enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord." And that holy "prize" does, and must,
prove a magnet to the Christian's will and hopes. What is he looking
for? Not an accession of personal dignity in heaven, but a word from
his beloved Master's heart. There is nothing mercenary in this. True,
it "has respect unto the recompense of reward." But the "reward" is
what only love can give, and only love can take. It is love's approval
of the service of love.

Much discussion has been spent upon the theory of reward, in the matter
of our service rendered to "our King who has saved us." The theme no
doubt is one which admits of much interesting and important enquiry;
and it has many sides. But after all the true philosophy of it lies in
"the truth as it is _in Jesus_." Let the Christian be seeking the
reward of personal aggrandizement in heaven, "to sit on His right hand,
or on His left, in His glory"; and the motive is as earthly as if the
scene of its fulfilment were to be an earthly palace. Let him be
seeking the "well done" of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ has
redeemed him, and is dear to him; and he is in the line of the will,
and of the love, of God.

[1] Dr H. Bonar.

[2] _Heth o katelephthen_: grammatically we may render, "inasmuch as I
was seized"; cp. the Greek of Rom. v. 12; 1 Cor. v. 4. But the
connexion of thought seems to be best met by the above rendering, which
is practically that of A.V. and R.V.

[3] _Stephanos_, as in 1 Cor. ix. 25, Rev. iii. 11, and often.
_Stephanos_ is properly the victor's wreath, _diadema_ the king's crown
(Rev. xix. 12).--For a short essay on St Paul's use of athletic
metaphors see this Epistle in _The Cambridge Greek Testament_, Appendix.

[4] _Klesis_, _kalein_, _kletoi_, in the Epistles will be found
regularly to refer not to the general _invitations_ of the Gospel, but
to the actually prevailing power of God over the wills of His people.
See particularly 1 Cor. i. 23, 24, where the "call" is clearly
distinguished from the general proclamation, which alas so many
"Greeks" and "Jews" heard, but only to reject it.

[5] _Hephthasamen_: the verb seems always to indicate not merely
reaching, but reaching _with some difficulty_. I attempt to express
this in the translation.

[6] There is good evidence for omitting the words _kanoni, to auto
phronein_.--_Stoichein_ is more in detail than _peripatein_: "to
_step_," not only "to walk." See the Greek of Rom. iv. 12.