YEARS after the battle a lady greeted the old Duke with praise of his great victory. He replied:—
“Madam, there is nothing so dreadful as a great victory—except a great defeat.”
This was the feeling he maintained throughout. Fresh from the battle, a lady in Brussels heaped compliments on him.
“Oh! don’t congratulate me!” he exclaimed in real distress. “I’ve lost all my dearest friends.”
In his dispatch to the Government the same thought was uppermost. He wrote not in terms of glowing triumph and pardonable pride, but with sadness. He said:—
“Nothing but a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.”
It was the first and last time that Napoleon and Wellington had met on the field of battle. Napoleon’s day was ended on that fatal field. But not only the conquered was in tears that night, as his heart was filled with anguish and raging with disappointed pride, but also the conqueror, as he beheld the flower of his army stretched stark and cold on the bloody field. With tears running down his cheeks, he exclaimed to his staff, “Another such victory would mean defeat,” meaning that its cost was too great to allow of its being duplicated.
Personally he had escaped in a marvelous way. Men had fallen around him as thick as leaves falling on a gusty autumn day. A bullet had struck a tree but a few inches from his head. Three times he had been surrounded by charging French cavalry, and had narrowly escaped capture.
No wonder that he lifted up his hands in the attitude of prayer, and exclaimed: “Truly the hand of God has been over me today.”
And doubtless General Joffre, Sir Douglas Haig, and General Cadorna can testify to what Wellington felt at Waterloo, as they reflect on Verdun, the Battle of the Somme, the fighting in the Carso. No mind is great enough, no heart sympathetic enough to realize the horrors of victory.
But there is one victory that is the exception. Judged from every standpoint it is so. When we think of the powers involved and the consequences issuing therefrom, this victory is comparable with none other.
Here death was conquered by yielding to its embrace, and victory was gained by apparent defeat.
We refer to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by the death of multitudes, but by His own death this victory was accomplished. “For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:22Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)).
He is the Conqueror over sin, Satan, hell, and death. He has glorified God, and covered the eternal throne with a fresh glory—the glory of a finished redemption.
The consequences of His victory are eternal. Its fruits will be seen in the ransomed myriads that shall fill the courts of light forever; its plaudits will never cease throughout eternity as praise issues from every ransomed lip.
The ransomed can sing:
“Alone He bare the cross,
Alone its grief sustained,
His was the shame and loss,
And He the victory gained.
The mighty work was all His own,
Though we shall share His glorious throne.”
There the battle of the ages was fought, and the victory won for God and man. Hallelujah!
Reader, have you entered into the benefits of that wondrous victory? Have your sins been forgiven? Is your soul saved? Is your joyful eternity assured? These blessings can only be secured in one way, and that is by faith in the Lord Jesus. The glory of victory is all the Lord’s; the fruits of it He shares with all who put their trust in Him.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43)). “By Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
Trust the Lord Jesus as your own Saviour in this the day of God’s grace, or else judgment must fall, upon you as His enemy.
A. J. P.