True Words for Brave Men

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TRUE WORDS FOR BRAVE MEN.

BY
CHARLES KINGSLEY,

LATE RECTOR OF EVERSLEY; CHAPLAIN TO THE QUEEN AND TO THE PRINCE OF
WALES.

_A BOOK FOR SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' LIBRARIES_.

ELEVENTH THOUSAND.

LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

1884.

_The Rights of Translation and of Reproduction are Reserved_.

Dedicated
BY KIND PERMISSION
TO
GENERAL SIR WILLIAM CODRINGTON, G.C.B.,
AND
ADMIRAL WELLESLEY, C.B.,
IN MEMORY OF
CHARLES KINGSLEY,
WHO WAS PROUD OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP,
AND LOVED AND HONOURED THEM
AS HE LOVED AND HONOURED
ALL BRAVE SOLDIERS
AND SAILORS.

"Yet was he courteous still to every wight,
And loved them that did to armes incline."

SPENSER.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

This little volume is selected from the unpublished sermons and addresses
of Charles Kingsley by the request of a Colonel of Artillery, and with
the sanction of an Army Chaplain of long experience, who knew the
influence of his writings on soldiers, and who wish that that influence
may live, though he is no longer here. The Lecture on Cortez was given
at Aldershot Camp in 1858, and the Address to Brave Soldiers and Sailors
written for and sent out to the troops before Sebastopol in the winter of
1855, when Mr. Kingsley's own heart, with that of all England, was
grieving over the sufferings of our noble army in the Crimea. F. E. K.

I. THE GOOD CENTURION; OR, THE MAN UNDER AUTHORITY.

"And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a
centurion, beseeching Him and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home,
sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I
will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am
not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me, and I say unto this man, Go, and he goeth;
and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and
he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that
followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found such great faith,
no, not in Israel."--MATT. viii. 5-10.

We find in Holy Scripture, that of the seven heathens who were first
drawn to our Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel, three were soldiers.

The first was the Centurion, of whom our Lord speaks in such high terms
of commendation.

The next, the Centurion who stood by His cross, and said, "Truly this was
the son of God." Old legends say that his name was Longinus, and tell
graceful tales of his after-life, which one would fain believe, if there
were any evidence of their truth.

The third, of course, was Cornelius, of whom we read in the Acts of the
Apostles.

Now these three Centurions--commanding each a hundred men--had probably
risen from the ranks; they were not highly educated men; they had seen
endless cruelty and immorality; they may have had, at times, to do ugly
work themselves, in obedience to orders. They were doing, at the time
when they are mentioned in Scripture, almost the worst work which a
soldier can do. For they were not defending their own country against
foreign enemies. They were keeping down a conquered nation, by a stern
military despotism, in which the soldiery acted not merely as police, but
as gaolers and executioners. And yet three men who had such work as this
to do, are singled out in Scripture to become famous through all time, as
the first-fruits of the heathen; and of one of them our Lord said, "I
have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel."

Why is this? Was there anything in these soldiers' profession, in these
soldiers' training, which made them more ready than other men to
acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ? And if so; what was it?

Let us take the case of this first Centurion, and see if it will tell us.
We will not invent any reasons of our own for his great faith. We will
let him give his own reasons. We will let him tell his own story. We
may trust it; for our blessed Lord approved of it. Our Lord plainly
thought that what the soldier had spoken, he had spoken well. And yet it
is somewhat difficult to understand what was in his mind. He was plainly
no talker; no orator. Like many a good English soldier, sailor, yeoman,
man of business, he had very sound instincts in him, and drew very sound
conclusions from them: but he could not put them into words. He knew
that he was right, but he could not make a speech about it. Better that,
than be--as too many are--ready to make glib speeches, which they only
half believe themselves; ready to deceive themselves with subtle
arguments and high-flown oratory, till they can give the most
satisfactory reasons for doing the most unsatisfactory and unreasonable
things. No, the good soldier was no orator: but he had sound sense under
his clumsy words. Let us listen to them once more.

"I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this
man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my
servant, Do this, and he doeth it." Surely the thought which was in his
mind is to be found in the very words which he used--Authority.
Subordination. Discipline. Obedience. He was under authority, and must
obey his superior officer. He had soldiers under him, and they must obey
him. There must be not only no mutiny, but no neglect, no arguing, no
asking why. If he said Go, a man must go; if he said Come, a man must
come; and make no words about it. Otherwise the Emperor's service would
go to ruin, through laziness, distrust, and mutinous talk. By
subordination, by discipline, by mutual trust and strict obedience, that
empire of Rome was conquering the old world; because every Roman knew his
place, and every Roman did what he was told.

But what had that to do with our Lord's power, and with the healing of
the child?

This. The honest soldier had, I think, in his mind, that subordination
was one of the most necessary things in the world; that without it the
world could not go on. Then he said to himself, "If there must be
subordination on earth, must there not be subordination in heaven?" If
he, a poor officer, could get his commands obeyed, by merely speaking the
word; then how much more could God. If Jesus was--as He said--as His
disciples said--the Lord, the God of the Jews: then He had no need to
come and see a sick man; no need to lay His hands on him; to perform
ceremonies or say prayers over him. The Laws of Nature, by which health
and sickness come, would obey His word of command without rebellion and
without delay. "Speak the word only, Lord, and my servant shall be
healed."

But how did the Centurion know--seemingly at first sight, that Jesus was
the Lord God? Ah, how indeed?

I think it was because he had learnt the soldier's lesson. He had seen
many a valiant officer--Tribunes, Prefects, Consuls, Emperors, commanding
men; and fit to command men. There was no lack of such men in the Roman
empire then, as the poor, foolish, unruly Jews found out to their cost
within the next forty years. And the good Centurion had been accustomed
to look at such men; and to look up to them beside, and say not merely--It
is a duty to obey these men, but--It is a delight to obey them. He had
been accustomed--as it is good for every man to be accustomed--to meet
men superior to himself; men able to guide and rule him. And he had
learned--as every good soldier ought to learn--when he met such a man,
not to envy him, not to backbite him, not to intrigue against him, not to
try to pull him down: but to accept him for what he was--a man who was to
be followed, if need be, to the death.

There was in that good Centurion none of the base spirit of envy, which
dreads and therefore hates excellence, hates ability, hates authority;
the mutinous spirit which ends, not--as it dreams--in freedom and
equality, but in slavery and tyranny; because it transforms a whole
army--a whole nation--from what it should be, a pack of staunch and
faithful hounds, into a mob of quarrelsome and greedy curs. Not of that
spirit was the good Centurion: but of the spirit of reverence and
loyalty; the spirit which delights in, and looks up to, all that is brave
and able, great and good; the spirit of true independence, true freedom,
and the true self-respect which respects its fellow men; and therefore it
was, that when the Centurion came into the divine presence of Christ, he
knew at once, instinctively and by a glance, into what a presence he had
come. Christ's mere countenance, Christ's mere bearing, I believe, told
that good soldier who He was. He knew of old the look of great
commanders: and now he saw a countenance, in spite of all its sweetness,
more commanding than he had ever seen before. He knew of old the bearing
of Consuls and of Emperors: and now, in spite of Christ's lowly disguise,
he recognised the bearing of an Emperor of emperors, a King of kings. He
had learnt of old to know a man when he met one; and now, he felt that he
had met the Man of all men, the Son of Man; and that so God-like was His
presence, that He must be likewise the Son of God.

And so had this good soldier his reward; his reward for the soldierly
qualities which he had acquired; for subordination; for reverence; for
admiration of great and able men. And what was his reward? Not merely
that his favourite servant was healed at his request: but that he learnt
to know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom truly to know is everlasting life;
whom the selfish, the conceited, the envious, the slanderous, the
insolent, the mutinous, know not, and never will know; for they are not
of His Spirit, neither is He of theirs.

But more: What is the moral which old divines have drawn from this story?
"If you wish to govern: learn first to obey." That is a moral lesson
more valuable than even the use of arms. To learn--as the good Centurion
learnt--that a free man can give up his independence without losing it.
Losing it? Independence is never more called out than by subordination.
A man never feels himself so much of a free man as when he is freely
obeying those whom the laws of his country have set over him. A man
never feels so able as when he is following the lead of an abler man than
himself. Remember this. Make it a point of honour to do your duty
earnestly, scrupulously, and to the uttermost; and you will find that the
habits of self-restraint, discipline, and obedience, which you, as
soldiers, have learned, will stand you in good stead for the rest of your
lives, and make you each, in his place, fit to rule, just because you
have learned to obey.

But now go on a step, as the good Centurion went on, and say--If there is
no succeeding in earthly things, whether in soldiering or any other
profession, without subordination; without obeying rules and orders
strictly and without question: then perhaps there is no succeeding in
spiritual and heavenly things. For has not God His moral Laws, His
spiritual Laws, which must be obeyed, if you intend to prosper in this
life, or in the life to come?

"Thou _shalt_ love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and thy
neighbour as thyself. Thou _shalt_ honour thy father and thy mother.
Thou _shalt not_ kill, steal, commit adultery, slander, or covet." So it
is written: not merely on those old tables of stone on Sinai; but in The
Eternal Will of God, and in the very nature of this world, which God has
made. There is no escaping those Laws. They fulfil themselves. God
says to them, "Go," and they go; "Come," and they come; "Do justice on
the offender," and they do it. If we are fools and disobey them, they
will grind us to powder. If we are wise and obey them, they will reward
us. For in wisdom's right hand is length of days, and in her left hand
riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold of her, and
blessed is every one that retaineth her; as God grant you all will do.

But you, too, in time may have soldiers under you. Think, I beseech you,
earnestly of this, and for their sake, as well as for your own, try by
God's help to live worthy of Christian English men. Let them see you
going out and coming in, whether on duty or by your own firesides, as men
who feel that they are "ever beneath their great taskmaster's eye;" who
have a solemn duty to perform, namely, the duty of living like good men
toward your superior officers, your families, your neighbours, your
country, and your God--even towards that Saviour who so loved you that He
died for you on the cross, to set you the example of what true men should
be; the example of perfect duty, perfect obedience, perfect courage,
perfect generosity--in one word--the example of a perfect Hero.

Live such lives, and then, will be fulfilled to you, and to your children
after you, from generation to generation, the promises which God made,
ages since, to the men of Judea of old; promises which are all true
still, and will continue true, in every country of the world, till the
world's end.

"Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed.

The Lord knoweth the doings of the righteous; and their inheritance shall
endure for ever.

They shall not be confounded in the perilous time; and in the days of
dearth they shall have enough.

The Lord ordereth a good man's going; and maketh his way acceptable to
himself.

Though he fall, he shall not be cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him
with his hand.

I have been young, and now I am old; yet saw I never the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.

Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good; and dwell for evermore.

For the Lord loveth the thing that is right; He forsaketh not his that
are godly, but they are preserved for ever." Amen.

II. CHRIST IS COME. A CHRISTMAS SERMON.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even for ever."--ISAIAH ix. 6, 7.

It is now more than three thousand years ago that God made to Abraham the
promise, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
Again the promise was renewed to Moses when he was commanded to tell the
Jews, "a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me.
Hear ye him . . ." In David's Psalms, again, this same strange person
was spoken of who was already, and yet who was to come. David calls him
the Son of God, the King of kings. Again, in the Prophets, in many
strange and mysterious words, is this same being spoken of as a virgin's
child--"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall
be called Emmanuel, God with us;" and again, "Unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God--the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
And again, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him,--the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And with righteousness shall He
judge the poor," &c.

And again, "Thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the princes of
Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth He that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from everlasting. And He shall be great
unto the ends of the earth."

But time would fail me if I tried to repeat to you half the passages
wherein the old Jewish prophets foretold Him who was to come, and in whom
all the nations of the earth should be blessed, more and more clearly as
the time drew nigh.

Well, my friends, surely you know of whom I have been speaking--of whom
Moses and the prophets spoke--of Him who was born of a village maiden,
laid in a manger, proclaimed of angels to the shepherds, worshipped with
hymns of glory by the heavenly host on the first Christmas day eighteen
hundred and seventy-eight years ago, as we count time. Aye, strange as
it may seem, _He is come_, and in Him all the nations of the earth are
blessed. _He is come_--the Conqueror of Evil--the desire of all
nations--the Law-giver--the Lamb which was to suffer for our sins--the
King of kings--the Light which should lighten the heathen--the Virgin's
child, of wondrous wisdom, whose name should be God as well as man--whom
all the heathens, amid strange darkness and mad confusions, had still
been fearing and looking for.

_He is come_--He came on that first Christmas-tide. And we here on each
Christmas-tide can thank God for His coming, and say before men and
angels, "Unto us a child is born--the Prince of Peace is _ours_--to His
kingdom we belong--He has borne about on Him a man's body, a man's soul
and spirit--He was born like us--like us He grew--like us He rejoiced and
sorrowed--tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin--able to
the uttermost to understand and help all who come to God by Him. He has
bruised the serpent's head--He has delivered us from the power of
darkness, and brought us into _His_ kingdom. Through His blood we have
redemption and forgiveness--yes! through Him who, though He was laid in a
manger, was yet the image of the unseen God. And by Him, and for
Him--that Babe of Bethlehem--were all things created in heaven and
earth--and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. All
heaven and earth, and all the powers therein, are held together by Him.
For it pleased the Father that in _Him_ should all fulness dwell; and
having made peace through the blood of His cross, to reconcile by that
child all things unto Himself--all things in heaven--all things in
earth."

This should be our boast--this should be our glory--for this do we meet
together every Christmas day.

But what is all this to us if that Blessed Man be gone away from us? Our
souls want more than I have told you yet. Our souls want more than a
beautiful and wonderful story _about_ Christ. They want Christ Himself.
Preaching is blessed and useful if it speaks of Christ. Our own thoughts
are blessed and useful if we think of Christ. The Bible is most blessed
and useful containing all things necessary to salvation, for it speaks of
Christ. Our prayers are blessed and useful if in them we call and cry
earnestly to Christ. But neither preaching, nor thinking, nor praying
are enough. In them we think about Him and speak to Him. _But we want
Him to speak to us_. We want not merely a man to say, your sins _may_ be
forgiven you; we want Christ Himself to say, "Your sins _are_ forgiven
you." We want not merely a wise book to tell us that the good men of old
belonged to Christ's kingdom--we want Christ Himself to tell us that we
belong to His kingdom. We want not merely a book that tells us that He
promised always to be with us--we want Him Himself to tell us that He is
really now with us. We want not merely a promise from a prophet of old
that in Him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, but a sign
from Christ Himself that this nation of England is really now blest in
Him. In short, we want not words, however true words, however fine
words, _about_ Christ. We want Christ Himself to forgive us our sins--to
give peace and freedom to our hearts--to come to us unseen, and fill us
with thoughts and longings such as our fallen nature cannot give us--such
thoughts and feelings as we cannot explain in words, for they are too
deep and blessed to be talked about--but thoughts which say to us, as if
the blessed Jesus Himself spoke to us in the depths of our hearts, "Poor,
struggling, sinful brother! _thou art mine_. For thee I was born--for
thee I died--thee I will teach--I will guide thee and inform thee with
mine eye--I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

Well--you want _Him_--and you want a sign of Him--a sign of His own
giving that _He is among you this day_--a sign of His own giving that He
has taken you into His kingdom--a sign of His own giving that He died for
you--that He will feed and strengthen your souls in you with His own life
and His own body.

Then--there is a sign--there is the sign which has stood stedfast and
sure to you--and to your fathers--and your forefathers before them--back
for eighteen hundred years, over half the world. There is the bread of
which He said, "Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you."
There is the wine of which He said, "This cup is the New Covenant in my
blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins."
There is His sign. Don't ask _how_. Don't try to explain it away, and
fancy that you can find fitter, and soberer, and safer, and more gospel-
sounding words than Jesus Christ's own, by which to speak of His own
Sacrament. But say, with the great Queen Elizabeth of old, when men
tried too curiously to enquire into her opinion concerning this blessed
mystery--

"Christ made the Word and spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what His Word did make it,
That I believe, and take it."

He said, "This bread is my body which was broken for you." He said,
"This cup is the New Testament in my blood." Is it? or is it not? And
if it is, is not Christ among us now, indeed? Is not that something
better than all the preaching in the world? Jesus Christ, the King of
kings--the Saviour--the Deliverer--the Lamb of God--the Everlasting
Son--the Word--the Light--the Life--is here among us ready to feed our
souls in the Holy Sacrament of His body and blood, as surely as that
bread and wine will feed our bodies--yea--to feed our souls and bodies to
everlasting life. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters
and drink. Come, buy wine without money and without price."

III. IS, OR IS NOT, THE BIBLE TRUE?

"If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?"--JOHN viii. 46.

Is, or is not, the Bible true? To this question we must all come some
day or other. Do you believe that that book which lies there, which we
call the Bible, is a true book, or a lying book? Is it true or false? Is
it right or wrong? Is it from God, or is it not from God? Let us answer
that. If it is not from God, let it go; but if it _is_ from God, which
we know it is, how dare we disobey it?

That _God_, the maker of heaven and earth, should speak to men--should
set His commands down in a book and give it to them--and that they should
neglect it, disobey it--it is the strangest sight that can be seen on
earth! that God in heaven should say one thing, and a human being, six
feet high at most, should dare to do another!

If the Bible is from God, I say, the question is not whether it is
_better_ to obey it or not. Better? there is no better or worse in the
matter--it is infinitely necessary. To obey is infinitely right, to
disobey is infinitely wrong. To obey is infinitely wise, to disobey is
infinite folly. There can be no question about the matter, except in the
mind of a fool. Better to obey God's word? Better indeed--for to obey
is heaven, to disobey is hell. _That_ is the difference. And at your
better moments does not the voice within you, witness to, and agree with,
the words of that book? When it tells you to care more for your soul
than your body--more for the life to come, which is eternity, than for
the present life which lasts but a few years--does not common sense tell
you that? The Bible tells you to reverence and love God the giver of all
good--does not reason tell you that? The Bible tells you loyally to
obey, to love, to worship our blessed King and Saviour in heaven. Does
not common sense tell you that? Surely if there be such a person as
Jesus Christ--if He is sitting now in heaven as Saviour of all, and one
day to be Judge of all--by all means _He_ is to be obeyed, He is to be
pleased, whoever else we may displease. Reason, one would think, would
tell us that--and it is just want of reason which makes us forget it.

What have you to say against the pattern of a true and holy man as laid
down in the Bible? The Bible would have you pure--can you deny that you
ought to be that? It would have you peaceable--can you deny that you
ought to be that? The Bible would have you forgiving, honest,
honourable, active, industrious. The Bible would have you generous,
loving, charitable. Can you deny that that is right, however some of you
may dislike it? The Bible would have you ask all you want from God, and
ask forgiveness of God for every offence, great and small, against Him.
Can you deny that that is right and reasonable? The Bible would have you
live in continual remembrance that the great eye of God is on you--in
continual thankfulness to the blessed Saviour who died for you and has
redeemed you by His own blood--with daily and hourly prayer for God's
Spirit to set your heart and your understanding right on every point. Can
you deny that that is all right and good and proper--that unless the
Bible be all a dream, and there be no Holy and Almighty God, no merciful
Christ in heaven, this is THE way and the only way to live? Ay, if there
were no God, no Christ, no hereafter, it would be better for man to live
as the Bible tells him, than to live as too many do. There would be
infinitely less misery, less heart-burnings, less suffering of body and
soul, if men followed Christ's example as told us in the Bible. Even if
this life were all, and there were neither punishment nor reward for us
after death--does not our reason tell us that if all men and women were
like Christ in gentleness, wisdom, and purity, the world as long as it
lasted would be a heaven?

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