An Unselfish Seeking for Reward

“For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward” — Hee. xi. 26.

St&ANGE conclusion this with which to wind up the eulogium of a human character. We have just been told how unselfish has been the life of Moses, how he has preferred the reproach of Christ to the treasures in Egypt. And now we seem to be told that it was but selfishness after all, that all the time of his sacrifice he had a motive beyond the sacrifice, that he was seeking the reward of sacrifice. Yes, but what is the reward of sacrifice? It is the power to do good without it. All virtue is at first painful, but if we persevere in the pain it shall at last vanish away, and leave naught but the virtue behind. The reward of sacrifice is the joy of sacrifice; it is the power to say, I once struggled to be unselfish, but it would now be a struggle to be aught beside. It is the joy of getting that as my nature which I once had for my task, of being able to do by instinct what I once performed by rule. The recompense of the reward which Moses sought was to be made perfectly unselfish; it was the strength to give more abundantly, to give without pain, without struggle, without reluctance, without one longing memory of the treasures left behind. And verily that recompense was his. Meekness became to him a second nature. The impetuous youth that slew the Egyptian subsided into the man that was content to be slain, to die daily for the brotherhood of human souls, to lose even his promised land that Joshua might enter in.

Thou, too, mayst have this recompense. If thou Wilt accept the strait gate and the narrow way in its straitness and in its narrowness, it shall ere long become to thee a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. Thou shalt be loosed from the bonds that fetter thine own deeds, loosed not from without but from within. Thy cross shall not be lifted, but it shall be transformed into a crown; thy tasks shall not be remitted, but they shall be transfigured into joys. Thy law shall become thy love, thy duty shall become thy delight, thy service shall become thy freedom. The steep of thy Calvary shall be crowned by the heights of Olivet, and without turning from thy path thou shalt enter into thy glory. When thou hast reached the joy of sacrifice thou hast received the recompense of the reward.