Games and combats were instituted by the ancients in honour of
their gods; and were celebrated with that view by the most polished and
enlightened nations of antiquity. The most renowned heroes, legislators,
and statesmen, did not think it unbecoming their character and dignity,
to mingle with the combatants, or contend in the race; they even
reckoned it glorious to share in the exercises, and meritorious to carry
away the prize. The victors were crowned with a wreath of laurel in
presence of their country; they were celebrated in the rapturous
effusions of their poets; they were admired, and almost adored, by the
innumerable multitudes which flocked to the games, from every part of
Greece, and many of the adjacent countries. They returned to their own
homes in a triumphal chariot, and made their entrance into their native
city, not through the gates which admitted the vulgar throng, but
through a breach in the walls, which were broken down to give them
admission; and at the same time to express the persuasion of their
fellow citizens, that walls are of small use to a city defended by men
of such tried courage and ability. Hence the surprising ardour which
animated all the states of Greece to imitate the ancient heroes, and
encircle their brows with wreaths, which rendered them still more the
objects of admiration or envy to succeeding times, than the victories
they had gained, or the laws they had enacted.
2. But the institutors of those games and combats had higher and nobler
objects in view than veneration for the mighty dead, or the
gratification of ambition or vanity; it was their design to prepare the
youth for the profession of arms; to confirm their health; to improve
their strength, their vigour, and activity; to inure them to fatigue;
and to render them intrepid in close fight, where, in the infancy of the
art of war, muscular force commonly decided the victory. This statement
accounts for the striking allusions which the Apostle Paul makes in his
epistles to these celebrated exercises. Such references were calculated
to touch the heart of a Greek, and of every one familiarly acquainted
with them, in the liveliest manner, as well as to place before the eye
of his mind the most glowing and correct images of spiritual and divine
things. No passages in the nervous and eloquent epistles from the pen of
St. Paul, have been more admired by the critics and expositors of all
times, than those into which some allusion to these agonistic exercises
is introduced; and, perhaps, none are calculated to leave a deeper
impression on the Christian’s mind, or excite a stronger and more
salutary influence on his actions. Certain persons were appointed to
take care that all things were done according to custom, to decide
controversies that happened among the antagonists, and to adjudge the
prize to the victor. Some eminent writers are of opinion that Christ is
called the “Author and Finisher of faith,” in allusion to these judges.
Those who were designed for the profession of _athletæ_, or combatants,
frequented from their earliest years the academies maintained for that
purpose at the public expense. In these places they were exercised under
the direction of different masters, who employed the most effectual
methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues of the public games, and
to form them for the combats. The regimen to which they submitted was
very hard and severe. At first, they had no other nourishment than dried
figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a gross heavy sort of bread called μάζα;
they were absolutely forbidden the use of wine, and enjoined continence.
When they proposed to contend in the Olympian games, they were obliged
to repair to the public gymnasium at Elis, ten months before the
solemnity, where they prepared themselves by continual exercises. No man
that had omitted to present himself at the appointed time, was allowed
to be a candidate for the prizes; nor were the accustomed rewards of
victory given to such persons, if by any means they insinuated
themselves, and overcame their antagonists; nor would any apology,
though seemingly ever so reasonable, serve to excuse their absence. No
person that was himself a notorious criminal, or nearly related to one,
was permitted to contend. Farther, to prevent underhand dealings, if any
person was convicted of bribing his adversary, a severe fine was laid
upon him; nor was this alone thought a sufficient guard against unfair
contracts, and unjust practices, but the contenders were obliged to
swear they had spent ten whole months in preparatory exercises; and,
beside all this, they, their fathers, and their brethren, took a solemn
oath, that they would not, by any sinister or unlawful means, endeavour
to stop the fair and just proceedings of the games.
3. The spiritual contest, in which all true Christians aim at obtaining
a heavenly crown, has its rules also, devised and enacted by infinite
wisdom and goodness, which require implicit and exact submission, which
yield neither to times nor circumstances, but maintain their supreme
authority, from age to age, uninterrupted and unimpaired. The combatant
who violates these rules forfeits the prize, and is driven from the
field with indelible disgrace, and consigned to everlasting wo. Hence
the great Apostle of the Gentiles exhorts his son Timothy strictly to
observe the precepts of the Gospel, without which, he can no more hope
to obtain the approbation of God, and the possession of the heavenly
crown, than a combatant in the public games of Greece, who disregarded
the established rules, could hope to receive from the hands of his judge
the promised reward: “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he
not crowned except he strive lawfully,” 2 Tim. ii, 5, or according to
the established laws of the games. Like the Grecian combatants, the
Christian must “abstain from fleshly lusts,” and “walk in all the
statutes and commandments of the Lord, blameless.” Such was St. Paul;
and in this manner he endeavoured to act: “But I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a cast-away,” 1 Cor. ix, 27. The latter
part of this verse Doddridge renders, “lest after having served as a
herald I should be disapproved;” and says in a note, “I thought it of
importance to retain the primitive sense of these gymnastic
expressions.” It is well known to those who are at all acquainted with
the original, that the word used means to discharge the office of a
herald, whose business it was to proclaim the conditions of the games,
and display the prizes, to awaken the emulation and resolution of those
who were to contend in them. But the Apostle intimates, that there was
this peculiar circumstance attending the Christian contest, that the
person who proclaimed its laws and rewards to others, was also to engage
in it himself; and that there would be a peculiar infamy and misery in
his miscarrying. Ἀδόκιμος, which we render _cast-away_, signifies one
who is disapproved by the judge of the games, as not having fairly
deserved the prize: he therefore loses it; even the prize of eternal
life. The rule which the Apostle applies to himself he extends in
another passage to all the members of the Christian church: “Those who
strive for the mastery are temperate in all things; now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” Tertullian uses
the same thought to encourage the martyrs. He urges constancy upon them,
from what the hopes of victory made the _athletæ_ endure; and repeats
the severe and painful exercises they were obliged to undergo, the
continual anguish and constraint in which they passed the best years of
their lives, and the voluntary privation which they imposed on
themselves, of all that was most grateful to their appetites and
passions.
4. The _athletæ_ took care to disencumber their bodies of every article
of clothing which could in any manner hinder or incommode them. In the
race, they were anxious to carry as little weight as possible, and
uniformly stripped themselves of all such clothes as, by their weight,
length, or otherwise, might entangle or retard them in the course. The
Christian also must “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset” him, Heb. xii, 1. In the exercise of faith and
self-denial, he must “cast off the works of darkness,” lay aside all
malice and guile, hypocrisies, and envyings, and evil speakings,
inordinate affections, and worldly cares, and whatever else might
obstruct his holy profession, damp his spirits, and hinder his progress
in the paths of righteousness.
5. The foot race seems to have been placed in the first rank of public
games, and cultivated with a care and industry proportioned to the
estimation in which it was held. The Olympic games generally opened with
races, and were celebrated at first with no other exercise. The lists or
course where the _athletæ_ exercised themselves in running, was at first
but one stadium in length, or about six hundred feet; and from this
measure it took its name, and was called the _stadium_, whatever might
be its extent. This, in the language of St. Paul, speaking of the
Christian’s course, was “the race which was set before them,” determined
by public authority, and carefully measured. On each side of the stadium
and its extremity, ran an ascent or kind of terrace, covered with seats
and benches, upon which the spectators were seated, an innumerable
multitude collected from all parts of Greece, to which the Apostle thus
alludes in his figurative description of the Christian life: “Seeing we
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight,” Heb. xii, 1.
The most remarkable parts of the stadium were its entrance, middle, and
extremity. The entrance was marked at first only by a line drawn on the
sand, from side to side of the stadium. To prevent any unfair advantage
being taken by the more vigilant or alert candidates, a cord was at
length stretched in front of the horses or men that were to run; and
sometimes the space was railed in with wood. The opening of this
barrier, was the signal for the racers to start. The middle of the
stadium was remarkable, only by the circumstance of having the prizes
allotted to the victors set up there. From this custom, Crysostom draws
a fine comparison: “As the judges in the races and other games, expose
in the midst of the stadium, to the view of the champions, the crowns
which they were to receive; in like manner, the Lord, by the mouth of
his prophets, has placed the prizes in the midst of the course, which he
designs for those who have the courage to contend for them.” At the
extremity of the stadium was a goal, where the foot races ended; but in
those of chariots and horses, they were to run several times round it
without stopping, and afterward conclude the race by regaining the other
extremity of the lists from whence they started. It is therefore to the
foot race the Apostle alludes, when he speaks of the race set before the
Christian, which was a straight course, to be run only once, and not, as
in the other, several times without stopping.
6. According to some writers, it was at the goal, and not in the middle
of the course, that the prizes were exhibited; and they were placed in a
very conspicuous situation, that the competitors might be animated by
having them always in their sight. This accords with the view which the
Apostle gives of the Christian life: “Brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things, which are before, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus,” Phil. iii, 13, 14. L’Enfant thinks, the Apostle here alludes to
those who stood at the elevated place at the end of the course, calling
the racers by their names, and encouraging them by holding out the
crown, to exert themselves with vigour. Within the measured and
determinate limits of the stadium, the _athletæ_ were bound to contend
for the prize, which they forfeited without hope of recovery, if they
deviated ever so little from the appointed course.
7. The honours and rewards granted to the victors were of several kinds.
They were animated in their course by the rapturous applauses of the
countless multitudes that lined the stadium, and waited the issue of the
contest with eager anxiety; and their success was instantly followed by
reiterated and long continued plaudits; but these were only a prelude to
the appointed rewards, which, though of little value in themselves, were
accounted the highest honour to which a mortal could aspire. These
consisted of different wreaths of wild olive, pine, parsley, or laurel,
according to the different places where the games were celebrated. After
the judges had passed sentence, a public herald proclaimed the name of
the victor; one of the judges put the crown upon his head, and a branch
of palm into his right hand, which he carried as a token of victorious
courage and perseverance. As he might be victor more than once in the
same games, and sometimes on the same day, he might also receive several
crowns and palms. When the victor had received his reward, a herald,
preceded by a trumpet, conducted him through the stadium, and proclaimed
aloud his name and country; while the delighted multitudes, at the sight
of him, redoubled their acclamations and applauses.
8. The crown in the Olympic games was of wild olive; in the Pythian, of
laurel; in the Isthmian or Corinthian, of pine tree; and in the Nemæan,
of smallage or parsley. Now, most of these were evergreens; yet they
would soon grow dry, and crumble into dust. Elsner produces many
passages in which the contenders in these exercises are rallied by the
Grecian wits, on account of the extraordinary pains they took for such
trifling rewards; and Plato has a celebrated passage, which greatly
resembles that of the Apostle, but by no means equals it in force and
beauty: “Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an
incorruptible.” The Christian is thus called to fight the good fight of
faith, and to lay hold of eternal life; and to this he is more
powerfully stimulated by considering that the ancient _athletæ_ took all
their care and pains only for the sake of obtaining a garland of
flowers, or a wreath of laurel, which quickly fades and perishes,
possessed little intrinsic value, and only served to nourish their pride
and vanity, without imparting any solid advantage to themselves or
others; but that which is placed in the view of the spiritual
combatants, to animate their exertions, and reward their labours, is no
less than a crown of glory which never decays; “an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for them,” 1 Pet. i, 4; v, 4. But the victory sometimes remained
doubtful, in consequence of which a number of competitors appeared
before the judges, and claimed the prize. The candidates who were
rejected on such occasions by the judge of the games, as not having
fairly merited the prize, were called by the Greeks ἀδοκιμοί, or
_disapproved_, which we render _cast away_, in a passage already quoted
from St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians: “But I keep under my
body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be, ἀδόκιμος, cast away,” rejected
by the Judge of all the earth, and disappointed of my expected crown.
What has been observed concerning the spirit and ardour with which the
competitors engaged in the race, and concerning the prize they had in
view to reward their arduous contention, will illustrate the following
sublime passage of the same sacred writer in his Epistle to the
Philippians: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus,” Phil. iii, 12–14. The affecting passage, also, of the same
Apostle, in the Second Epistle of Timothy, written a little before his
martyrdom, is beautifully allusive to the above-mentioned race, to the
crown that awaited the victory, and to the Hellanodics or judges who
bestowed it: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his
appearing,” 2 Tim. iv, 8.
their gods; and were celebrated with that view by the most polished and
enlightened nations of antiquity. The most renowned heroes, legislators,
and statesmen, did not think it unbecoming their character and dignity,
to mingle with the combatants, or contend in the race; they even
reckoned it glorious to share in the exercises, and meritorious to carry
away the prize. The victors were crowned with a wreath of laurel in
presence of their country; they were celebrated in the rapturous
effusions of their poets; they were admired, and almost adored, by the
innumerable multitudes which flocked to the games, from every part of
Greece, and many of the adjacent countries. They returned to their own
homes in a triumphal chariot, and made their entrance into their native
city, not through the gates which admitted the vulgar throng, but
through a breach in the walls, which were broken down to give them
admission; and at the same time to express the persuasion of their
fellow citizens, that walls are of small use to a city defended by men
of such tried courage and ability. Hence the surprising ardour which
animated all the states of Greece to imitate the ancient heroes, and
encircle their brows with wreaths, which rendered them still more the
objects of admiration or envy to succeeding times, than the victories
they had gained, or the laws they had enacted.
2. But the institutors of those games and combats had higher and nobler
objects in view than veneration for the mighty dead, or the
gratification of ambition or vanity; it was their design to prepare the
youth for the profession of arms; to confirm their health; to improve
their strength, their vigour, and activity; to inure them to fatigue;
and to render them intrepid in close fight, where, in the infancy of the
art of war, muscular force commonly decided the victory. This statement
accounts for the striking allusions which the Apostle Paul makes in his
epistles to these celebrated exercises. Such references were calculated
to touch the heart of a Greek, and of every one familiarly acquainted
with them, in the liveliest manner, as well as to place before the eye
of his mind the most glowing and correct images of spiritual and divine
things. No passages in the nervous and eloquent epistles from the pen of
St. Paul, have been more admired by the critics and expositors of all
times, than those into which some allusion to these agonistic exercises
is introduced; and, perhaps, none are calculated to leave a deeper
impression on the Christian’s mind, or excite a stronger and more
salutary influence on his actions. Certain persons were appointed to
take care that all things were done according to custom, to decide
controversies that happened among the antagonists, and to adjudge the
prize to the victor. Some eminent writers are of opinion that Christ is
called the “Author and Finisher of faith,” in allusion to these judges.
Those who were designed for the profession of _athletæ_, or combatants,
frequented from their earliest years the academies maintained for that
purpose at the public expense. In these places they were exercised under
the direction of different masters, who employed the most effectual
methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues of the public games, and
to form them for the combats. The regimen to which they submitted was
very hard and severe. At first, they had no other nourishment than dried
figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a gross heavy sort of bread called μάζα;
they were absolutely forbidden the use of wine, and enjoined continence.
When they proposed to contend in the Olympian games, they were obliged
to repair to the public gymnasium at Elis, ten months before the
solemnity, where they prepared themselves by continual exercises. No man
that had omitted to present himself at the appointed time, was allowed
to be a candidate for the prizes; nor were the accustomed rewards of
victory given to such persons, if by any means they insinuated
themselves, and overcame their antagonists; nor would any apology,
though seemingly ever so reasonable, serve to excuse their absence. No
person that was himself a notorious criminal, or nearly related to one,
was permitted to contend. Farther, to prevent underhand dealings, if any
person was convicted of bribing his adversary, a severe fine was laid
upon him; nor was this alone thought a sufficient guard against unfair
contracts, and unjust practices, but the contenders were obliged to
swear they had spent ten whole months in preparatory exercises; and,
beside all this, they, their fathers, and their brethren, took a solemn
oath, that they would not, by any sinister or unlawful means, endeavour
to stop the fair and just proceedings of the games.
3. The spiritual contest, in which all true Christians aim at obtaining
a heavenly crown, has its rules also, devised and enacted by infinite
wisdom and goodness, which require implicit and exact submission, which
yield neither to times nor circumstances, but maintain their supreme
authority, from age to age, uninterrupted and unimpaired. The combatant
who violates these rules forfeits the prize, and is driven from the
field with indelible disgrace, and consigned to everlasting wo. Hence
the great Apostle of the Gentiles exhorts his son Timothy strictly to
observe the precepts of the Gospel, without which, he can no more hope
to obtain the approbation of God, and the possession of the heavenly
crown, than a combatant in the public games of Greece, who disregarded
the established rules, could hope to receive from the hands of his judge
the promised reward: “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he
not crowned except he strive lawfully,” 2 Tim. ii, 5, or according to
the established laws of the games. Like the Grecian combatants, the
Christian must “abstain from fleshly lusts,” and “walk in all the
statutes and commandments of the Lord, blameless.” Such was St. Paul;
and in this manner he endeavoured to act: “But I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a cast-away,” 1 Cor. ix, 27. The latter
part of this verse Doddridge renders, “lest after having served as a
herald I should be disapproved;” and says in a note, “I thought it of
importance to retain the primitive sense of these gymnastic
expressions.” It is well known to those who are at all acquainted with
the original, that the word used means to discharge the office of a
herald, whose business it was to proclaim the conditions of the games,
and display the prizes, to awaken the emulation and resolution of those
who were to contend in them. But the Apostle intimates, that there was
this peculiar circumstance attending the Christian contest, that the
person who proclaimed its laws and rewards to others, was also to engage
in it himself; and that there would be a peculiar infamy and misery in
his miscarrying. Ἀδόκιμος, which we render _cast-away_, signifies one
who is disapproved by the judge of the games, as not having fairly
deserved the prize: he therefore loses it; even the prize of eternal
life. The rule which the Apostle applies to himself he extends in
another passage to all the members of the Christian church: “Those who
strive for the mastery are temperate in all things; now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” Tertullian uses
the same thought to encourage the martyrs. He urges constancy upon them,
from what the hopes of victory made the _athletæ_ endure; and repeats
the severe and painful exercises they were obliged to undergo, the
continual anguish and constraint in which they passed the best years of
their lives, and the voluntary privation which they imposed on
themselves, of all that was most grateful to their appetites and
passions.
4. The _athletæ_ took care to disencumber their bodies of every article
of clothing which could in any manner hinder or incommode them. In the
race, they were anxious to carry as little weight as possible, and
uniformly stripped themselves of all such clothes as, by their weight,
length, or otherwise, might entangle or retard them in the course. The
Christian also must “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset” him, Heb. xii, 1. In the exercise of faith and
self-denial, he must “cast off the works of darkness,” lay aside all
malice and guile, hypocrisies, and envyings, and evil speakings,
inordinate affections, and worldly cares, and whatever else might
obstruct his holy profession, damp his spirits, and hinder his progress
in the paths of righteousness.
5. The foot race seems to have been placed in the first rank of public
games, and cultivated with a care and industry proportioned to the
estimation in which it was held. The Olympic games generally opened with
races, and were celebrated at first with no other exercise. The lists or
course where the _athletæ_ exercised themselves in running, was at first
but one stadium in length, or about six hundred feet; and from this
measure it took its name, and was called the _stadium_, whatever might
be its extent. This, in the language of St. Paul, speaking of the
Christian’s course, was “the race which was set before them,” determined
by public authority, and carefully measured. On each side of the stadium
and its extremity, ran an ascent or kind of terrace, covered with seats
and benches, upon which the spectators were seated, an innumerable
multitude collected from all parts of Greece, to which the Apostle thus
alludes in his figurative description of the Christian life: “Seeing we
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight,” Heb. xii, 1.
The most remarkable parts of the stadium were its entrance, middle, and
extremity. The entrance was marked at first only by a line drawn on the
sand, from side to side of the stadium. To prevent any unfair advantage
being taken by the more vigilant or alert candidates, a cord was at
length stretched in front of the horses or men that were to run; and
sometimes the space was railed in with wood. The opening of this
barrier, was the signal for the racers to start. The middle of the
stadium was remarkable, only by the circumstance of having the prizes
allotted to the victors set up there. From this custom, Crysostom draws
a fine comparison: “As the judges in the races and other games, expose
in the midst of the stadium, to the view of the champions, the crowns
which they were to receive; in like manner, the Lord, by the mouth of
his prophets, has placed the prizes in the midst of the course, which he
designs for those who have the courage to contend for them.” At the
extremity of the stadium was a goal, where the foot races ended; but in
those of chariots and horses, they were to run several times round it
without stopping, and afterward conclude the race by regaining the other
extremity of the lists from whence they started. It is therefore to the
foot race the Apostle alludes, when he speaks of the race set before the
Christian, which was a straight course, to be run only once, and not, as
in the other, several times without stopping.
6. According to some writers, it was at the goal, and not in the middle
of the course, that the prizes were exhibited; and they were placed in a
very conspicuous situation, that the competitors might be animated by
having them always in their sight. This accords with the view which the
Apostle gives of the Christian life: “Brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things, which are before, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus,” Phil. iii, 13, 14. L’Enfant thinks, the Apostle here alludes to
those who stood at the elevated place at the end of the course, calling
the racers by their names, and encouraging them by holding out the
crown, to exert themselves with vigour. Within the measured and
determinate limits of the stadium, the _athletæ_ were bound to contend
for the prize, which they forfeited without hope of recovery, if they
deviated ever so little from the appointed course.
7. The honours and rewards granted to the victors were of several kinds.
They were animated in their course by the rapturous applauses of the
countless multitudes that lined the stadium, and waited the issue of the
contest with eager anxiety; and their success was instantly followed by
reiterated and long continued plaudits; but these were only a prelude to
the appointed rewards, which, though of little value in themselves, were
accounted the highest honour to which a mortal could aspire. These
consisted of different wreaths of wild olive, pine, parsley, or laurel,
according to the different places where the games were celebrated. After
the judges had passed sentence, a public herald proclaimed the name of
the victor; one of the judges put the crown upon his head, and a branch
of palm into his right hand, which he carried as a token of victorious
courage and perseverance. As he might be victor more than once in the
same games, and sometimes on the same day, he might also receive several
crowns and palms. When the victor had received his reward, a herald,
preceded by a trumpet, conducted him through the stadium, and proclaimed
aloud his name and country; while the delighted multitudes, at the sight
of him, redoubled their acclamations and applauses.
8. The crown in the Olympic games was of wild olive; in the Pythian, of
laurel; in the Isthmian or Corinthian, of pine tree; and in the Nemæan,
of smallage or parsley. Now, most of these were evergreens; yet they
would soon grow dry, and crumble into dust. Elsner produces many
passages in which the contenders in these exercises are rallied by the
Grecian wits, on account of the extraordinary pains they took for such
trifling rewards; and Plato has a celebrated passage, which greatly
resembles that of the Apostle, but by no means equals it in force and
beauty: “Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an
incorruptible.” The Christian is thus called to fight the good fight of
faith, and to lay hold of eternal life; and to this he is more
powerfully stimulated by considering that the ancient _athletæ_ took all
their care and pains only for the sake of obtaining a garland of
flowers, or a wreath of laurel, which quickly fades and perishes,
possessed little intrinsic value, and only served to nourish their pride
and vanity, without imparting any solid advantage to themselves or
others; but that which is placed in the view of the spiritual
combatants, to animate their exertions, and reward their labours, is no
less than a crown of glory which never decays; “an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for them,” 1 Pet. i, 4; v, 4. But the victory sometimes remained
doubtful, in consequence of which a number of competitors appeared
before the judges, and claimed the prize. The candidates who were
rejected on such occasions by the judge of the games, as not having
fairly merited the prize, were called by the Greeks ἀδοκιμοί, or
_disapproved_, which we render _cast away_, in a passage already quoted
from St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians: “But I keep under my
body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be, ἀδόκιμος, cast away,” rejected
by the Judge of all the earth, and disappointed of my expected crown.
What has been observed concerning the spirit and ardour with which the
competitors engaged in the race, and concerning the prize they had in
view to reward their arduous contention, will illustrate the following
sublime passage of the same sacred writer in his Epistle to the
Philippians: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus,” Phil. iii, 12–14. The affecting passage, also, of the same
Apostle, in the Second Epistle of Timothy, written a little before his
martyrdom, is beautifully allusive to the above-mentioned race, to the
crown that awaited the victory, and to the Hellanodics or judges who
bestowed it: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his
appearing,” 2 Tim. iv, 8.