True Words for Brave Men: A Book for Soldiers' and Sailors' Libraries

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Charles Kingsley. True Words for Brave Men: A Book for Soldiers' and Sailors' Libraries

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

I. THE GOOD CENTURION; OR, THE MAN UNDER AUTHORITY

II. CHRIST IS COME. A CHRISTMAS SERMON

III. IS, OR IS NOT, THE BIBLE TRUE?

IV. THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE TREE OF LIFE; OR, THE FALL

V. I AM

VI. THE ENGLISHMAN TRAINED BY TOIL

VII. HIGHER OR LOWER: WHICH SHALL WIN?

VIII. ST. PETER; OR, TRUE COURAGE

IX. THE STORY OF JOSEPH

X. SLAVES OF FREE?

XI. DANGERS—AND THE LITANY

XII. WILD TIMES, OR DAVID’S FAITH IN A LIVING GOD

XIII. DAVID AND NABAL, OR SELF-CONTROL

XIV. DAVID’S LOYALTY; OR, TEMPTATION RESISTED

XV. DAVID’S DEATH SONG

XVI. AHAB AND MICAIAH—THE CHRISTIAN DEAD ALIVE FOE EVERMORE

XVII. WHAT IS CHANCE?

XVIII. EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY WISDOM; OR, STOOP TO CONQUER

XIX. IT IS GOOD FOR THE YOUNG TO REJOICE

XX. GOD’S BEAUTIFUL WORLD.—A SPRING SERMON

XXI. WONDERS OF THE SEA; OR DAILY MIRACLES

XXII. THE SAILOR’S GOD. PREACHED TO SAILORS AT A LITTLE FISHING VILLAGE IN CORNWALL, 1843

XXIII. THE GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST

XXIV. HOLY COMMUNION; CHRIST AND THE SINNER

PART II

I. BRAVE WORDS FOR BRAVE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 3

II. THE STORY OF CORTEZ; OR PLUCK IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. A LECTURE DELIVERED AT ALDERSHOT CAMP, NOV. 1858

III. PICTURE GALLERIES

IV. A PORTRAIT IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY

V. THE BRITISH MUSEUM

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This little volume is selected from the unpublished sermons and addresses of Charles Kingsley by the request of a Colonel of Artillery, and with the sanction of an Army Chaplain of long experience, who knew the influence of his writings on soldiers, and who wish that that influence may live, though he is no longer here.  The Lecture on Cortez was given at Aldershot Camp in 1858, and the Address to Brave Soldiers and Sailors written for and sent out to the troops before Sebastopol in the winter of 1855, when Mr. Kingsley’s own heart, with that of all England, was grieving over the sufferings of our noble army in the Crimea.  F. E. K.

The first was the Centurion, of whom our Lord speaks in such high terms of commendation.

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And so had this good soldier his reward; his reward for the soldierly qualities which he had acquired; for subordination; for reverence; for admiration of great and able men.  And what was his reward?  Not merely that his favourite servant was healed at his request: but that he learnt to know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom truly to know is everlasting life; whom the selfish, the conceited, the envious, the slanderous, the insolent, the mutinous, know not, and never will know; for they are not of His Spirit, neither is He of theirs.

But more: What is the moral which old divines have drawn from this story?  “If you wish to govern: learn first to obey.”  That is a moral lesson more valuable than even the use of arms.  To learn—as the good Centurion learnt—that a free man can give up his independence without losing it.  Losing it?  Independence is never more called out than by subordination.  A man never feels himself so much of a free man as when he is freely obeying those whom the laws of his country have set over him.  A man never feels so able as when he is following the lead of an abler man than himself.  Remember this.  Make it a point of honour to do your duty earnestly, scrupulously, and to the uttermost; and you will find that the habits of self-restraint, discipline, and obedience, which you, as soldiers, have learned, will stand you in good stead for the rest of your lives, and make you each, in his place, fit to rule, just because you have learned to obey.

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