^ It is a poor life that never stands above itself in some supreme moment of aspiration. But to live a life of aspiration — to stay on the lofty level, to breathe the keen air of the upper heights habitually — this is the strain of life. It is learned only by constant etfort, and by many failures. But if we persevere, there is an end which will fulfil all our hopes and aspirations. In Watts's "Happy Warrior" [the companion picture to "As- piration "] we see what that triumphant end is. He is pictured as slain in battle. He has fallen in the thickest of the fight. Like the greatest Life ever lived, he failed as the world counts
^ Sir Edward Cook, The Life of Fl»renu Nightingale, i. 481.
2 TIMOTHY IV. 6-8 237
failure. But he succeeded in achieving the high end which he had set before him, beyond the range of most men's touch and sight. And out of his saddest experiences had come the purest joy known to humanity. And now in the article of death, the pain vanishes, the darkness disappears, the fear subsides. There is a great calm in his soul. His helmet falls back from his head ; and an angelic form, the fair symbol of his aspiration, as the shin- ing heaven above him opens to receive his parting spirit, bends over him and imprints the kiss of everlasting peace upon his brow.^
2. But the Christian life is also represented as a Eace. " I have finished the course." There is a little difference here ; for while St. Paul is still thinking of the Olympian Games, and there- fore of strenuous and contested effort, there is something more definite and personal. We must place beside the text other words of St. Paul, spoken to the elders of the Ephesian Church ; in the pathetic farewell interview recorded in Acts xx., when, speaking of the sufferings awaiting him, he said : " None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus." A course indicates not only strenu- ous running, but running over a marked -out and well-defined track. " If a man strive in the games, he is not crowned except he has striven lawfully." So the words mean more than that he had run his natural earthly course : they mean that he had ful- filled his God-appointed destiny. "He has held the course, he has kept the line God bade him go." We know his cherished ambition — to apprehend that for which also he had been appre- hended by Christ Jesus ; to have a life governed absolutely by the will and plan of his Master. And in Acts xvi. 6-10 we have a man who is searching for the track, and who, when he has found it, goes along it without any question. Nothing else mattered. It was a very inglorious course that he had run, from the point of view of the man of the world ; but to the man who ran it, it was full of glory. It was God's course for him, and in that assurance he found infinite peace.
One step more, and the race is ended ;
One word more, and the lesson's done; One toil more, and a long rest follows
At set of sun.
» H. Macmillan, The Life- Work of 0. F. Watts, 185.
238 THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Who would fail, for one step withholden ?
Who would fail, for one word unsaid ? Who would fail, for a pause too early ?
Sound sleep the dead.
One step more, and the goal receives us ;
One word more, and life's task is done; One toil more, and the Cross is earned
And sets the sun.^
3. In the third place St. Paul thinks of his past life as a Steward- ship. " I have kept the faith." He has kept the faith (whether by that word we are to understand the body of truth believed or the act of believing) as a sacred deposit committed to him, of which he has been a good steward, and which he is now ready to return to his Lord. There is much in these letters to Timothy about keeping treasures entrusted . to one's care. Timothy is bidden "keep that good thing which is committed to thee," as St. Paul here declares that he has done. Nor is such guarding of a precious deposit confined to us stewards on earth ; the Apostle is sure that his loving Lord, to whom he has entrusted himself, will with like tenderness and carefulness keep that which he has committed unto Him against that day. The confidence in that faithful Keeper made it possible for St. Paul to be faithful to his trust, as a steward who was bound by all ties to his Lord, to guard His possessions and administer His affairs. Life was full of voices urging him to give up the faith. Bribes and threats, and his own sense-bound nature, and the constant whispers of the world had tempted him all along the road to fling it away as a worthless thing, but he had kept it safe ; and now, nearing the end and the account, he can put his hand on the secret place near his heart where it lies, and feel that it is there, ready to be re- stored to his Lord, with the thankful confession, "Thy pound hath gained ten pounds."