I.

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." (i Pet. 1:i, 2.)

I call particular attention to the expression "Grace unto you … be multiplied, which may be divided into three parts-"grace," "unto you," and "be multiplied." We have in this first epistle of Peter a sevenfold "multiplication" of "grace unto us; "and seven, as we know, is significant of completeness-a measure filled full, and in this sevenfold multiplication of grace I think we shall find that each number of the series is significant, or is an index, of the special grace involved in it.

The number I manifestly belongs to God as Sovereign, the Almighty. "Hear, O Israel:the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. 6:4.) "One Lord, and His name one." (Zech. 14:9.) This sovereign Ruler is acting in grace, not now in judgment, or even on the principle of law, but in grace,-His throne is a throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). This grace has a special application to the "strangers" addressed in our epistle:it is "unto" them. They are the specific objects of this grace, or favor. It is the character of their relation to this omnipotent One, they are in His favor. They may not have the favor of any of earth's potentates, since they are " strangers " in it, but they are in the favor of the living God. This grace is what we are to multiply-our multiplicand, so to speak.

II.

" Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." (10:9, 10.)

This is clearly number 2-the number of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Second Person of the Trinity, who left His throne in heaven's highest glory, and came down into a world of sinners, linked up some of those poor sinners with Himself, and went back to the bright glory He had left, not taking them with Him, but leaving them in the scene of sin and suffering,-not removing the furnace, or bringing temporal deliverances, but allowing the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual, and affording them grace so that they could pass through it unscathed, and even turn it to account to bring glory to Him, as, e.g., Acts 16:24-34.

This is grace number 2, beloved. And how wonderful, is it not? And how well He who stamps it with His character knows how and when to minister it. No marvel if the prophets of old " inquired and searched diligently " as to it, and even if " the angels desire to look into" it. May we be more diligent in our search into such wondrous grace. Number 2 is the number of the book of Exodus, the book of deliverance, and deliverance is clearly stamped upon this our second multiplication of grace.

III.
"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." (5:13.) The number 3 is the number in which God was fully revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It also denotes fullness, perfection, reality.

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear (be manifested), then shall ye also appear (be manifested) with Him in glory." (Col. 3:4.) What wondrous grace will be brought unto us then, beloved! God will be fully displayed and owned as God, and we shall be fully displayed and owned as His sons in glorified bodies. We see it not yet, it is true; but well may we "hope" and "patiently wait for it." (Rom. 8:25.) Surely the number 3 is rich in meaning here, speaking to us of the "reality," " fullness," and " manifestation" awaiting the sons of God (cf. Rom. 8:19).

IV.

" Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (Chap. 3:7.)

The number 4 is almost interpreted for us in the above verse. The fourth book of Moses-Numbers-speaks of practical walk through the wilderness (this world), and of the poor earthen vessel, which indeed, if He do not fill, can only manifest its weakness in sin and failure.

How beautiful and how precious the grace which stoops to serve us here in our poor human associations, while walking through this valley of weeping! And shall we not do well to remember, brethren, that it is not unto the weak vessel we are to give honor, but unto the weaker, thus reminded that we ourselves are the weak ?

V.

" As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (Chap. 4:10.)

The number 5 denotes responsibility,-stewardship. It is man's number as a responsible human being. The five digits on each hand and foot, and the five senses with which he is put into communication with the scene around him, show this. The fifth book of Moses,-Deuteronomy
-deals largely with responsibility.

The human hand is a wonderful thing; the very rocks become plastic under it, the wilderness is made to blossom by it, the lightning is caught and harnessed to man's chariot-wheels, we may truly say, by it. Let us examine it more closely, and see if it will not tell us, not only that we are stewards, but how we may be "good stewards."

It has five digits, composed of a 4+ I.. The 4 in the presence of and yielding to the I. Only thus is work performed really. Four is the symbol of weakness-of the earthen vessel. One is the number of God, the almighty One; so in the human hand we have a living, practical illustration of weakness yielding to strength- impotence controlled by Omnipotence. Herein, beloved, is the secret of successful stewardship.
So we are stewards, stewards of the various grace of God. We have had a fourfold multiplication of grace put into our hands, and now we must "trade" (Matt. 25:16). When Moses was asked "What is that in thine hand?" he replied, "A rod." (Ex. 4:2.) But in our hands we have a fourfold (universal) application of the grace of God.

Our stock-in-trade is just our circumstances-whether sickness or health, poverty or wealth, joy or sorrow- every thing, we are entitled to take from the blessed hand of Him who loves us (cf. i Cor. 3:21).

Taking, in this way, every burden from Him, whose love could withhold nothing, whose wisdom could omit nothing, and whose power would stop short of nothing which would be for our good, we should realize that it was His burden, and should find it " light." (Matt. 11:30.) What burden could be aught but light if He imposed it ? ,The care of it, however, we must leave with Him, as He well knows we could not carry that, so He thus yokes Himself with us–He takes His part of every burden, we take the thing itself as put upon our shoulders by the hand of infinite love, as that in which we are to display His power; he takes the care of it (i Pet. 5:7). What a sweet and blessed "yoke"! Surely it cannot but be "easy"! Thus "yoked" and thus "burdened," we are ready to trade with the all-various grace intrusted to us; and if the human hand tells us plainly that we are stewards, it tells us no less plainly how we may be "good stewards of the various grace of God." Impotency bows implicitly to Omnipotence,-the 4 yields to the I. And if we stoop, we find ourselves stooping to One who has, in serving us, stooped lower than we ever can.

May we value the grace that has been put into our hands, " inquire and search diligently" into it, and be like the angels who "desire to look into " it.

As we succeed in our stewardship, the mighty, secret power by which we are furnished and sustained, is made manifest, and God is glorified. (Read 10:11-19 of chap. 4:)

VI.

" Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (Chap. 5:5.)

The number 6 speaks of God's limit upon man's will and work. "Six days shalt thou labor." (Ex. 20:9). If 6 be divided by 2 (the enemy's number), we have 3 (God displayed); so, as God's hand is submitted to, good is brought out of evil-"the eater brings forth meat." (Judg. 14:14). How wonderful that God can make even this number 6 yield grace,-man's number, which when fully developed, produces 666, the number of the willful one, the man of sin! (Rev. 13:18.)

VII.

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." (Chap. 5:10.)

The number 7 speaks of a measure filled full, and how appropriately " the God of all grace" comes in here to fill it! indeed, who but He could fill it? If our "multiplicand " was the grace of God, our multiplication ends with the God of grace Himself; and this is perfect-the circle is complete.

But still there is an-

VIII.

" By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand." (5:12.)

This is like the eighth day, or like the octave in music, and carries us back to what we have been going over. In our number I we could say, " This is the true grace of God wherein ye stand;" and so in number 2, number 3, and so on.

It will be seen that the sevenfold series we have been looking at is a 3+4. The first three multiplications of grace presenting what is objective-outside of us, ending with manifestation in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is perfect in itself:there is no going any higher. We can go no farther.

The next is a series of 4, and presents what is subjective, grace in us,-1:e., in the earthen vessel (4).

How marvelous is the grace of our God! He stooped to serve us at the cross, He will stoop to serve us again in the glory, and day by day, and day and night, He stoops to serve us, making each circumstance subserve His glory and our blessing.

May we be apt scholars in this divine arithmetic, and not merely hearers of the Word, but doers thereof, that God may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. J.B.J.