1 The Greville Memoirs, ii. 140. 2 Charles Murray, Eamevnth, 54.
I COR. — 18
274 FOR THE CROWN
crown of life ! Your physician examines your body, the healthy workings of which have somehow or other become clogged with disease. He finds out the obstruction, ascertains its character, discovers its root. Then practically he says to the patient, " Attend to my instructions, loyally follow my prescriptions, be faithful to my word, and I will drive the disease out of your body and give your body a crown of life." The reward of obedience is health, fresh, vigorous health, a crown of life ! That is precisely what the Lord says to us about our souls. He says to me, Be thou faithful. Be loyal in My service. Be scrupulously obedient to My will, and I will heal thee of all thy diseases. I will remove all thy moral sicknesses and spiritual infirmities. I will give thee moral and spiritual health, make thee every whit alive — thou shalt have a crown of life ! That is the reward of obedience and faithfulness — the incorruptible crown of life. The reward for doing a good deed is that you have more life to do another. That is the meaning of Christ's benediction upon the faithful servant — "Thou hast been faithful over a few things." His faithfulness had crowned him with life. He had greater life for doing greater service. At first he had only life enough for " few things," but faithfulness had given him life enough for more. "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."
Have you ever noticed closely that gracious list of beatitudes which Jesus tells us are the special possession and reward of the Christian life ? How august are the payments ! How incor- ruptible the crowns ! Look at one or two. " Blessed are the merciful." Why are they blessed ? What is their reward, their crown? "They shall obtain mercy." Beautifully suited is the crown to the virtue. God will give their hearts the same sweet feast as they have given to the heart of their fellows. " Blessed are the pure in heart." In what consists their blessedness ? What is their reward? "They shall see God." How incor- ruptible the crown ! And how appropriate that purity should be rewarded by visions, that they who have washed their eyes clean and clear should be able to feast them upon the beauty and glory of God! "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." Whence comes their blessedness ? What is their reward? "They shall be filled." Their spiritual hunger
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shall meet with spiritual satisfaction. The hunger for life shall receive the bread of life. The thirst for life shall receive the water of life.
TJ I think I know many people who are already wearing the crowns in their hearts. It seems to me that there are many people from whom God has only to strip away their robes of flesh, and they will stand before Him — crowned ! I think you must know such men and women, who have reached the west, and the brightness of whose crowns shines through their attenuated flesh. They wear the crown of humility, the crown of patience, the crown of brotherly kindness, the crown of hope, the crown of love. Do you think any one will be able to wear brighter crowns than these in the Kingdom of God ? Do you think that in all heaven there is a brighter crown than the crown of love ? It is the crown worn by the great God Himself ! These are the crowns we must seek, the incorruptible crowns. Let us seek for such character as will be to us a worthy crown. Let us become more spiritual. Let us inspect our purposes and ambitions, and make it our one aim to be found at last in Christ, in possession of the righteousness which is of God by faith. Let us consecrate ourselves to one holy and supreme ambition, to wake at last in the likeness of our God.1
How many a Grecian youth of old,
Preparing for the Isthmian plain, And driven by thirst of fame, was bold
For discipline that he might gain An athlete's vigour well-controlled,
And win the olive crown through pain !
But, when in time of wrinkled age His earlier force had ebbed away,
And, closing now his pilgrimage,
He viewed the wreath's forlorn decay,
Then he at last grew wise to gauge The fleeting worth of glory's day.
Therefore shall we give precious years
And sacred energies of soul To win the world's resounding cheers
And triumph at its vaunted goal? Nay, such a guerdon calms no fears
When Doomsday's awful thunders roll!
1 J. H. Jowett.
276 FOR THE CROWN
But rather may the second sight Of Faith disclose the prize unseen,
And urge us, led by its delight To tame the sins, that intervene,
And fight with joy a nobler fight For crowns of never-fading green ! *
(2) A croiun of glory. — It is a crown of glory, and that means a lustrousness of character imparted by radiation and reflection from the central light of the glory of God. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Our eyes are dim, but we can at least divine the far-off flashing of that great light, and may ponder upon what hidden depths and miracles of transformed perfectness and unimagined lustre wait for us, dark and limited as we are here, in the assurance that we all shall be changed into the " likeness of the body of his glory."