The recruit / by John F.W. Ware.

  • Ware, John F. W. (John Fothergill Waterhouse), 1818-1881.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The recruit / by John F.W. Ware. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/12 (page 11)
    your first, special attention be given here till the habit is gone. So you will see some gain. You know it is better to concentrate your fire than to scatter it. If a man once sees a habit fairly down, something definite done, he takes courage. He finds out what he can do, and presses on to further victories, while a general purpose of reform, or an equal attack on all his sins at once, will show, and probably make little real gain. This is the way in which I would advise you to begin, no more expecting to be an accomplished Christian at once than the recruit expects to be an accomplished soldier at once. Gradually, and through patient effort, the better life will grow upon you, and these things which seem now so strange, so difficult, will become easy and familiar. There is one grand help to this. When you first enlisted I dare say you bought a manual — Casey, perhaps — and set yourself down to make yourself a soldier by studying that. What a hopeless task that was! You could hardly do the simplest thing by it. But after you got into the ranks, and had some little experience, you went back to your Casey, and it'was a new book and a great help. The Christian recruit will find a similar experience. If he sits down with his Bible, and expects to study himself into a Christian, he will grow gray and make no advance. The Saviour teaches better. He says, “ If any will do his will, he shall know of the