The Christian’s battle-field is here, but the triumphal procession is
above. This is the land of the sword and the spear: that is the land of
the wreath and the crown. This is the land of the garment rolled in
blood and of the dust of the fight: that is the land of the trumpet’s
joyful sound, the place of the white robe and of the shout of conquest.
O, what a thrill of joy shall be felt by all the blessed, when their
conquests shall be complete in heaven; when death itself, the last of
foes, shall be slain; when Satan shall be dragged captive at the chariot
wheels of Christ; when the great shout of universal victory shall rise
from the hearts of all the redeemed! What a moment of pleasure shall
that be!
Something of the joy of victory we know even here. Have you ever
struggled against an evil heart, and at last overcome it? Have you ever
wrestled hard with a strong temptation, and known what it was to sing
with thankfulness, “When I said my feet slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord, held
me up?” Have you, like Bunyan’s Christian, fought with Apollyon, and
after a fierce contest, put him to flight? Then you have had a foretaste
of the heavenly triumph–just an imagining of what the ultimate victory
will be. God gives you these partial triumphs, that they may be earnests
of the future. Go on and conquer, and let each conquest, though a harder
one, and more strenuously contested, be to you as a pledge of the
victory of heaven.