COURAGE—ITS SOURCE AND NECESSITY
Isaiah 41:13. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, &c.
These words were spoken to the Jews in an age of national peril and dismay; they had slowly been losing their ancient strength through a spirit of indifference, and at length the alarm had come that awoke them from their dream. The Assyrian invasion had paralysed them with fear; no sooner had they been saved from it than the prophet was commissioned to announce an invasion from Babylon that would carry them into a strange land. Then it was that Isaiah proclaimed the source of courage, the power of which he himself had proved. The Jews might seem as nothing before the great surrounding nations; but the Lord was at their side; His voice was in their midst, crying, “Fear not; I will help thee.”
The words which give us the secret of the old Hebrew courage reveal the source of the courage we need as Christians. The notion, indeed, has gone forth that the ancient fortitude has no place in the life of the Christian,—it has declined before the gentler graces of spiritual life; but if this means that the Christian is to be only a loving, and not a righteous man, then the teaching of Christ Himself contradicts it. Not only so, but the gentler graces demand as much fortitude of soul as the stronger and sterner virtues; and, above all, steadfast obedience to God amid sorrows, and temptations, and failures, requires a courage more deep and real than that of the Jewish warrior.
Our subject is—Courage, its source and necessity.
I. ITS SOURCE.
What a broad sense of the Divine presence and aid in the figure: “I will hold thy right hand!” The grasp of the hand is significant of close and present friendship; and that sense of God’s presence—so near that our faith can touch His hand and hear the deep still music of His voice—realised as it may be in Christ, is the source of a courage which nothing can shake. Take the higher forms of courage seen among men, and it will be seen how this belief creates at once that state in which courage rises, and in which it attains its highest power. We may pass by animal courage—the bravery of instinct or temperament—as not proceeding from any principle, and so totally unlike courage of soul. The higher and true form of courage is of two kinds:—
1. The courage of active resistance. Its great element is found in the fixed survey of the means of conquest; fear rises from the contemplation of difficulties—courage from the perception of the thing to be done. There is always a lion in the path of a man who expects to find one. Intense concentration on the means of action creates the courage that actively resists danger. This is especially true of spiritual courage. It is by the aid of God that we conquer in spiritual battle; and while our gaze is fixed on that, fear vanishes; with the sense of omnipotence grasping and cheering his spirit, a man can defy the world, and death, and hell to make him turn aside from the path of Divine duty (H. E. I. 1911–1919).
2. The courage needful for passive endurance. It is harder of attainment; for while there is anything to be done, we find relief in action; but when we can only be still and endure, then it is supremely difficult to resist the assaults of cowardice. The great feature of this aspect of spiritual courage is self-surrender to the highest law of life; but if we could hear God’s voice, amid the dismay and darkness, proclaiming “All is well,” should we not be trustful, courageous, and strong?
II. ITS NECESSITY.
It is essential to Christian life for three reasons:—
1. It requires courage to manifest the Christian character before men (H. E. I. 1042–1046). Regarding the two sides of that character as seen in Christ—the strong and the tender, the severely true and the forbearing, sympathising, forgiving—we feel the incompleteness of any other character, and both of these aspects demand courage for their manifestation. What can give us courage to do the right regardless of consequences but the grasp of God’s hand and the sound of His voice?
2. It requires courage to maintain steadfast obedience to the will of God. Christian life is more than visible Christ-like character; it means Christ-like obedience amid the inner and unseen temptations of the soul. Every man has his own cross to bear.
3. It demands courage to hold fast to our highest aspirations. As Christian men, we are bound to aim at being our highest and best. The revelations of our aspirations must become our practical ideals; if we do not strive to realise them, we shall degenerate. If we would gain the far-off summits, we must keep our eye fixed on the gleaming heights. And can anything give us power and courage to do so but the knowledge that the Everlasting arms are round about us, and the voice of the Eternal cheering us onward? And here, as in all the storm and strife of our earthly pilgrimage, we are simply driven to the man Christ Jesus. He knows our weakness, and left us the legacy of everlasting power when He said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”—E. L. Hull, B.A.: Sermons, Third Series, pp. 157–167.