Soldiers may be wounded in battle and sent to the hospital. A hospital isn’t a shelf; it is a place of repair.

A soldier on service in the spiritual army is never off his battlefield. He is only removed to another part of the field when a wound interrupts what he meant to do, and sets him doing something else.

Is it not joy, pure joy, that there is no question of the shelf? No soldier on service is ever “laid aside”; he is only given another commission to fight among the unseen forces of the field. Never is he shelved as of no further use to his beloved Captain! The soldier must let his Captain say when and for what He needs him most, and he must not cloud his mind with questions. A wise master never wastes his servant’s time, nor a commander his soldiers’. So let us settle it once for all and find heart’s ease in doing so.

There is no discharge in warfare—no, not for a single day. We may be called to serve on the visible field, going continually into the invisible both to renew our strength and to fight the kind of battle that can only be fought there. Or we may be called off the visible altogether for a while and drawn deep into the invisible. That dreary word “laid aside” is never for us. We are soldiers of the King! R OSE FROM BRIER

Place of repair: O blessed place of refuge!

How gladly will I come to meet Him there, To cease awhile from all the joy of service To find a deeper joy with Him to share.

Place of repair: for tired brain and body! How much I need that place just out of sight Where only He can talk, and be beside me, Until again made strong by His great might.

Place of repair: when trials press upon me And God permits the unexpected test, ’Tis there I learn some lesson sweet and precious As simply on His faithfulness I rest.

Place of repair: the place to take my sorrow, The thing that hurts and would be hard to bear, But somehow in the secret place I’m finding That all the hurt is healed since He is there.

Place of repair: to wait for fresh enduement I silently with Him alone would stay Until He speaks again, and says, “Go forward to help some other sheep to find the way.”

Place of repair: O trysting-place most hallowed, The Lord Himself is just that place to me, His grace, His strength, His glory and His triumph, Himself alone my all-sufficiency.