that Foundation. He was faithful to His promise, for Peter was, and is, a stone in the spiritual temple, harder than adamant; a rock more durable than granite; a gem more precious than a diamond.

I should like my reader to take his two epistles, and read them attentively, prayerfully, as I advised him to do the chapters in the Acts, and he will see Christ the Foundation Stone and life of the Church, the Eternal Power and Godhead in Him, as Peter saw it. The two epistles were addressed to Jewish converts dispersed through Asia Minor.

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Blessed be the God and Father of our JEHOVAH Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." This might have been written thirty years after the crucifixion. In 2 Peter iii. 15, he mentions the Epistles of St. Paul, and yet the fact of the resurrection of Christ was the ground of his hope of eternal life. And so all his early experiences flow from his lips as a thing of yesterday. "Begotten again unto a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Ye know that 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: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."

And the next verse is remarkable: "Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." Peter knew the Godhead to be the foundation of redemption. This is the grand feature of all he ever said; all that he ever taught simply resolved itself into that. And thus it was he could write: "Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." In the work of Christ he saw the Creator. Analyse the foregoing verse, it is replete with the doctrine of God in Christ: "Who by Christ do believe in God "- -as though without Him there was no God; or, certainly, no God for us. By Christ He was made a relative Being; or, by Him the relationship was restored— "that raised Him from the dead; that your faith and hope might be in God." Nothing short of this ever satisfied St. Peter. God was brought home to his help. It is this firm assurance, this steadfastness of his faith, that strikes us. Unquestioning, undoubting, he always came to the point, to the great fact at once. No learned disquisitions, but the fact of God in Christ, the Propitiation of sin, thus reconciling the world unto Himself.

Not only did he see God in Christ the foundation of salvation, of our holy religion, but he saw Him also the substance of the structure the Church.

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the JEHOVAH endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." I repeat, St. Peter's was a manly faith; he comprehended the system of Scripture, had a full knowledge of Christianity, and a bold assurance of the certainty of truth. And thus it was Christ made him a pillar in the Church; or rather, all this was revealed to him by the Father, that he should be a pillar in the Church.

The second chapter, which is really a continuation of the first chapter, is a monument, or code of Christian morals-as are the two epistles-founded upon Christ. "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby if so be that ye have tasted that the JEHOVAH is gracious." Peter was writing to newly-made converts. He had said: "Being born again;" and now he says: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." He was speaking from experience; he had himself grown thereby, from the notable day when he was called by Christ (John i. 41, 42) up to the day in which he stood where he was, the aged apostle, and the immovable adherent of his JEHOVAH. "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of

God, and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

He then referred to the ancient passages (Isa. viii. 14; xxviii. 16), and then again breaks out into that lofty style of moral teaching that none but genuine Christians can understand :-"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." Submission reached its culminating point. The noble vehemence and ardour of his spirit, the impulsive nature, are all now turned into the right channel, directed to high, moral aim.

"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the JEHOVAH'S sake: whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

"For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

Fear

"Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. God. Honour the king." But who the king was in St. Peter's day, or who he meant that was to be honoured, is very difficult to say. There was no king of Israel, unless he meant Christ, the King of the Jews. If he did not mean this, he meant submit yourselves to contingent circumstances, as his Lord had taught him (Luke xx. 25).

"Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

I may extract a few passages more, but as I have said before, the epistles should be read entire, to stand with Peter upon the solid rock upon which he had built.

"The eyes of the JEHOVAH are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the JEHOVAH is against them that do evil.

"And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

"And if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the JEHOVAH GOD in your hearts.

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (chap. iii.).

The fourth chapter is sublime in godly exhortation : the writer had risen above the turmoil of the world, and was already in the kingdom of God.

"The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."

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And then Peter's sanctified spirit compassed the whole system of truth; of "a faithful Creator." He saw the total depravity of man; his fall, his loss, total and complete in all its bearings; and his restoration by the "Creator," also perfect and complete.

The fifth chapter is a sublime exhortation to the