XXIII.

The Christian's Probation and the
Christian's Prize.

STADIUM, or race-course,
was immediately without the
walls of the city of Corinth.
Games were there celebrated

in honour of a heathen deity, to which a vast concourse of spectators was attracted from every part of Greece. Of these games, which combined various kinds of manly and athletic exercises, the most ancient and honourable was the race. None were even admitted to contend therein, who had not undergone a prescribed course of probationary discipline most protracted and most severe; and this was intended when it was said, that "if a man strive for masteries, yet is he

not crowned, except he strive lawfully." The ostensible reward of victory in this competition was only a wreath of some cheap and common herb; yet the names of those who obtained this simple and primitive honour were inscribed in the public records; they were supported at the expense of the state, as deserving of public gratitude and respect; they were honoured in death, by splendid obsequies, and their names were handed down to the latest posterity for the excitement and emulation of those who should come after them. But these honours were as rare as they were illustrious. The candidates " ran all, but one received the prize."

Now St. Paul was inditing an epistle to the people, or rather to the Church of Corinth, in which it was his object to present to them a probation, an assembly, a strife, an arbiter, and a prize. So he said to the Hebrews, "Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so

easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." It was only natural, therefore, that he should avail himself of the apt and significant illustration which the ancient custom of their own city suggested, in order to teach them, first, the character of the probation-" Every one that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." And secondly, the object of the contest-"They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, and we an incorruptible. But both are substantially and essentially the same, and we cannot therefore fail to derive instruction in that which most intimately concerns ourselves, if we form a right view, first of the PROBATION, and secondly of the PRIZE.

The Probation is expressed in one word-Temperance. This word denotes in the original, however, as anciently in our own language, not only moderation in the use of meats and drinks, but the

power of controlling and regulating all desires, inclinations, and appetites whatever; not only keeping under the body and bringing it into subjection, but the exercise of mastery over the mind and will, self-control or self-command. Thus it is employed by one of the most illustrious of English moral poets:

He calmed his wrath with goodly temperance."

*

Probation, then, is self-control. It is the subjection of every inclination to duty; the subordination of every affection and of appetite to that which should regulate and govern all-the revealed and recorded will of God. Now this, however reasonable to those who believe in revelation, is not easy; nay, rather, to the natural man it is not possible. "No man can even say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost ;" and if even the profession of godliness, cannot be made aright, unless aid be imparted

Spenser.

from above, how much less the practice. If, however, it cannot be produced, it can at least be preferred and sought through human agency-reason may attain to the conviction of the understanding, and this is ordinarily the first step to the conviction of the heart. We can, by the light of reason alone, affix due importance to the momentous consideration, that while, on the one hand, the probation must precede the prize, so, on the other, not to obtain the prize is, virtually to incur the penalty. For here the parallel of the Apostle, while it applies first to the training for the race, and then to the pursuit of the prize, does not apply to the result. They that run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize." To those who had contended in vain therefore, the bitterness of disappointment might be mitigated, first, because it was a distinction beyond many others even to have been thought qualified for the competition; and secondly, because future opportunities might be afforded of

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