The Chocolate Soldier
by C. T. Studd

The Chocolate Soldier
by C. T. Studd

And so the tale goes on. Go where you will through the Scriptures or history, you will find that men who really knew God, and did not merely say they did, were invariably paragons of pluck, dare-devil desperadoes for Jesus, gamblers for God. "Fools and madmen!" shout the world and the Chocolates. "Yes, for Christ’s sake," add the angels.

Nobly they fought to win the prize:

Climbing the steep ascent
of heaven,
Through peril, toil
and pain.
O God, to us let grace
be given,
To follow in their train.

The Chocolate Christians of today can at least boast of having an ancient pedigree. There are CHOCOLATES A LA REUBEN, who have great searchings of heart, and make great resolves of heart too. But somehow they still sit among the sheepfolds, listening to the pipings of their much loved organs, or the strumming of their guitars. It is good to have great heart-searching. It is better to make a great heart resolve. But if, instead of obeying, we squat among the sheep, leaving our few hard-pressed brothers to tackle the wolves by themselves, we are only Chocolate Christians. You made a great resolve to go to Africa for Christ a year or two ago. Where are you now? Still in the West? In Britain? Yes! Yes! Lollipop! (Judges 5:16).

There are CHOCOLATES MEROZ who earned the curse of the angel of the Lord. War was declared, the battle about to begin. The odds were outrageous but Meroz remained in England, attending conventions until the battle was over. Then he went in comfort and security as a tourist! Doubtless they said they "couldn’t fight until they had been properly ordained, and besides, there was so much to be done in fat, overfed Meroz. Surely to feed a flock of fat sheep has always been considered the ideal training for war." As though the best training for a soldier was to become a nursemaid!! (Judges 5:23).

CHOCOLATES DU BALAAM begin first class and earn the name of prophets. Then they develop a squint, melt, and finally run out of the frying pan into the fire! Thus was Balaam.

One day he could not get his left eye to look at God. It would look at earth and riches and that chit of a girl, Miss Popularity. He ought to have done as God told him, and plucked it out. But he said that was too much to ask of any man, and besides he wanted the best of both worlds. He had the hearty desire to die the death of the righteous, but he was not willing to pay the price of a righteous life. He had not the pluck to curse God’s people so he made plans for others to make them sin. But one day, while his dupes were putting his chestnuts into the fire, they fell in themselves and Balaam with them (Numbers 23 & 24).

"I counsel you to buy from Me salve to put on your eyes, so that you can once again see the folly of flirting with the world."

CHOCOLATE DEMAS left fiery, hard-hitting Paul for an easier path. He said he thought Paul should wink at or slobber over sin instead of rebuking it. "He was so very fond of the knife, you know. He never would use sticking plaster, because he said it never healed the sore, but made it burrow underneath and become bigger, worse and dangerous" (2 Timothy 4:10).

Mark joined the Chocolate Brigade once. He left Paul and Barnabas in the lurch, and went back to Jerusalem for a rest cure-a religious retreat. Thank God he got sick of it before long, and re-enlisting in God’s army became a useful soldier (Acts 13:13).

Many fine youngsters are turned into Chocolates by old prophets. Old prophets who have lost their fire, or who fire off words instead of deeds, usually become great Chocolate manufacturers. That poor young prophet! He did so well when he obeyed God only, but it was all over with him when he listened to another voice, even though it was that of an old prophet. Did not the old prophet say he was a prophet? And say that he had got the message straight from God? What a damnable lie! The floor of Christendom and elsewhere is littered with WRECKS made by old prophets. God won’t stand nonsense from any man. Every man has to choose between Christ and Barabbas, and every Christian between God and some old prophet. Better be a silly donkey in the estimation of an old prophet than to listen to his soft talk and flattery, and afterwards become a wreck. "This is My beloved Son, hear HIM." No, not even Moses, not Elijah, nor both. "HEAR HIM." "You have an anointing from God, and you do not need anyone to teach you." You say you believe the Bible! Do your deeds give the lie to your words? (1 Kings 13).

THE TEN SPIES WERE CHOCOLATES. They melted and ran over the whole congregation of Israel, turning them into Chocolate Creams-softies, afraid to face the fire and water before them. God put them all into the saucepan again and boiled them for forty years in the desert, and left them there. He has no use for Chocolates. It is not small things that He despises, but ‘Chocolates,’ for He said, "Your little ones shall inherit the promised land which you have forfeited through listening to men and despising Me" (Numbers 13).

JONAH became a Chocolate Soldier once. Told to go to Africa, he went to Liverpool and took ship for America. Luckily he met a storm and a whale which, after three day’s instruction, taught him how to pray and obey, and set him once again on the right track (Jonah 1).

There is nothing that shows up CHOCOLATES so much as a bit of a breeze among God’s people. Paul and Barnabas had one once. Judging from experience, I guess there were some Chocolates about then who got into a fog right away! Before that they had vowed they would go to the mission field, but this breeze between P. and B. put them off. If they had not been MADE OF CHOCOLATE they would have said, "This affair between Paul and Barnabas only makes it more necessary for me to keep close to God, and to do what He told me to do more exactly and punctually; so I shall go to Africa a bit sooner, that’s all!"

Difficulties, dangers, disease, death or divisions don’t deter any but Chocolates from executing God’s will. When someone says there is a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, "That’s hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go."

CHOCOLATES are very fond of talking loud and long against some whom they call fanatics, as though there were any danger of Christians being fanatics nowadays! Why, fanatics among Christians are as rare as the dodo. Now, if they declaimed against tepidity, they would talk sense. God’s real people have always been called fanatics. Jesus was called mad, so was Paul; so were Whitefield, Wesley, Moody, Spurgeon. No one has graduated far in God’s school who has not been paid the compliment of being called a fanatic. We Christians of today are indeed a tepid crew. Had we but half the fire and enthusiasm of the Suffragettes of the past, we would have the world evangelised and Christ back amongst us in no time. Had we the pluck and heroism of the Battle of Britain pilots, or the men who go on Polar expeditions or climb Everest, or for any ordinary daredevil enterprise, we could have every soul on earth knowing the name of Jesus Christ in less than ten years.

Alas! What stirs ordinary men’s blood and turns them into heroes makes most Christians run like a flock of frightened sheep. Militants daily risk their lives in furtherance of their particular cause, and subscribe with their means in a way that cries "Shame!" on us Christians, who generally brand the braving of risks and fighting against odds as "tempting God."

CHOCOLATE CARAMELS (‘stickjaw,’ boys call them) jawing, "I go, sir," and sticking fast in Christendom! No conquest is made in assured safety, and conquest for Christ certainly cannot be so made.

We Christians too often SUBSTITUTE PRAYER FOR PLAYING THE GAME. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience it is nothing but blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism. We need as many meetings for action as for prayer-perhaps more. Every orthodox prayer meeting is opened by God saying to His people, "Go work today; pray that labourers will be sent into My vineyard." It is continued by the Christian’s response, "I go, Lord, wherever You send me, that Your Name may be hallowed everywhere, that Your kingdom may come speedily, that Your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven." But if it ends in nobody going anywhere, it had better never have been held at all. Like faith, prayer without works is dead. That is why many PRAYER MEETINGS might well be styled "much bleating, yet little wool." Zerubbabel did not only hold prayer meetings; he went and cut down trees and started to build. Hence God said, "From this day on I will bless you."

A report says that someone has rediscovered the secret of the old masters. Cannot we Christians rediscover, and put into practice, the secret of our Great Master and His former pupils, heroism? He and they did not save themselves; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death, and so kept on saving them by losing them for Christ’s sake.

We are frittering away time and money in a multiplicity of conventions, conferences and retreats, when the real need is to go straight and full steam into battle. The ‘vox humana’ plays too important a part in our Christian organs and organisations today. The music, whoever plays, is bound to be thin when the stops of ‘instant obedience’ and ‘fiery valour’ are missing or unused. Without them, to play the ‘Lost Chord’ of heroism is an impossibility.

"Do whatever He tells you," said the Blessed Virgin. Do what? Not put treacle and spice into the soft holy vessels inside the house, but pour the water of life into those empty stone ones outside! Cana’s marriage feast would have ended in shame had the wine run short. Christ’s marriage feast only begins when the wine is sufficient-a blend from every nation, tribe, people and language. The supply is assured as soon as the water is poured out as Christ directed, into "the uttermost parts of the earth." The mischief today is the reluctance of the servants to do the outside work. They all want to serve indoors, wear smart clothes, listen to the conversation, and make a terrible lot of themselves in the butler’s pantry.

DO LET US MAKE A REAL START NOW-AT ONCE. For years, like Mr. Winkle, we’ve declared we were just about to begin, and then never began at all.

We must divorce Chocolate and Disobedience, and marry Faith and Heroism.

"Who shall begin the battle?" asked the king. "You will," replied the prophet. And when the king and the young officers led the way, although the odds against them were terrific, they won with ridiculous ease (1 Kings 20:14).

So, too, the apostles led in the war of God to the uttermost parts of the earth.

GOD’S SUMMONS TODAY is to the young men and women of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, of America and Europe, and of third world countries, who call themselves by the name of Christ.

"New wine," said Christ, "must be poured into new wineskins." Those superfluously labelled and patched-up old-fashioned ones are as hopeless as the ‘New Theology.’ They cannot be moved lest they burst with pride and spill the wine in the wrong place.

Listen! "In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions [of faith], your old men will dream dreams [of valorous obedience]. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, and everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved." But how can they call on Him of whom they have not even heard? Must you stay, young man? Can’t you go, young woman, and tell them? Truly we are in the last-the Laodicean stage-that of the Lukewarm Church.

Will you be to Christ the partner of His throne or an emetic (Rev. 3:16); a Militant or a Chocolate Christian? Will you fear or will you fight? Shall your brothers go to war and will you sit here? When He comes, will He find faith on the earth?

A thousand times you have admitted Christ’s "Love so amazing, so divine, Demands your life, your soul, your all."

Will you be a miser and withhold what honour demands of you? Will you give like Ananias and Sapphira who, pretending they gave all, gave only part?

Possessing and enjoying the vineyard, will you, like the tenants, refuse the agreed rent? (Luke 20:9-11). Will you fear death, or the devil, or men, and will you not fear SHAME? Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Shall we refuse to emulate the heroes of old, or shall we accomplish the double fulfilment of these glorious words:

All these, being men of war, came with a perfect heart to make Jesus King over all the world. They were all mighty men of valour for the war! He that was least was equal to a hundred, and the greatest to a thousand! They were not of double heart! Their faces were like the faces of lions! They were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains (to do their Lord’s commands)!

You sought in time past for Jesus to be king over you. NOW THEN DO IT! (Compare 1 Chronicles 12:8, 33, 38, and 2 Samuel 3:17-18.)

Shall we not reply, "We are Yours, Jesus, and on Your side. May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not do what the Father promised You on oath, and transfer the kingdom from the house of Satan and establish Your throne over all the world." (Compare 1 Chron. 12:18, and 2 Samuel 3:9-10.)

Shall we not reply, "We are Yours, Jesus, and on Your side. May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not do what the Father promised You on oath, and transfer the kingdom from the house of Satan and establish Your throne over all the world." (Compare 1 Chron. 12:18, and 2 Samuel 3:9-10.)

To your knees, man! And to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God. Quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame lying and cowardly excuses. Enlist! Here are your papers and oath of allegiance. Scratch out one side and sign the other in the presence of God and the recording angel. Mark God’s endorsements underneath:

HENCEFORTH For me For me To live is Christ Chocolate my name To die is gain Tepidity my I’ll be a militant or temperature A man of God A malingerer, I A gambler for A child of men Christ A self-excuser A hero A humbug Sign here Sign here

God’s promises are sure in either case: "I am with you "I will spit you out of always" my mouth."

Good Lord! Baptise us with the Holy Spirit and with fire! Cure us of this dread plague of Sleeping Sickness, this crazy talking in our sleep, that even as we unceasingly pray. May Your Name be hallowed everywhere. Your kingdom come speedily. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Amen and Amen!