. The Epistle of James, again, assures the man who
endures temptation that 'the Lord will give him the crown of life
which He has promised to all them that love Him.' The Lord Himself
from heaven repeats that promise to the persecuted Church at Smyrna:
'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.'
The elders cast their crowns before the feet of Him that sitteth upon
the throne. The Apostle Peter, in his letter, stimulates the elders
upon earth to faithful discharge of their duty, by the hope that
thereby they shall 'receive a crown of righteousness that fadeth not
away.' So all these instances taken together with this of my text
enable us to gather two or three lessons.

It is extremely unlikely that all these instances of the occurrence
of the emblem carry with them reference, such as that in my text, to
the prize at the athletic festivals. For Peter and James, intense
Jews as they were, had probably never seen, and possibly never heard
of, the struggles at the Isthmus and at Olympus and elsewhere. The
Book of the Revelation draws its metaphors almost exclusively from
the circle of Jewish practices and things. So that we have to look in
other directions than the arena or the racecourse to explain these
other uses of the image. It is also extremely unlikely that in these
other passages the reference is to a crown as the emblem of
sovereignty, for that idea is expressed, as a rule, by another word
in Scripture, which we have Anglicised as 'diadem.' The 'crown' in
all these passages is a garland twisted out of some growth of the
field. In ancient usage roses were twined for revellers; pine-shoots
or olive branches for the victors in the games; while the laurel was
'the meed of mighty conquerors'; and plaited oak leaves were laid
upon the brows of citizens who had deserved well of their country,
and myrtle sprays crowned the fair locks of the bride.

And thus in these directions, and not towards the wrestling ground or
the throne of the monarch, must we look for the ideas suggested by
the emblem.

Now, if we gather together all these various uses of the word, there
emerge two broad ideas, that the 'crown' which is the Christian's aim
symbolises a state of triumphant repose and of festal enjoyment.
There are other aspects of that great and dim future which correspond
to other necessities of our nature, and I suppose some harm has been
done and some misconceptions have been induced, and some unreali