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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 218. The Victorious Soldier
Subjects in this Topic:
II
The Victorious Soldier
Literature
Blaikie, W. G., The Book of Joshua (Expositor's Bible) (1893), 82.
Brooke, S. A., The Unity of God and Man (1886), 126.
Burrell, D. J., The Church in the Fort (1901), 104.
Byrum, E. E., The Secret of Prayer (1912), 122.
Campbell, R. J., The Song of Ages (1905), 203.
Croskery, T., Joshua and the Conquest (1882), 24.
Dods, M., Israel's Iron Age (1875), 1.
Ealand, F., The Spirit of Life (1908), 110.
Gibbon, J. M., The Vision and the Call (1894), 17.
Gowen, H. H., The Kingdom of Man (1893), 121.
Hall, R., Works, v. (1846) 248.
Ingram, A. F. W., Under the Dome (1902), 254.
Jerdan, C., Manna for Young Pilgrims (1912), 51.
King, E., The Love and Wisdom of God (1910), 20.
Lewis, H. E., in Men of the Old Testament: Cain to David (1904), 161.
Macgregor, G. H. C., Messages of the Old Testament (1901), 73.
Maclaren, A., Expositions: Deuteronomy, etc. (1906), 87.
Meyer, F. B., Joshua and the Land of Promise, 24.
Moore, E. W., Christ in Possession (1899), 142.
Moore, E. W., The Christ-Controlled Life (1894), 49.
Simcox, W. H., The Cessation of Prophecy (1891), 89.
Stanford, C., Symbols of Christ, 89.
Vaughan, C. J., The Presence of God in His Temple (1872), 271.
Virgin, S. H., Spiritual Sanity (1905), 245.
Webster, F. S., The Beauty of the Saviour (1904), 31.
Westphal, A., The Law and the Prophets (1910), 211.
Wharton, M. B., Famous Men of the Old Testament (1903), 91.
Williams, I., The Characters of the Old Testament (1870), 138.
Wilmot-Buxton, H. J., Day by Day Duty (1905), 147.
Christian World Pulpit, x. (1876) 152 (G. B. Johnson); lviii. (1900) 346 (J. A. Irvine).
Church of England Pulpit, xxxiv. (1892) 279 (W. Ewen); xxxviii. (1894) 305 (E. A. Stuart); lvii. (1904) 182 (J. Penfold).
Churchman's Pulpit: First Sunday after Trinity, ix. 443 (W. E. Griffis).
Keswick Week, 1908, p. 28 (J. Battersby Harford).
Literary Churchman, xxxii. (1886) 549 (J. B. C. Murphy).
Joshua is represented in Scripture as a warrior, one might almost say as nothing else; other soldiers have strongly marked characters of their own, as David, as the Centurion in the Gospels, and Cornelius in the Acts. But in Joshua the character of the man is lost in the soldier. It is remarkable how repeatedly it is said to him, “Be strong and of a good courage”; “Only be thou strong and very courageous; be not afraid.” He was called upon for this courage; it was fulfilled in all his life; and at his death he gave the like injunction, saying to Israel, “Be ye therefore very courageous.” But this in Joshua was a sacred courage, not that of the world, but of God; it was founded on faith. He was called upon to execute the purposes of God, and the call was ever accompanied by the promise, “I will be with thee”; and in that promise he trusted. All through the arduous campaign that followed, nothing could daunt Joshua's courage whilst that assurance was ever ringing its silver tones in the belfry of his memory. “I will be with thee.”
There is the power of being mastered by and possessed with an idea. How rare it is! I do not say how few men are so mastered and possessed: I say how few men have the power so to be. The fine and simple capacity for it which belongs to youth being once lost, how few men ever attain the culture by which it is renewed. But without it there can be no courage. Without some end set clear before you, what chance is there that you can shoot your arrow strong and straight? It does not need that you should be blind to all the difficulties that lie between. Recklessness is no part of courage. When Cromwell and his men gave the sublime picture of heroic courage which illuminates English history, it was not that they undervalued the enormous strength of what they fought against; it was that they saw righteousness and freedom shining out beyond, and moved toward their fascinating presence irresistibly. Courage, like every other good thing, must be positive, not negative.1 [Note: Bishop Phillips Brooks, Essays and Addresses, 333.]