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After a patriotic war it is not the soldiers that return unhurt, unscarred, who are looked upon with the highest honor, but those who bear the marks of battle. When an army marches back from a victorious field, it is not the bright, clean, untorn flag that is most wildly cheered, but the flag that is pierced, riddled, and torn by the shot and shell of many a battle.
So, in the home coming in glory, it will not be the man who bears the fewest marks of suffering and struggle, and the fewest scars of wounds received in Christ’s service, who will be welcomed with the greatest joy, but the man who carries the marks of the sorest conflicts, and the greatest sufferings for the honor for his Lord and for his kingdom. Old war veterans are not ashamed of their scars; they are insignia of honor; they tell of wounds received in battling for their country. In heaven the soldier of Christ will not be ashamed of the scars he has gotten in his warfare for his Lord on the earth; his crown will be all the brighter for them. Then we shall see that it has been no misfortune that we have had to fight sore battles on this earth.