4. The crown is given at a time called by St. Paul " at that day," which is not the near day of his martyrdom, but that of his Lord's appearing. He does not speak of the fulness of the reward as being ready for him at death, but as being henceforth laid up for him in heaven. So he looks forward beyond the grave. The immediate future after death was to his view a period of blessedness indeed but not yet full. The state of the dead in Christ was a state of consciousness, a state of rest, a state of felicity, but also a state of expectation, for they wait for " the redemption of the body," in the reception of which, " at that day," their life will be filled up to a yet fuller measure, and gleam with a more lustrous " glory." Now they rest and wait. Then shall they be crowned.
The crown was not conferred as soon as the racer reached the goal or the gladiator gave the fatal thrust, but was reserved till the contests were all over and ended, and the claims of the several candidates were carefully canvassed and adjudicated. So the " crown of righteousness " is " laid up " to be given " at that day," when the Lord Jesus shall come to be glorified in His saints. One says, "we must die first"; St. Paul tells us we must rise first. Blessed, indeed, are the dead in Christ ; but their blessed- ness cannot be consummated till their Lord return from heaven and they appear with Him in glory.
5. It is no solitary blessedness to which St. Paul looked forward. Alone in his dungeon, alone before his judge when " no man stood by " him, soon to be alone in his martyrdom, he leaps up in spirit at the thought of the mighty crowd among whom he will stand in that day, on every head a crown, in every heart the same love to the Lord whose life is in them all and makes them all one. So we may cherish the hope of a social heaven. Man's
^ Euskin, The Crown of Wild Olive (Introduction, § 16).
246 THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
course begins in a garden, but it ends in a city. The final con- dition will be the perfection of human society. There all who love Christ will be drawn together, and old ties, broken for a little while here, will be reknit in yet holier form, never to be sundered more.
"Who have loved and do love his appearing." That is the full force of the Greek perfect, which expresses the present and permanent result of past action ; and therein lies the test wliereby to try the temper of our Christianity. St. Paul, who had long yearned to depart and be with Christ, could not easily have given a more simple or sure method of finding out who those are that have a right to believe that the Lord has a crown of righteousness in store for them. Are we among the number ? In order to answer this question we must ask ourselves another: Are our lives such that we are longing for Christ's return ? Or are we dreading it because we know that we are not fit to meet Him, and are making no attempt to become so ? The Bible sets before us the crown of righteousness which fadeth not away, and the worm which never dieth. Leaning upon God's unfailing love, let us learn to long for the coming of the one ; and then we shall have no need to dread, or even to ask the meaning of, the other.
He is coming; and the tidings
Are rolling wide and far; As light flows out in gladness,
From yon fair morning-star.
He is coming; and the tidings
Sweep through the willing air. With hope that ends for ever
Time's ages of despair.
Old earth from dreams and slumber
Wakes up and says, Amen ; Land and ocean bid Him welcome.
Flood and forest join the strain.
He is coming; and the mountains
Of Judaea ring again ; Jerusalem awakens.
And shouts her glad Amen.^
^ Horatius Bonar.
Saving and Instructing Grace.
«4r
Literature.
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), The School of Grace, 1. Alexander (J. A.), The Gosyel of Jesus Christ, 221. Brown (James), Sermons with Memoir, 111, Calthrop (G.), The Lost Sheep Found, 245. Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 50. Jones (S.), Sermons, i. 41, 48. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 49. Maclaren (A.), Paul's Prayers, 47, 57.
„ „ Expositions : 2 Timothy, etc., 140, 149.
Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, i. 216. Munger (T. T.), Character through Inspiration, 54. Reynolds (H. R.), Notes of the Christian Life, 262. Spurgeon (C, H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxxii, (1886), No.
1894. Wilson (F. R.), The Supreme Service, 65. Christian World Pulpit, xvi. 298 (J. Foster) ; Ixi. 106 (F. Pickett), 165
(R. W. Forrest) ; Ixii. 179 (H. Varley) ; Ixxxi. 11 (G. C. Morgan) ;
Ixxxii. 258 (A. E. Garvie). Church Family Newspaper, Jan. 19, 1912 (T. G. Bonney). Church Pulpit Year Booh, 1909, p. 137 ; 1910, p. 10; 1912, pp. 57, 59. Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., vi. (1893) 289. Expositor, 2nd Ser., vi. 391 (J. 0. Dykes).