Thursday 24 December 2015

They Serve God Too, Those Who Act Rather Than Just Pray.

They serve God too, those who act rather than just pray.

That I do not reaffirm my Christian faith as often as I should is remiss, but, sufficiently excused by this passage recited by that Honourable and Ingenious Knight of antiquity; Don Quixote of La Mancha. Summed up, his argument is this; they serve God too, those who act rather than just pray.

"For, if the truth is to be told, the soldier who executes what his captain orders does no less than the captain himself who gives the order. My meaning, is, that churchmen in peace and quiet pray to Heaven for the welfare of the world, but we soldiers and knights carry into effect what they pray for, defending it with the might of our arms and the edge of our swords, not under shelter but in the open air, a target for the intolerable rays of the sun in summer and the piercing frosts of winter. 

Thus are we God's ministers on earth and the arms by which his justice is done there in. And as the business of war and all that relates and belongs to it cannot be conducted without exceeding great sweat, toil, and exertion, it follows that those who make it their profession have undoubtedly more labour than those who in tranquil peace and quiet are engaged in praying to God to help the weak" - Don Quixote: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha.

They serve God too, those who act rather than just pray.