1 Chronicles 5:22

"Handfuls of Purpose,"

For All Gleaners

"For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God." 1 Chronicles 5:22 .

We should trace the explanation of victories. There are victories which are but glittering defeats. No victory is worth having that is not won by moral means, or that does not express a moral right. Here we have the explanation in the words "the war was of God"; that is to say, it was a good war, or a war on behalf of right principles and right claims; a war which God approved, if not as to its method yet as to its end. In the Old Testament the Lord is "a man of war." Sometimes the people went to battle without him, and then they returned without spoil or song of joy; on other occasions they went with him and at his bidding, and they brought back with them banners unstained and spoil to which they were entitled. All this is happily changed; war is becoming increasingly hated and dreaded. But there is another war which may be described as a war of God. We wrestle against spiritual enemies; we are set in battle array against the highest forces of darkness. If we have invented our own armour, or have manufactured our own piety, or have ordered the battle according to our own supposed genius in war, the eventide will find us overthrown, humiliated, and hopeless. Are we going a-warfare at our own charges? Then verily we shall play the fool and bring home with us a fool's reward. When a man fights against himself, in his lusts, passions, and unauthorised aspirations, he fights a war approved of God, and if he fight that war in the name of God he shall be none other than a victor at the close. When a man fights for the poor, the oppressed, the helpless, he is engaged in a battle over which God holds the banner, and the holding of that banner is the guarantee of triumph, and in that triumph there shall be no stain of malice or selfishness or earthly-mindedness. We must not limit our wars to ourselves. There are wars in which we can render valuable assistance in which other men are engaged. Let the rich man go to the side of the poor man in fighting a battle with poverty, and help him to win in the strife. We can easily find out wars in which we can render assistance if we look for them, and give ourselves zealously to the cause of human service. They that be with us when we are good are more than all that can be against us. If we fight in our own strength our endeavours will be wasted, but if we deliver every blow in the name and strength of God many will be slain. Slay your sins, your passions, your animosities, your under-selves, and rise to the dignity to which God has called you as his soldiers. Endure hardness as a good soldier: fight the good fight of faith: be not afraid of the enemy. O thou poor struggler, God will bring thee to victory, to honour, and to rest, if thou wilt put thy cause into his hands.