Fire Upwards!

 

Lilias wrote to fellow workers about the 'health challenge', both spiritually and physically which they all faced:

And it may be that our souls have felt the scorching breath—nerves get overstrung in these climates in a way they never did before, and little things bring a ruffle and jar, and cannot be shaken off again; and a sense of exhaustion comes through the body to the spirit, even apart from the consciousness, so vivid at times, that the very air is full of the powers of darkness; and the enemy launches his fiery darts in showers on those who come to attack his strongholds. How many of us have gone through the testing of every fibre of our inner life since we left England—and how many of us have known a bitter breaking down under the tests! 

 The solution, she believed, was to seek avidly times of daily refreshment with God, and—she would gradually come to realize—to secure times of retreat within terms of service. Still, she believed the greatest battle to be spiritual: Nerves strained by physical stress become a playground for “the Enemy” who would not have his stronghold broken. Increasingly and more fervently throughout the years, Lilias appealed for prayer on behalf of overseas Ms, recognizing that without a divine call few would survive the first three years in such a work. During the England interlude she wrote a booklet, A Challenge to Faith, toward this end, saying in part: 

A story of the wars of the first Napoleon has often come back to me. He was trying, in a winter campaign, to cut off the march of the enemy across a frozen lake. The gunners were told to fire on the ice and break it, but the cannon-balls glanced harmlessly along the surface. With one of the sudden flashes of genius he gave the word, “Fire upwards!” and the balls crashed down full weight, shattering the whole sheet into fragments, and the day was won. You can “fire upwards” in this battle, even if you are shut out from fighting it face to face.