.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

.. meta::
   :PG.Id: 52854
   :PG.Title: Knights in Armour
   :PG.Released: 2016-08-19
   :PG.Rights: Public Domain
   :PG.Producer: Al Haines
   :DC.Creator: Edward \S. Woods
   :DC.Title: Knights in Armour
   :DC.Language: en
   :DC.Created: 1916
   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

=================
KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR
=================

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   .. _`KING ARTHUR *From a drawing by L. A. Hume-Williams.*`:

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      :alt: KING ARTHUR *From a drawing by L. A. Hume-Williams.*

      KING ARTHUR *From a drawing by L. A. Hume-Williams.*

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      KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR

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      *By* EDWARD S. WOODS, M.A

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      Chaplain of the
      Royal Military College, Sandhurst
      Author of
      "Modern Discipleship and What It Means," etc.

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      Foreword by
      GENERAL SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON,
      K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O.,
      Chief of the Imperial General Staff

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      LONDON: ROBERT SCOTT
      ROXBURGHE HOUSE
      PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
      MCMXVI

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      *All rights reserved*

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      To
      Many Officers and Gentlemen Cadets
      of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,
      who by unvarying friendliness end goodwill
      made easier their Padre's task
      this little book
      is affectionately dedicated

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   FOREWORD

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A feature of peace manoeuvres used
to be the "sham fight."  In war there
are no sham fights.  One has to deal then with
stern realities, and to carry burdens which
seem to be quite beyond one's powers to
sustain.  Especially is this the case with those
in the position of leaders.  In war, more
perhaps than in any other business, men feel
the need of something more than the mere
knowledge of their profession, no matter how
complete that knowledge may be.

I therefore commend this little book to all
soldiers, and more particularly to the younger
ones, who desire to go into battle properly
prepared, for I am satisfied that definite and
practical religious convictions form an
essential part of every soldier's equipment.

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W. R. ROBERTSON.
*August* 14, 1916.

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   CONTENTS

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\I
`INTRODUCTORY`_

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\II
`COURAGE`_

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\III
`CHIVALRY`_

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\IV
`PURITY`_

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\V
`LOYALTY`_

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.. _`INTRODUCTORY`:

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   INTRODUCTORY

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"Be strong in the Lord.... Put on the whole
armour of God."--EPHESIANS vi. 10, 11.

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"More than conquerors through Him that loved
us."--ROMANS viii. 37.

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KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR

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   \I

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   INTRODUCTORY

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To every Englishman there is something
that stirs the blood and fires the
imagination in the ancient legends of King
Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table,
the legends that Tennyson has immortalized
in his *Idylls of the King*.  It was a splendid
vision that gripped the men who bound
themselves--

   |  "To reverence the King, as if He were
   |  Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,
   |  To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
   |  To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
   |  To speak no slander, no nor listen to it,
   |  To honour his own word as if his God's,
   |  To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
   |  To love one maiden only, cleave to her,
   |  And worship her by years of noble deeds,
   |  Until they won her."
   |

Who, if not soldiers, should be the
inheritors and transmitters of these noble
traditions?  The highest meaning of a
soldier's vocation has many points of
contact with this Knightly ideal; and
some of the greatest soldiers of our history
have been men who were also Knights of
the Cross.  Knights are held to higher
ideals and charged with harder tasks than
lesser men.  And for you who serve our
English King and are not unmindful of
your allegiance to the King of Kings, I
would fain try and draw a picture of what
Christian Knighthood may mean.  I think
I see, at the least, four qualities, or virtues,
which must needs distinguish a Christian
Knight.  These qualities are Courage,
Chivalry, Purity, Loyalty.





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.. _`COURAGE`:

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   COURAGE

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..

   |  He who would valiant be
   |  'Gainst all disaster,
   |  Let him in constancy
   |    Follow the Master.
   |  There's no discouragement
   |  Shall make him once relent
   |  His first avowed intent
   |    To be a pilgrim.

   |  Who so beset him round
   |  With dismal stories,
   |  Do but themselves confound--
   |    His strength the more is.
   |  No foes shall stay his might,
   |  Though he with giants fight:
   |  He will make good his right
   |    To be a pilgrim.

   |  Since, Lord, Thou dost defend
   |  Us with Thy Spirit,
   |  We know we at the end
   |    Shall life inherit.
   |  Then fancies flee away!
   |  I'll fear not what men say,
   |  I'll labour night and day
   |    To be a pilgrim.

   |  JOHN BUNYAN.

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   \II

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   COURAGE

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A wounded Highlander was describing
one day to his ward Sister, in a burst
of confidence, the circumstances in which he
was hit.  "We were advancing a wee bit
through a cornfield and the corn was bonny,
thick and tall.  Then they turned their
machine-guns on us, and I saw the corn cut
and flicker, and the men fall and fall!  God
forgive me!  I couldn't face it! ... I
turned aside, mem, and I *hid* on my face in
the uncut corn."

There was a pause.  He moistened his lips
with his tongue and went on: "Well, I lay
there and lay I there, and I could hear the
bullets going swish, swish through the corn.
Then something said to me 'Jock! will ye lie
here to be shot like a rabbit in the harvest?
Get up, and take your dose like a man!'  So I
got up, mem, and I got it right enough!"[1]

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[1] *Time and Talents*, July, 1916, p. 81.

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The brave man--and that Scotchman
was brave indeed--is not necessarily a man
who doesn't feel fear; he is one who
doesn't yield to it.  Even that hero
General Gordon used to say he felt afraid
when in action.  Most of us would like
to run away; but most manage, somehow,
to "stick it out."  There are other
situations where it is just as important,
and almost as difficult, to "stick it out"
as in a shell-plagued trench.  There is
another War on hand, and the man who
takes his place on this front will need all
the pluck that he can muster.

It is useless to disguise the fact that to
be a Christian means you are in for a
fight--and a stiff one at that.  Some people
seem to think of the Christian religion as
if it were a kind of Sunday Club, or a rest
cure, or a mutual benefit society.  But
Christianity is not a passive thing at all.
If you are going to be a Christian you have
got to take sides in the eternal war of
Right against Wrong; and a man cannot
take sides without taking hard knocks too.
We sometimes speak of War as if it were a
kind of great game.  Here is the greatest
Game of all.  And, as a Christian, you
are not spectator, linesman or referee: you
are one of the team; and it's "up to" you
to strip and get going and play the game
for all you are worth.

And what of the fight?  Who is the
enemy, and how are we to fight him?
You won't need field glasses to see his front
line.  "A soldier's first and last battle is
with himself."  The enemy outside owes
much of his strength and success to his
traitorous ally within the gates.  Many a
man's worst foe is in his own heart and life.
There are things that start from within,
habits of thought or word or deed, which
definitely militate against a man being a
true Knight and a Christian gentleman.
There can be no truce with these things.
The Christian Knight has got to stand up
against them.  And if he feels--and who
does not?--that he is woefully lacking
in the needed strength and courage, then
let him turn once more to the living Son
of God, Who alone can make weak men
strong, and Who loves to do it.

But the man who wants to "fight the
good fight with all his might" is called to
tilt against the evil without as well as the
evil within.  It is a caricature of Christianity
which makes it out to be simply a provision
for each man to save his own skin and
qualify for heaven.  Christ did indeed come
to save men; but He did it, not to ensure
their personal safety and exempt them from
fighting, but to enlist them for ever on the
side of God and Righteousness.  The dimensions
and issues of *this* War are such as to
demand the utmost from every Christian
soldier.  On all sides of us Evil is everywhere
entrenched, and in positions that often
seem impregnable; his worldwide forces
are knit in close alliance, and fight with the
veteran skill of age-long experience.  Here
in the England that we love, in any town,
or village, in any school or regiment, on
any day, the Enemy is visibly, incessantly
striving to work grievous hurt on our
manhood and womanhood.  Who, if not
Knights of the Cross, shall withstand him
and fight him to the death?  William
Blake's well-known lines might well serve
as a motto for the Christian soldier:

   |  "I will not cease from mental fight,
   |    Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
   |  Till we have built Jerusalem
   |    In England's green and pleasant land."
   |

There is, in this campaign, no question
of travelling to some distant theatre of
operations, nor of waiting for a selected
moment.  You begin at once, and just
where you are.  Perhaps that is why the
fighting needs some stiff courage.  "To
ride *abroad* redressing human wrongs"
would have all the glamour of a great
adventure.  But to strike a blow for Truth
and Right, and keep lifted high the Colours
of the King of Kings, in your own immediate
circle, where you know the others and the
others know you--that needs real grit.  All
the more because if you do that you may
easily find yourself alone.  Most people
make no attempt to swim against the
stream, they float down with it.  The line
of least resistance, and the path of
popularity, are barred to the Christian Knight.
As *Christian* said to *By-ends* in the *Pilgrim's
Progress*: "If you will go with us, you
must go against Wind and Tide: you must
also own Religion in his rags, as well as
when in his silver slippers; and stand by
him too when bound in irons, as well as
when he walketh the streets with applause."

   |  "The Son of God goes forth to war,
   |    A Kingly crown to gain;
   |  His blood-red banner streams afar!
   |    Who follows in His train?"
   |

Again and again, in Flanders, in Gallipoli,
and on every front, courage has shown
itself to be a contagious thing.  Fired by
an undaunted leader, cheered by stout
hearts at his side, many a man has proved
himself braver than he ever thought to be.
In one of his campaigns the Duke of
Wellington happened, on one occasion, to be
absent from the army and rode up just as it
was retreating.  A soldier saw him and
shouted out, "Yonder is Lord Wellington.
God bless him."  The shout was taken up
by the whole force; the retreating army
was inspired to a fresh effort, turned and
drove the enemy headlong.  Jesus Christ
has a like effect on those who get near enough
to Him to feel the magic of His influence.
It just makes you a *man* to be in His company.

   |  "I have a Captain,
   |  And the heart of every valiant man
   |  Has drunk in valour from His eyes
   |  Since first the War began.
   |  He is most merciful in fight.
   |  And of His scars a single sight
   |  The embers of our failing might
   |    Into a flame can fan."





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.. _`CHIVALRY`:

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   CHIVALRY

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"He saved others: Himself He cannot save."--ST. MATTHEW xxvii. 42.

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"Ye ought to remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than
to receive."--ACTS xx. 35.

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..

   |  "Follow the Christ, the King,
   |  Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the king--
   |  Else, wherefore born?"--TENNYSON.

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   \III

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   CHIVALRY

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In the Middle Ages the lesser nobles used
to follow their chiefs on horseback;
they were called *Knights* (the word
originally meant servants, in German *Knechte*)
and the system of knightly rules and customs
was called chivalry (French *chevalerie*).
The order of knighthood was only bestowed
after many years of training and discipline.
In later times the movement lost its early
meaning and usefulness; but for many
centuries the traditions and ideals of
knighthood did much to keep alive the Christian
standard of a pure and courageous manhood.

On one of the last days of His earthly
life Jesus Christ did a thing that astounded
the men who saw it.  At the close of a
supper with the inner circle of His followers,
He took water and a towel and went round
the little company washing each man's
feet in turn.  And then He explained to
them His acted parable.  He told them
that they, like Himself, were put in the
world to *serve*: "not to be ministered unto
but to minister."  They learnt their lesson;
and for the rest of their lives every man,
save one, spent himself ungrudgingly in
serving others.

The word knight, as we saw, means
"servant"; and it is not for nothing that
the Army and Navy are called "The
Services."  Taught by stern discipline, the
soldier and the sailor know that self counts
nothing, and others everything.  That is
perhaps the biggest truth in life.  Many
people had forgotten it before the War;
but we have learnt it now.  That great
host who have laid down their lives for their
friends, and those countless others who have
learnt to hold the nation dearer than safety
and comfort, than pleasure and money--all
these have shown it to be startlingly true
that a man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of things that he possesseth; and
that it is verily "more blessed to give than
to receive."  Chivalry is re-born; Honour
has come to its own again.  As that young
poet sang so truly and beautifully, shortly
before he gave his own life:[1]

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[1] Rupert Brooke died in the Aegean, April, 1915,
aged 28.  From *1914 and Other Poems*.

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..

   |  "Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
   |    There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
   |    But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
   |  These laid the world away; poured out the red
   |    Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
   |    Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
   |    That men call age; and those who would have been,
   |  Their sons, they gave, their immortality.

   |  "Blow, bugles, blow!  They brought us, for our dearth,
   |    Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.
   |  Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,
   |    And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
   |  And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
   |    And we have come into our heritage."
   |

True knights are called to chivalrous
service, not in war-time only, or just for a
temporary Cause, but always, and everywhere,
on behalf of all.  If Christians
generally lived up to this Christian ideal,
and cared little for *getting*, but everything
for *giving*, the world would rapidly become
a very different place.  Selfishness is the
cause of nearly all our ills; and chivalry is
just the opposite of selfishness.  There is
no chivalry in the man who is wrapped up
in his own affairs, and who turns a cold
eye on all except his own particular friends.
It is chivalry that makes you interested in
that other fellow who happens to be less
fortunately situated than yourself, and
sets you wondering how you would like it
if you were in his shoes, until at last you feel
you must somehow find some way of being
a friend to him and giving him a helping
hand.  And it is chivalry that is always on
the watch to protect the defenceless.  In
every group of people, in all sections of
society, there are always some individuals
who seem curiously unable to fend for
themselves and invariably get pushed to
the wall.  Do you do your share in the
general pushing?  Or do you, with Christian
chivalry, try and stand up for those who
cannot or do not stand up for themselves?

The chivalrous man, moreover, is never
unfair nor unmerciful.  War-time makes a
big demand on the qualities of fairness and
mercy.  Thank God our Nation has, on the
whole, and despite terrible provocation,
shown itself to be a chivalrous foe to the
enemy.  If you are going to be chivalrous,
there is no room for vengeance or retaliation.
Soldiers and sailors know this by instinct,
and act accordingly.  I always notice that
it is newspaper people, and people who sit
snug in their arm-chairs at home, who talk
so loud about reprisals and retaliation.  In
the trenches it's quite different.  When
Thomas Atkins takes a prisoner he generally
offers him a cigarette.  As an Officer said
the other day, "Tommy's only idea, when
he catches these fellows, is to feed them."  At
least that is his usual practice, whatever
his theories are about what he will do to
the "blanked Hun" when he catches him.
A recent number of *Punch*[2] had a lovely
description of Thomas Atkins' vengeance.
A Cavalry outpost in Egypt, sweltering in
the heat, devoured by mosquitoes, in a
temper reflecting the choice surroundings,
decides that the only thing to do with
wandering parties of the treacherous Arabs
is to shoot them at sight.  Sudden report
from the sentry: "Corporal, I can see
'alf-a-dozen of them blighters coming along
about a mile away.  Shall I give 'em one?"  "No,
you idiot," says the Corporal, "Let's
'ave a look at 'em first."  There arrives on
the scene a middle-aged Arab, dressed in
indescribable rags, and in the last stage of
exhaustion, and decidedly populous as to
his person; various members of his family
are hovering about a short distance away.
He falls flat on his face at the sight of the
Corporal, crying, "Bimbashi, bimbashi,
mongeries, mongeries."  "Yes, I'll bash
yer all right," says the Corporal,
"Grey-'eaded old reprobate, you ought to know
better."  "Lor'," comments one of the
Troopers, "'e do look thin, pore beggar,
*Mongeries*--that means food, don't it?  'E
looks as if 'e hadn't eaten nothing for weeks.
'Ere, 'ave a biscuit, old Sport."  "Try 'im
with some bully," suggests another Trooper;
"they say they won't eat that, though."  "Won't
'e!" says the first, "I never seen
the stuff go so quick.  'Ere, old fellow, don't
eat the tin."  "Don't give him any more,"
says the Corporal, "or 'e'll kill 'isself.  Let's
see if his family can do the disappearing
trick as quick as he can.  Poor devils they've
been through something.  'Ere, you family,
*mongeries*."  The family are brought up and
fed on the day's rations.  "Take 'em back
to camp now," orders the Corporal, "and
'and 'em over.  Come on, old boy; you're
all right.  Lor', ain't they pretty near done.
Lucky they found us when they did."  Such
is the way of Thomas ... and it is the way
of chivalry; and that is the way of Christ.
"If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he
thirsts, give him drink."

Another mark of the chivalrous man is
the stainless honour of all his relations with
women.  In the days of our fathers and
grandfathers it was thought very important
that the relations between men and women
should always be what was called "proper,"
with the result that they often became
self-conscious, stilted, affected, and even stupid.
In our day there is a strong reaction against
those Victorian ideas and manners.  This
reaction is very natural, and much of it is
sane and sound.  The relation between the
sexes to-day is often that of a healthy,
happy, easy comradeship, born of sport or
some other rational joint interest, a thing
of the open air, metaphorically as well as
literally.  And there are many men who
have cause to bless a blameless friendship
with a good woman.  But if some profit
by this new liberty, others, it must be
confessed, have shown themselves less worthy
of it.  It is all too easy for the man of
to-day to fall below the standard which is
planted in the conscience and instinct of
every true gentleman.  There is much--too
much--in modern life to make men
think that women are in the world just to
minister to their amusement and gratification,
and to make women acquiesce in that idea.
There are those who deliberately give effect
to that degraded conception.  There are
others who, without descending to vice, have
half-unconsciously allowed their thought of
the man and woman relationship to be
lowered and coarsened.  Influenced by the
presentment of life which they see at most
theatres and cinemas, and in a certain type
of novel, they learn to think of love as
something easy, exciting, pleasurable,
irresponsible, unfettered by ordinary restraints,
something to be gazed at, feasted on,
dissected, toyed with; and so perhaps they
come to play with love in their own
experience, and thus both work grievous hurt
on other lives, and, for themselves, fritter
away in little bits, cheaply and unthinkingly,
that which is the very highest thing in all
the capacity and heritage of their manhood.
Far otherwise is it with the man who is
mindful of the dictates of true chivalry.
His whole thought of womanhood is on a
different level, breathes another atmosphere.
For him, Love is a high and holy thing, to
be revered, not played with.  For him, all
that womanhood is and may be, the tender
grace and charm, the beauty of form and
face, the appeal of her dependence, the
subtle surprises of her companionship, the
ministries of her sympathy, the wonder of
her friendship, the selfless glory of her
love--all this he sees to be God's sheer gift for
the blessing of humanity.  Something of
this vision, this instinct, will be at the back
of his mind in all his contact with the
women he knows and sees.  And, therefore,
his one guiding principle as he meets and
mixes with them will be--*reverence*.  A deep
reverence for womanhood is the hall-mark
of true chivalry.

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[2] May 10, 1916.

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Does this seem an impossibly high standard
for a man who has to live his life in
modern society?  Perhaps it would be out
of reach of us ordinary men, if it were not
for a new and mighty spiritual stimulus
which, if we will, we may make our own.
The secret of chivalry, like the secret of
courage, may be learned in the companionship
of the one perfect chivalrous Gentleman
that the world has seen--Jesus of Nazareth.
He, born of a human mother, acquainted
with family love.  Friend of gentle women,
for ever blessed and sanctified the friendship
and love of men and women.  From the
Manger to the Cross He lived out and taught
the first law of all chivalry, the great guiding
principle of all human relationships, the
highest glory both of manhood and womanhood,
that it is ever more blessed to give
than to receive.  As Charles Kingsley,
himself a most chivalrous gentleman, sung
of his Master in lines noble and true:

   |  "He taught mankind on that first Christmas Day
   |  What 'twas to be a man; to give, not take;
   |  To serve, not rule; to nourish, not devour;
   |  To help, not crush; if need to die, not live."

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.. _`SIR GALAHAD *Photo F. Hollyer G. F. Watts, R.A. by permission of Mrs. Watts*`:

.. figure:: images/img-028.jpg
   :figclass: white-space-pre-line
   :align: center
   :alt: SIR GALAHAD *Photo F. Hollyer G. F. Watts, R.A. by permission of Mrs. Watts*

   SIR GALAHAD *Photo F. Hollyer G. F. Watts, R.A. by permission of Mrs. Watts*

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.. _`PURITY`:

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   PURITY

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"And I saw ... and behold a white horse; and He
that sat upon him was called Faithful and True...
And His armies followed Him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean."--REV. xix. 11, 14.

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"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost?"--1 COR. vi. 19.

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..

   |  God who created me
   |    Nimble and light of limb,
   |  In three elements free,
   |    To run, to ride, to swim:
   |  Not when the sense is dim,
   |    But now from the heart of joy,
   |  I would remember Him:
   |    Take the thanks of a boy.

   |  Jesu, King and Lord,
   |    Whose are my foes to fight.
   |  Gird me with Thy sword,
   |    Swift and sharp and bright.
   |  Thee would I serve if I might;
   |    And conquer if I can.
   |  From day-dawn till night,
   |    Take the strength of a man.

   |  Spirit of Love and Truth,
   |    Breathing in grosser clay,
   |  The light and flame of youth.
   |    Delight of men in the fray.
   |  Wisdom in strength's decay;
   |    From pain, strife, wrong to be free.
   |  This best gift I pray,
   |    Take my spirit to Thee.--HENRY CHARLES BEECHING

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   \IV

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   PURITY

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One of the old legends of King Arthur
and his Knights concerns that which
men called the "Holy Grail."  The story
ran that the Holy Grail, which was the cup
used at Christ's last supper with His
disciples, was treasured carefully by Joseph of
Arimathaea and brought by him, ultimately,
to Glastonbury.

   |  "And there awhile it abode; and if a man
   |  Could touch or see it, he was healed at once,
   |  By faith, of all his ills.  But then the times
   |  Grew to such evil that the holy cup
   |  Was caught away to heaven and disappeared."
   |

Later, in the days of King Arthur, the
vision of the cup returned again.  It was a
memorable day.  The seat at the Round
Table, the "Siege Perilous," left ever
empty for the coming of one who should, be
worthy to sit therein, was filled at last by
the young and fair and pure Sir Galahad,
brought thither by the "ancient clothed
in white."  He was clad in white armour,
with no sword or shield save only an empty
scabbard hanging by his side.  Thereupon
the second marvel of that day took place.
The fair sword, stuck fast in the great
stone of red marble, which no other Knight
had been able to move, was lightly and
easily drawn by Sir Galahad, who said as
he took it, "For the surety of this sword
I brought none with me; for here by my
side hangeth the scabbard."  That same
evening, after even-song in the great minster
at Camelot, they were all at supper in
Arthur's Hall.  "And all at once," runs the
old legend, retold in Tennyson's verse,

   |  "And all at once, as there we sat, we heard
   |  A cracking and a riving of the roofs,
   |  And rending, and a blast, and overhead
   |  Thunder, and in the thunder was a cry.
   |  And in the blast there smote along the hall
   |  A beam of light seven times more clear than day.
   |  And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail
   |  All over cover'd with a luminous cloud,
   |  And none might see who bare it, and it past.
   |  But every Knight beheld his fellow's face
   |  As in a glory, and all the Knights arose...."
   |

All saw the light, and heard the sounds,
but Sir Galahad alone had sight of the
Grail itself.  Whereupon all the rest took
solemn vows to ride a twelvemonth and a
day in quest of it.  And the legend goes
on to tell how they fared and what
adventures they had in their quest.

It is a beautiful and significant story.
G.F. Watts, the artist, caught the spirit of
it in his well-known picture of Sir Galahad
standing by his white horse, with purity of
vision and strength of high resolve written
on every line of his uplifted face.  Both
legend and picture seem to catch and
illumine an idea that was fundamental in
the whole conception of Knighthood, the
idea that the true Knight must be pure in
heart.  Sir Galahad stands forth as the
type and embodiment of strong and pure
manhood.

Sermons on sin and exhortations to
holiness may leave us cold, but this Knightly
ideal carries an appeal that is permanent
and powerful; it cannot fail to find some
response in the heart of anyone who is a
real man.  For the point is that Sir Galahad,
with all his purity, was no milksop, no
untempted saint; he was uncommonly
strong in the right arm, as other men found
to their cost.  But there was, and is always,
a deep-down connexion between what a
man is and what he does.  A man's whole
life is the product and expression of the
real quality of the hidden self.  The nature
of the tree determines the fruit.  The
question of purity has its roots in these
secret places of a man's being that lie hid
from any human eye.  "There is nothing,"
insisted Christ, "from without a man that
entering into him can defile him, but the
things which come out of him, from within,
out of the heart ... those are they that
defile the man."[1]

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.. class:: noindent small

[1] St. Mark vii. 15, 21.

.. vspace:: 2

Psychologists tell us that below the level
of our conscious thought there are large
subterranean places where the things we
hear and read and think about are
being stored up.  The things that come
up to the surface, whether we produce
them voluntarily--'remember' them, or
whether they come up unbidden when our
upper minds are empty and receptive,
naturally are of the stock that is stored
below.  What sort of stock are you accumulating
in your mental underground?  What
sort of pictures hang in the most private
galleries of your mind?  What kind of
thoughts come floating up from those
mysterious depths, and what are the thoughts
that you most enjoy thinking?  There is
many a man who is often visited by thoughts
that he would rather be without; they
seem to catch on to some part of him that
has a sneaking liking for them, and he
cannot dislodge these unwelcome guests.
He is almost conscious of a sort of dual
personality: part of him wants what is
clean and good, but the rest of him seems a
very odd mixture which he is powerless to
regulate or alter.  He feels that he would
make a better affair of life if only all the
parts of him would push together in the
right direction.  Is there any way of
achieving such a state of affairs?  I know
of no other certain way but one.  There is
only one power I ever heard of that could
plumb the depths of a human soul and
transform the quality of all the stuff that
lies down there, and clean out all the refuse,
and stiffen the dethroned will and put it
back in its place of power--and that is the
"Spirit" of Jesus Christ.  It is said of the
great John Nicholson, that wonderful leader
of men, that, however desperate the
circumstances, his presence could put new
heart into a whole camp.  It is just that,
with yet deeper result, that Christ does for
those who trust Him.  He told His followers
that if they would open their hearts to
receive Him, He would give them His
Spirit; by which He meant that, inspired by
His influence, they would actually become
like Him, and think His thoughts, and will
His will, and live the kind of life He lived.
What He said would happen *does happen*;
and not just "Saints" but ordinary people
find that *He* can make them true and pure
in a way that nothing else can.

   |  "Spirit of purity and grace.
   |  Our weakness pitying see;
   |  Oh make our hearts Thy dwelling place
   |      And worthier Thee."

Those words contain not a beautiful aspiration
but a literal possibility.

Once a man begins to make this great
discovery, all sorts of results ensue.  Lost
things are found again, among them that
happy, guileless certainty of God which is
childhood's heritage and which so often
slips away when men grow older.  Life gets
crowded and men lose sight of God; some
men even think He is not there because
they have lost the knack of looking for Him.
If you cannot see properly through a
telescope it is rash to conclude that the
object you are looking for is not there; it
would be better to clean the lens.  It is
not God who deserts us; it is we who,
blinded by sin, miss Him.  "Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  Here
again it is not the "Saints" only who
are gifted with this capacity for spiritual
vision.  It is the birthright of every man
and woman born into the world.  The path
of purity is a right of way, and the place of
vision has no fences round it; all who will
may enter there, and there is none to forbid
them but themselves.  I believe there are
numbers of men who have a dim consciousness
of these great possibilities but who,
from one cause or another, have never really
begun to explore them.  The one thing
needful, for many a man, is simply that he
should *give his soul a chance*.  Early in
the War there was killed in France at the
age of twenty, a man of brilliant endowments
and high promise--Charles Sorley, of
Marlborough and University College, Oxford.
A few months before his death he wrote
these lines, which put into winged words
this haunting sense of unexplored spiritual
possibilities,--

   |  "From morn to midnight, all day through,
   |  I laugh and play as others do,
   |  I sin and chatter just the same
   |  As others with a different name.

   |  And all year long upon the stage
   |  I dance and tumble and do rage
   |  So vehemently, I scarcely see
   |  The inner and eternal me.

   |  I have a temple I do not
   |  Visit, a heart I have forgot,
   |  A self that I have never met,
   |  A secret shrine--and yet, and yet

   |  This sanctuary of my soul
   |  Unwitting I keep white and whole,
   |  Unlatched and lit, if Thou should'st care
   |  To enter or to tarry there.

   |  With parted lips and outstretched hands
   |  And listening ears Thy servant stands;
   |  Call Thou early, call Thou late,
   |  To Thy great service dedicate."
   |

The War is creating a hunger for reality,
and above all for spiritual reality.  "Break
me, O God, destroy me if you will, but save
me from self-complacency and little interests
and little successes and the life that passes
as the shadows of a dream."

If purity is the condition of vision, it is
also the secret of strength.

   |  "My strength is as the strength of ten
   |  Because my heart is pure."

Sir Galahad had made the discovery which
true men always make.  Sin is a source of
weakness.  Purity is a fount of strength.
Unclean men are never conquerors--they
have lost the first and most important of
battles, that with themselves.  It was not
for nothing that Lord Kitchener emphasized
the supreme importance of self control in his
famous letter to the troops at the beginning
of the War.  "Success in War," says the
Field Service Regulations, "depends more
on the moral than on the physical
qualities."  Foremost among moral forces is that
wonderful thing, all powerful though difficult
to define, which men call *discipline*.  Of
the many qualities which make up discipline,
there is one of unrivalled importance, which
it partly evokes and partly creates, and
that is self-control.  It is of the essence of
discipline that a man should learn entirely
to subordinate his own wish or pleasure or
safety to a larger common purpose.  Standing
in the ranks he must control the desire
to move his head or fidget with his hands.
In the face of the enemy he must control
his desire to run away.  At all times and
in all places he must control his desire to
consult his own comfort or convenience.
Such self-control involves a considerable
measure of moral strength.  Will a man be
strong here, where strength is so needed, if
all the while he is gravely weak in the region
of his inner life?  Is it likely that he will
be able to inspire others with cheerful
fortitude in face of hardships and death if
the very source is fouled whence his own
strength must be drawn?

With all possible emphasis I would press
this point upon you, that there is a vital
connexion between purity and moral strength.
And I urge it, not simply for your own sakes,
but even more because of what you may be
and do for others.  "For their sakes I
consecrate myself."  The motive of that
one perfect life is the only adequate motive
for us who try to be His followers.  How can
I serve others, if my own soul is shackled
in iron bonds?  How can I fight for righteousness,
in this War or in the Greater War, if
in my own heart and life I have secret
dealings with the enemy?

The Knights of Christ are men who have
no use for dirt of any kind.  "And I beheld
a white horse, and He that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness
He doth judge and make War ... and
the armies which were in heaven followed
Him upon white horses, clothed in fine
linen, white and clean."[2]  There is nothing
so unclean but that Christ can cleanse it;
and to all who would be His Warriors He
can, and He does, give the white armour
which they must have.  Here is the greatest
soldiering of all.  It is worth the struggle to
be a better man, it is worth the effort of faith
which will let Him re-make your life, if
thereby you may be fit to take your place
in His Army and go after Him as He rides
forth to conquer in the Holy War.

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[2] Revelation xix. 11, 14.

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.. _`LOYALTY`:

.. class:: center large bold

   LOYALTY

.. vspace:: 2

"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven."--ST. MATTHEW vii. 21.

.. vspace:: 1

"Be Thou the King, and we will work Thy will
Who Love Thee."--TENNYSON.

.. vspace:: 1

..

   |  "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
   |  Does his successive journeys run;
   |  His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
   |  Till moons shall wax and wane no more."--ISAAC WATTS.

.. vspace:: 3

.. class:: center medium bold

   \V

.. class:: center large bold

   LOYALTY

.. vspace:: 2

The Coronation Service of His Majesty
King George V. is still a comparatively
recent event.  The whole ceremony
is, as many will remember, full of beautiful
symbolism.  One of the most moving and
dramatic moments is that when, after the
King has been crowned, his chief subjects
come forward to kneel down and do him
homage.  One after another the Archbishops,
the Princes of the Blood Royal and
the Peers of the Realm, kneel down, putting
off their coronets, and pronounce the words
of homage: "I do become your liege man
of life and limb, and of earthly worship;
and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to
live and die, against all manner of folks.
So help me God."  And then, proceeds the
rubric, "the Peers having done their
Homage, the first of each Order, putting
off his coronet, shall singly ascend the
throne, and stretching forth his hand, touch
the Crown on His Majesty's head, as promising
by that ceremony for himself and his
Order to be ever ready to support it with
all their power; and then shall he kiss the
King's cheek."  This sense of owing loyal
service to a King is an immemorial instinct
in men.  And it is a deep-rooted tradition
that those who are his "Knights" are
bound to him in the closest ties of honourable
obligation.  In the earliest centuries of our
national history the King used to have his
"war band," bound personally to him by
their free choice, and sworn to fight for him
to the death.  He was their "lord," they
his "thegns."

Most of us call ourselves "Christians."  Have
you realized that to be a Christian,
in the true sense of the word, means nothing
less than that you are Christ's "liege man
of life and limb," and that you are utterly
committed "faith and truth to bear unto
Him, to live and die, against all manner of
folks?"  This personal devotion to the
living Christ is the most central thing in
Christianity.  If a man is going to be a real
Christian it will mean more than just
assenting to the Creed, and going to Church,
and "feeling religious" at favourable
moments.  It will mean entering into a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ and
letting Him be in command, not on specified
occasions, but every day and all the time.
The difficulty with many people is that
Christianity only touches the circumference
of their existence and never seems to get
established right at the centre of heart and
life.  It simply makes the whole difference
when once you discover that Jesus Christ
is a real Person Who, on His side, is
interested in you and loves to help you and go
about with you, and Whom you, on your
side, can talk to and lean on and, gradually,
begin to love.  It is always in this personal
way that God in Christ offers Himself to
men.  He is the Redeemer Who will release
you from the iron bonds of sin, the Friend
Who will stand by your side, the King Who
would have your loyal service.  And, in
order to break for good and all the power
of sin and death, and that He might found
His Kingdom on the free loyalty of love,
*He died*....  It is a common thing for
men to lay down their lives for king and
country; but here is a King dying for His
subjects.  Have you ever tried to realize
what *sin* means?  It must mean at least
this: that when you and I do wrong we are
doing something that hurts God, something
that inevitably puts a barrier between Him
and us.  And is it not premature to speak
of love and loyalty to Him as long as that
barrier is there?  Now, however amazing
it may seem, there has proved to be no
other way but one in which that barrier
could be utterly and finally broken
down--and God chose that way, the way of the
Cross.  Deliberately, gladly, the Son of
God *died*.  That which is a lasting puzzle
to theologians and philosophers, is just sheer
good tidings, and tidings found to be true,
to ordinary people who are hungry in soul.
I always think that at once the simplest and
profoundest statement of the meaning of
the death of Christ is that contained in the
old children's hymn:

   |  "He died that we might be forgiven,
   |    He died to make us good;
   |  That we might go at last to heaven,
   |    Saved by His precious blood."

Can we withhold our loyalty from Him Who
stands before us, not only as a King
demanding our rightful allegiance, but as One
Who loves us so much that He died for us?

   |  "Were the whole realm of Nature mine,
   |    That were an offering far too small;
   |  Love so amazing, so Divine
   |    Demands my soul, my life, my all.
   |

Once you get fairly hold of this idea of
Christianity being largely a matter of
personal loyalty to Jesus Christ, then your
"religion" will begin to become alive in
all sorts of unsuspected ways.  Prayer will
cease to be a more or less formal duty
which you hardly like to give up, and will
become instead a real intercourse with God
which you find you cannot do without.  The
Bible, too, will no longer be, what it too
often is, a mere adjunct of conventional
religion, but will become instead a living
book, a book which makes you see, as
nothing else can, the mind and character
and purposes of the King you are trying to
serve.  Public worship will be a pleasure
instead of a bore, because you have
discovered its point and meaning.  And the
Holy Communion, instead of being either a
religious "extra" beyond your reach or else
an occasional effort out of touch with your
ordinary life, will take its place as an
indispensable means of bringing new life to your
soul, as a wonderful pledge of His amazing
love and of all that you long to give Him in
response.

Now there are two things which this
loyalty to the King of Kings will necessarily
involve.  To be loyal to Him will mean
being loyal to the Christian Brotherhood
and loyal to the Christian Cause.  Loyalty
to a brotherhood is a thing that should come
naturally to a soldier, or indeed to anyone
who has imbibed the highest traditions of
our Public Schools and Universities and
Services.  "Comradeship," says a soldier
who ought to know, "Comradeship is the
saving characteristic of the British Army."  A
man has learnt one of the greatest lessons
of life when he realizes that the honour of
the Regiment is of far greater moment than
his own personal success, than his life even.
As a senior subaltern said to a junior brother
officer, when giving him some homely advice
on the day that he passed his recruits' drills
and was finally "off the square":--"All
that you've got to remember is that it's
the Regiment which counts; and you've
got to make yourself a credit to it."[1]  Again
and again in this war it has been
shown what a wonderful force there is in
this Regimental *esprit de corps*.  There
can be no doubt--to cite one instance
only--that this spirit, this tradition, was
a vital factor in the glorious achievements
of the immortal 29th Division at
Gallipoli.

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[1] "The Making of an Officer."  *The Times*,
June 8, 1916.

.. vspace:: 2

"It's the Regiment which counts."  The
Christian Church could do with more of
this spirit of mutual loyalty.  We are
"members one of another," urged
St. Paul; and yet how little there is of real
brotherliness among us Christians!  When
we find a man is a fellow-Christian, whatever
his social position may be, we ought to
have that kind of feeling towards him that
we should have if he had been at our school,
or belonged to our Regiment.  There is no
free-masonry like that which links together
those who have a common love for Jesus
Christ and a common interest in His
purposes.  Moreover, this sense of being one
of a great Brotherhood is a spiritual
safeguard and incentive.  When you and I
fail, it is not just our own Christianity that
suffers: we are "letting down" the whole
Brotherhood, we are lowering great and
immemorial traditions, we are proving
unworthy of the unnumbered multitude of
Christian heroes who, in every generation,
have fought the good light of faith.
"*Therefore*, surrounded as we are by such a vast
cloud of witnesses let us fling aside every
encumbrance and the sin that so readily
entangles our feet, and let us run with
patient endurance the race that lies before
us, fixing our gaze on Jesus our Prince
Leader in the Faith."[2]

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.. class:: noindent small

[2] Hebrews xii 1, 2.  *Weymouth's* Version.

.. vspace:: 2

Any genuine loyalty to our "Prince
Leader" carries with it, of necessity, loyalty
to His Cause.  I have said something, in
a previous Chapter, about the call to
Christians to do some fighting in the real
Holy War.  I would urge, once more,
that the true Knight of Christ cannot
do less than place himself, and all that
he has, at the disposal of his Master's
Cause.

"A Christian," says a recent writer, "is
one who believes in *and supports* the claim
of Christ to universal Sovereignty."  Christ
needs men who will spend themselves in
His Cause with the same splendid devotion
that men show when they are fighting for
their country.  In the recent advance,[3] as
the Newfoundland Regiment was pushing
along through a storm of lead, a corporal
turned to the man by his side and said, "If
I go down you take charge and go straight
ahead."  A minute afterwards a bullet hit
him in the chest and he dropped.  The man
he had spoken to tried to lift him up, but
he was done for, and his last words were
"Push on with it."

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.. class:: noindent small

[3] July, 1916.

.. vspace:: 2

Those words might serve as a motto for
all those who are beginning to see that the
greatest Enterprise of all, and one most
worth serving, is that of extending the
Kingdom of God over the face of the whole
earth.  The time is ripe indeed for a general
Christian offensive.  The war has laid
bare, as never before, the moral need of
the world, and now is the opportunity to
begin afresh the task of giving men
Christianity, and to "*push on with it*."  It is
to a mighty Adventure, with big risks and
great sacrifices, that Christ is calling us;
and that is the kind of call that a real man
always loves to hear.  At the supreme
crisis of his fortunes, after the capitulation
of Rome, Garibaldi, the Saviour of Italy,
called for volunteers to go after him.  "I
am going out from Rome," he cried; "I
offer neither quarters, nor provisions, nor
wages.  I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches,
battles, death.  Let him who loves his
country with his heart, not with his lips
only, follow me."  And men streamed out
after him into the hills.  That is the spirit
in which Christ summons men to serve *His*
Cause.  "If any man will come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his Cross
daily, and follow Me."  And the curious
thing is that when men at last cut loose
from a snug religion and fling themselves
with a certain recklessness into the service
of Christ and His Kingdom, then they begin
to taste the real joy of life.  As at a
Coronation, as soon as the homage is accomplished,
the trumpets blow.  When a man, at whatever
cost, "does his bit" in a mighty enterprise,
then he begins to enjoy "the top of
the fulness of life."  In one of the battles of
history, when in an advance a soldier was
mortally wounded, a comrade bent over
him and cheered him with the tidings,
"They have taken the position: the flag
is planted on it."  A film was on the eyes
of the dying man, and he could see nothing;
but with a smile on his face he murmured,
"I helped to put it there."  Will you and
I be able to say that when the flag of the
triumphant Christ is unfurled in His final
victory?

   |      "And the King sat
   |  Crown'd on the dais, and his warriors cried,
   |  'Be Thou the King, and we will work Thy will
   |    Who love Thee.'"
   |

Have you taken these vows?  Christ the
King would have your services and make
you His Knight.  He *wants* you, for Himself
and for His Cause.  To be wanted by Jesus
Christ--who can hold back from a call such
as that?

   |  "He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat,
   |  He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
   |  Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet:
   |      Our God is marching on!"

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   A PRAYER
   OF S. RICHARD OF CHICHESTER
   1240 A.D.

.. vspace:: 1

..

   |  Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
   |    For all the benefits which Thou hast given me,
   |    For all the pains and insults, which Thou hast borne for me.
   |  O most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
   |    May I know Thee more clearly,
   |    Love Thee more dearly,
   |    And follow Thee more nearly.  Amen.

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   *Printed for* ROBERT SCOTT, *Publisher*,
   PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C., *by*
   BUTLER & TANNER, FROME.

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.. pgfooter::