ians. Even among the glories,
he would feel his heart filled with new gladness when he found them
there. The hunger for the good of others which cannot bear to think even
of heaven without their presence has been a master note of all true
Christian teachers, and without it there will be little of the toil, of
which Paul speaks in the context, 'running and labouring.' He that would
win men's hearts for any great cause must give his heart to them.

That Paul should have felt warranted in using such a motive with the
Philippians tells how surely he reckoned on their true and deep love. He
believes that they care enough for him to feel the power as a motive
with them, that their faithfulness will make Paul more blessed amidst
the blessings of heaven. Oh! if such love knit together all Christian
teachers and their hearers in this time, and if the 'Day of Christ'
burned before them, as it did before him, and if the vision stirred to
such running and labouring as his, teachers and taught would oftener
have to say, 'We are your rejoicing, even as ye are also ours in the Day
of our Lord Jesus.' The voice of the man who is in the true 'Apostolic
Succession' will dare to make the appeal, knowing that it will call
forth an abundant answer, 'Look to yourselves that we lose not the
things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.'

II. Paul's death an aid to the Philippians' faith.

The general meaning of the Apostle's words is, 'If I have not only to
run and labour, but to die in the discharge of my Apostolic Mission, I
joy and rejoice, and I bid you rejoice with me.' We need only note that
the Apostle here casts his language into the forms consecrated for
sacrifice. He will not speak of death by its own ugly and threadbare
name, but thinks of himself as a devoted victim, and of his death as
making the sacrifice complete. In the figure there is a solemn scorn of
death, and at the same time a joyful recognition that it is the means of
bringing him more nearly to God, with whom he would fain be. It is
interesting, as showing the persistence of these thoughts in the
Apostle's mind, that the word rendered in our text 'offered,' which
fully means 'poured out as a drink offering,' occurs again in the same
connection in the great words of the swan song in II. Timothy, 'I am
already being offered, and the time of my departure is come.' Death
looked to him, when he looked it in the eyes, and the block was close by
him, as i