felt God’s power in their own lives and discredit it in others. When I started out as a boy to preach the Gospel, I recall that the most devastating, stultifying, enervating influence against my youth ful zeal was not encountered among infidels and vicious sinners but rather in that suave, smug, satisfying crowd at home in this world, never ex cited over things eternal. They could raise an eye brow and shrug a shoulder and admonish me, “ Be not righteous overmuch,” until they came nearer to stealing my crown than did all the skeptics. If we would run well the race, we must be as immune to discouragement on one hand as to praise on the other. We can lose our heavenly crown through earth ly success. Abraham would not let the king o f Sodom reward him lest it be said that he had made Abraham rich. The Christian must let heaven, and not the world, reward him. Many a minister, once a prophet o f God, has become popular. Then the devil has denatured his message and has put him in an ice-box, disqualified and disapproved, a cast away who has exchanged his flaming commission for a mess o f pottage. Chrysostom said, “ Faith is secure in danger but endangered by security.” We need to beware lest success make our nest so com fortable that we forget how to fly! The roaring lion o f defeat has slain his thousands but the angel o f success has slain its tens o f thousands. David, the shepherd boy, never fell so hard as did David the king walking in his palace. Abraham’s servant, when tempted to stay a while at the home o f the wife he had found for Isaac, said, “ Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way.” The hour o f success is a dangerous hour. I f God has pros pered your way, then be on your way! Men can steal our crown, even the best o f them, by entangling us with so many concerns that we let the good crowd out the best. The apostles would not take up the financial burden o f the church that they might give themselves to the ministry o f the Word and prayer. They had enough to hold fast and they would not take on any more, thereby set ting us an eternal example. Many ministers have allowed themselves to be so entangled in a maze o f small duties that they cannot preach or pray. If the devil cannot absorb us in the things o f the world, he will beset us with a multitude o f “ church activities” until we lose our crown in a whirl o f glorified “ piddling.” By how many tricks does Satan first get his foot in the door and afterwards possess the whole house! He interests us in books that are not bad, but that somehow cast a damper on our faith. Eating and drinking, the common social pleasures o f life, well enough in their place, are so easy to get out o f place! McCheyne warned that even a love of good eating could sidetrack a minister. Most o f us would be inclined to regard him as an ascetic but we go back to such lives as his to light our
keep the fire burning. Are you keeping the word o f His patience? Truly “ a charge to keep we have.” The devil would steal i f he could the treasure we hold in our earthen vessels. Men would steal it from us too, so we ever need to “ hold fast that which is good” (I Thess. 5 :2 1 ); “ hold fast the form o f sound words” (II Tim. 1 :1 3 ); “ hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing o f the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3 :6 ) ; “ hold fast our profession” (Heb. 4 :1 4 ); “ hold the traditions” (II Thess. 2 :15 ). “ Hold that fast which thou hast!” Why are we to hold fast what we have? “ That no man take thy crown.” Now the crown is not eternal life nor our righteousness: neither man nor the devil can steal these, for no man can pluck us out o f the hand o f the Father or the hand of the Son. But the crown is the crown or reward. We are saved by faith but rewarded according to works. Men can cheat us out o f our reward. They can cause us to drop some things we are to hold fast. They can rob us o f time, steal the joy o f our salvation, quench the Spirit within us and lead us astray so that our talents are given to others and we stand empty-handed at the last great day. They can cheat us o f gold and silver and precious stones so that we build o f wood, hay and stubble and our lives go up in smoke and we are barely saved as by fire. The world, the flesh and the devil are on the lookout twenty-four hours o f the day, and un less we watch and pray and hold fast that which we have, we shall most assuredly lose our crowns. Never was there a time when the soul has needed to be on its guard so faithfully as today. The temper o f the times demands it. The world has been chloroformed by the prince o f darkness. The professing church slumbers in spiritual stupor. The average Christian is half-asleep and the spirit of the age, morally, socially, religiously is against any man who sets out for a closer walk with God. Then, our natures demand it. We are inclined to float downstream instead o f to swim against the current. Forgetting the things we have heard, we drift away from them. The human heart must be broken up and sown and cultivated if there is to be a good harvest but we are disposed to let the weeds grow. Some o f us have so interpreted the grace o f God that we forget our own personal responsi bility to watch and pray lest we enter into tempta tion. While we rejoice that “ the foundation o f God standeth sure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His,” we overlook the rest o f the verse, “ And, let every one that nameth the name o f Christ depart from iniquity.” So we need evermore to be on our guard and hold fast that which we have that no man take our crown. They can do it by discouragement. Many o f us have had the Spirit quenched within us by these human wet-blankets who have never
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SEPTEMBER, 1969
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