The correspondence of the two epistles places together the two outstanding thoughts

of the Prize and the Crown. There are some who see a difficulty here. They say that in

Phil. 3: 14, the Apostle has a Prize in view, whereas in II Tim. 4: 8, it is a Crown, and

that these different words must refer to different things. But is this so? We can deal with

the objection in two ways, either of which will show that the conclusion drawn is false.

Let us suppose that an athlete enters for a competition. It is announced that the winner of

"The 500 yards" will receive a prize. He runs the race and comes in first, and on the

appointed day goes forward to the dais, where a lady has honoured the Sports Club by

consenting to give the Prizes. One after another of the successful competitors have gone

forward, received their Prize, bowed and retired, amid the cheers of their fellows. Our

"500 yards" winner now goes forward, and the lady, with a gracious smile, hands him a

silver cup. To the amazement of all present he refuses the cup on the ground that he

expected a "Prize". The thing is too ridiculous to continue--no one in his senses could

ever entertain such an objection. If instead of a silver cup the lady had presented him

with a purse of money, a live pig, a ticket for a cruise, it would still have constituted the

Prize. Without being formal logicians each of us acts in such circumstances as though

they had actually reasoned the matter out thus:--

GENUS (Prize).

just as is done in countless other cases, such as when we speak of a flower.

GENUS (A Flower).

There are some, however, who look with suspicion upon "Logic", forgetting that

without reason and rule language itself would be but a collection of words.

We are, however, happy in being able to turn from any appearance of "reasoning" to

the Scriptures themselves. We feel sure that, given his belief in the inspiration and

authority of the Scriptures, the most strenuous opponent would agree with the following

line of investigation and proof. Paul uses the words "Prize" and "Crown" in Phil. 3:

and II Tim. 4:, and uses them in contexts that both state and imply the figurative

background of a race or athletic effort. If this same Paul, in a similar context, brings

together Prize and Crown in such a manner as to leave no doubt that the Crown is the

Prize in view, then we have settled beyond controversy two things, namely:

The student of the Scriptures knows quite well that Paul has done all that we here

claim. Here is the passage:--