Development of Character
by
Lieut.-Colonel Catherine Bramwell-Booth
From book ‘Training Staff Council Lectures 1925’
Forgive me if this lecture seems to be
something of a repetition of what has already been said. You
have heard so much; and as all these subjects dovetail one
into another, a certain amount of overlapping cannot well be
avoided. And again, this subject is one of the fundamentals
of which one can hardly hear too much.
I
The Training Officer must be convinced that
character is a matter for development, and that alteration in
a man for the better is the work of the Holy Spirit.
We believe in miracles! We should be no good as Training
Officers if we did not; and we must see that Officers under
our direction are also confirmed in this faith – that it is
possible to develop character. I had thought of beginning by
asking, ‘What is character?’ I do not know how one can define
it satisfactorily. Character is not soul. It is not mind.
Some of the 6cleverest men have no character, or but poor
character. It is not will. Some strong-willed people have
thoroughly bad characters. What is it? I do not know. It is
rather interesting to analyse what goes to make man; and it
seems to me that character is something we cannot quite
explain. I am afraid I cannot attempt to say anything
enlightening about the origin of character, because I am in
the dark about it myself except that it is something God has
given man, an important quality for his being. As a Training
Officer, I have sometimes felt I would rather have a Cadet who
is inferior in gifts yet possessing real character, than one
who is capable, but weak in character. If your people have
character, you are likely, it seems to me from my experience,
to accomplish more with them in the end than with the
brilliant people who lack in this something we are talking
about.
What we can do
for the development of character is likely to be in proportion
to our realization of the importance of character as a part of
the man. At any rate, be quite sure we shall not be able to
help our people as we want to unless we believe that, whatever
a man’s character, God can improve on it, develop it, and turn
it into something better than it would be if left to go its
own way apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit.
An Officer I
know very well – one of our leading Officers – told me he was
once on a long railway journey, with one other gentleman in
the carriage. He soon began to talk of The Army and its work,
and this man said, ‘I’m sorry, but I do not believe as you
do. When one comes to enter the fields of science one is
obliged to abandon much that one believed in before. I do not
say there is no God, but I cannot believe there is any Power
that is interfering with the development of the human race
to-day. I think we are left to get on as best we can. There
may be a Power somewhere, but, if so, I do not know where:
everything is under fixed laws, you cannot change a man, or a
dog!’ My comrade (he was a Colonel) turned to him and said,
‘If you knew The Salvation Army you could not think that. We
must believe because we see bad men changed. How would you
account for that?’ The man replied, ‘As a matter of fact, my
dear sir, it does not happen; you think they are bad, but they
are not really bad; or you think they are good, and they are
not really good. Nothing is really changed! It is all
according to the shape of the brain. Take yourself, for
example, I can see what you are when I look into your face. I
am a phrenologist.’ Then the Colonel said, ‘Be honest, I have
been honest with you. Feel my bumps and see just what I am.
What do you really think I should be?’ The phrenologist felt
his head. He was absolutely nonplussed and said, ‘I must
admit if I judged merely from this I should not expect to find
you in any way connected with religion. You lack veneration;
I must say you are a most interesting case,’ and he began to
question him about how long he had been in The Salvation
Army. I suppose he was trying to find out whether the Colonel
was one of the good ones, or one who only seemed to be good!
This incident
impressed me at the time (I was on Training Work) because it
confirmed much that I liked to think; for instance, that our
natural limitations have very little to do with what God can
make of us if we really give ourselves up to Him. To remember
that, and to teach the Cadets that, is especially helpful in
these days when the very people we are trying to help are
often tainted with psychological bosh. There is a lot of talk
to-day about a man’s natural tendencies. We are told a
child’s bent must not be changed, he must be allowed to do
everything he wants to do, even to falling in the fire! I do
not know quite how far they go. Some of the Cadets have
picked up a bit of it: they say, ‘Well, of course, that is
not my bent,’ or ‘This is my make up,’ or ‘Yes, I know it’s a
failing but my father was like it, it’s in our family,’ and
settle down to be content with what they are. We have to come
to them with the great fact, new to them, that God can change
them.
I was
inexperienced when suddenly planted down, a Cadet among a
crowd of others. I had not been to school, nor mixed with
many people. There had been enough of us at home to make
ideal companionships within our own circle; and when I was
suddenly plunged into the midst of a crowd, I was depressed at
my own limitations, and I thought, I shall never rise up to be
what I ought to be and want to be, and what the Work
requires. Dear Commissioner Rees helped me. I do not think
he ever lectured on any subject without bringing in at the
beginning, or at the end, or before he left the platform,
‘Well, remember! what you are not
by nature you can be by grace.’
Do you believe it? He simply drilled this into us. We were
always hearing it; and could not get away from it. He used to
say it to us again and again, and it has remained with me,
‘What you are not by nature you can be by grace.’ That was of
inestimable value to us as Cadets. You see we felt, ‘that man
believes that, whatever our limitations, we can rise above
them. He believes it, whether we can believe it or not!’
That is how the Training Officers ought to make the Cadets
feel. We believe God can change men, and this being so we
should strive with all our might to create in the minds
of the Cadets a living faith in the possibility of their own
development;
keep on saying to them as the Lord said when one came to Him
in perplexity, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth.’ (Mark ix. 23.)
Further, if we
are convinced that character is a matter for development, and
are striving to create in the minds of the Cadets a living
faith for their own development,
we shall guard every evidence of growth.
Sometimes evidences of growth of character are expressed very
clumsily. A Cadet may strike out and do a new thing, but do
it altogether badly. Training Officers must be wise enough
and quick enough to see behind that lack of skill, for
frequently they will find a motive, an impulse which is really
a most encouraging sign of development in that character.
Guard carefully against any desire to correct an error, if
your correction might at the same time injure a blessed
impulse of growth.
In training
plants, the first years count for much. For instance, if
trees are going to live and develop, it is amazing how much
depends on guarding them during the first years. If the main
shoot is broken when the tree is only a few inches high, the
tree will be deformed. For hundreds of years, may be, it will
live and try to correct that deformity, but it will never be
perfect, never be the same again. You can go through any wood
and see trees which have been injured in their youth. It is
sometimes like that with character: some stultifying influence
is brought to bear on it, and that which should have developed
into beauty is injured, hurt, shrinks away, and that soul is
maimed.
It is very
strange how men persist in the colossal error that it is much
easier to deal with a man’s spiritual nature than with his
physical nature! The most delicate and rare skill is required
from those who seek to help in the development of character.
I think this is especially so for Officers engaged in
Training. Of course, skill is needed in all our dealings with
souls, but especially in Training, where we have them in our
care day after day. The younger Officers coming up in
Training Work need to ponder this, to be helped by you to face
it, so that they may approach their work with care and
preparation, and be guarded from making mistakes. It has been
disappointing to find how blunderingly and haphazardly many
are prepared to rush in and deal with a soul!
We must maintain our faith for those for whom
we are working.
It is not enough to begin with faith. A physician says,
‘While there is life there is hope.’ And I think the Training
Officer should feel, ‘While they are Cadets there is hope!’
At any rate, I think it is important that the Cadet should
feel it is so. I have seen an almost blighting effect
produced on souls because they have felt an Officer had no
faith in them. And you must remember there is always the
danger that we may have misjudged. It has a blighting effect
when a Cadet comes to feel, ‘the Ensign (or Major) has lost
faith in me!’ That exhausts the last scrap of faith he might
have had for himself. Up to the last moment, the Cadet should
feel, whatever his own discouragements, down-heartedness, and
failures may be, ‘At any rate, my Training Officers have faith
for me!’
Have not some
of us been helped by the faith of others? And have not you
heard scores of people say of their trials, darkness,
failures, and defeats, ‘This man encouraged me in such and
such a way’? They tell you that the only thing that kept them
going and made them able to right the wrong, was that some one
believed in them. With some of the Cadets is it just the
same: ‘The Colonel believed in me,’ ‘The Captain believed in
me,’ ‘Somebody had faith for me, and kept on making me feel
it!’
II
The Training Officer must believe the
development of character may be assisted by human
instrumentality.
We must not only believe, and make the Cadet
believe, that God can change him, but we must believe God will
use us to help bring about that change. The steadfast faith
of one heart for another may exercise an immeasurable
influence. I do not think we have learned to understand that
fully yet. It is one of the mysteries of the spiritual world
to me, one of the things I wish I saw more clearly. When I
have stopped to think and pray about it, as I have done, I
have been frightened. It has made by inner soul tremble,
especially when I have come up to interviews, and have been
faced with the thought that perhaps what I say in this next
hour may really make a difference to that soul, to its
development, to its future. It is tremendous! We cannot get
away from it; it is happening all the time; we must accept it
as we have accepted so much in God’s plan which we do not
understand. Speaking for myself, at any rate, I do not
understand it. I can only say it is so, and I must accept
it. We cannot doubt it, because we have evidence that this is
His way of working amongst us, and we have evidence of it in
our own experience. I certainly have in mine. I look back to
people, this one, and that one, and thank God that they ever
touched my spirit: they gave me something, did something for
me, and made me different from what I should have been if I
had not come in touch with them. I am bound to say I cannot
doubt that human beings help to mould each other because my
own life and heart would contradict such a doubt.
There are many
ways of assisting in the development of the character of those
entrusted to our care. We should
do all we can to inspire them. Hold up an ideal before them
until it becomes a thing they desire, something for which
their own hearts reach out with longing.
Desire! Oh,
if we could only get it really burning in their hearts! Then
we could almost fold our hands and let the Holy Spirit and the
soul go their way, for that soul’s development would be
assured. We have a part in the kindling, the stirring up, the
creating of desire. If desire for spiritual light, life and
love be strong enough, that desire is to be fulfilled. This
is the Lord’s promise: ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’
We may assist in the development of character
by inculcating the laws that belong to growth.
Do not be
afraid of repetition. When I was in the Training Garrison I
was greatly impressed by going through the Gospels and
noticing for myself all the occasions on which it is clearly
stated, or implied, that the Lord said the same thing over
again, or did the same thing over again. ‘And, as He was
wont, He taught them again.’ (Mark x. 1.) And then how often
the parables came back to the same lesson! This encouraged my
own heart and made me feel ‘no matter how often I have to go
over essentials, I will go over them until I feel they are
really in the Cadets’ minds.’ This repetition is necessary to
the inculcating of the laws of character. We cannot too often
insist upon such foundation laws of progress as:
1.
Sincerity. A man’s
character cannot be developed for good if he is not sincere,
no
matter what you do for him, or he does for himself, or how
splendid may be all the machinery for helping him. For the
development of character in the right direction, sincerity is
absolutely essential; and natural gifts have nothing to do
with this. Help the Cadets to get away from themselves, and
make them understand sincerity. Some, alas, do not understand
what it is to have a true heart! It is a difficult matter to
deal with; but sincerity is essential to any soul aspiring to
progress in the way of God. Deal with it from every aspect,
so that, whether they accept the law for themselves or not, no
Cadets can be in doubt as to the meaning and importance of
sincerity.
2.
Perseverance. We must
make plain, by continual repetition if necessary, the part
which perseverance plays in progress.
It is
wonderful how often the natural laws are a tangible
representation of the spiritual. Personally I believe this is
part of God’s plan to enlighten us, that we may know Him, His
nature and His will for us, to a marvellous extent by studying
His work. I think this is written large over God’s creation –
if we want to attain, it is decreed that we must do it by
perseverance in work.
Here again
Commissioner Reed helped me. There were two things he
emphasized. One, ‘What you are not by nature you can be by
grace’; the other (and I think he used to bring it in somehow
every day), ‘You must work!’ In his illustrations, talks, and
lectures, he would say, ‘You are no good if you cannot work.
My dear boy, if you cannot work, you had better clear out!’
He emphasized it so much that he almost made us feel it didn’t
matter what work we did so long as we worked! He used to tell
us about his weaknesses and shortcomings, and then add, ‘But I
worked! I got up early in the morning and I went to work. I
had to work when I was a Cadet; I had to work when I was a
Lieutenant; and now I am a Commissioner I work! If you do not
want to work you will not get anywhere.’ He rubbed it in with
all his might. Perhaps some of us worked too hard; but I
think it was erring on the right side.
3.
The Mastery of Self.
I am but mentioning a few
foundation laws necessary to the development of character.
No high development of man in any direction, spiritual,
mental, or physical, is possible without a governing of
himself and his faculties.
The man who sets out to be an acrobat has to govern his body,
and master those physical powers which are his, that he may
excel. He has to exercise his muscles until they are under
such perfect control that each is brought into submission. In
like manner, a man who wants to excel in the field of mental
activity has to subdue his thoughts that he may properly use
his mind. Equally, a man of character must be master of his
impulses.
We must help
the Cadets in the development of character by giving them
room to exercise the qualities we
are seeking to develop. In
this connexion you must not ignore nor despise small things.
Ordinary hum-drum experiences may be used for the development
of the highest and rarest gifts. The spirit of unselfishness
can be truly exhibited in an ordinary rough-and-tumble day as
in the moment when a man lays down his life for another. We
must make the Cadets realize this, and help them to exercise
the qualities of which we speak to them, and towards which
they are reaching out. Let us use their relationships
with each other to help them.
A Cadet who is selfish and disagreeable amongst her comrades
will act selfishly in her duties to souls. A selfish person
will not willingly carry the burden in the work of God; he may
come in for the glory where he can, but he will be likely to
shirk the burden and shirk the work.
The Officers
dealing with Cadets should make them feel that the qualities
they need as leaders may be exercised at the Cadets’ meal
table, and in the dormitory, and on the march, and in the
Corps, just as much as anywhere else.
We should also use the Cadet’s attitude toward
his Officers.
If you want a man to develop in right spirit,
and in the character which is going to make him the man we
want in the future, let him show those qualities as a Cadet
towards his superiors. People who resent being told things,
what a nuisance they are! They must be approached so
carefully, and the moment they are corrected they are all
bristly and upset! That sort of spirit ought to be dealt with
in the Cadets; they must have opportunity for exercising the
right kind of spirit towards their Sergeants and Officers.
Then Cadets should have opportunity to exercise
themselves in voluntary works and discipline.
I perhaps feel
more strongly on this than many feel. I hope I did not make a
mistake, but I set a high value on what the Cadet did of his
own accord, and I think we should make more opportunity for
voluntary work. There is a tendency in that direction here at
Clapton. We do not decide so much as formerly what Cadets
shall do in their Field work and in the Meetings. We do not
say so often as formerly, ‘This Cadet will speak or pray, or
this one lead and fish.’ We say, ‘Here is the Meeting; every
one do what you can.’ We leave the door open so that we may
know those whose own hearts push them to action. When,
without being actually called upon, they are drawn out in
testimony, we find the people who have it in them – it is the
voluntary testimony that is valuable.
I feel also
that we ought to give the Cadets ample
opportunity for voluntary works of
self-discipline. I found it
helped me considerably, and I know it has helped scores of
other I have come into contact with, to impose some
yoke on themselves. Apart
altogether from the value of what they do, this
self-discipline does something for their own character. I
have said sometimes to Cadets, ‘Will you for the next month,
whatever happens, whatever you feel, get up one half-hour
earlier to read and pray and study?’ I have proved that,
apart from the benefit derived from the study (I do not say
the reading and study does not do good, I am sure it does),
that grip on themselves, that making themselves do it,
adds something to character which is of infinite value. The
Bible says, ‘It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
youth.’ Well, I think by putting a yoke on himself in his
youth he has certainly gone a long way towards being a man fit
to impose a yoke on others.
There should be opportunity for the Cadet to do
more than is expected of him.
God save us and protect us from Officers who cannot do more
than they are supposed to do! Why, The Army would never be
what it is, we should never be sitting here, if our leaders
and comrades and the saints who have gone before us has not
done more than anyone expected them to do! In the past they
did not wait to know whether this particular department was
supposed to do this or that. The need imposed the
responsibility to meet it if possible.
One of our
failures in the development of our present-day young people
and Officers is that, in spite of all we do, we turn out too
many who are merely prepared to go through the daily task; so
many hours visiting, and so much time for this and that;
Officers who say, ‘What things I am supposed to do I have
done, I am a faithful servant,’ and go to bed in peace! This
is not enough! When you think of the countries where our
Officers are working, do you think it is enough? It is not
enough! The Salvation Army needs people who, when they have
done all that is required of them, will still say, ‘I am an
unworthy servant. What more can I do?’
Let us give
the Cadets room to exercise this spirit while in Training. If
every moment of the day is taken up, and every duty told off,
and it takes the whole of the Cadet’s strength to do what they
are supposed to do (and you must have mercy on the limitations
of human strength), then with the best will in the world they
cannot do more than they are expected to do. Let us, whist
still telling them to go so far, see that they shall always
have strength – if they have the heart – to go farther. In
this matter, and indeed in all that has to do with the
development of character, the small Training Garrisons have an
immense advantage over the larger. I know that in the smaller
Garrisons you have fewer Officers; but the smaller your
company, the finer your opportunity to make men and women of
character.
Officers and
Sergeants should be one with you. And let me say in passing,
teach our young Officers to let the Cadets help themselves.
It is an old-fashioned difficulty. It is far easier to do
things for people than to leave them to do things for
themselves, and one of the snares of Training Work is that
very often the love, zeal, faith, and desire in the hearts of
the Officers push them on to do for the Cadets what the Cadets
ought to be left to do for themselves; and we must teach the
younger Officers that part of the skill they must acquire in
dealing with souls is not only to know
when to help,
but also when not
to help; the one needs quite as able a mind and heart as the
other.
We may assist in their development by helping
the Cadets to find out for themselves about themselves.
After all, it is only what a man does for himself than can
develop him, and that is why it is so important to encourage
voluntary effort on the part of the Cadet even in the simplest
things, in their public work, and in the use of their time.
It is what they do for themselves that will help them. Cadets
must be helped to know themselves and find out what is in
them, and then helped to deal with their weaknesses, if their
character is to develop as we desire.
The Cadets must be armed against dangers in
themselves.
Are there any other dangers? I do not
know whether you agree with me, but I am tempted to say that
there are no dangers really worth calling dangers to a man’s
soul and spirit apart from the danger which exists in himself!
My experience in dealing with Cadets individually led me to
feel this, and the longer I was at it the more firmly I became
convinced of the falsity of the argument that environment
makes the man. The exceptions were too many! I have met some
who are strong in the belief that environment has a great deal
to do with character. I must say I think that if Training
Garrison Officers would take trouble to look behind the scenes
they would come to the conclusion that environment has very
little to do with deciding a man’s character. I have studied
the Cadets from this standpoint; and, in the majority of
cases, I have been compelled to the conclusions that
environment has had quite a different effect from what I
should have expected.
Failures, in
my opinion, are caused by the inherent weaknesses in a
person’s character rather than by his circumstances, and these
weaknesses are what we should teach the Cadets to discover in
themselves. All have some weaknesses. The strongest
character has its weakness. No one is without a weak spot in
character, and we must show the Cadets that
their very strength often involves weakness.
Take, for example, the will, one of the finest assets in
character building. We say that the strong-willed people are
the people to make leaders; and it is true that a strong will
is
an asset towards making a fine character. But we have all had
experience, also, of how a strong will can cause havoc and
disaster! When strong will remains self-will, the
strong-willed person becomes one of the most heart-breaking of
all. When we have to deal with him we look at what we saw in
him of good, the capacity and the promise, and we see how
because of self-will his whole life has gone to smash. His
strength was also his weakness!
I do not think
it hurts the Cadets to tell them we think God has given them
this or that quality and to mention their good qualities. The
Cadet is sometimes tremendously astonished, had never thought
there was anything good about that tendency, and when you sit
down and tell him that you feel he is gifted it helps him to a
certain self-respect which is good for human nature. Then you
can go on to show him how to turn these gifts to good account
and to warn him how they may become a danger.
Show the Cadets also that they must deal with
failure in themselves, and that weakness and failure left
uncorrected will ruin the finest character.
If you are
going to show the Cadets how to build a good character, you
cannot allow them to tolerate weaknesses and little failures
side by side with strength. Failures and weaknesses must be
mastered, corrected, turned out if necessary and, if possible,
lost. Many weaknesses cannot altogether be banished; they
remain and have to be mastered.
Teach them, further, that all gifts and talents
should be servants.
Help the Cadet to deal with himself by showing
him that his gifts and talents ought to be his servants, and
that servants must not rule the master. If you can make him
understand this it will help him. Show him how the gifts God
has given can be rightly used. As an illustration, take the
gift of quick judgment. I do not know whether you have much
trouble with your young people, but in our country we
sometimes have difficulty because of their quickness to judge
and criticize; at any rate, I found this a difficulty, and
because of it many Cadets close the door to blessing.
It is not
exactly cynicism, but a certain fashion of picking holes,
finding fault, turning up their noses at this and that and the
other. Sometimes it does an immense amount of harm,
especially when people influence each other. I have found it
a help to some of them when I have said, ‘I notice you are
rather critical.’ Generally these people are proud of their
critical minds, and they have replied, ‘Perhaps I am,’
expecting me to condemn them. But, instead of that, I have
often said, ‘Have you thanked God for this gift?’ ‘No, not
exactly!’ ‘Well, it is a gift – a great gift. If you are
thinking of being a leader of men, that discernment and clear
mind which enables you to judge quickly ranks, perhaps, as one
of the highest qualities you will need in order to be a good
leader.’ Then I have talked about the abuse of the critical
faculty: how some who have this faculty have let it run away
with them so that they cannot go to a Meeting without being
led away from the subject of the Meeting to criticize this and
that. I have tried to show that this is the master in bondage
to the servant, and that the spirit of criticism which has,
perhaps, often led them into condemnation, can be so governed,
mastered, and trained as to be one of the greatest help to
them.
Then I think you should help the Cadets to
believe that all weakness can be made a means of grace.
I hope
that is not putting it too strongly. I think God’s dealings
and records in the Bible give us a right to say that, when it
is not the Lord’s will to take away a weakness, He will make
it a means of grace. I have known people absolutely under
bondage through fear of other people, and have seen that
weakness taken right away; but sometimes a soul will pray not
only three times, as Paul prayed, but far more often, and yet
a particular weakness is not removed, because it is God’s
purpose to let it remain; but, with a recognition of His will,
there comes a promise: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for
My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ We want to make the
Cadets understand that if they have a weakness which it seems
part of God’s will shall remain, they can bless God because
that weakness in them is going to be, throughout their future,
a means of grace: something that will make them better because
it will keep them in close touch with God, or keep them more
humble, or more tender.
III
Every Cadet should be convinced that
development is essential to spiritual health. Root and ground
them in this belief:
Salvation and Sanctification are the
preparation for development, just as the preparing of the
ground and the putting in of the seed are the first steps
towards a bringing forth of fruit.
Spiritual
growth is a token of Holiness. Holiness has been called
spiritual health. ‘Where there is growth, there is life’;
this is very clearly one of God’s messages to us in the
natural world, where I think we can say growth and life are
almost synonymous terms. I have often asked myself: Is not
the fact that we keep on growing one of the inward, silent
tokens of immortality? I am growing older, but the older I
am, the more I see how many things I have to learn, and how
much there is I wish I knew. My desire to know is getting
stronger and stronger. May I not conclude that this is one of
God’s silent whispers to me, telling that He has much to do
for me yet, and that this little life is a mere nothing, so
far as its capacity to satisfy my spirit is concerned. But
this is in passing. Let the
Cadets understand they must go on developing.
It is a
heart-breaking truth that Officers backslide! Some I have had
to deal with in bitter anguish of spirit. The awfulness of
seeing people who have walked with God, tasted the joys of the
Spirit, engaged in the service for souls and won other souls,
turned back into sin – even into gross sin! I have said to
myself: ‘Why is it? How can this thing be? How can it be?’
Doesn’t it sometimes come to you as a blow? It has to me.
Perhaps I have not seen the comrades concerned in the
interval, and have suddenly heard of some awful thing
happening, some black cloud having descended, and they have
gone out of sight! I have felt if only I could speak to them
and say, ‘I cannot believe it. It cannot be
you! You
could not have done that, not the you
I knew – how
could you?’ Alas, for the dull answer of fact!
Sometimes I
have looked at the Cadets when they have some near to the
commissioning, during the crowded days before they must go
marching out; looked at them and felt that they were Cadets
for the last time! I have said to myself, ‘I shall never have
the right in the same way to take them aside and say, heart to
heart and face to face, what I want to say, and what God gives
me to say.’ Looking at them in a body for the last time, I
have asked myself, ‘Who among them shall be lost? Who?’ As I
have looked into their faces I have felt it cannot be that
one, or this one; and, looking at them one after another, I
have been unable to think it of any. And yet I always knew
(and you always know) that within so many years there will be
empty places. I do not mean the blanks caused by sickness, or
death, or circumstances which may turn people away but which
they cannot control. I mean those blanks which come because
of souls stepping back into sin and wrong-doing.
Why is it?
Why is it? God’s will is higher than our will. If we would
keep them in the way of purity, Holiness, and right-doing, how
much more would their Heavenly Father keep them in His way.
Why do they step out of the way? I think one of the reasons
is that they have not really grasped this truth of God’s law,
which cannot and will not change, that if they do not grow, if
their spiritual life does not develop, if their character is
not getting better, they are in that place of danger where at
any moment the Tempter may step in and destroy them. They are
like the tree that, ceasing to grow, begins to rot; when the
wind blows, down it comes. But the rotting, the period of
cessation of growth , had begun weeks or months, if not years,
before the storm, before the crash.
Let us warn
the young Officers we send out of the perils of the way. Let
us get them to carry this lesson with them:
I must advance. If I stop growing I shall come
to grief.
So God will build up characters that will be
like Him. ‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we
know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.’ May
it be so with these souls He has given us!
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