I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.' There, too, we have a kind of mosaic, made up of previous Scripture declarations. Our Lord, twice in the Gospels--and on neither occasion in the Gospel according to St. John--has similar sayings; once about confessing the name of him who confesses His name before the Father'; once about confessing it before the holy angels.' Here these are smelted together into the one great recognition by Jesus Christ of the victor as being His.
Now I need not remind you of how emphatically, to this clause also, the remark which I have made with regard to the former one applies, and how tremendous and inexplicable, except on one hypothesis, is this same assumption by Christ of judicial functions which determine the fate and the standing of men.
But I would rather point to the thought that this promise carries with it, not only Christ's judicial recognition of the victor, but also the thought of loving relationship, of close friendship, of continual regard. He confesses the name'--that means that He takes to His heart, and loves and cares for the person.
Is it not the highest honour that can be given to any soldier, to have honourable mention in the general's despatches? It matters very little what becomes of our names upon earth, though there they be dark, and swift oblivion devours them almost as soon as we are dead, except in so far as they may live for a little while in the memory of two or three that loved us. That is the fate of most of us. And surely' the hollow wraith of dying fame' may fade wholly,' and we exult,' if Jesus Christ confess our name. It matters little who forgets us if He remembers us. It matters even less what the judgments pronounced in our obituaries may be, if He says, That man is Mine, and I own him.' Ah! brethren, what a reversal of the world's judgments there will be one day; and how names that have been blown through a thousand trumpets, and had hosannas sung to them, and been welcomed with a tumult of acclaim through generations, will sink into oblivion and never be heard of any more, and the unseen and obscure men who lived by, and for, and with Jesus Christ, will come to the front I Praise from Him is praise indeed.
Now, brethren, the upshot of it all is that life here derives its meaning and its consecration from life hereafter. The question for us is, do we habitually realise that we are weaving the garment we must wear, be it a poisoned robe that shall eat into our flesh like fire, or be it a vesture clean and white? Do we brace ourselves for the obscure struggles of our little lives, feeling that they are not small because they carry eternal consequences? Are we content to be unknown because well known by Him, and to live so that He shall acknowledge us in the day when to be acknowledged by Him means glory and blessedness beyond all hopes and all symbols; and to be disowned by Him means ruin and despair? You know the conditions of victory. Lay them to heart, and its issues, and the tragical results of death; and then cleave, with mind and heart and will, to Him who can make you more than conquerors, who will change your frayed and dinted armour for the fine linen, clean and white, and will point to you, before His Father and the universe, and say, This man was one of Thy faithful soldiers.' That will be honour indeed. Do you see to it that you make it yours.
