paul than that of the soldier, whether clad in complete armour as in the Epistle to the Ephesians, with girdle and breastplate, greaves and doorlike shield, helmet, sword, and javelin, or as in the Epistle to Timothy enduring hardness on campaign as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, or not entangling himself in the affairs of this life that he may please the captain, who has selected him for duty.

We have great need of the spirit of the soldier to-day. There is much flabbiness in modern religion; much toleration of sin; much unwillingness to make oneself in any way conspicuous, with a desire just to follow the crowd; much of the spirit which says: "Evil is too great; it is of no use to try to fight against it. Things will go on just as they are whatever we do, so we will just take the easiest course and do nothing." This spirit is entirely false and entirely contrary to the spirit of Christ. The way of life. may be a hard way. Troubles, difficulties, and dangers, may surround us on every side. We may feel ourselves very weak and helpless as we try to walk along the narrow path that leads to eternal life, but it is obvious that two courses are open to every one of us. We may sit down and rest, or we may stagger on till we fall, and the difference between the two is incalculable. It is the difference between those who give up the fight and those who fight on to the end, the difference between failure and success; the difference between the world and God.

The influence of even one man who in his firm faith in God takes his stand for right and truth, fearless of the