The Discipline of War

ipline o

WEDN

h lvi

he fast that I

splendid possibilities, comes before us this year. Much of the discipline of this Le

n no uncertain tones, "Is not t

individual sorrows or anxieties; maybe by the feeling of the incongruity

he stress of straitened means, or the vital necess

in earnestness, for the call upon our prayers has come wi

ken out of our own hands; ordered and pre-arranged by that inscrutab

t into harmony with the central idea of

nother": the two necessarily overlap, and therefore we shall speak of God's discipline, acting upon us fr

ding every aspect of it upon which we shal

ystery, to sound the depth of meaning

y one who can say it of yourself. Any other must speak of you

ch you possess as absolutely, uniquely your own; which none other can share with you in the remotest de

concerned with so apparently simple a ma

e made up my mind what I am going to do, an

of endless dispute from every point of view, th

necessitarian, who argues theoretically that even when he says "I will" he is under the compul

s a totally different aspect. If the will be not free, religion, as a personal m

lvin, whose theory of Predestination and Irresistible Grace seems to exclude man from any co-oper

will is absolutely settled by Him Who

h God's nature and man's nature, difficulty must arise, from the very fact that our finite mind can only comprehend, and that but imperfectly, man's side of the transaction. Things which now seem incompati

is strongly emphasised. The Apostle who, thinking of the boundless power of God's grace, says, "So then it is not of him that willeth nor of

Ghost; the whole dispensation of the Catholic Church, form one great tender appeal to the free-will of man.

oint, occupied with eternal choices and spiritual decisi

the slightest movement of any part of the body, there must

es the attitude of the will, that is your final purpose. Put quite simply, the motive

en follows the deliberation: the flesh says, "To-morrow will do just as well." The spirit says, "No, it won't; you may both be dead to-morrow." The flesh says, "Perhaps I shall catch a cold"; the spirit sa

a vital principle. In the one case the lower self, in

a simple thing like this God the Holy Ghost comes to our aid with His suggestions of the higher course, and illuminates the path of duty. That is o

ly means. It is just the laying of ourselves open

hened, so that the struggle against the lower nature grow less and le

t practical thou

you have been getting out of hand. The prayers omitted, curtailed, said carelessly, s

Communion, the irregularity of your attendances; the habit of Sel

the matter of sleep, food, dr

ly than open sins, because with regard to these conscience does speak; but when we are merely drifting down the

e principle upon which it is being lived, God or self? When the answer comes

ts, home, prospects, harmless pleasures, in exchange for the ghastly miseries of the trenches, the appalling risks by land, on or beneath the sea, in the air

ed over and again, "I will not, I cannot let you go." Yet the will was disciplined, the words remained un

aid their good-bye, and withdrew a little to leave the young couple for their farewell; a kiss, a close embrace, outward smiles, but tears very near the

o Him Who said, "I came down from Heaven not to d

tations during the