If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive also the future world, according as He has promised that He will raise us again from the dead, and that if we live worthily of Him, “we shall also reign together with Him”, provided only we believe.
(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians)

His eighty-six years of faith still burned;
He had no other choice.
This present life was dead to him
If he denied his Life.

He who had not scorned the Cross
Had called him as His own
And so life’s treasures were all dust
And flames had lost their power.

Broken joints and pierced sides
Were honours from the One
Who promised him a crown of life
In the endless life to come.

Eighty-six years he had believed
And known the arms of grace.
They lifted him now from the flames
For he had won his crown.