^ David Gregg, iu The Treasarij, July 1899, p. 248. - Sir .lolni Beaumont.
I PETER I. 3 49
(4) It is a hope that glorifies death. — The Eesurrection does not merely proclaim immortality. It declares likewise that death leads to life. It assures us that death is the portal to eternity. Thus it glorifies death; it crowns and consecrates the grave. What is the message of the Eisen Christ — the Alpha and Omega — to His Churches ? Not merely " I am he that liveth." This was a great fact, but this was not all. Eead on. " I am he that liveth, and I was dead." Death issuing in life — death the seed, and life the plant and blossom and fruit — this is the great lesson of the Gospel. " I was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for ever- more, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death."
^ There is no part of the history of Jesus which is either unimportant in itself or uninteresting to those whom He shed His heart's blood to redeem. Matters which are seemingly trivial have couched in them a grave significance, and bear directly and impressively upon the great purpose for which He came into the world. And yet — save that death which is the foundation of our hopes of life — there is no spot more hallowed to the affections of the believer, more sacred to his pilgrim feet, than the garden in which there was a sepulchre, where, amid the flowers of the opening spring, the body of Jesus was laid. Oh ! surely the heart will kindle, as we visit it, with thoughts of triumph, not of terror, for it speaks to us of a destroyed destroyer — of a mighty despotism shattered for ever — of a deliverer, whose victory were not complete unless a rejoicing people share it.
Lift up thine eyes to seek the invisible:
Stir up thy heart to choose the still unseen: Strain up thy hope in glad perpetual green
To scale the exceeding height where all saints dwell.
Saints, is it well with you ? — Yea, it is well. —
Where they have reaped, by faith kneel thou to glean: Because they stooped so low to reap, they lean
Now over golden harps unspeakable. —
But thou purblind and deafened, knowest thou Those glorious beauties unexperienced By ear or eye or by heart hitherto ? —
I know whom I have trusted: wherefore now All amiable, accessible tho' fenced. Golden Jerusalem floats full in view.*
1 C. G. Kosaetti, Poevis, 209. JAS.-JUDE — 4
Love and Joy in Believing.
5(
Literature.
Amot (W.), The Lesser Parables and Lessons of Grace, 289.
Brown (C), Trial and Triumph, 15.
Cunningliam (W.), Sermons (1828-1860), 159.
Fairbairn (A. M.), The City of God, 335.
Foster (J.), Lectures, ii. 107.
Hamilton (J.), Faith in God, 226,
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 204, 207.
Jones (J. C), Studies in the First Epistle of Peter, i. 50.
Lambert (J. C), Tliree Fishing Boats, 27.
Leckie (J.), Sermons at Ibrox, 147.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : 1 and 2 Peter and 1 John, 34.
Matheson (G.), Messages of Hope, 161.
Meyer (F. B.), Tried by Fire, 38.
Moore (A. L.), God is Love, 107.
Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 370.
Parker (J.), Sermons (Cavendish Pulpit), i. 113.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, ii. 17.
Kaleigh (A.), The Way to the City, 157.
Somerville (A. N.), Precious Seed, 129.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xii. (1866) No. 361 ;
Ivi. (1910) No. 541. Christian World Pulpit, xiv. 72 (Tuck) ; xxxiii. 193 (Ferguson) ; xxxiv.
88 (Rowland); Iviii. 266 (Macfarland) ; Ixxiii. 118 (Veevers). Church of England Magazine, xxxiv. 345 (Browne). Church Pulpit Year Booh, ii. (1905) 296. Preacher's Magazine, xvi. (1905) 34 (Johns). Treasury (New York), xvi. 163 (Hallock).
Love and Joy in Believing.
Whom not having seen, ye love ; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory. — I Pet. i. 8.
In the preceding verses the Apostle has been speaking of the exceeding joy of primitive Christians in the midst of all their bodily trials and worldly privations. Driven from home, robbed of their substance, injured in person and reputation, they yet greatly rejoiced. What, then, was the secret source of their joy, their invisible support in affliction ? The Apostle answers in the words of our text : " Whom not having seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Jesus Christ — their faith in Him and love to Him — accounts for this phenomenon of exquisite joy in Christian experience, a phenomenon so strange that it baffles philosophy, not only to produce it, but even to explain it.
I.
Love to the Unseen Christ.
1. Love to Christ is independent of sight. — The Christian's love to Christ is of necessity spiritual. The eye that sees Jesus is the mind's, and the heart that loves Him is the mind's too. The sight is spiritual and the affection also. The love may lack the passion and intensity of instinct, but it has the calmness and the power of spirit. The claims of Christ have appealed not to eye and ear, but to heart and mind. We love Him, not for His beautiful face, or fine voice, or winsome ways, but for His mercy and grace, the righteousness and truth that blend so perfectly in His character. We love Him, not so much for what He did, as for what He is. Gratitude for salvation may be the first, but is never the final