September 30

That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. - Ephesians 6:13.

TWO inquiries have here to be answered. The first regards the posture. What does the Apostle mean by “standing” and “withstanding?” It is a military term: the one is opposed to falling; a man is said to “fall” when he is slain in battle; and he does so literally. It is also opposed to fleeing; we often read of fleeing before the enemy in the Scriptures; this cannot be standing. The other is opposed to yielding or turning back, and so the Apostle says, “Neither give place to the devil;” every step we yield he gains, and every step he gains we lose; every advantage he gains favours his gaining another. Every encroachment of his is an encouragement for him to go on, whereas, says the Apostle Peter, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

The second regards the period; what does the Apostle mean when he says, “Withstand in the evil day?” All the time of the Christian’s warfare may be so called in a sense, and a very true sense; but the Apostle refers also to some days which are peculiarly “evil days.” Days of suffering are such. The infirmities and privations of old age; these “evil days” will come when hearing and sight and strength will fail; when we shall say “I have no pleasure therein.” Paul says, “Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Days of persecution. Days like those in which the martyrs lived and suffered were “evil days,” They could not confess and follow Christ without imperilling their substance, their liberty, and their lives; but they stood in the “evil day.”

Thus Daniel stood when he knew his adversaries had obtained the decree against him. “He kneeled upon his knees three times a day, his windows being opened, and he prayed and gave thanks before his God as aforetime.” There are “evil days” morally considered, perilous periods in which “iniquity abounds and the love of many waxes cold,” and in which many have “turned aside from the faith and given themselves to vain janglings.” It was an evil time when many, offended with our Saviour’s discourse, “went back and walked no more with him,” and he said to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” And Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” It was an “evil day” when Joseph was assailed by his mistress alone in the house, but he stood in the “evil day,” and said, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? “It was an “evil day” with Nehemiah when Sanballat and Tobiah endeavoured to intimidate him, and induce him to leave off the work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, but, said he, “Should such a man as I flee?” He stood in the “evil day,” and maintained his ground.

“Strong in the Lord of hosts,

And in his mighty power,

Who in the strength of Jesus trusts

Is more than conqueror.

“Stand then in his great might,

With all his strength endued,

But take to arm you for the fight

The panoply of God.”