'Might be found unto praise and honour and glory.' Note these three
words, which I think are often neglected, and sometimes
misunderstood--'praise, honour, glory.' Whose? People sometimes say
'God's,' since His people's ultimate salvation redounds to His praise;
but it is much better to understand the praise as given to the
Christians whose faith has stood the testing fires. 'Well done, good and
faithful servant'--is not that praise from lips, praise from which is
praise indeed? As Paul says, 'then shall every man have praise of God.'
We are far too much afraid of recognising the fact that Jesus Christ in
Heaven, like Jesus Christ on earth, will praise the deeds that come from
love to Him, though the deeds themselves may be very imperfect. Do you
remember 'She hath wrought a good work on Me,' said about a woman that
had done a perfectly useless thing, which was open to a great many very
shrewd objections? But Jesus Christ accepted it. Why? Because it was the
pure utterance of a loving heart. And, depend upon it, though we have to
say 'Unclean! unclean! We are unprofitable servants,' He will say 'Come!
ye blessed of My Father.' Praise from Christ is praise indeed.
'Honour.' That suggests bystanders, a public opinion, if I may so say;
it suggests 'have thou authority over ten cities,' and that men will
have their deeds round them as a halo, in that other world. As 'praise'
suggests the redeemed man's relation to his Lord, so 'honour' suggests
the redeemed man's relation to the fellow-citizens of the New Jerusalem.
'Glory' speaks of the man himself as transfigured and lifted up into
the light and lustre of communion with, and conformity to, the image of
the Lord. 'Then shall we appear with Him in glory. Then shall the
righteous blaze forth like the sun in My heavenly Father's Kingdom.'
'Shall be found.' Ah! there will be many surprises yonder. Do you
remember that profound revelation of our Master when He represents those
on whom He lavishes His eulogies as the Judge, as turning to Him and
saying, 'Lord! when saw we Thee in ... prison and visited thee?' They do
not recognise themselves or their acts in Christ's account of them. They
have found that their lives were diviner than they knew. There will be
surprises there. As one of the prophets represents the ransomed Israel,
to her amazement, surrounded by clinging troops of children, and asking,
'These! Where have they been? I was left alone,' so many a poor, humble
soul, fighting along in this world, having no recognition on earth, and
the lowliest estimate of all its own actions, will be astonished at the
last when it receives 'praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing
of Jesus Christ.'