^ We, too, in our place and way and measure, may be called upon to suffer in reputation, substance, or even in health and life, for the sake of our absolute fidelity to our Master and His cause. Erasmus confessed that he was not constituted of the stuff of which martyrs are made, and many of us feel a similar misgiving concerning ourselves. But if we resolve to be on the Lord's side He will wonderfully strengthen and deliver. The golden-crested wren is one of the tiniest of birds ; it is said to weigh only the fifth part of an ounce, and yet, on frailest pinions, it braves hurricanes and crosses northern seas. It often seems in nature as if Omnipotence worked best through frailest organ- isms ; certainly the omnipotence of grace is seen to the greatest advantage in the trembling but resolute saint. Give me the spirit of those who are faithful unto death ! ^
2. To what were the Christians of Smyrna called to be faith- ful— to a selfish aim, to a political cry, to a cause which offered them material rewards ? No, faithful unto death, to goodness, to truth, to purity of life, to an ideal life, invisible, beyond the world; to Christ and to such passionate personal love of Him that it was easier to die in agony than to betray His name; faithful to that spirit of His which loved men even unto death, which forgave enemies, whose work was at all risks to overthrow evil and to die that wrong might die ; faithful unto death in the cause of man, which Christ made the cause of God. And for this, what support ? All they had is contained in that conception of a mighty spiritual kingdom, of which the head was God in Christ, of which all who loved Him were the body, whether dead or living, for time and earth did not disturb their unbroken com- munion one with another. They were citizens of an eternal Kingdom. They on earth, beaten, driven, tortured, were not left alone ; they were the care of angels, they were watched by all the noble dead with unfaltering interest. They ran their race in the 1 W. L. Watkinson, The Gates of Daum, 311.
REVELATION ii. lo 85
arena of the universe, not uncared for, since every Christian heart was praying for them ; not without the sense of higher sympathy, not even without the sense of glory, for out of sight, but in most real existence, a cloud of witnesses encompassed them. Solemn, beautiful faces, solemn with the calm of eternal rest, beautiful with the light of holy triumph, watched them with inspiring eyes, and among them One, the Leader and Perfecter of faith, a form like unto a Son of Man, who Himself had done and suffered for the truth — whose power and life was theirs by prayer, and who spoke ever in their ears, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life."
(1) The word " faithful " here is from the root which means to be convinced. Fidelity is born of conviction, and conviction must have a groundwork and foundation. What then is this faithful- ness that is enjoined ? The faithfulness of the saints is the assurance of the faithfulness of Jesus. A deep conviction of His fidelity produces their fidelity. Wherever a man, woman, or child under any circumstances of pain or testing is deeply con- vinced of the fidelity of Christ, they are immediately and neces- sarily faithful themselves. It is as though He had said to them, " You are going to be cast into prison ; * the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried.' Be faithful; believe still. Live within the limit of a great assurance. Do not question Me ; do not doubt Me ; depend on Me." The Lord did not mean, " Gather yourselves up and go through." He simply meant, " Trust Me." He did not intend to advise them to gird up their loins and be determined that they would see the business through. That is ever a poor and sorry way of attempting to pass through times of testing. He meant rather, " Trust Me ; let Me be your courage. I am alive, and I was dead. I have gone to the limit of this matter. There is no depth I have not fathomed, no darkness I have not penetrated. Be faithful, follow Me, not in the effort of a strenuous determination, but with the ease of a simple trust."
Tl Bishop Collins died whilst on his way in the Messageries Maritimes liner Saghalien from Constantinople to Smyrna, whither he was going to hold a confirmation. Clothed in his purple cassock his body was laid to rest under the marble floor of the nave of the Church of St. John the Evangelist.
86 FIDELITY AND ITS REWARD
There, then, his body lies, — in the bosom of that Church of Smyrna, to whose Angel St. John was bidden to write, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." To the first known Bishop of that Church — perhaps already Bishop when the Apocalypse was written — the martyr Ignatius wrote, praising his " resolution in God, settled as upon an immovable rock." " Be watchful," he added, " possessing a spirit that never slumbers. . . . Where work is hardest, great is the gain. . . . The time demands thee. . . . Stand firm like an anvil under the stroke. It is the part of a great athlete to receive blows and to conquer. Study the times, looking for Him who is above time, eternal, invisible, who was made visible for us — intangible, impassible, who for us was made passible and for us in every way endured." ^