SHORT HINTS

TO

A SOLDIER.

MY GOOD FRIEND:

me.

I was thinking, the other day, of the quiet which I enjoy, while you are gone forth in arms to defend

I also considered what I could do for you in return. "The Physician," said I, “though he does not fight, can bring medicines to the sick and wounded: and even a ploughboy might lead a regiment into a road which they had missed. Cannot I then do something for these brave fellows? Some of them may be sick, and others sad. Some may not be aware who are their Worst Enemies; and others may not know their Best Friends; and others still may never yet have heard what is the True Victory. I will try, at least, to serve them in these things. For who can tell ?"

Besides,” thought I, “do I not know how useful a hint has sometimes been to me? and do I not know what benefit a great soldier once received by a hint from a little maid, telling him of a great Prophet who could cure him of his leprosy ?* Why may not other Soldiers be profited by a word as well as he? I say these my defenders should not want a real friend to instruct and comfort them. I will, therefore, write them a letter; and appeal to the Bible for the truth of it."

A good Soldier is one, who, as the Wise Man expresses it, 'fears God and the King, and meddles not

ness,

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with them that are given to change :' Prov. xxiv, 21. While bad men will always be murmuring and complaining, he knows his privileges as an Englishman. He is firmly attached to his King and Country. He feels bound, in honour and conscience, to defend both. He scorns to tarnish the British name by cowardice, idleness, drunkenness, fraud, swearing, indecency, or the like.

He also knows that there is no villainy or cruelty greater than that of robbing a poor, innocent girl of her character and virtue; sinking her thus into prostitution, and destroying at once her body and soul. He knows, too, that those, who tempt him to disbelieve the Bible, or to mock at sacred things, would, if they could, make him an enemy to God and good

cut off his only hope, and turn as it were, a man into a devil.

When Rogues come and tell such a soldier, that to be free, he must be a rebel, he is too wise to be caught with the bait. He knows, that, without subordination and obedience, the army, and every other society, must be turned into a Bedlam:—that civil war is the worst of all war:-and that such, as do not submit to lawful authority, can enjoy neither liberty nor property; but must become the slaves of any tyrant or mob, that happens to get uppermost.

And, because a Soldier's life is a life of danger, a wise Soldier learns how to stand prepared to meet every enemy, under every form, and at any moment. For, having the favour of Him, who governs and directs all things, and who he knows will make him happy, whether he lives or dies, he has nothing to fear.

“Fear the Enemy!" perhaps you are ready to say: “ There is not a man among us that has any

such fear. We stand ready to meet the worst. ready to"

Stay a little, my good friend, and let me ask you, Have you well considered who your worst enemies are ?

We are

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swer:

Why yes, to be sure we have"-some might an"What enemies can be worse than the French? They mean to do here, as they have done wherever they came. They mean to strip us of our property, to ravish our wives and daughters, to make slaves of us, and then tell us we are free. Besides which, they".

Pray don't tell me of what every body knows. I want to tell you what every body does not yet know, namely,

I. Who are our WORST ENEMIES:

II. Who are our BEST FRIENDS: and
III. Which is the TRUE VICTORY.

First, then, as to our ENEMIES.

And I must inform you, that we have worse enemies than even the French themselves.

"Is this possible?" say you.

I

say yes. For those enemies are worse than even the French, who have made the French what they are, and would make the English like them.

"Pray name these Enemies."

I will. They are the World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

"But what do you mean by the world?"

I mean the world (not as God made it, but) as sin has made it. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world:' 1 John ii, 16. Now when Money, Pride, or Pleasure promises you happiness in breaking God's commands -and too many are encouraging you by bad examples and conversation to break them-say, "Here is one of my worst Enemies! This is the world! This is that cheat, which, like the apple that Eve was tempted with, would take away my heart from God, his Favour and his Kingdom, where only true joys abound."

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It is the scripture word for the sin of our nature, and that corrupt heart of man which it declares to be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, Jer. xvii, 9, and which is naturally so set upon the world. We may know this Enemy by its works, which you may read in Gal. V,

19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: and they which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.'

And who is the Devil ? for some have tried to persuade me that as to a devil, it is all a bugbear."

Yes; and the Devil himself will persuade you to believe them if he can. Don't you think it likely, that, if the French could make a landing, they would send their scouts to tell you that it is all a bugbear, till they had got into the heart of the country?

But you know I promised to appeal to the Bible, and not to a crafty enemy's account of himself. While he is acting in ambush, our Bible says, 'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist stedfast in the faith :' 1 Pet. V, 8.

“Why these are enemies," perhaps you will say, " that I never seriously thought of. These notions are quite new.

But how so? Were you not baptized, and signed with the sign of the Cross, “in token,” as the Church says, “that hereafter you should not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner against Sin, the World, and the Devil, and thus to continue Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant unto your life's end ?"

But, whether known or not, these are our worst Enemies : and it is on this account that the bad principles of the French are more to be feared than their