King's Business - 1914-05

THE KING’S BUSINESS

266

give you grace to fight it. It is bet­ ter to fight and have the grace than to be without the grace.” “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Battle well fought, course well finished, faith well kept! In the Olympic games, it was re­ quired in some of them, you know, that the runner should carry a torch, and the winner was the man who got to the goal first and did not let his torch go out—rather a difficult feat! If h'e ran too fast, he would put out his torch; if he ran too slow, he would be left behind! So the point was to keep the torch blazing and get there in time. Paul said, “I have reached the goal and kept my torch blazing. I have fought a good fight, I have fin­ ished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” The best “Henceforth” that poor Infidelity has is “I do not know.” It is a precipice to tumble over; it is a darkness to leap into! But the “Henceforth” of the Apostle Paul was a daybreak of light, that shone brighter and brighter till the perfect day. It was a race, it was a battle, it was a torch, but it ended in the glory at the appearing of the Lord. May God help us to trust in the Christ who died, to love the Christ who lives with us in the Holy Spirit, and to wait for the Christ who is to come in the glory.

was looking beyond that into the glory, the crown that shall be given at the coming of the Lord. James Russell Lowell said: “I stood with a German friend at the top of the Alps, and, looking towards Rome, thinking of her glory in the past, I instinctively lifted my hat as I said, “Glories of the past, I salute you!” My German friend said, turn­ ing his face toward his Fatherland and lifting his hat, “Glories of the future, I salute you!’ And Russell Lowell said he somehow felt the German fel­ low had the better of him in that lit­ tle speech! Anyhow the Apostle Paul stood on the top of a great Alpine ex­ perience, and looking back on the past he said, “I have fought the good fight.” Paul loved peace, but next to peace he loved a fight. He would rather fight than do anything else, ex­ cept have peace of the right kind. Paul kept fighting, and the Lord kept him fighting along lines he didn’t want! He said, “Lord, this thorn in the flesh!” It was not a thorn in the finger only; it was not a prick of the skin. It is the Greek word for the stake on which criminals were crucified. “This thorn in the flesh, Lord, remove it.” The Lord would not, and Paul went back again and again; and then the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee. What you want is for Me to remove that thorn and you will not need any grace. It is better for me to leave the thorn and

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