Think too of the heroism of the wives, the mothers, the sweethearts, on whose lips there must have trembled over and again, “I will not, I cannot let you go.”  Yet the will was disciplined, the words remained unspoken, the tears were shed in secret, and these brave hearts, even in breaking, shall find their reward.

It was at Waterloo one afternoon, a young officer was being seen off for the front by father, brother, and fiancee.  The two former bravely and cheerily said their good-bye, and withdrew a little to leave the young couple for their farewell; a kiss, a close embrace, outward smiles, but tears very near the eyes; and then as the officer got into the carriage just this one remark:  “It’s precious hard upon the women.”  What a world of meaning there was in that.

Above all, as your pattern and your power, look to Him Who said, “I came down from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent Me.”

For suggested meditations during the week, see Appendix.

II

=The Discipline of the Body=

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT

1 Cor. ix. 27

  “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage.”

On Ash Wednesday we were considering some purely subjective realities, such as principles, motives, will—­things we could not see.  To-day we think about a very objective substance, ever present to our senses—­our body.  A man may deny point blank the existence of his soul—­using the word in its ordinary acceptation—­he cannot say, “I have not got a body.”  Even if he should conceive of that body as a mere bundle of ideas, an accumulation of sensations, yet there it is, making itself felt in countless ways.

So intimately bound up is it with every part of our life, apparently so infinitely the most real part of us, that we often think of it as being our true self.  Yet every cell and fibre of it changes in the course of seven years.  Therefore in itself it cannot maintain our identity.  Have you ever pinched your nail, right down at its base, and watched the dark mass of congealed blood making its way to the tip of the finger, and then dispersing?  This gives you some idea of the pace at which the body is being burned up and renewed.

All the while the personal “I” remains, deep-seated in the self-conscious intellect, memory, will.

Of course the body plays an immensely important part in the complex story of our existence.  It is the machine by which the personal self acts, speaks, loves, hates, chooses, refuses; therefore we can neither ignore it nor despise it.

The popular notion concerning religion is that it is meant only for the salvation of the soul.  If this were so, then the coming of the Holy Ghost would have sufficed for all needs.

One manifest purpose of the Incarnation was to give to the body the possibility of holiness here, resurrection hereafter.