In his admonitions and instructions Brother Saylor beautifully referred to the Olympic games celebrated by the ancient Greeks once every four years. From these the figure of running a race, given in the text, was borrowed. A man cannot run long and well with a load on his back. You have no doubt seen the fabled demigod Atlas pictured with the world on his shoulders. I have often thought of that old Grecian representation of avarice, as being something like a true picture of many professors of the Christian religion at the present day. You see the old myth struggling along with this big round world on his back, apparently casting his eyes upward at times as if he might be longing to reach the top of Mount Olympus, the home of the gods: but alas! his head is bowed and his back bent under the mighty pressure, and he never got there. It will fare no better with the man who tries to carry this world with him to heaven. The apostle says: "Let us cast off every weight" that would hinder our progress. You know the devil is called a serpent. No sane man ever yet invited a snake to bite him. If one is bitten by a copperhead or rattlesnake, it is either because he has gone where he ought not go, or else, if compelled, he was not watchful, but was off his guard. Besetting sins are these snakes in the grass and along the hedges. The apostle here takes it for granted, as a thing settled long ago, that the Christian has laid aside his habitual sins. Besetting sins are such as we meet or overtake unexpectedly in the way, and like robbers that beset us and take our goods, they spoil our peace and take away our joy. The best way for all Christians is to keep out of the way of snakes and robbers. "And let us run with patience the race that is set before us." In another place Paul says: "I press forward to the mark for the prize." He represents the Christian as running, but not as uncertainly. Not as if some one else might beat him and take the prize, and he thereby lose it. No, no! In the Christian race there is a prize for every one that runs with patience the race set before him. But he also speaks of a _mark_. The language here employed indicates that the _mark_ must be reached before the prize can justly be claimed. This mark is conformity to Christ in spirit and life. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "He has set us an example that we should follow in his steps." The prize is heaven and eternal happiness. God is pleased to give to his children things which they are incapable of obtaining by their own efforts; but he will not give direct what they are capable of getting by judicious means rightly applied. It is no credit to any one to depend on others for what he could win for himself. It is so in the Christian's race for eternal life.