(Continued from p. 144.)
The next victor's wreath of which I would speak is the crown of life, concerning which we read in two distinct passages. James 1:12 tells us,
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him."
And in Rev. 2:10 the Lord comforts the church in Smyrna with the words,
"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer:behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days:be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life."
It is noteworthy that in each of these passages we have suffering saints in view:children of God exposed to bitter trial, even going to the length of intense, malignant persecution by Satan's emissaries. God could easily hinder these cruel foes; He could quench the fierce flames of affliction; He could turn back these overwhelming floods of sorrow. But He chooses rather to enable His tested ones to overcome in the day of trial than to free them from trouble. And this not because He takes any delight in the anguish of His distressed people, but because this very tribulation is a means of discipline which results in lasting blessing "to those who are exercised thereby" (Heb. 12:11). He sits by the fining-pot and watches intently till He sees His own countenance reflected in the melted silver. He walks with His persecuted ones in the furnace, though it be heated seven times more than ordinary. And "He giveth more grace," that they who look to Him may suffer and endure.
Then when the day of manifestation comes He will bestow with His own once-pierced Hand the crown of life, upon all who have fought and overcome.
When afflicted with a thorn in the flesh-"a messenger of Satan" sent to buffet him (lest he should be exalted above measure because of the abundance of the revelation he had received when caught up to the third heaven), Paul tells us he besought the Lord thrice that he might be delivered from the trial. But the answer came, saying in effect:I will not take the thorn out of your flesh, Paul; but I will do something even better for you than that; I will give you grace to bear it, and to glorify Me in it.
"My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness!"
And Paul at once ceases to cry out for deliverance, but exclaims with chastened confidence,
"Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
He was but living out what he elsewhere tells his fellow-saints when he says,
"We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope:and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:3-5).
Our restless hearts would fain cause us to flee from the trial, hoping for better conditions elsewhere, but we are" called upon to be strong in the grace of endurance-to suffer in the flesh rather than yield to sin-to be persecuted even to death rather than to be disobedient to the heavenly vision-to be counted as the off scouring of the earth rather than to court the favor of men by unfaithfulness to Christ.
"Should we to gain the world's applause,
Or to escape its harmless frown,
Refuse to countenance Thy cause
And make Thy people's lot our own,
What shame would fill us in that day,
When Thou Thy glory wilt display."
How worth while will it all seem then, to have suffered in patience here, when we shine forth with Him when He comes, wearing the crown of life, the sign of His appreciation and approval! And if regrets are possible in heaven, how will we regret every cowardly effort to escape reproach, or "every time that we, in weakness, yielded to temptation, preferring present enjoyment rather than
future glory.
But the hope of the crown is not, in itself, incentive enough to keep us from unfaithfulness to Christ in this scene of testing. It is only as He, Himself, is the joy of our hearts and the present portion of our souls that we can resist the siren-lures of this false world, and go on in true devotedness counting all but loss in order that He may be magnified in us. And it is as our hearts are attached to Him where He is-up there in the glory of God-that we can spurn this world's empty glory. Some one has truly said, "No one can rightly put this world beneath his feet until he has seen a better world above his head." As we walk in the light of that world we shall indeed be able to sing from the heart,
"We wait for Thee, content to share
In patience, days of trial;
So meekly Thou the cross didst bear,
Our sin, reproach, denial.
How should not we receive with Thee
The cup of shame and sorrow
Until the promised morrow?"
That happy morn draws on apace. The only time we shall ever be permitted "to suffer for His sake," is nearly at an end! Let us then stand fast in the closing hours of the age of grace, assured that He for whom we wait is just at hand, and that the joy will be His as well as ours when we receive, if faithful unto death, the crown of life.
Eternal life is the gift of God, and is ours by faith upon believing. The crown of life is the reward for faithfulness, even though involving physical death. H. A. Ironside
(To be continued, D. V.)