C.T. Studd was a wealthy, and athletic young man in the 1800's that gave up everything the world had to offer to be a missionary in China. He gave the following exhortation called the chocolate soldier to the Christians of his day, and I think it's still very relevant today!
HEROISM is the lost chord; the missing note of present-day Christianity! In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys, bounding out of school, to obtain their heart's desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier's vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigour of a hero.
Every true Christian is a soldier- of Christ- scorning the soft seductions of peace and her soft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends.
The otherwise Christian is a chocolate soldier! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. "Sweeties" they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution.
"They say and do not"- they tell others to go, and yet do not go themselves. "Never" said Feneral Gordon to a corporal, as he himself jumped upon the parapet of a trench before Sebastopol to fix a gabion which the corporal had ordered private to fix, and wouldn't fix himself, "Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself! "
To the chocolate Christian the very thought of war brings a violent attack of argue. "I really cannot move, " he says. "I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favorite lines:
"I must be carried to the skies
On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
or sail thro' bloody seas.
Mark time, Christian heroes,
Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
Playing on the floor.
Wash and dress and feed them
Forty times a week.
Til they're roly poly,
Puddings so to speak.
Chorus: Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate;
Sugar and spice and all that's nice
Must be on our slate."
God never meant me to be a jelly-fish! God's men are always heroes!
To read the whole story of The Chocolate Soldier check out this website www.wholesomewords.org/missions/msctserm.html
HEROISM is the lost chord; the missing note of present-day Christianity! In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys, bounding out of school, to obtain their heart's desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier's vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigour of a hero.
Every true Christian is a soldier- of Christ- scorning the soft seductions of peace and her soft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends.
The otherwise Christian is a chocolate soldier! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. "Sweeties" they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution.
"They say and do not"- they tell others to go, and yet do not go themselves. "Never" said Feneral Gordon to a corporal, as he himself jumped upon the parapet of a trench before Sebastopol to fix a gabion which the corporal had ordered private to fix, and wouldn't fix himself, "Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself! "
To the chocolate Christian the very thought of war brings a violent attack of argue. "I really cannot move, " he says. "I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favorite lines:
"I must be carried to the skies
On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
or sail thro' bloody seas.
Mark time, Christian heroes,
Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
Playing on the floor.
Wash and dress and feed them
Forty times a week.
Til they're roly poly,
Puddings so to speak.
Chorus: Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate;
Sugar and spice and all that's nice
Must be on our slate."
God never meant me to be a jelly-fish! God's men are always heroes!
To read the whole story of The Chocolate Soldier check out this website www.wholesomewords.org/missions/msctserm.html
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment