December 23

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. — 2 Tim 2:3

Where our Captain bids us go,
’T is not ours to murmur, “No,”
He that gives the sword and shield,
Chooses too the battle-field
On which we are to fight the foe.
—ANON.

Of nothing may we be more sure than this; that, if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or nowhere. The obstructions of that lot are given for us to heave away by the concurrent touch of a holy spirit, and labor of strenuous will; its gloom, for us to tint with some celestial light; its mysteries are for our worship; its sorrows for our trust; its perils for our courage; its temptations for our faith. Soldiers of the cross, it is not for us, but for our Leader and our Lord, to choose the field; it is ours, taking the station which He assigns, to make it the field of truth and honor, though it be the field of death.
—J. MARTINEAU.