22, 24).
This was the spirit of David, when Saul was hunting for his life;
twice David could have slain him, and when urged to do so, he
said, "As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day
shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle and perish.
The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the
Lord's anointed" (1 Samuel xxvi. 10, 11).
This was the spirit of Paul. He says, "Being reviled, we bless;
being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat" (1
Cor. iv. 12, 13). "The servant of the Lord must not strive,"
wrote Paul to Timothy, "but be gentle unto all men." This is the
spirit of our King, this is the law of His Kingdom.
Is this your spirit? When you are reviled, bemeaned and
slandered, and are tempted to retort, He says to you, "Put up thy
sword into the sheath." When you are wronged and illtreated, and
men ride rough-shod over you, and you feel it but just to smite
back, He says, "Put up thy sword into the sheath." "Live
peaceably with all men." Your weapons are not carnal, but
spiritual, now that you belong to Him, and have your citizenship
in Heaven. If you fight with the sword; if you retort and smite
back when you are wronged, you quench the Spirit; you get out of
the narrow way, and your new life from Heaven will perish.
An Officer went to a hard Corps, and after a while found that his
predecessor was sending back to friends for money which his own
Corps much needed.
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