CHAP. I.-(Continued.)

What occupied the Old-Testament prophets was, the Spirit's testimony to the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow (5:ii). For them, history was filled up with the events of this earnest expectation. Therefore, were they living now, what would fill their minds, the cross having been accomplished, would be, the looking for the coming glories-not for what man has attained to and boasts of in civilization. Let this have weight with us. In the degree of our sympathy with the hopes of the men of this world are we out of communion with the spirit of those holy men of old who were subject to God. Eighteen hundred years of more or less of civilization and great achievement, would not their spirits have been awed by it, and have acknowledged a certain obligation to show some interest in the march of so great events ? Well, the Scripture gives the answer. There were great empires and human expectations in their day, but their minds were set upon the mystery of the cross-the humiliation and atoning death of a glorious Sufferer, and then the glory. So "Daniel also disposes of this whole age in a few words:" Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase; " but what was all that ? His whole book is occupied with other things-the purposes of God for His people, and the glory of Christ's kingdom, when man's development will have met God's power, and have been forever abased.

We pass on now to the thirteenth verse, to have our minds too set upon the same coming glories:"Wherefore gird up the loins of your find, be sober, and hope to the end (or perfectly), for the grace that is to be brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." This is the opening exhortation of the epistle. It is followed by so many exhortations that it would be a labor to count them, however happy and profitable a labor it would be,- such as, "Be ye holy," " Love one another," "Laying aside all malice," " Desire the sincere milk of the Word," " I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man," "Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands," "Rejoice," "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God," "Be sober, be vigilant," and many more; so that we may say that Peter, among the writers of the New Testament, is an "exhorter." He says, "I exhort" (chap. 5:i); "I beseech" (chap. 2:ii); "I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying" (chap. 5:12); and in the second epistle, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance;" "Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;" and "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles." In behalf of all Scripture, then,-Old Testament and New Testament,-this apostle declares himself an exhorter. With all earnestness he pleads ; filled himself with the love of Christ.

Reference to the Revised Version will show that ver. 13 is the beginning of a new paragraph, or division. Vers. I and 2 form the introductions, and from there to ver. 13 is a second paragraph; from ver. 13 is a third. "Wherefore," refers to the salvation just unfolded in the previous verses, and the example of the prophets, and of the angels. Note, now, the characters of this opening exhortation of this part of the New Testament, presented to us by the Spirit of God. In it we are exhorted to do what we have just been told the prophets did. They set their minds on the coming glory; so we are to hope for the revelation of Christ.
The revelation of Christ will be when He is revealed from heaven,-when. He will appear in glory with His heavenly saints, for the blessing and establishment of His earthly saints in the millennium,-that is, for the blessing of Israel restored to their own land, and of the Gentiles, who to the ends of the earth will share the blessings of that day, of which Jerusalem will be the center, as regards the earth.

The glory of Christ and His heavenly saints will then shine upon the earth and upon the earthly saints. " When Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). Israel-1:e., a remnant- will be waiting for Him in their own land when He appears; but we shall not then be here, for, having been caught up to meet Him before the tribulation of Israel, we shall be seen with Him in glory at its close. Christ in (or among) you the hope of glory" (Col. 1:),-that is, Christ, being the life of these Gentile Colossians, that was the assurance of glory when He came. Col. 1:5 shows it will be heavenly glory by the words "the hope that is laid up for you in heaven," and chap. 3:4, already quoted, that the glory will be at His second coming, when He will appear to all the world, and every eye shall see Him.

This is the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let us lay fast hold of it, for many reject the hope of the Lord's coming, and many who accept it have given up the hope of heaven.

The Holy Scriptures present us both. Let, therefore, the loins be girded, the thoughts gathered in from worldly purposes, and fixed upon our proper hope.

In Egypt (Ex. 12:ii), when in type they are redeemed by blood, they were to eat of the passover-lamb with the loins girded, staff in hand, and shoes on their feet. So we, having been redeemed, the first thing is, again to have the girded loins, as in Luke 12:-" Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." The Christian must reject unbelieving and worldly thoughts by occupation with his heavenly hope, as the fish that were clean (Lev. 11:9) were those that had fins to propel themselves onward, and scales to shut out the element that surrounded them. All that had not these were to be an abomination to Israel. Such is the hatefulness of sin in God's sight. The hope of glory with Christ of necessity shuts out from the heart those things that all the world seek for with the whole heart. But this demands decision of purpose-"diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:ii).

Let the heart be true and firm, and let us habituate ourselves to a steady contemplation of the unspeakable joy that awaits us, and refuse all those things that so easily make inroads upon our souls when the mind has lost its steadfastness.

In Rom. 5:2-5, we find how this Christian hope is confirmed in the heart by a godly walk, and daily victory in trials :"We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."

"Maketh not ashamed,"-that is, the Christian is not confused by the sorrows of the way, like the speculator whose dreams have been disappointed ; but in these very difficulties and distresses, the tender love of God, by His Spirit, so strengthens the heart, that future and unseen glories are made more and more real to us now. This is the joy that, as Peter says, is full of glory.

There is a very beautiful summing, or brief expression,' of this Christian experience in Rom. 2:7 :" To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory; "-that is, a beautiful way and shining path-" patient continuance in well-doing." This is the way God marks out the path to glory, and the glory at the end shines down upon us, and richly sustains on the way to it.

But impatience, unrest, the hands hanging down, the knees feeble, murmurs against God in the secret of the heart, and against man, and yielding to the lusts of the flesh,-not glory, but shame is at the end of that path.

The glory is hidden from us then, and we have taken things into our own hands, deluded by Satan.

Let us make haste to confess our sin, and cast out the intruder, and return to the Lord, and He will pardon; and glory and virtue will again sustain us, the mountain of trouble will be removed, and " every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth." E.S.L.