^ A life of renunciation appeared to Francis as the goal of his efforts, but he felt that his spiritual novitiate was not yet ended.
1 Lilian Whiting, The World Beautiful, 161. a J. Moflfatt, The Golden Book of John Owen, 159.
REVELATION ii. 7 >j^
He suddenly experienced a bitter assurance of the fact. He was riding on horseback one day, his mind more than ever possessed with the desire to lead a life of absolute devotion, when at a turn of the road he found himself face to face with a leper. The frightful malady had always inspired in him an invincible re- pulsion. He could not control a movement of horror, and by instinct he turned his horse in another direction.
If the shock had been severe, the defeat was complete. He reproached himself bitterly. To cherish such fine projects and show himself so cowardly ! Was the knight of Christ then going to give up his arms ? He retraced his steps and springing from his horse he gave to the astounded sufferer all the money that he had; then kissed his hand as he would have done to a priest. This new victory, as he himself saw, marked an era in his spiritual life.
This victory of Francis had been so sudden that he desired to complete it ; a few days later he went to the lazaretto. One can imagine the stupefaction of these wretches at the entrance of the brilliant cavalier. If in our days a visit to the sick in our hospitals is a real event awaited with feverish impatience, what must not have been the appearance of Francis among these poor recluses ? One must have seen sufferers thus abandoned, to understand what joy may be given by an affectionate word, some- times even a simple glance.
Moved and transported, Francis felt his whole being vibrate with unfamiliar sensations. For the first time he heard the un- speakable accents of a gratitude which cannot find words burning enough to express itself, which admires and adores the benefactor almost like an angel from heaven.^
* Paul Sabatier, Life of St. Francis of Assist, 26.
Fidelity and its Reward.
79
Literature.
Albertson (C. C), The Gospel According to Christy 231, Brooke (S. A.), Sermons^ ii. 140.
„ „ The Ship of the Soul, 94.
Brown (C), Heavenly Visions, 65. Corlett (J. S.), Christ and the Churches, 45. Dewey (0.), WorJcs, 227.
Henderson (H. F.), The Eye Witnesses of Christ, 140. Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 320. Hyde (T. D.), Sermon Pictures for Busy Preachers, i. 202. Jellett (H.), Sermons on Special and Festival Occasions, 166. Little (J.), The Day-Spring, 300. Macllveen (J.), Christ and the Christian Life, 161. Mackenzie (W. B.), in The Home Preacher, 130. Milligan (W.), The Book of Revelation (Expositor's Bible), 46. Morgan (G. C), A First Century Message, 57. Norton (J. N.), Every Sunday, 495. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, viii. 185.
Kamsay (W. M.), The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, 251. Keynolds (H. R.), Notes of the Christian Life, 353. Scott (J. J.), The Apocalypse, 59. Swing (D.), Sermons, 138. Thomas (J.), Myrtle Street Pulpit, iii. 1. Trench (R. C), Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in
Asia, 110. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), vi. (1869), No. 593. Williams (I.), Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels, iii. 22. British Congregationalist, June 29, 1911 (C. S. Home).
Christian World Pulpit, xv. 204 (T. Hammond) ; xviii. 257 (E. P. Hood) ; Ivii. 230 (H. Moore).
Church of England Pulpit, Ixii. 157 (J. D. Forde).
Churchman^s Pulpit : Lenten Season, v. 99 ; Easter Day and Season, vii. 394 (J. Wiseman) ; Sermons to the Young, xvi. 13 (W. Bruce), 598 (R. G. Soans).
Homiletic Review, Ixv. 408 (J. Oliver).
Preach&r's Magaziney v. 223 (T. Puddicombe).
Fidelity and its Reward.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. — Rev. ii. 10.
1. It was to the believers at Smyrna, or rather to their official representative, to the person who was called " the angel of the church" there, that this exhortation was sent. It is generally believed that, when the Book of Eevelation was written, the " angel " of the Smyrnean Church was Polycarp — the aged disciple of St. John — who, rather than deny his Master, Christ, perished on the scaffold, having made that noble confession which has sounded through all the ages : " Eighty and six years have I served my Lord Christ, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me ? "
2. For the Church at Smyrna, the exhortation had a special fitness, inasmuch as it contained a covert allusion to the political history and also to the physical aspect of the city which could not possibly have applied to any other of the places mentioned by St. John in his Apocalypse.
(1) The reference to Smyrna's history is in the words " Be thou faithful," which every Christian in the city would understand. The motto was stamped, as it were, on her very stones. Her inhabitants had for centuries been the steady and devoted allies of the Koman people. When not a few of the peoples throughout Asia Minor had sought to weaken the power of the Caesars, the Smyrneans had shown not the least desire to do so, but had kept rigidly aloof from all combines or conspiracies. When serious difficulties arose for their trusted friends, the Komans, whose army was suffering from the intense cold and other hardships of a winter campaign against Mithridates, the citizens of Smyrna readily stripped themselves of the garments that they could do without, and dispatched them to the seat of war for the benefit of the Koman soldiers. This signal instance of the fidelity of the