stainless, infallible righteousness which one day shall belong to our
weak and sinful spirits.

These, then, are the elements, and on them all is stamped the
signature of perpetuity. The victor's wreath is tossed on the ashen
heap, the reveller's flowers droop as he sits in the heat of the
banqueting-hall; the bride's myrtle blossom fades though she lay it
away in a safe place. The crown of life is incorruptible. It is
twined of amaranth, ever blossoming into new beauty and never fading.

II. Now look, secondly, at the discipline by which the crown is won.

Observe, first of all, that in more than one of the passages to which
we have already referred great emphasis is laid upon Christ as
_giving_ the crown. That is to say, that blessed future is not
won by effort, but is bestowed as a free gift. It is given from the
hands which have procured it, and, as I may say, twined it for us.
Unless His brows had been pierced with the crown of thorns, ours
would never have worn the garland of victory. Jesus provides the sole
means, by His work, by which any man can enter into that inheritance;
and Jesus, as the righteous Judge who bestows the rewards, which are
likewise the results, of our life here, gives the crown. It remains
for ever the gift of His love. 'The wages of sin is death,' but we
rise above the region of retribution and desert when we pass to the
next clause--'the gift of God is eternal life,' and that 'through
Jesus Christ.'

Whilst, then, this must be laid as the basis of all, there must also,
with equal earnestness and clearness, be set forth the other thought
that Christ's gift has conditions, which conditions these passages
plainly set forth. In the one, which I have read as a text, we have
these conditions declared as being twofold--protracted discipline and
continuous effort. The same metaphor employed by the same Apostle, in
his last dying utterance, associates his consciousness that he had
fought the good fight and run his race, like the pugilists and
runners of the arena, with the hope that he shall receive the crown
of righteousness. James declares that it is given to the man who
_endures_ temptation, not only in the sense of bearing, but of
so bearing as not thereby to be injured in Christian character and
growth in Christian life. Peter asserts that it is the reward of
self-denying discharge of duty. And the Lord from heaven lays down
the condition of faithfulness unto death as the necessary
pre-re