Are We Becoming Chocolate Soldiers?

According to CNN, in his recent State of the Union address, President Obama said the "defining issue of our time" is how to keep the American dream alive.

C.T. Studd

With all due respect, that's a terrible goal to spend life pursuing!

Yesterday a friend of mine told me about a powerful little tract by missionary statesman C.T. Studd, called 'Chocolate Soldiers.' The language is dated but the reality he addresses is alive and well in America today. Here is a short excerpt:

"HEROISM is the lost chord; the missing note of present-day Christianity!

Every true soldier is a hero! A SOLDIER WITHOUT HEROISM IS A CHOCOLATE SOLDIER! Who has not been stirred to scorn and mirth at the very thought of a Chocolate Soldier? In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys bounding out of school, to obtain their heart's desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier's vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigour of a hero.

EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A SOLDIER
—of Christ—a hero "par excellence!" Braver than the bravest—scorning the soft seductions of peace and her oft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends.


THE OTHERWISE CHRISTIAN IS A CHOCOLATE CHRISTIAN! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. "Sweeties" they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution."

Although he wrote long before we coined the phrase "The American Dream," Studd seems to summarize its essence when he penned these words:

"I must be carried to the skies
   On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
   Or sail thro' bloody seas.

Mark time, Christian heroes,
   Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
   Playing on the floor.

Wash and dress and feed them
   Forty times a week.
Till they're roly poly—
   Puddings so to speak.

Chorus:
Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate,
Sugar and spice and all that's nice
Must be on our slate."

Strong and prophetic words for us today, don't you think?

You can read the entire tract by C.T. Studd at The Chocolate Soldier.