failure. If they still held their material hopes, the very mention of failure and a cross wouhl be to them an offence indeed. Compare the record, in John vi., of Christ's test- ing bis disciples by declaring high mystical tr-1ths. "Many went back, and walked no more with him." lie even appealed unto the twelve, saying, "Will ye also go away?" I. HIGHEn BELIEFS HAY BE IMPULSIVE SENTIHENTS, A sort of vision a man may gain. Something that is a hope rather than an opinion; a sentiment rather than a judgmcnt. Perhaps every man bas some sublime but unworkable ideas. There are things we dream, wish they were true, and wonp.er whether they are, Perhaps the apostolic grip of the Divine Sonsbip was one of these things that are held convulsively for a moment. Perhaps St. Peter really spoke beyond himself, and no quiet, clear convic- tion lay behind his impulsive speech. And very probably be was, for the moment, quite beyond the reach of the rest. Our working beliefs and our visions of truth. often differ. 11. HIGHER BELIEFS MUST BE MA.DE WOBKADLE PRINCIPLES. NO truth is really worth anything to us that will not come as a vital force into our actual life, duty, and rela- tion. Christ will not keep his apostles up in the high realms of mystical truths. " If you believe me to be the Son of God, we had better recognize som11 facts and truths, and see how the belief will affect them. This Son of God is going to suffer, to fall a. prey to his foes, and to be killed. Will you still believe that he is the Sori. of the living • God when you see him on a croas?" '!'bis is the point of our Lord's reference, just here, to bis sufferings. All our advanced beliefs must be tested. No matter how beautiful they may seem to us, they are of no real value, they are vain dreams, unless they will stand the test of being actually fitted to fact, circumstance, and duty.-R. T. Ver, 23.-He hinder• Christ who would hold him back from his rufferings. This brings before us another relation in which our Lord's sufferings stand. We have seen their relation as a testing of that higher truth to which St. Peter had given expression. Now we see how they bore on that particular mission which Jesus came to carry out. His sufferings wore essential to tha.t mission. He saved the world by Jue sufferings. I. OUR LORD'S PURPOSE TO ENDUUE SUFFERINGS, It should be clearly seen that our Lord knew beforehand all that was to happen to him; and he might have avoided all the pain and distress. Instead, he voluntarily determined to go steadily along the path, bearing and enduring all, because that was the Father's will for him. Explain in this way: Our Lord had to present to God the living sacrifice of a perfectly obetlient Son. But he could not be a perfectly obedient Son if his obedience had not been adequately tested. The series of sufferings through which our Lord passed are the various testings of his Sonship. And because Christ was resolved to make tbe great redeeming sacrifice, he resolved to be&r and endure every way in which the Father might be pleased to test his Sonship. A violent and shameful death was the final test. II. OUR Loan's OFFENCE AT THOSE WHO WOULD HINDER Hnl Fnolll E~URING HIS SUFFERINGS. They did the work of the flesh, which shrinks from suffering; they did not help the sanctified will to gain free expression. St. Peter became a tempter, a worker of evil; one who did the work of au adversary, of man's great adversary. Our Lord here uses the word " Satan" as a figure, without reference to the pen!Onal devil. Ally adversary, any one who works against onr best interests, is a Satan, 'l'o withdraw Christ from his sufferings was to withdraw Christ from his mission; since he could only be made "perfect," as a Bringer-on of souls, by the experience and testing of suffering. Olsbausen thinks that St. Peter forgot himself, and presumed upon the praise which Christ had given him for his noble confession. But it is better, in each case, to treat St. Peter as a mere representative, a mere spokesman, and to see how very imperfect an apprehension of Christ's deeper truth his words involve.-R. T. Ver. 26.-The great gain, and the greater loss. "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his owu soul?" This is an extreme, a paradoxical utter- ance. No man can, in any precise se.nse, "gain the whole y•orld." If he could, it would weigh nothing in the scale against the value of his life. For on life depends enjoy- ment of posses,ionti, Illlltitrnte l,y the parable of the ricl farmer who boasted of what 170 TIIE GOSrEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, [cH. xvn.1-27.
he possessed, and lost it all when he died in the night. Compare our Lord's advice to "lay up tres!'ure in heaven." I. THE _GREAT GAIN IS EARTHLY THINGS. Look over the whole wor~d. Examine th~ pursuits of every class.. Read the story of the long ages. Thie is clearly men's opm1on everywhere. They live ~ get, to win, to grasp, to hold what they call wealth, ~arthly valu_ables-houses, l~nd, Jewels, money, fa~e. Is that really great gain? •rest it by one thrng-How does 1t stand related to man s real soul-life 1 Then it is seen to belong \Ally to the body, which man has for a while; and in no way to the being that he ,:s, and will be for ever. All a man acquires of a merely earthly character belongs to his body, and goes with his body when his body goes; then it is his no more, Treasure on earth is but falsely and unworthily ea.lied "great gain." II. 'I'm, GREATER LOSS IS SPmITUAL CHARACTER. For character is a man's true we.alth; it belongs to the being he is, and is for ever. And one application of ou11 Lord's te.aching here comes out in a very striking way. Gaining earthly thinas is only too likely to involve the destruction of spiritual character, because it is s~ sure to hinder that ••self-denial" which is the absolutely essential foundation of noble and enduring spiritual character. A man gains the heavenly treasure by what he gives up. and not by what he holds fast to (see ver. 24). The sublime illustration is presented in the case of our Lord himself, who acquired nothing earthly, who gave up everythina he had that men are wont to esteem as gain, but who gained the eternal treasure of tested spiritual character, perfected Sonship. In conclusion, meet the difficulty of tbe apparently unpractical character of such teaching. Show that it is really a question of relativity. Which is to be first, pos- sessions or character ?-R. T.