some of this preaching added to his troubles. Provided Christ was magnified, Paul would be satisfied whether that

magnifying demanded life or death for its exhibition. We now come to his concluding words :

`For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Phil. 1:21).

How are we to understand these words? On the surface the statement is divided into two parts. We can say:

while he lived, his supreme object would be the magnifying of Christ, and if he died, then the prize of the high

calling would be his. We are however somewhat sensitive to the apparent intrusion of personal gain here. It seems

to fall short of the high ideal held before us by the apostle.

Other commentators have felt the difficulty too, as will be seen in the following. F. W. Grant, in his book `Facts

and theories as to a future state', quotes the book `Bible v. Tradition' by Ellis and Read, as follows :

`Do you ask how then it would be gain to Paul to die? Paul does not say it would be gain to him. Fill up the

ellipsis according to grammatical laws: For me to live will be gain to the cause of Christ, for Christ will at all

events be magnified in my body, whether by my life or by my death. And for me to die is gain to the cause of

Christ, for Christ will be magnified in my body, whether I die or live'.

The `ellipsis' (or omission) and grammatical law may be illustrated by quoting from a letter which was received

from the Rev. George Parker of Kingtse Kwan, China, in April 1915.

`Note the figure

Hendiadys of clauses.

Christ's gain distributed'.

In another letter the same writer speaks of the Hendiadys of Phrases which is illustrated by the passage :

`My soul doth magnify the Lord

My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour'.

This is re-written :

`My soul and spirit, hath rejoiced in and doth magnify, Jehovah God my Saviour'.

This is followed by several passages by way of illustration. For example :

`Christ ... gain' means `Christ's gain' (Phil. 1:21).

`In God ... in glory' means `in God's glory' (Col. 3:3,4).

`Christ ... grace' means `Christ's grace' (Gal. 5:4).

From this, Philippians 1:21 should read :

`For me to live is Christ's (gain), and to die is (Christ's) gain'.

`Not to Paul, but to Christ, as is clear from verse 20. To Paul, life and death were of no account, so long as the

cause of Christ was advanced. His bonds had furthered the gospel, what might not his death do?' (Companion

Bible).

To us with our modern depreciation of the doctrine of reward, such explanations are commendable. Paul is seen

striking the high note of heroism to the last. And yet, when we read his own words as written, the explanations

offered above seem very involved and somewhat strained. Moreover if we rule out personal gain from Philippians

1:21, we must face it in chapter 3:8 where the verbal form of the word translated `gain' is there used in the phrase

`that I might win Christ', a passage in close logical connection with the `prize' of the high calling (Phil. 3:14)!

The parallel epistle, `Hebrews', certainly does not exhibit any sensitiveness in speaking of `reward'. The believer

is exhorted to endurance because of the `recompense of reward' (Heb. 10:35) and the example of Moses is given in

the list of those who obtained a good report, and he is said also to have had `respect unto the recompense of the

reward' (Heb. 11:26). Moreover, the writer of Hebrews actually incorporates this element of reward into both the

nature of faith and the character of God, saying :

`He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him' (Heb.