The very word "battle'' implies the existence of sin, for if there were no sin there would be no war, either spiritual or national, or among the lower animals. Sin is always a disturbing principle, producing division and collision, in morals, mind, or matter. In the very nature of things the principle of holiness must be irreconcilably opposed to all sin, whether latent in the heart, or active in life. The pilgrimage of a soul to the safe golden harbor of the New Jerusalem cannot be passed without conflict, and spiritual warfare enters essentially into every Christian's life. While this is true, yet there are some believers who in a special way are the great warriors in the life of faith, and in a certain sense representative soldiers of Jesus, who fight not only the battles of ordinary Christians, but are chosen leaders in their generation to fight for others as well as themselves, and in a special way wrestle with wicked principalities, and powers, and demons of darkness, and bad spirits in heavenly places. The first uses for ships of any kind, was for purposes of pleasure, travel, or commerce; but after awhile they became great factors in times of war, and now the nations of the world take military rank according to their navies, and strength in all sorts of war-ships. So in our spiritual voyage we have come to a place where we must enlist on a religious man-of-war, and share the fortunes of battle on the high seas.

1. Battle ships are the special property of the government, and are set apart exclusively for maintaining the liberty and glory of the nation to which they belong. They are not made for pleasure, or commerce, or mere traveling, but are held sacredly as national safeguards in times of peace, or as instruments of conquest in times of war. We saw in the construction of a sail boat, that the materials had to be specially adapted to the blowing of the wind, which illustrated the soul yielding itself up in a very definite way to the regenerating Spirit of God. Then we saw in the steamboat another type of consecration by which the materials were adapted to steam power, illustrating a definite yielding of all the powers in the soul to God's will in sanctification. Now, while the battle ship contains in its propelling structure the same principles of any other steamship, yet a great many new features are added to it, and one of these features is that of being exclusively government property, and not subject to the will of corporations, or commercial firms, or the common people; but as a standard bearer of the nation's glory. All these things remarkably illustrate the mission of those heroic souls who are exclusively dedicated to the glory of God, to fight the battles of faith, to stand in the breach in times of apostacy, and to bear the brunt of all God's enemies, as well as the shots from the rear of mistaken and weak Christians. There are many degrees of consecration to God, and consecration for various purposes. Every vessel of every variety that hails from a country's ports, or carries a country's flag, belongs to that country; but a battle ship belongs to its government in a higher and more exclusive ownership than any other vessel. And in like manner all Christians belong to Jesus, and repentance in each case must be perfect up to one's capacity before he is Justified, and each believer must perfectly consecrate up to his capacity to be sanctified, but after the heart is purified from all conscious disloyalty, there then follows degrees of the soul's abandonment to the vast purposes of God, and to the various callings and conflicts and achievements that may unfold in the administration of God's government. Thus battle ship saints are not only propelled by the interior fire and water of Pentecostal power, but they are held in a rigid divine ownership, and stand for the Divine glory, both offensive and defensive, to attack Satan and his demons and all his works, and to defend the true doctrine of Jesus, and His blood, and His kingdom, and His faith, even up to the point of martyrdom. Over and above their own personal salvation, they are specially called to be standard bearers for the glory of God.

2. Battle ships are very expensive, inasmuch as they must not only have all the good qualities of first-class ocean steamers, but in addition to these they must possess extraordinary strength and weight in thickness of steel armor, to resist heavy shot, and have great capacity, not only for the carrying of soldiers, but for multiplied machinery, and magazines doubly protected for ammunition. Battle ships must excel in power of resistance, and in carrying capacity, and in making speed, and in going very long distances without stopping to take on supplies. To combine all these qualities in one ship necessitates vast expense of money, and skill, and labor. All these points correspond with those spiritual and mental qualities that enter into the character of a Christian hero. A saint who has in him the qualities of a true reformer, or religious leader, or Christ-like martyr, must combine not only the excellences of all other Christians, but have those excellences united and in a very high degree. This makes him a very costly creature in the Divine Kingdom. God must expend upon the structure of such a soul a great deal of creative wealth to begin with, and there must be special expenditures of grace, and providential training, and divine equipment. A battle ship saint must have a strong, solid mind, and well balanced faculties, as a basis for divine grace to work upon, as in the case of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Inskip, and an army of others who have led the way into new religious movements and religious revolutions, and opened up fields of spiritual knowledge to their fellows. Divine grace does not work on a blank vacancy, but its operations in extent and splendor are in proportion to the natural inborn capacity of the soul. A battle ship Christian must have a genuine experience in Bible salvation of the new birth, and the power of sanctifying grace, and a life of prayer. United to this he must be sound to the core in Bible doctrine, such as the infallible inspiration of Scripture, the atonement of Christ's shed blood for man's sin, the reality of heaven and hell, the resurrection and everlasting existence of both the righteous and the wicked, the three Divine persons in the Godhead, and all sound Apostolic teaching. God never has used, and never will use, as a spiritual leader, or a great missionary, or a great soul saver, any higher critic, or annihilationist, or second probationist, or one weak in Bible doctrine. What the natural build of the battle ship is, corresponds with the natural gifts of a battle ship Christian. What the fire, engine and propelling power inside the battle ship is, corresponds with the full experience of a soldier saint. And what the thick steel armor plate is to the battle ship, that is what sound Bible doctrine is to the battle ship Christian, and this is the very thought stated by St. Paul in describing the armor of the Christian soldier, having the loins girt about with truth or sound doctrine, as a battle ship is girt about with steel plates. In addition to sound doctrine and experience, the battle ship Christian must have great courage. Not the wild, reckless courage of a spasmodic bayonet charge only, but that broad, massive, all-around, solid, abiding courage, which corresponds with the awful weight and momentum of a battle ship, that can quietly repose at anchor, or when need be plunge with irresistible force against bulwarks or opposing ships. The courage that can stand alone with God, that not only can face numberless foes, but endure patiently the desertion of friends, the misunderstandings and criticisms of other Christians, to take up a task that all others regard as hopeless, to take a stand that is denounced as insane delusion, to discern victory through dark, dense battle clouds, where all others see nothing but defeat, to work patiently without one word of bragging on the work, to pray on, press on, weep on, fight on, day and night, through love or hate, with friends or foes, whether encouraged or denounced, requires a celestial courage that is born out of the heart of Jesus, and clad in that shining armor which He brought down from the bosom of the Father into His human life. In addition to invincible courage, the battle ship Christian is one of great wisdom, which corresponds with the steering and maneuvering of the battle ship in an engagement, or its navigation. Now, there are Christians who have great natural capacity, but not much else. Then there are Christians who have wonderful experiences of salvation, but who are not competent in doctrine. Then there are Christians perfectly sound in the truth, who lack in courage. Then there are those who arc very brave, but not wise. Now you see as the battle ship must have all the excellences of other ships combined, and then a whole world of war qualities added to them, so the true, heroic saint must have all the graces of other Christians, and the superadded gifts of courage, and wisdom, and a heavenly vision into his life mission in a remarkable degree. As battle ships draw heavily on the nation's treasury, so battle ship saints are very costly, and draw more largely on the riches of God's grace. As Jesus at the touch of the afflicted woman felt the drain of mighty virtue going from Him, so there are saints that drain more heavily if we may so speak, upon the fountains of the Divine nature.

3. During times of peace the battle ships are often brightly painted, and used on gala days, and national displays, as objects of enthusiastic admiration; but when war is proclaimed the ships are painted in dull leaden hues to render them less conspicuous at sea. In like manner battle ship Christians, when in the midst of heavy conflicts with Satan, and temptation, and sorrow, and poverty, and pushing a forlorn hope, and dressed in the humble, sober raiment of war clothing, they are not very attractive to the eyes of many of their fellows, or even of their friends. Even the things that men call glory are wrought out in obscurity and loneliness, and in times and places which seem the very opposite of glory. Every character that to-day men laud to the skies, is for doing and saying and suffering some things which at the very time they were doing and saying and suffering those things, they were despised, and cursed, and regarded as fools and fanatics. Oh, it is so easy to pitch in with bitter words upon Job on the dung-hill, and Jacob sleeping on a rock, and Elijah under the juniper tree, and Paul all alone before Caesar, and Columbus about to be killed by his mutineers, and Wesley under a shower of rotten eggs, and Madame Guyon in an old jail, and Bunyan in a dirty prison cell, and John Brown hanging on a gallows, and ten thousand other cases where they seemed at the point of nothing but poverty and shame and disgrace, like Jesus, disrobed on a bloody cross, and mixed up with disgraceful characters. These were God's battle ships out on the high seas, dressed in dull war paint, fighting all alone, and misunderstood by everybody on earth, and it may be by the young and uninformed souls in heaven; and yet of these unattractive scenes of battle, and sorrow, and pain, have come results that the millions praise and magnify from generation to generation. As a rule battle ships win their great victories far off on the sea, out of the sight of applauding citizens, and sometimes under great disadvantages of burning heat, or heavy waves, or storm, or with crippled machinery. In like manner God's heroic saints fight their greatest battles in secret, unknown to others, like their Master in Gethsemane, while their fellow Christians are asleep, or if they could look on would have nothing to say but a criticism or a slur. The greatest and the grandest things in every saint's life are wrought out under the eye of God, and His angels, and unknown to mankind, till months and years after, when the bloody sweat, touched by the silver light of the moon that sifts through the dark olive leaves, has sprouted and become a magnificent tree, under which in after years posterity sits and cools itself in the refreshing shade. Oh, thou blessed, lonely, hated, bleeding Jesus, who could have dreamed that your blood drops, shed under so many curses, could ever have produced such a tree as millions now eat the fruit of, but from whose pale face they would have turned away at the time of thy blood shedding. There never was an inspired word spoken, or an inspired act performed, or an inspired enterprise undertaken, or an inspired battle fought for God, that was not first baptized in blood, or curses, or poverty, or disgrace, or sorrow, before it ever came forth into honor and glory and the dazzling sheen of a beautiful immortality. Forever and forever the shameful cross, or gallows, or dungeon, must precede the coronation. Those who attempt to reverse this order, and take the crown first, only wind up in an endless penitentiary at last.

4. Battle ships are expected to go in places of danger where other ships could not venture, and break down the barriers to the ports of other countries, and not only defend the nation, but extend its authority and conquest into other countries. In this respect battle ship saints are on fire with missionary zeal to push the Gospel of Jesus into distant fields, to bombard the hoary castles of ancient superstition, to pierce with the rifle shots of inspired truth the corruption of heathenism, and carry the banner of the cross to all nations, that those who are susceptible to divine grace may be called out and prepared for the coming day or dispensation of the Lord. Not only does this principle of spiritual conflict apply to carrying the Gospel to new fields, but also to the opening up of new fields of knowledge out of God's word. It takes a battle ship Christian to stand out against long accepted church traditions which are contrary to Scripture, but have been canonized simply by the schools of men and man-made theology. Luther was a battle ship to open up the Scriptures on justification by faith. George Fox was a battle ship to open up the deeper spiritual meaning in the letter of Scripture. John Knox and the English reformers were battle ships on the individual right of conscience in connection with Scripture. John Wesley and Fletcher and others were battle ships to open up the great Scripture truth of Christian perfection, of a heart filled with pure love.

There have been other battle ship Christians who have opened up God's word against the traditions of Romanism, concerning prayer for the sick, the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit the premillennial and visible return of our blessed Jesus, the two separate resurrections of the righteous and the wicked, the imperative duty on every Christian to do his part in spreading the Gospel to all nations, and in emphasizing that life of prayer through which so many wonders have been wrought in recent times. There is no lack in these last days to the uprising of those who pretend to be great leaders of new doctrine, and who can blasphemously pervert and twist God's word to mean anything for their selfish ends; but it requires a fathomless humility, and crucifixion of self, and a meek, heroic spirit, to unfold all God's precious word for the destruction of all sin, and the promotion of all Christ likeness, unbiased by the traditions of men on the one side, and wild heresy on the other. As battle ships are exclusively for the glory of the nation, so in boarding this type of a vessel we must cling closer than ever to the three Divine Persons, and be more detached from the claims of our fellow creatures, and live alone for the glory of God, until like our Saviour, the glory of God becomes the all embracing motive of our lives, and like Him we can say "the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up."