Who are Saints?
I. Notice what we certainly do not mean when we speak of men being saints of God. (1) I find no warrant for believing that the asceticism which appears to have so strange a charm for some minds is pleasing to God, and I find a great deal to convince me that it is even contrary to the spirit of Christian liberty. (2) As self-imposed pain, or discomfort, or poverty does not in any way make a man a saint, so neither is it necessary that there should be any pain or discomfort required of us at all I say it is not necessary; I do not say more. Suffering, even for Christ's sake, does not make a man a saint, but saintliness will make any man brave enough to suffer. (3) Mere blamelessness does not make a saint of Christ.
II. Who, then, is the true saint? Our text will lead us to the right answer. (1) First, the saints have passed through great tribulation. The first element of saintliness is sorrow for sin; the truest tribulation is that which remorseful grief for sin occasions. (2) The second element in this sanctity is this: that along with shame and sorrow for sin there should be also faith in the Saviour of sinners, for these saints had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (3) The third element in this saintliness is a spirit of devotion. They are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple, not with a formal, ascetic devotion which trusts to times and places too exclusively. But surely there can be no true sanctity without the spirit of prayer, and that spirit of prayer cannot be kept alive without the frequent act of prayer also.
A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons,p. 139.
Reference: Revelation 7:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1316.