There are two phrases as to these, amongst the passages with which we are now concerned. St. James and the Book of Revelation speak of the crown of life,' and Peter speaks of the crown of glory.' That is to say, the material of which the garland is composed is no perishable pine or myrtle, but it is woven, as it were, of life' on the one hand, of glory on the other. Or, if we do not venture upon such a violent metaphor as that, we can at least say that the crown is life and glory.
Now, as to the first of these--what dim and great thoughts are taught us in it i Life,' in the New Testament, does not mean bare existence, but in its highest sense pure and blessed existence in union with God. And such life--full, perfect, continual--is regarded as being in itself the crown and reward of faithful Christian living here below. In our experience life is often a burden, a weariness, a care. If it be a crown, it is a crown of thorns. But yonder, to live will be blessedness; being will be well-being. The reward of heaven will simply be the fact of living in God. Here life comes painfully trickling, as it were, in single drops through a narrow rift in the rock; yonder it will spread a broad bosom, flashing beneath the sunshine. Here the plant grows strugglingly in some dusty cleft, amidst uncongenial surroundings, and with only occasional gleams of sunlight; its leaves are small, its stem feeble, its blossoms pallid; yonder it will be rooted in rich soil and shone upon by an unclouded sun, and will burst into flowers and forms of beauty that we know nothing of here. Life is the crown.
Then it is a crown of glory. What is glory? The splendour of God's character manifested to His creatures and become the object of their admiration. That is the full meaning of glory in the Old and in the New Testament. And all that is transferred to those who cleave to Him here and are perfected yonder. There will be complete perfection of nature. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' The inmost and deepest beauty of redeemed and perfected souls will then be capable of being manifested fully. Here it struggles for expression, and what we seem to be, though it is often better, is just as often much worse than we really are. But there we shall be able to show ourselves as what in our deepest hearts we are. For the servants who, girt with priestly vestments, do Him sacerdotal service in the highest temple, have His name blazing upon their foreheads, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The redeemed souls, transmuted into the likeness of the Lord, and made visible in the flashing splendour of their gentle radiance, shall be beheld with the wonder with which all other creatures gaze on Him who is the Lord and Source of their purity, and if so be that we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified together.'
But why speak of what we know as little about as the unborn child does of the world, or the caterpillar of its future life when winged and painted and basking in the sunshine? Let us bow before the ignorance which is the prophecy and pledge of the transcendent greatness that lies behind the veil, and say, It is enough for the servant that he be as his Lord.'
