to sin, and live again to righteousness.

With this armour, and that one weapon, the Word of God, the
Christians conquered the souls of the men of the old world. Often
they failed, often they were defeated, sadly and shamefully; for they
were men of like passions with ourselves. But their defeats always
happened when they tried other armour than the armour of God, and
fancied that they could fight the world, the flesh, and the devil
with the weapons which the world, the flesh, and the devil had
forged.

Still they conquered at last--for God was with them, and the Spirit
of God; and they put on again and again the armour of God, AFTER they
had cast it off for a while to their own hurt.

And so shall we conquer in the battle of life just in proportion as
we fight our battle with the armour of God.

My friends, each and all of you surely wish to succeed in life; and
to succeed, not merely in getting money, still less merely in getting
pleasure, but with a far nobler and far more real success. You wish,
I trust, to be worthy, virtuous, respectable, useful Christian men
and women; to be honoured while you live, and regretted when you die;
to leave this world with the feeling that your life has not been a
failure, and your years given you in vain: but that, having done
some honest work at least in this world, you are going to a world
where all injustice shall be set right.

Then here, in St. Paul's words, are the elements of success in life.
This, and this only, is the way to true success, to put on the whole