fairest has a moth to gnaw it; all things in this world fade and decay. But in that better and brighter world there is no corruption, and therefore there is no decay; this inheritance by the lapse of years "fadeth not away;" and, blessed thought! it is "reserved in heaven for you;" and if it be reserved for you, then you are reserved for it; for he adds, "You are kept by the power of God through faith," as the means-" unto salvation," as the end; a salvation that, like the new Jerusalem, cometh down from heaven, perfect and complete, in the last times. And then he says, such is this salvation that Christians greatly rejoice in it. "Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations." What a strange composite is a Christian. He is in heaviness, he is in temptations, and yet he rejoices; tears and smiles, like April sunshine and showers, chase each other in rapid alternation. But the heaviness all comes from the world, the joy all comes from heaven; the source of your joy is what you have in Christ, the source of your sorrow is what you feel in yourselves, and yet in all your sorrows

there is a needs be.

Now here is consolation to a Christian: the sorrow that is bitterest, the load that is heaviest, the trial that is most poignant, have each one of them a needs be; that is, it never would have been sent you if it had not been expedient for you, and the very fact that you are in great tribulation should instantly awaken in your mind the certain assurance that there is a reason for it; and if there were no reason for it, it would not be sent you. And who is the judge of the reason? Not a brother, whose judgment is fallible; but our heavenly Father, whose wisdom never errs, whose omni

presence never sleeps, whose love never falters or forsakes you. Then he tells you that one end of your trials is what? "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth"-in other words, one reason why we are in affliction is that our faith may be put to the test. You do not know what a ship is worth till she has been exposed to the winds and waves of the ocean; you do not know how firm a house is, or how rooted the oak is, till it has felt the storms and the tempests of winter; and you do not know what your own faith is, whether it be not a mere sham, a mere pretence, until it has risen superior to all the trials and the temptations of the world. And what a beautiful image of our trial is gold. Gold is put into the furnace, it is then melted, and kept till all the dross that comes to the surface is taken off and put away; and then the gold, instead of being fifteen, is eighteen, or twenty-three, or its maximum, twentyfour carats fine. Now some one has made the very beautiful remark that once a person asked a goldrefiner why, while he was refining his gold, he always kept looking at it. His answer was, "As soon as the molten gold is so pure that it reflects my face, so soon I cease keeping it in the furnace." May not this be a lesson to us? As soon as our character reflects the image of Him who hath called us, so soon he will take us from the furnace of affliction, and receive us and place us in his own fellowship, and communion, and love.

And then he says, in the eighth verse, speaking of Jesus Christ," Whom having not seen, ye love";" you can love the unseen, but you cannot love the unknown; "in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing,"

which is as good as seeing, "ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." But what does this teach us? That a Christian is a happy man; that joy is to be in every pulse of his heart; and if he is not a happy man it is not because his religion makes him sad, but something external to it. Then he says that of this salvation of which Christians are partakers the prophets inquired in ancient times, anxious to know its nature, its characteristics, and its issues; and all that was revealed to them was this, "that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." They were therefore to cease to be curious; and to be satisfied with this, that they were ministers of making known to others in the exercise of God's love and beneficence the unsearchable riches of Christ.

He then calls upon them to look to practical duties. "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, be obedient children, be ye holy; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."

He tells them that prayer to the Father, who judgeth according to every man's work, will always be heard; and as praying people they were to pass the time of their sojourning here in fear; that is, the fear which is made up of reverence and love, and which constitutes the worship of God.

Next he reminds them of this glorious fact: "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." What a thought, that He who was the great Lord of heaver

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and of earth became a servant, took our place, bare our curse, and exhausted it, in order that we might be made the sons of God. Then says Peter, this was no after-thought; but Christ as the atonement was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Next he calls upon them who by him do believe in God, that raised him from the dead, and have purified their souls, to love one another with a pure heart fervently. Now here is the Christian duty-to love one another; not to love those that belong to the same sect, the same party, the same country; but to love all mankind with a love of beneficence; and all Christians, of every denomination and sect, as brethren in the same family, as children of the same Father, as the heirs of the same blessed and eternal home. And the reason why they should love one another, he says, is this: "Ye are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible;" that is, God's holy word; "by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

He adds, "All flesh is as grass;" the grass grows up, a frost touches it, and it is gone. If it survive the frosts, how often does something occur in the summer that blights it; or the sunbeams scorch it; and if it survive all these it is cut down, and it withereth. And the very chiefest of mankind, the noblesse of human nature, what are they? Only the flower of the grass; a little lovelier, a little taller, but of the same nature; and because taller more exposed to the biting frost, to the blighting heat, and equally to the scythe of the mower. "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." "But"-what a magnificent contrast-" the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

CHAPTER I. 3, 4.

THE INHERITANCE.

THIS first Epistle of Peter seems to have been addressed to the Christian Jews, converts from Judaism, scattered throughout the world, and suffering at that time evidently great persecution and affliction. It is addressed to "the strangers," that is, those that were far from home, wandering in foreign lands, and scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. He refers, as we have seen, to their afflictions when he says that, "though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." As strangers living without a present home, he tells them of a future and a glorious one; as persons persecuted for their attachment to the Saviour, he opens up to them springs of present and refreshing consolation-shows that in the midst of their trials there were more than compensatory blessings, and at the end of their journey an inheritance so rich, so magnificent and incorruptible, that it would outweigh all that they had suffered by the road; and therefore that they ought now to