Discipline is the secret strength, and strength is essential to success. Religious life is not to be honestly and usefully cultivated by fits and starts. Every morning its necessities must he provided for, and every night the day’s account should be audited and signed.
At first it may be hard to get rid of pedantry on the one hand, and morbid self-vivisection on the other. But difficulties are not impossibilities. By exercise we acquire skill, and spirituality is the outcome and the reward of carefully adjusted means. We begin in law, but we end in grace. Every morning the soul should come into conscious contact with God, if only for a few moments the very touch will invigorate and cheer the life, and call forth the truest sensitiveness of the moral nature.
If we would know what Christian discipline is, read the testimony of such a man as the Apostle Paul. I lis words arc the words of an athlete bent on victory, “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things …” (I Corinthians 9:25). “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (I Corinthians 9:27). That is hard work. That is the way to keep down the turbulent body. “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings” (2 Corinthians 6:4-5). This is consecration! This is loyalty to Christ! But all this was physical discipline, yet the spiritual discipline was not therefore neglected; on the contrary, physical discipline was but the outward proof of inward and spiritual culture. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6: 12). What then? ” … take unto you the whole armour of God … ” (Ephesians 6: 13). Be panoplied, be sober, be vigilant, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life … ” (I Timothy 6:12). The Apostle Paul only exhorted others to do what he had done himself, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
The Apostle Peter was also a disciplinarian. ” … give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11 ).
What is all this but the law of the Saviour, “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee … And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee … “(Matthew 5:29-30). “Strive to enter in at the strait gate … ” (Luke 13:24). “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness … ” (Matthew 6:33).
Have we not forgotten the necessity of the advantage of discipline? We are assured by the Apostle Paul that if we live only for the flesh we shall all die, but if through the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. This is the law of the Kingdom- this the only way to final honour and eternal peace! ” … put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy … seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:8-9). “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself…” (1 John 3:3).
We grow by discipline. Self-watching is the first duty of the day. Do not go out without your sword. Do not advance a step until you have waited upon God in the silence of secret communion. Never plead the exigencies of business or of family life as a reason for neglecting early religious communion. No exigency of the body can be equal to the exigency of eternal things. ” … endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). ” … O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Timothy 6: 11). “… it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).
Arc we not fighting for a crown? Are we not the soldiers of Christ? “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully” (2 Timothy 2:4-5).
Is it too much to spend a moment with the Saviour every morning? Is it hard work to take oneself to the heavenly fountain every morning? Is it too severe upon love to look once upon the object of its homage every morning? Does the morning come irregularly? Is the sun an uncertain visitor? Is God fickle? O my soul, bestir thyself and watch early for the coming of Him who bought thee with His blood. Try to be first at the appointed meeting place. Can thou outrun thy Lord? Knowest thou some short way to the altar?
lf I really love my Saviour, nothing will stand in the way of a personal interview every morning. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it… ” (Song of Solomon 8:7). I do not want more argument, I want more love. I not only want to hear of my Lord, I want to see Him every morning. His written Word is full of tenderness, but O the music of His voice when He whispers His love to my heart! Who would have a letter when he can have a conversation. I want to hear the tender voice. I want to see the radiant face. I want to feel the strengthening touch. “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and look up” (Psalm 5:3).