' H. F. Henderson, The Eye Witiiesses of Christy 144.
REVELATION ii. lo 91
transforming them, and uniting them in a wonderful way with the Lord's Humanity and Divinity.^
2. Notice the compensation ! " Be thou faithful unto deaths and I will give thee the crown of life!' What thou sacrificest thou shalt receive again. And that is not all. The life received is not the equivalent of the life that has been given up. The life that is placed on the victor's brow is not a duplicate of the life that was laid down on this earth. This poor life laid down is not of so much value after all; at best it soon passes away, and is very superficial and frail. All the glory of it is as grass, and " all the goodliness of it as the flower of the field." But the life that is won through the sacrifice of this life is a life eternal, profound, joyous, infinitely great and glorious — a life in some wonderful way like the life of God Himself.
^ " A crown of life." — Of what fashion shall such a crown be ? St. Paul speaks of an amaranthine crown, contrasting it with earth's fading crowns of victory. And later in this Book of Eevelation we read of crowns of gold.
We may hope to discern in celestial crowns every adornment of all possible crowns. Gracefulness of leaves, loveliness of flowers, endearment (if I may call it so) of tendrils, permanence of gold, lustre and tints of jewels. Such crowns I hope to see on heads I have venerated and loved here.
Meanwhile, because our dear Lord, flower of humankind and comparable with fine gold (though fine gold sufficeth not to com- pare with Him), was contented on earth to be crowned with a crown of thorns ; let us be patient, contented, thankful, to wait on in hopes of a crown of life and glory.^
3. Do not forget the Giver. " / will give thee." Jesus Christ is to be the rewarder of men. It is from Him the gift must come, because, after all, it is a gift. We cannot merit it or obtain it in any way except as a free gift. It will no doubt bear some pro- portion to the life we have lived, and the victories we have won, but, after all, we cannot earn it. It is infinitely more than we could have earned or merited. It was earned on the cross. But whatever our future glory shall be, it must come from Jesus Christ ; and " all power is given unto him in lieaven and in earth."
' Michael de Molinos, The Spiritual Guide.
2 Christina G. Rossetti, The, Face of tlie Deeji, 65.
92 FIDELITY AND ITS REWARD
U William Hunter, the martyr apprentice of Brentwood in Essex, was executed at his native village on 26th March 1555. He was allowed to converse with his friends beforehand in the parlour of the Swan Inn. His father prayed that he might continue to the end in the way that he had begun. His mother said she was happy to bear a child who could find in his heart to lose his life for Christ's sake. "Mother," he answered, "for my little pain which I shall suffer, which is but a short braid, Christ hath promised me a crown of joy. May you not be glad of that, mother ? " ^
4. Are we counted so capable of faithfulness of heart that God believes we shall despise the rewards of the world in com- parison with the spirit of Christ offered to us and the life in it as reward ? Is it possible that God believes in us so much as to expect of us faithfulness unto death ? Have we truly a Father whose care is our perfection, a Saviour who is watching us daily that we may be freed from sin ; and can we, so weak, so much the creatures of impulse, so vain, so wavering, be faithful unto death ? It is an inspiring thought that God can believe in us so much. We are not called on to face the lions for our faith. But there are things in life which are death — even worse than death itself ; there are pains as deep as those the martyrs bore which we have to bear in silence, with no encouragement but the voice of God within, and that voice we do not always hear. There are wild contests we have sometimes to wage alone, night after night, day after day, when it seems that the inner conflict must become known to all around us, so vivid is our consciousness of it ; and yet we know that there is no help in man for us, that we must conquer (if we conquer) in a solitude of heart which makes life as ghastly as a cruel dream. Then it is something to recall this text, and let the noble words sound in our ears their cry to courage and their promise, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life ! "
The sharpest trials of life may not be ours, though few there are who do not touch one or another ; but, even without them, there are difficulties enough in ordinary life to try our fidelity to God. When we have to go on day by day, contending with a passionate or a sluggish nature — limiting the one, enkindling * J. A. Froude, History of England, y. 507.