Compensation.
I. TO EXPECT COMPENSATION FOR WORTHY LOSS IS NATURAL AND RIGHT. The gospel encourages this. Compensation is founded on the law of things. God hath set the one over against the other. The conservation of energy is a law that applies to the life of the soul. "It will be made good to us." We cannot help feeling that the integrity of our being has a worth which must be preserved.
II. CHRIST ENCOURAGES THIS EXPECTATION TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE. Self-abandonment to the good cause will bring its reward. God pays a high rate of interest.
"Fear not, then, thou child infirm;
There's no God that will wrong a worm.
Laurel crowns cleave to deserts,
And power to him who power exerts.
Hast not thy share? On winged feet,
Lo! it rushes thee to meet;
And all that Nature made thy own,
Floating in air, or pent in stone,
Will rive the hills and swim the sea,
And, like thy shadow, follow thee."
"Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer." "The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode; every burned book enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side."
III. THIS PRINCIPLE HAS UNEXPECTED APPLICATIONS. Success is not always what it seems; nor apparent failure. There will be great "reversals of human judgment" (see Mozley's fine sermon on this). "Those who begin early and do much are not always preferred." Some show in the front early in life's race, but fail of the goal. Others lag at first, and come out first in the end. Gain in power may be loss in time; or self-extension involve loss of intensity. The great lesson is to live for the soul, for the inner and spiritual world. Everything gained then is gained for ever; and seeming loss and failure are converted into means of progress.—J.