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I. Christian excellence is an ATTAINMENT.

1. Christian excellence is an attainment in contradistinction to a native growth. It does not spring up in the soul as an indigenous germ. It is a seed that has been taken in and cultivated.

2. Christian excellence is an attainment in contradistinction to an impartation. In a sense, it is the gift of God; not in the sense in which life and light and air and the seasons of the year are the gifts of God, blessings that come upon us irrespective of our own efforts, but rather in the sense in which the crops of the husbandman, the learning of the scholar, the triumphs of the artist, are the gifts of God — blessings that come as the result of appropriate labour. We shall grow neither good nor be made good; we must become good; we must struggle after it.

II. Christian excellence is an attainment that REQUIRES FAST HOLDING.

1. Because it is worth retaining. Its value will appear by considering three things.

(1) The priceless instrumentality employed to put man in possession of it: the mission of Christ.

(2) Its essential connection with man's spiritual well-being; there is no true happiness apart from it.

(3) Its capability of unlimited progress; it may be as a grain of mustard, but it can grow.

2. Because there is a danger of losing it.

(1) Men who have had it have lost it before now.

(2) Agencies are in constant operation here that threaten its destruction.

III. Christian excellence is an attainment that will be placed BEYOND DANGER AT THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.

1. He comes to every Christian at death.

2. When He thus comes —

(1) He crushes for ever our enemies. He bruises the head of Satan under our feet.

(2) He removes from us everything inimical to the growth of goodness.

(3) He introduces us into those heavenly scenes where there will be nothing but what ministers to the advancement of goodness. Take heart, Christian, the struggle is not for long.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

WEB: "To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: "The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things: