For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
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 unto all them also that love his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:6-8
"*Ransomed by the sacrifice of Christ,
*washed from sin in His blood,
and *clothed in His righteousness,
Paul has the witness in himself that his soul is precious in the sight of his Redeemer.
The apostle was looking into the great beyond,
not with uncertainty or dread,
but with joyous hope and longing expectation.
As he stands at the place of martyrdom
he sees not the sword of the executioner
or the earth so soon to receive his blood;
he looks up through the calm blue heaven of that summer day to the throne of the Eternal.
This man of faith beholds the ladder of Jacob's vision, representing Christ,
who has connected earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God."
Acts of the Apostles p.511,512 E.G.W.
