The Principle of Heavenly Rank

 "Every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's."  1 Corinthians 15:23.

       The influence of caste would seem to be ineradicable. We are told that God has leveled down all men in a common condemnation; yet here we read "every man shall rise in his own order." Why not? If you were to reduce all men to one level to-day, they would be quite unequal to-morrow; the best men would come to the front in a few hours. "But," you say, "I expected better things of heaven. I thought in the other world we should be done with all this cutting and carving, this separation of masses and classes, this raising of barriers between man and man. How it disappoints me to hear that a man has to keep his own order! "Nay but, my brother, "what is the order? Who are those that are to stand in front of the throne? It is the men of sacrifice - the men who have most power to hurst the barriers. Christ is ''the first-fruits" because Christ has gone deepest down. Then come ''they that are Christ's " - they that have washed their robes in the blood of self-forgetfulness. Behind them are the rank and file - those who are still unfit for service, who themselves need to be served. These are the invalids of the camp; they require to be waited upon; they go not forth to battle against sin and Satan. In the present world they would have been called the people of means, people of independence, people who keep attendants; but in the coming world the attendants themselves are to have the first room.

       Prepare me for my heavenly rank, O Lord! Thou hast said that the least shall be greatest in Thy Kingdom; prepare me for my coming high position. I speak of preparing for death; that is an easy thing; I have only to practice torpor. But the hard thing is to practice for that which makes heavenly greatness. I could easily make ready for earthly greatness; I should learn to domineer in a week. But to  serve, to help, to minister, to perform menial offices, to retire into the shade that another's light may shine - that needs a long education. I have often wondered why helpful souls are taken away by death. I do not wonder anymore. I leave school when I am fit for this world; the ministrant souls leave school when they are fit for Thy world; they are the ripest fruits of the garden, and they are ripened by fire. The front flowers are Thy Gethsemane flowers - Thy Passion flowers. My place in the New Jerusalem will be determined by my conquest of exclusiveness; and nothing conquers exclusiveness like pain. They who have passed through the furnace of earth come out to Thee unbound. They are freed from the shackles of all caste; therefore they are the prime-ministers of Thy Kingdom.

God's Chosen Servant is Jesus.