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20—FORTITUDE
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THIS photograph of mountain stone pines, so fretted with the gusts of heaven and yet so resolutely rooted, is not here for its beauty, for a broken tree is not beautiful, but because it shows God’s “children of tempest” who shall be found unshaken in the Morning. Spare me the stub of a sword; let me fight on to the end—that is its word.
“Die hard, my men, die hard!” shouted Colonel Inglis of the 57th to his men on the heights behind the river Albuera. The regiment was nicknamed the Die-hards after that. The tale may have been forgotten but the name lives on, and in spite of foolish uses it is a great name. It challenges us. We are called to be the Lord’s Die-hards to whom can be committed any kind of trial of endurance, and who can be counted upon to stand firm whatever happens. It is written of Cromwell: “He strove to give his command so strict a unity that in no crisis should it crack.” With this aim in view he made his Ironsides. The result of that discipline was seen not only in victory but in defeat; for his troops, “though they were beaten and routed, presently rallied again and stood in good order till they received new orders.”{17}
This is the spirit that animates all valiant life: to be strong in will—to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield—is all that ever matters. Failure or success, as the world understands these words, is of no eternal account. To be able to stand steady in defeat is in itself a victory. There is no tinsel about that kind of triumph.
Wind means stress and strain. “The elastic limit” of each kind of tree is known to the engineer, and he deals accordingly with his timber. So does the Creator of the trees, the Commander of the winds, know “the elastic limit” of His several trees. And He knows the weight of the winds. “He looketh to the ends of the earth, to make the weight for the winds.”
When He appointed to the wind its weight,
And weighed the water according to a measure,
When He appointed to the rain its law,
And the course to the lightning of the thunder;
Then He saw it and declared it,
Took it as a pattern and tested it also.{18}
The weight of the winds can be tremendous. Here is one who has great gifts of mind but who, because of some structural trouble in the head, cannot read or listen to reading. To be free from severe and persistent pain only when utterly quiescent, and yet to be kept in peace, is surely something very greatly to the glory of His grace. Here is another, shattered, paralyzed and blinded. That wind can tear the branches from the pine. “Nothing but the Infinite Pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life,” but that is only half a truth. Nothing but the courageous Love of God is brave enough to trust the soul of man to endure as seeing Him who is invisible; and nothing but the grace of God can carry that soul through in triumph.
There is no promise that all shall be made easy. There will be days when the smallest fret, a jarring noise, the chatter of voices in visiting hours in a hospital ward, bustling people, people who drum on the rail of the bed, or knock it, or drop things, a crooked picture, wrong colors put together, a book upside down, something perversely lost among the bedclothes, will be absurdly but intensely irritating. Even common good temper will need to be prayed for then; it will not come of itself.
“For ye have need of patience: let patience have her perfect work.” On such a day, as many could tell, these twin words have a gentle habit of walking hand in hand into the room, rather like shy children, not quite sure of their welcome but hoping you will be kind to them. You remember another word then (though it seems too much to believe it will ever be spoken to you), “I know thy patience and how thou hast borne and hast not fainted.” And so you are reminded of your high calling. There is a curious comfort in remembering that the Father depends upon His child not to give way. It is inspiring to be trusted with a hard thing. You never asked for summer breezes to blow upon your tree. It is enough that you are not alone upon the hill.