^ Love and Life : The Story of J. Denholtn Brash, 174,
2 TIMOTHY IV. 6-8 241
We are children, who do but besin The sweetness of living to win : Because heaven is in us, to bud and unfold, We are younger, for growing old.^
III.
St. Paul's Future Certainty.
" Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day : and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved his appearing."
The climax of all is the triumphant look forward. " Hence- forth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness," In harmony with the images of the conflict and the race, the crown here is the emblem, not of sovereignty, but of victory, as indeed is almost without exception the case in the New Testament. The idea of the royal dignity of Christians in the future is set forth rather under the emblem of association with Christ on His throne while the wreath on their brows is the coronal of laurel, " meed of mighty conquerors," or the twine of leaves given to him who, panting, touched the goal. The reward, then, which is meant by the emblem, whatever be its essence, comes through effort and conflict. " A man is not crowned, except he strive."
^ It is recorded in history that Bernadotte, one of the generals of Napoleon, became a Lutheran in order that he might become King of Sweden. A fellow-officer of Bernadotte's became a Christian, and some of his companion soldiers began to tease him on account of his change. He answered, " I have done no more than Bernadotte, who has become a Lutheran." "Yes," they replied, " but he became so to obtain a crown." " My motive is the same," said the officer, " we differ only as to the place. The object of Bernadotte was to obtain a crown in Sweden ; mine is to obtain a crown in heaven." ^
1. " The crown of righteousness ! " Does St. Paul mean that it is righteousness which is crowned, or that righteousness is the material of which the crown is made ? There are two similar expressions in the New Testament to describe the reward of the blessed ; they are " the crown of life," and " the crown of glory." ^ Lucy Larcom. ' J. Aitdiison, A Bag with Holes, 191.
I THESS.-HEB, — 1 6
242 THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
In these it is plain that what is meant is, not that life is crowned, but that the crown of the blessed is life; not that glory is crowned, but that the crown of the blessed is glory. Life, glory, these are — if the word were not too rude — the very material and substance of the heavenly crown. And so it is with righteous- ness. " The crown of righteousness " is a crown of which righteousness is the material; this crown is of the same fabric and texture as that which it should decorate ; it is a crown whose beauty is moral beauty; the beauty, not of gold and precious stones, but of those more precious, nay, priceless, things which gold and gems can but suggest to us ; the beauty of justice, truthfulness, purity, charity, humility, carried to a point of refinement and high excellence of which here and now we have no experience. Once, and only once, was such a crown as this worn upon earth; and, to the eyes of men, it was a Crown of Thorns.
^ In December 1844, Mrs. Long, wife of an old shepherd living in Graffham, came to me and said that her husband had taken to his bed, and that his deafness, always great, was so much worse that they could hardly make him hear, I gave her a print of the Good Shepherd, and said, " Give him this book from me." She said, " He can't read." I said " I knew that, but give it to him from me." I went that afternoon and found the print on his bed. I took it up ; he reached out after it, and said, " That's mine." I said, " Do you know what it is ? " He said, " Yes, yes — the lost sheep — that's me." I put my hand round my head to signify the crown of thorns. He said, "Yes, the crown of thorns," and turned his head over on the pillow and sobbed. Some days after he said to me, " I hope I shall just walk in," that is, to the fold. Another day he took it up, and pointing to the crown of thorns said, " That's what cuts me most of all," and turned over and sobbed. I went to him in the January following to administer the Holy Sacrament. As I gave him the paten I saw something on his neck or throat. At last I saw it was the print. After the Holy Sacrament I asked his wife when he had asked for it. She said, " As soon as it was light." I took it up, and he said, " I haves it most days." He then said, " I hope He will have me like that," — the sheep on His shoulders. I said, " He has you like that. ' Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' He does not wait for the lost sheep to come to Him, but He goes out to seek till He finds it." He said, " No, no, He don't wait for he to come to He, but He goes after he ;