II. The effect of panic. All of these forms are commonly groundless; the wave is not so high as it seems to the retreating bather who hears its hiss behind him. It gathers all theselfishness of man to a focus. It substitutes a brief madness for calm thoughtfulness and decision. It makes a man behave unworthily--
1. Of himself.
2. Toward his fellows.
3. Of his God.
III. The correctives of panic. Remembrance of--
1. A man’s own dignity.
2. Others
3. God. (Homiletic Commentary.)
Christian firmness
I.The subtlety with which our great adversary will assault us.
1. To neglect our social duties to further our spiritual welfare.
2. To conform to the world with a view to conciliate their regard.
3. To use undue means with a view to obtain some desirable end.
II. The firmness with which we should resist him. We should set theLord ever before us, bearing in mind--
1. Our relation to Him.
2. Our obligations to Him.
3. Our expectations from Him.
4. The interest which God Himself has in the whole of our conduct. (C. Simeon.)
Courage
1.In theprosecution of this work, whilst building the spiritual wall of Zion, there are many artifices to be resisted. Our enemies will seek to draw us away from our work. We shall be invited to enter into friendly conformity with the world, and we shall be told that conciliation on our side will be met by concessions on theirs; but this is a mistake, for the world will take all and give none.
2. Our spiritual enemies will resort to intimidation. If they cannot draw they will drive. What fair offers were made of seeming friendship to the noble army of martyrs, and when these failed, intimidation followed. The offence of the Cross has not ceased. It is “through much tribulation” we must enter the kingdom, and the Christian will be threatened with the loss of caste or of business if he determine to maintain hisconsistency. Evil motives will be ascribed to him, wicked reports will be propagated concerning him. Ridicule and reproach are weapons of great severity. “Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.”
Let the earnest Christian resist the solicitations of evil in a similar manner.
1. Consider your relation to God. Say to yourself, “I am a child of God, a disciple of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, and ‘should such a man as I flee,’ give way to temptation, dishonour my high calling, disobey my blessed Captain, and grieve the Spirit of grace?”
2. Consider your obligations to redeeming mercy. Say to your heart, “O Christian, I have been loved with an everlasting love, called by sovereign grace, washed in the blood of Jesus, and comforted by innumerable tokens of goodness and mercy, and ‘should such a man as I flee?’”
3. “Consider your expectations. You are a candidate for eternity. Say to yourself, ‘O Christian, life is short and uncertain; death may be near; my Lord Himself may come in His glory. In that day of His boundless mercy He will call me His brother, His own, and He will bestow upon me an inheritance of surpassing lustre; and ‘should such a man as I flee?’ shall I be guilty of base cowardice or perfidious ingratitude?” (J. M. Randall.)
Faith, courage, and prudence
We may consider this blending of faith, courage, and prudence in Nehemiah as worthy of admiration and imitation.
1. Sometimes we find a brave man who lacks both faith and prudence. In this case his courage is very apt to degenerate into a foolish bravado; and possibly he may do more harm than good by his unwise daring.
2. When prudence is the marked feature of a character it is apt to degenerate into selfish cunning and calculating cowardice.
3. Even when courage and prudence are found united, the character is still sadly defective if there be no spiritual faith--it is apt to fall into an unbecoming and dangerous self-sufficiency.
4. On the other hand, faith without prudence may degenerate into fanaticism, or into a “quietism” which cultivates the passive to the neglect of the active virtues. (I. Campbell Finlayson.)
Fortitude in duty
Holy courage is not that natural bravery which belongs to some men constitutionally--this is little more than strength of nerve and robustness of animal spirits, and in thousands of instances is found to exist apart from Christian principle; it is rather the bravery of the lion than the bravery of the mind and the man. Some of the most valorous have been the most depraved; and some who dragged their enemies at their chariot-wheels have themselves been dragged through the mire of pollution by their own appetites and passions. As water cannot rise higher than its level, neither can a moral quality rise higher than its principle. Holy courage springs from the fear of God, from “seeing Him who is invisible.” Hence the soldier of Christ is fearless to do right, fearful to do wrong--afraid to sin, but not afraid tosuffer. In considering the scope for this virtue, notice--
I. He that will be a follower of God must take up arms against himself. It was finely said by Richard Cecil that “a humble Christian, battling against the world, the flesh, and the devil, is a greater hero than Alexander the Great.”
II. It requires a courageous spirit to have respect to all God’s commandments.
III. It requires great courage to overcome the world. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)
The higher self-appeal
When I lived in the country years ago, I remember one of our friends was a great smoker, and used to smoke morning, noon, and night, and his friends used to say it was a very bad practice, and inconvenient and expensive, and all those arguments with which we are familiar. He always used to smile one of those tranquil smiles which come from parties of that kind. That man could not give up his pipe, and declared that he could not, and that he would smoke till he died. One day there was a mouth trouble. He went to a distinguished physician, and he told him that he was afraid the excessive smoking was inducing cancer. That put his pipe out. It did; he dropped it that very day. It was marvellous; he had done with that. It is one thing when it touches your shillings; one thing when it is a question of convenience and inconvenience; it is another thing when it touches you. And I say to you, when the day of darkness, the day of temptation, when all the sorcery and besetment of evil is around you, don’t say, “Iniquity will mar my health or cloud my reputation or shorten my days”; say with Nehemiah, “Should such a man as I do this evil”--such a man as I, with reason and conscience, the heir of the ages, the master of the planet, redeemed with the blood of the Son of God, called to a great destiny--should such a man as I do this mean thing, this base thing? Appeal in the sight of God to your own greatness, and He shall strengthen you in the day when the worst comes to the worst. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Valour is sometimes the soul of discretion
We are constantly being reminded that discretion is the better part of valour; but there are occasions, and those not a few, when valour is the very soul of discretion, when at all hazards we must stand our ground and face the foe, that the work be not stopped. (W. P. Lockhart.)
