A message of good cheer for the active and prospective soldier is to be found in the seventeenth chapter of I Samuel. Therein is contained an account of the power of God's law of preservation during time of war, and the truth in the narrative illumined by the light of Christian Science becomes a veritable shield for the modern warrior. We are told that the Israelites and the Philistines had been in battle array for forty days without a decisive victory. Twice daily Goliath had successfully defied the hosts of Israel by mesmerizing them into believing that he was invincible, and his display of preparedness, size, and power had paralyzed them into allowing his boast to go unchallenged.
Now in the near-by country was a farmer lad minding his sheep, whose father sent him on an errand to his brethren at the front. The account reads that his mission carried him into the very front trench just as the Jewish soldiers were essaying to attack the Philistines, but they were again repulsed by Goliath's appearance. David, perceiving the need of the Jewish army to be released from the bondage of fear, volunteered to enter the service for this purpose. When it seemed likely that he would be rejected because of his youth and lack of military training he recounted a personal experience. Telling how, while keeping his sheep, a lion and a bear came to attack the flock and he slew them both, he concluded with the words: "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." David had already met and conquered the attack of death, therefore he knew the power of God's law to preserve man and was confident that it would operate on the battle field as perfectly as in the sheep field, for was it not an infinite, omnipresent, and omnipotent law?
Evil's presentation of itself as size, power, or frightfulness, whether in the guise of man or beast, held no terror for the shepherd lad because he knew that all power belonged to God and that spiritual understanding was the supreme might of deliverance. So great was his confidence in his God, the very God of Israel, that he was accepted for the service and permitted to go out alone to meet Goliath. Passing beyond the shelter of the trench into no-man's-land, he ran eagerly to meet the enemy. The boast of evil that in such daring he would be mutilated, disintegrated, and destroyed, came back upon its own head, for David returned from the encounter intact as well as victorious.
