We need to take "the whole armor of God" in order to be "able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." There are special evil days. There are times when the power of the enemy is gathered against us in a very marked way,-after all, not the times in which we are in greatest danger. After success and joy of victory, there may be a carelessness brought in by the victory itself, which may allow us to fall as it were without a battle. When Gideon had defeated the hosts of Midianites and Amalekites, he falls without a battle at all by the ephod which he makes -a thing bred of the very place which God had given him. He has offered sacrifices before at God's command. This entitles him, as it seems to him, to intrude upon the functions of the regular priesthood, and this connects with the further and worse failure in his family afterwards. When he has refused the kingship in Israel for himself, his son Abimelech grasps it openly. Thus, when we
have done all, we have to stand. Nothing but the constant sense of our dependence upon Another, the watchfulness which comes from this consciousness of inherent weakness, will enable us to find constant success.

The details of the armor are then presented to us. First of all, our loins are to be "girt about with truth." " Truth," notice, comes here first,- the action of the Word; and what does it do for us? It girds the loins. It prevents our garments, our habits, as we may interpret it, hindering us. The power of heavenly truth upon our souls will make us, in our whole character here, simply as those who are passing through and not settling down. Our garments in that way will never be loose about us. The strife is constant. We must not expect rest. We have a rest, indeed, in Christ at all times, but that is another thing. The time of rest has not come. We are to be as soldiers of Christ, who, as the apostle says, are not to entangle themselves with the things of this world. When the enemy is meeting us with the darkness of this world, how important for us, first of all, to have this girdle about the loins!

Next comes the " breastplate of righteousness." The breastplate covers a vital part. If indeed there is not righteousness with us, the accuser has a fair means of attack. His pretension is that of Adonizedek (lord of righteousness). Righteousness is his constant plea before God when he would sift us, as he sifted Job or as he sifted Peter. If we are God's wheat, we must expect such sifting, which accomplishes, after all, as in Job's case and in Peter's, blessing for us; but at the same time it puts us to the test. "Righteousness," let us remember, is practical consistency with our position and relationships, and thus if we are indeed heavenly men, this righteousness will be a very different thing from what the, world would call such. The only righteous thing for us is to be practically what we are professedly in every thing; even the showing of mercy is only righteousness for those who have had mercy shown them, nor can righteousness exist apart from the love which we owe men at all times. Thus, the "breastplate of righteousness " is indeed important, and we see how the truth must have gone before it, to put us in the place which defines for us what practical righteousness must be with us.

Next, we have the feet shod for the way. We remember, as to Israel, how perfectly their feet were shod, how their shoes never wore out, spite of the flinty desert they were traversing all the forty years. Our feet are shod in a higher way. Our "preparation" is that which is wrought by the effect of "the gospel of peace." It is not a question of carrying the gospel to others. It is our feet that are shod with this "preparation; " it is a peace which God has preached to us in it, the peace with Himself, which gives peace, therefore, as to all things:"For, if God be for us, who can be against us ? " It is this peace that arms the feet for all the difficulties of the way. What circumstances are there which are not in His hand ? What difficulties can be too much for Him ? The wilderness is still the wilderness. The trials and difficulties are there. They are best met in the consciousness of our being unable to meet them, but they must be met also with the faith that the God of peace Himself is with us and that He will give us peace always, by all means. That is the Lord's word for His people:"In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace." Here are shoes that never wear out. How blessed the experience of the way in which God has furnished us thus!

The body thus perfectly provided for, we still have need of the shield of faith "over all," as we should read. This is that practical confidence in God which should never fail us at all times, even in the midst of the sense of failure and the need of self-judgment. Let the armor be fitted to us as it may, there is always room for some apprehension, if we simply think about ourselves, that somewhere we may have left opportunity for the enemy; but the shield of faith covers all the armor. Confidence in God is our security and rest; only we must remember that the putting on of the armor comes first. There must be honest endeavor to have all right in this way. We must not try to shield a body evidently exposed; but when we have all apparently right, we have need still of that practical confidence which, let us notice, has for its object specially to "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." These "fiery darts" are indeed terrible weapons. The fire speaks of wrath, of judgment, and it is with this that the enemy would assail us. He is the accuser. His aim, as already said, is to bring distance in some sense between our souls and God. How great a necessity, therefore, to maintain this happy confidence in Him, which, while it does not excuse failure in the least, yet finds all its confidence in Him who has undertaken for us. "All the fiery darts of the wicked one" can thus be "quenched" by the "shield of faith."

Besides this, we are"to have the "helmet of salvation," not, as in Thessalonians, the "hope of salvation." There it is the world with which we are in conflict. Here it is the consciousness of a salvation already attained, which sustains us against the enemy. This is not a hope. It is a realized certainty. The helmet covers the head. We are preserved by it from blows which would rob us of what we rightly call "presence of mind." It is this presence of mind in the midst of perils which is the best kind of courage, and the salvation of God is that which may well secure it for us.

Then we have one, only one, offensive weapon, "the sword of the Spirit"-the word of God, as that which enables us to penetrate all the wiles of the enemy, to expose and baffle him. How impossible it will be to oppose that of which we are not positively sure whether it be his voice or the voice of God Himself ! If there is any confusion as to this (and the great work of the enemy is to promote this confusion), of necessity we have no right to dismiss from our mind what may be merely his temptation. How much we want to be armed, therefore, by "the sword of the Spirit ! " How we must have God's word furnishing us at all points if we are to be ready for every form of assault ! But let us notice here, that it is "the saying " rather than the " Word;" that is to say, if we think of the Word of God, it is the whole book which He has put into our hands. What we want for the conflict, is the special word, the text which suits the occasion ; that is what '' the sword of the Spirit" really is. It is the word of God as applied by the Spirit of God, used therefore, with the wisdom of God, as with our Lord in the wilderness, where always the special text is brought forward which decides what is before Him. But for this, let us remind ourselves again, we must be in the energy of the Spirit. The use of the sword requires practice and to be on the alert and watchful.
All this is closed with what John Bunyan numbers amongst the weapons. It is the weapon "all prayer," and it is very striking as coming in here, after all the high and blessed truth into which the apostle has been leading us through all the epistle. There is no text, perhaps, which insists so fully upon the necessity of prayer as that which we have here. "Praying at all times, with all prayer," and not mere prayer, but "supplication," that is, earnest beseeching, the soul thoroughly conscious of its need, and guided by the Spirit in that which we seek. How much prayer is there which is merely the contention of our own wills with God, which, however earnestly we may pour it out, leaves us rather exhausted with the contention than at rest in having made known our wants to Him !

-From Numerical Bible, on Eph. 6:13-18.