3511. The Battle of Life

A Sermon Published On Thursday, May 11, 1916.

Who ever goes to war at his own expense? {1Co 9:7}

1. This question occurs in the course of an argument. The apostle was proving that the minister who gives all his time to the preaching of the Word is entitled to a maintenance from those people among whom he labours. He gives various illustrations, among them this—that the soldier who devotes himself to the service of his country is not expected to find his own equipment and his own rations, but he is provided for by his country. And so it should be, he teaches us, in the Church of God. The minister who is set apart to labour entirely in spiritual things should have temporal supplies found for him. That is a topic, however, on which it would be superfluous for me to enlarge. Your convictions are so sound, and your practice so consistent, that you do not need to be exhorted, much less to be expostulated with on that matter.

2. But the same question may be asked when we have other matters to deal with. Is it ever expected that men who go to war should pay their own expenses? There is a war in which all of us are engaged. What is life but a great battle, lasting from our earliest days until we sheathe our sword in death? This battle we hope to win, and yet if we succeed, it will be a distinct and definite response to the challenge before us, “Who ever goes to war at his own expense?” We may be quite sure that if we ever attempt the warfare of life at our own expense we shall soon find ourselves failing, and it will end in a miserable defeat.

3. I. Going at once to the subject, we have here:—AN INSPIRITING METAPHOR.

4. When life is represented as a warfare, some peaceful minds may feel a little alarmed at the pictures; yet there are other minds with enough of gallantry in their constitutions to feel their blood pulsing all the stronger at the thought that life is to be one continued contest. I only borrow a reflection from the secular press when I say that it would be bad for us if the love of peace, fostered among us as a nation, should degenerate into a fear of danger, a reluctance to bear hardships, or an indifference to the accomplishment of exploits. We may always expect to find cowardly spirits, who conjure up gloomy anticipations, and to forbode horrible disasters. The untrodden path and the unaccustomed climate are dreadful bugbears. But is this the instinct of an Englishman? How else should he contemplate difficulties but as problems to be solved? capital out of which fame or fortune is to be won? And as for the British soldier, is he to be looked at as a hothouse plant, who shrinks from exposure? Far rather would I respect him as a representative individual, the type of his nation, always ready for any emergency. In the days of the old Gallic wars, when we had to fight with Napoleon in Egypt, there were just as many knotty points and critical situations to be grappled with; and certainly at headquarters the War Department was no more efficiently managed than it is now. Yet British soldiers pressed forward then to the conflict, nor did they pant for fortune, what they did seek was a career, with some opportunity for distinguishing themselves. Moreover, those who stayed at home scanned the despatches with eager interest, and very often lamented that they did not have the chance given to them for going out to the fight. Well may the patriot ask, “Has Anglo-Saxon courage all fled?” If at every call to fresh deeds of heroism we listen to the crowing of those whose nature it is to look on the black side, and utter dark portents. Our children’s children may read how the haughty insolence of Theodore of Abyssinia was humbled, but I hope they will never hear the screeching of the ravens who warned us of the mountain fortresses in which he was lodged. The Ashantee war is behind us now, and I suppose those who were once afraid of its perils are now amazed at its prowess.

5. Yes, and that is how I would have Christians feel with regard to spiritual conflicts. Difficulties! well, they are things to be deciphered. Dangers! they are things to be met and encountered. Impossibilities! they are to be scorned as a nightmare, a delirious dream. The Christian awakens to find impossibility impossible. With a history behind him and a destiny before him, he can say, “The Lord God Omnipotent reigns.” Things that are impossible with man are possible with God. I like my text all the better, because it implies a hostile engagement, and speaks of warfare. For me the battle-field has no charms. With army encountering army, and carnage left behind, I have no sympathy, but spiritually my soul seems enamoured with the idea; I buckle on my armour at the very thought that life is to be a conflict and a strife, in which it behoves me to get the mastery.

6. Do I not address many young men just beginning life? If you have thought of life at all I hope you have thought that it is wise to begin the battle of life early. We all have so little time to live, and the first years of life are so evidently the best years we shall ever have, that it is a pity to waste them. Oh! how much more some of us might have done if we had begun early! Had the very flush of our boyhood been consecrated and the strength of our youth spent in our Master’s service, what work we might have accomplished! Now, young men, as a comrade a little farther on the road than you, I take you to the brow of the hill for a moment, and point out to you the pathway we have to pursue, and as I point it out I tell you that you will have to fight along every inch of the road, if at the end you are to win the crown which I hope your ambition pants for. Are you ready for the conflict? Then let us talk for a while about it, for since we shall always have to be on the alert, it is good for us to study the map, and to acquaint ourselves with the tactics we must practise.

7. Be sure, then, my friend, that if you and I are ever to be conquerors at the last, we shall have to fight with that trinity of enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is the world. Do you resolve to do the right and to love the true, depend on it you will get no assistance from this world. Of its maxims, nine out of ten are false, and the other one selfish; and even what is selfish has a lie behind it. As for its customs—well, wherever you may live, the customs of the world are not such as a citizen of heaven can endorse. Go into whatever company you please, and you will find that there is much of the prevailing habit that is no friend to grace, and no friend to virtue. In the upper circles, with much pretence, there is little reality; there is a lack of sound honesty. Among the lower classes, go wherever you wish, if you firmly resolve to be a Christian, and to follow closely the footsteps of your Lord, you will have to buck the current. Most men are going down the hill. You will be like the solitary traveller when you are threading your way upwards. Do you enlist for Christ tonight? Then know that you enlist against the whole world. You will after this be an alien to your mother’s children, and a stranger to your own household, unless happily that household should have been converted too. Young man, the young men in the shop will be against you. Alas, for the wickedness of the young men of London! Young woman, you will find in the work-room, indeed perhaps you will find even in your father’s house, influences at work to impede, if not to thrust you back. Man of business, when you meet others on the exchange, if perhaps the conversation should turn to religion, you will find it far from profitable, and far from congenial. You will be like a speckled bird, and all the birds around you will be against you. As a marked man, your motives will be misconstrued, your character impugned, your piety burlesqued. If you resolve to win the crown of immortality, you will only do it as by the skin of your teeth. It does not matter where you are cast, this is sure to be your lot, unless, as here and there is the case, you may be a timid and shielded one, too weak for conflict and, therefore, God keeps you in retirement. And yet as for the world, I think we could easily overcome that if it were not for a worse enemy.

8. Soldier of Christ, you have to struggle with yourself. My own experience is a daily struggle with myself. I wish I could find in me something friendly to grace, but so far I have searched my nature through, and have found everything in rebellion against God. At one time there comes the torpor of sloth, when one ought to be active every moment, having so much to do for God, and for the souls of men, and so little time to do it in. At another time there comes the quickness of passion. When we would be calm and cool, and play the Christian, bearing with patience, the unadvised word and the rash expression come. Soon, we are troubled with conceit, the devilish whisper—I can call it no less—”How well you have done! How well have you played your part!” This pride is the arch-enemy of our souls. Then will come foul and faithless doubt, suggesting that God does not regard the affairs of men, and will not intervene on our behalf. New forms of evil are generated in our own hearts, and this chameleon heart of ours, which never seems to be of one colour for a single moment, which is this and that by turns, and nothing for long, challenges us on all occasions, and we shall have perpetually to struggle against it. Unless we deny ourselves and suppress the impulses of our nature, we shall never come to the place where the crowns are distributed to the conquerors.

9. And then another foe comes up, though not the closest, the strongest of the three—the devil! If you have ever stood foot to foot with him, as some of us have, you will remember well that black day, for even he who beats Apollyon concludes the battle wounded in his own hand and in his own foot. Oh! that stern enemy! He knows how to attack us in our sore points. He discerns our weaknesses and he is at no loss for cunning devices. He understands how one moment to fawn on us and flatter us, and how the next moment to cast his fiery arrows, telling us that we are castaways, and shall never see the face of God with acceptance. He can quote Scripture for his own purpose. He can hurl threatenings at the heads of the saints, which were only meant for sinners, and he can tear promises out of the saints’ hands, and cast them into the mire, just when they are ready to feed on them as fair fruits of Paradise. Believe me, it is no small thing to have had to fight with Apollyon, the Prince of Hell. Do you see then, young soldier, what is before you? There is a triple host of foes, and you must overcome them all, or else there shall never be given to you the white stone, and the crown of everlasting life.

10. Do not think that this is an engagement to be quickly won. Unlike the laconic despatch of the ancient Roman, “Veni, vidi, vici,” I came, I saw, and I conquered, this is a continuous fight. If you would fight your way to heaven, not today, nor tomorrow; will you win it with a deadly skirmish or a brilliant dash, like a knight at a tournament, you cannot come back a conqueror. In sober truth, every man and every woman who enlists for Christ will have to wrestle until their bones shall sleep in the tomb. There shall be no pause nor cessation for you from this day until the laurel is on your brow. If you are defeated one day, you must overcome the next; if a conqueror today, you must fight tomorrow. Like the old knights who slept in their armour, you must be prepared for reprisals—always watchful, always expecting temptation, and ready to resist it; never saying, “It is enough,” for he who says, “It is finished,” until he breathes his last has not yet truly begun. We must have our swords drawn, even to the very last. I have sometimes thought that if we could enter heaven by one sharp, quick, terrible encounter, such as the martyrs faced at the stake we might endure it heroically; but day after day of protracted martyrdom, and year after year of the wear and tear of pilgrimage and a soldier’s life is the more bitter trial of patience. I only tell you in order that you may be convinced that it is not in our power to fight this warfare at our own expense; that if we have to endure in our own strength and with our own resources, it is most certain that disaster will befall us, and defeat will humble us. To fight, and fight on, is our vocation.

11. But if you fight like this, you may hope to conquer, for others have done so before you. On the summit of the palace can you not see those robed in white, who walk in light, with faces bright, and sparkling all over with joy? Can you not hear their song? They have overcome, and they tell you:—

   To him that overcometh

      A crown of life shall be;

   He with his Lord and Master

      Shall reign eternally.

They have overcome; then why should not you? Jesus Christ, who is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, has passed through the sternest part of the battle, and he has overcome—a type and representative of all those who are cross-bearers, and who shall overcome as he has done.

12. Do I see some young man, eager, earnest, all aglow, ready for the crown? Let me remind you that you may be defeated. Though it is good for you to begin life with a resolute determination to fight through the battle, I would still have you remember that you may be led captive by your foe. There is a most instructive little book, issued by the Religious Tract Society, called The Mirage of Life, which I think all young men should read. It gives historical pictures of the different ways in which men have sought to be great, by which the result of the greatness attained has proved to be a mirage, mocking the man, as the mirage in the desert mocks the traveller when it promises him water, and he finds nothing. That book contains the history of such men as Beckford, a man worth £200,000 a year, who spent the former part of his life in building Fonthill Abbey, with an enormous tower, enriching the place with all the treasures that he could gather from every country; making the grounds so splendid that crowned heads longed to look within, but, it is said, were refused; and at the end of his life you find him almost penniless—the house on which he had spent all his time and money a dilapidated ruin, the tower fallen to the ground, and the name of Beckford forgotten. You have a sketch of William Pitt, the heaven-born minister. One of the greatest of statesmen, who could make war or peace at his will, and after years of the most brilliant success he dies with a broken heart through grief. The high ambition of men of art such as Haydon, is introduced to your notice. This great painter, after blazing with wondrous fame in his art, committed suicide because he found himself a disappointed and forgotten man.

13. As I read a series of such cases, each one seemed sadder than the other, and it was enough to make a man sit down and weep to think that our mortal race should be doomed to follow such phantoms, and to be mocked by such delusions. As I read them all I could not help feeling how necessary it was to say to young men, especially just as they are beginning life, and to young women too—indeed, and the lesson is profitable for all of us—Take care how you run in the race, lest after running, until you think you have won the prize, you find that in truth you have lost it. We must take care how we live, for this is the only lifetime we shall have in which to settle the life that lasts for ever. Make bankruptcy in your secular business; why, you can start again; but once make bankruptcy in soul-affairs, and there is no second life in which to start your career afresh. Are you a defeated soldier of life? Ah! then, you can never begin again, or turn the defeat into a victory. If you go down to your grave a captive of sin, the iron bands will be around you for ever. There is no recovering from your position. The priceless blessing of freedom is beyond your reach. You may lament, you cannot attain it. See then, our life is a battle; we must constantly fight; perhaps we may win, or perhaps we may be defeated.

14. II. I now proceed to note a second point with:—A KINDLY HINT.

15. Like a cool breath fanning our cheeks when too hot with ambition, this enquiry greets us, “Who ever goes to war at his own expense?” So, then, there will be expenses in this life-battle. It is not to be won without pain and cost. Let us just glance at some of these expenses. You will soon see how they mount up.

16. If any man shall get up to heaven what a demand for courage he will have to meet! How many enemies he must face! How much ridicule he must endure! How frequently must he be misrepresented and maligned! How often must he be discreet enough to be silent, and immediately, bold enough to speak and affirm his convictions and his purpose! If a man shall get to heaven, what an expense of patience he will require! How he must bear and forbear! How he must put up with one sharp difficulty and another, making light of fatigue and fasting, restless days and sleepless nights; in fiery temptation unflinching, amid cold contempt unabashed. If any man will get to heaven, what an amount of perseverance he will require to hold on and to hold out! What hours of prayer, what wrestling with God for a blessing, what striving with himself to overcome sinful propensities! What an expense of watchfulness he will require! How he must guard the avenues of his being! How he must track his actions to the springs of motives, and keep his thoughts pure from guile! There can be little ease and not much slumber for a man who would get the eternal crown. What fresh supplies of zeal he will need; for we shall not drift into heaven without a conflict or a care. We must cut, and hack and hew with intense energy, for the Saviour says, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by storm.” What strength he will require, for he has to deal with potent foes! And oh! what an expense of wisdom he will be put to the expense of, for he has to stand against the craftiness of evil creatures, and to overcome one who is wiser than the ancients, even Satan, the arch-tempter.

17. It is possible that the difficulties of an expedition may be intensely aggravated by a lack of knowledge concerning the country to be invaded. Under such circumstances it is hard to anticipate the contingencies that may arise. In the battle of life this is the rub. Who knows what lies next before him? How can we anticipate the surprises that may await us? “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” If I were aware of the temptations that would befall me a year from now, I think I could guard myself against them, but I do not even know what pinch or peril may befall me before the hour has passed. You cannot tell the provocations that tonight may occur before you close your eyes in slumber. You may have a trial or a temptation such as never crossed your path before. Hence I beseech you to consider the greatness of the expenses of this war. You have to pass through an experience which no man before you has proved. All the path of life is new to you, unmapped, untrodden, unanticipated. Yet all you lack of clear statistics is made up for in dire prognostications. No doubt the climate is baneful, and will subject you to fever or ague. Our British soldiers, rank and file, must press forward though they are landed on a blazing beach, across which they have to march; nor will it ever do for them to be dismayed by steep mountains, dismal swamps, or savage tribes. Bent on victory, they brave the incidents of the campaign before they see the adversaries they attack, while their heads and hearts are full of honour, promotion, stars, stripes, and Victoria crosses. But in our eventful battle of life the checks and bars to progress, the dangers and temptations that we shall all have to encounter in our natural constitution and our secular calling, the unnavigable currents and the impassable barriers that thwart us before we grapple with the main enterprise to enter heaven, are more than I can describe in one sermon. No marvel to me that Mr. Pliable should say, as he turned back, “You may have the brave country yourselves for me.” The Slough of Despond, as a first part, put him into a bad mood and he said, “I do not like it; I will have no more of it.”

18. Apart from divine strength, Pliable was a wise man, wise in his generation, to shrink from the adventure, for it is a hard journey to the skies. They spoke the truth who said that there were giants to fight with, dragons to be slain, mountains to be crossed, and black rivers to be forded. It is so, and please count the cost. There is no “royal road” to heaven, except that the King’s highway leads there. There is no easy road skilfully levelled or scientifically macadamised. {smoothed} The labour is too exhaustive, the obstructions are too numerous, the difficulties are too serious, unless God himself comes to our help. I intentionally put these dilemmas before you so that I may constrain you to say, “Who ever goes to war at his own expense?”

19. III. And now, in the third place, let us look at our text as:—A GRACIOUS REMINDER.

20. Does any man at any time go war at his own expense? I do not think so. Young man! I have told you of difficulties and of dangers. I trust your bold spirit taught by God, has been fired to greater ardour by it. Now I have something to say to you which has cheered me, and cheered your fathers before me, and made them strong, even in their weakness. It is this. You see you cannot go to this warfare in your own strength. Is that not clear to you? Then, please, do not try it. Do not contemplate it for a moment. If you do, you will rue the day. Your fall will be your first warning; the second time it will warn you more bitterly; if you continue in your own strength, you will, perhaps, have a warning too late. But you may rely on God to help you. The text implies it. If, by faith, you yield yourself to Christ, whoever you may be, with a desire and intent to live from now on as a follower of Jesus, God will help you, and that very early. Though a warfare is before you, you are not to go at your own expense.

21. Shall I tell you how God will help you? Certainly you may count on his watchful Providence. You little know how easy the Almighty can make a path which otherwise would have been difficult and dangerous. Follow God’s leading, and you shall never lack for his comfort. I have lived long enough to see many people carve for themselves very eagerly, and cut their fingers very severely. I have seen others who albeit they were great losers for a time by doing right, have had to bless God year after year for the abundant reward they received afterwards. No man shall be a loser in the long run by loving and serving God. If you are willing and obedient, trusting yourself with Christ, you shall find those awful wheels of Providence revolve for your welfare. The beasts of the field shall be in league with you, and the stones of the field shall be at peace with you. All things shall work together for good for those who love God. Now I am not pretending that piety will procure wealth, or that if you espouse Christ’s cause you shall grow rich. I should not wonder if you did. You are none the less likely to prosper in business for being a Christian. I am not going to predict that you shall be without sickness, much less without temptation, for “whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives”; but I am sure of this, that if you put your trust in God and do right, no temporal circumstances shall ever happen to you which shall not be for your eternal good. This is anticipating much more than any transient benefit. In the short time you are to live here you may count on the gigantic wheels of Providence as your helpers. The angels of God shall be swift to defend you. Your eyes shall not see them, but your heart shall become confident. You shall perceive that by some means you have been rescued from a place of drought and led into a fruitful land.

22. More than this; as you go to this warfare, looking to God to bear your expenses, you shall have the Lord Jesus Christ to help you. Do not promise yourself that you will be able to maintain a perfect life. Sin will harass you. Old corruptions, even when they are driven out from the throne (for sin shall not reign over you), will yet struggle at the foot of it. But Jesus Christ will be your helper. He will be always present to revive you with his precious blood, to sprinkle your hearts from an evil conscience, to wash your bodies with pure water. Have you never admired that picture of Christ, with the basin and the towel washing his disciples’ feet? This is what he will always do for you every evening when you have defiled yourself through inadvertence or infirmity. Look into the face of the Crucified. Perhaps you have sometimes wished that he were now visible, and physically accessible to you, that sympathizing One who has suffered much for you! You have said, “Oh! that I might go and tell him my griefs, and get his help!” He is alive. He is here. He is not far from anyone who seeks him. Whoever trusts shall surely find Christ to be his very present help in time of trouble. Believe this, and you shall prove it to be true.

23. And he who is a soldier of the cross shall have the divine power of God the Blessed Spirit to help him. I have sometimes thought, when some strong passion has been raging within my soul—How can I ever overcome it? The will was good, but the flesh was weak. But as soon as the Spirit of God has moved on me the flesh has given way. The Holy Spirit can give the man who is prone to idleness such an intense apprehension of the value of time that he shall be more industrious than the naturally active man. I believe that if any of you who are subject to a bad temper will lay this besetting sin before God in prayer, and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help, you shall not only be able to curb it, but you will acquire a sweeter and gentler spirit than some of those whose temperament is naturally even, with no propensity to fitful change or sudden storm. Do not tell me that there is anything in human nature too obdurate for the Lord to overcome, for there is not. Whatever may be your temptation, you need not consider it an effective hindrance to your being a Christian. Even though it is beyond your own power to grapple with it! When the Eternal arm comes to the rescue; when the right hand of Jehovah is made bare; when the Holy Spirit exerts his irresistible power, he can strike through the loins of our kingly sins, and cut the Rahabs and dragons of our iniquities to pieces. Rest in the might of Jehovah, the God of Israel. He who broke Egypt in pieces with his plagues can vanquish our sins with his judgments or with his grace, and he can bring the new nature, like the children of Israel, up out of bondage into joyful liberty. Go to the blood, and you shall conquer sin. Go to the Eternal Spirit, and your worst corruptions shall be overthrown. “Who ever goes to war at his own expense?” Just as the soldier draws from his paymaster, so let every Christian draw from his God and Saviour. Conduct your warfare trusting in the blessed God.

24. IV. My last words shall be to those who are beginning the great battle of life. Let me urge on them these:—CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS.

25. Behold the wisdom of self-doubt. I heard some time ago of a minister preaching on the dignity of self-reliance; and I thought to myself, surely that is the dignity of a fool! The dignity of self-reliance! Taken in a certain sense, there is some kind of truth about it; or at least the folly of asking counsel of your neighbour in every difficulty is sufficiently obvious. But he who relies on his own wits will soon pander to expediency and grovel in the mire. His actions will permit no better defence than excuses and apologies. Indeed, sirs; “but let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” A better subject, and one that no preacher need be ashamed of if the Master should come before the sermon is finished, is the dignity of reliance on God, and the wisdom of doubting oneself. Begin life, young man, by finding out that the capital you thought you had, is much less than it looked before you counted it. Begin life, young man, by understanding that all in your nature that glitters is not gold, and that your strength is perfect weakness. Begin by being emptied, and you will soon be filled. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Begin by being poor. If you begin with lowliness, you will not need to be humiliated.

   He that is down need fear no fall,

      He that is low no pride;

   He that is humble ever shall

      Have God to be his guide.

He will win the battle who knows how to begin on the low ground and to fight uphill by divine strength. Learn the wisdom, not of self-reliance, but of self-doubt, for he who trusts in his own heart is a fool.

26. Be thoroughly alive to the importance of prayer. If all our expenses in the life-war are to be paid us by the Paymaster, let us go to the treasury. Among the strangest of human sins is a distaste for prayer. I open my eyes with wonder at myself whenever I find myself slow to pray! Why, if your children want anything from you, they are not slow to speak. They need not be exhorted to ask for this or that; they speak at once. And here is the soul-enriching exercise of prayer. Is it not strange that you and I should be slack in it? Did you ever stand in a market and see the people coming in from the country with their goods? How diligent they are in their business; how eager to take home as much money as they can! How their eyes glitter; how sharp they are! But here is heaven’s market; God’s wares are given away to those who will ask for them. Yet we seem indifferent, as though we did not care to be enriched; we even leave the mercy seat of God unvisited! Oh! young people, do understand the value of prayer; and you aged people, do continue in prayer and supplication; for if we are to win this battle of our life, it can only be by taking in our bills to the great Paymaster, and asking him to discharge the expenses of this war.

27. Consider, too, the necessity of holiness. If, in my life’s warfare, I am entirely dependent on God, do not let me grieve him. Let me seek so to walk with him that I may expect to have him with me. Oh! let our consecration be unreserved and complete.

28. And in all these we must prove the power of faith. If we have never begun to trust in Jesus, let us begin now. Oh! may the Eternal Spirit breathe faith into our souls. The beginning of true spiritual life is here—trusting what Christ has accomplished for us, relying on his sufferings on our behalf. The continuation of spiritual life is here—still trusting in what Christ has done and is doing. The consummation of spiritual life on earth is still the same—trusting still, trusting ever; always going to Christ for the supply of all our needs; going to him with our blots to have them removed, with our failings to have them forgiven, with our needs and requirements to have them provided for, with our good works and our prayers to have them rendered acceptable, and with ourselves that we may still be preserved in him.

29. Sharpen your swords, soldiers of the cross, and be ready for the fray, but as you march to the battle let it be with heads bowed down in adoration before him, who alone can cover your heads in the day of battle; and when you lift up those heads in the front of the foe, let this be your song, “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; the Lord has become my salvation!” And when the fight becomes hot, if your head grows weary, think of “him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself,” and still fight on until you win the day, and then as the fight draws to a close, and your sun is going down, and you can count your scars, and are ready to enter into your rest, may this be your prayer, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep, but seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.” And may this be your last word on earth, “Into your hand I commit my spirit, for you have redeemed me, oh Lord God of my salvation”; so this shall be your eternal song in heaven above, “To him who has loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

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