"STRIVE LAWFULLY"

“STRIVE LAWFULLY”

No one is crowned “except he strive lawfully” (2 Timothy 2: 5). It is not every one who enters on the conflict and who earnestly, with every energy, desires to win, who really receives the chaplet in testimony of his success.

Of course the first thing is prowess or heart, emboldening one to enter the lists. The racer must have the mettle, it must be his nature to run, and without this quality, this mettle, that is, heart or faith, there is no use entering the field, for without it there can be no prospect of success. There must first be the intrepid steed or the spirited wrestler. Without mettle you are neither a racer nor a wrestler. It is this that makes the difference between a waggon horse and a racehorse or courser. The latter has nerve or liking for the race. Without this there is no use attempting to run or wrestle. But after you are assured of the inherent abilities of the courser, and are convinced of his endurance, there is another thing, and that is the training - the readiness and skill to obey and observe every rule.

This ability to observe and to submit to every rule is acquired by habit or training, and thus it is that the race or conflict is conducted “lawfully”, according to the rules: and this I may call a right application of your strength.

The mettle, the high-toned nerve, the great power of execution, are all forfeited and lost if there be not this ^[p. 220] second power, to apply what is so valuable at the given time, and on the needed occasion, and if many a one cannot enter on the race because he has not the step or the heart to run; if it be sad to see how few are able to enter the lists, it is still more sad to see one with much ability forfeiting everything because unable to apply the strength to the tests of the race-course. If a horse can jump a wall five feet high, but will balk and sulk at a common country fence, his strength and ability are all forfeited, because he will cower at common things, and yet prove his powers in brilliant performances not so common. Just so with the saint; it is not enough to be endowed with the best qualities: of course if one is not, there can be no ability to take the lead; but unless these qualities do duty in the daily wear and tear of life, there is not a striving lawfully, according to what is consistent with God’s order; anything else is illegal.

Now the saint is not only to have the qualities for the race or the conflict, but he must by habit or training have his powers so in hand, that he refuses nothing. He is as ready to prove his strength in connection with the commonest detail of daily life, because it is “lawful”, as with something which makes a more singular impression. In a word, to “strive lawfully” one must not shy at or decline a single trial of strength set in our course; because in the race, failing at any of the trials, or avoiding anything which is in the course, is departing from it; and then there is no crowning, no reaching the summit; and not only this, but one is thrown back, hindered, and grieved at failure, and there is far more suffering on account of failure than there would have been if the test were submitted to with the grace possessed.

How different when one gracefully meets every hillock and fence with the same ease and purpose, and exhibits in one’s own person the beautiful versatility and force of grace, which enables one to meet ^[p. 221] everything, great and small, in the way Christ did. This is to be not only a courser of remarkable power, but the one so well-trained that each resistance is met with ease and dignity, and a charity which imparts grace to whatever demands it.