that stirs
these racers' energies into such tremendous operation and the prize
which Christians profess to be pursuing. 'They do it to obtain a
corruptible crown'--a twist of pine branch out of the neighbouring
grove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little passing glory not worth
much more. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; we do _not_ do
it, though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim and
object. If we contrast the relative values of the objects that men
pursue so eagerly, and the objects of the Christian course, surely we
ought to be smitten down with penitent consciousness of our own
unworthiness, if not of our own hypocrisy.

It is not even there that the lesson stops, because we Christian
people may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves. For, on the one side
of our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnest
about getting something; and on the other side we show with how
little work we can be contented, when, at bottom, we do not much care
whether we get the prize or not. If you and I really believed that
that crown of glory which Paul speaks about might be ours, and would
be all sufficing for us if it were ours, as truly as we believe that
money is a good thing, there would not be such a difference between
the way in which we clutch at the one and the apathy which scarcely
cares to put out a hand for the other. The things that are seen and
temporal do get the larger portion of the energies and thoughts of
the average Christian man, and the things that are unseen and eternal
get only what is left. Sometimes ninety per cent. of the water of a
stream is taken away to drive a milldam or do work, and only ten per
cent. can be spared to trickle down the half-dry channel and do
nothing but reflect the bright sun and help the little flowers and
the grass to grow. So, the larger portion of most lives goes to drive
the mill-wheels, and there is very little left, in the case of many
of us, in order to help us towards God, and bring us closer into
communion with our Lord. 'Run' for the crown as eagerly as you 'run'
for your incomes, or for anything that you really, in your deepest
desires, want. Take yourselves for your own patterns and your own
rebukes. Your own lives may show you how you _can_ love, hope, work,
and deny yourselves when you have sufficient inducement, and their
flame should put to shame their frost, for the warmth is directed
towards trifles and the coldness towards the cr