The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 33

II. v'i-HAT WE ARE KEPT THROUGII, Faith is the condition, the necessary condition, on which God's power works in and on us. 'l'he garrison which God sends to hold our hearts cannot enter unless we open the gate and let down the drawbridge to receive them. Our faith has no power in itself, but as our receptivity for Divine influences it is omnipotent. It is only a. channel-the pipe which conveys the water, the hand which grasps God's hand, the open door through which angels can enter and encamp in our poor hearts. They cannot come to our help without it. They will certainly enter if we exercise this faith. Its elements are conscious need, lowly sense of our own weakness, and self-distrust, absolnte dependence on God in Christ, and a ea.Im confidence and expectation of nctory, which, when based on God, is reasonable and self-fulfilling, The measure of our faith will be the measure of our possession of the Divine power. If we open the gate but partially, we hinder the marching in of the celestial warriors whom God sends to our help. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will :fill it." III. WHAT WE ARE KEPT FOR. The "salvation ready to be revealed" is equivalent to the "inheritance" spoken of in ver. 4. "Salvation" here is of course used in its fullest meaning---<:omplete and eternal deliverance from all the ills that flesh is heir to, and all the sins that mar the spirit, and complete and eternal possession of all the perfection an,l blessedness possible to glorified humanity. That complete flooding out of evil by the inrushing tide of glory is the goal alike of regeneration (ver. 3) and of the sedulous gnardianship of God's grace. It is but the completion of the begun salvation of earth; as the full corn in the ear which gladdens the golden harvest-Erne is of the tiny shoot peeping above the furrows in bleak, windy March. It is "ready to be revealed," ea.ye Peter. Possibly the meaning may be that this" salvation" is conceived of as lying hidden beneath much sin and imperfection in the hearts of Christians, as the full-spread beech- life lies wrapped up in the brown cone that braves the winter. The ultimate com- pleted form of any germ may be said to lie ready to be revealed in its earliest form, and so may the remotest glories of the perfect salvation of the future be said to lie hid in the present, waiting for "the revelation of the sons of God." But perhaps, with more probability, we may regard this expression as in a general way parallel to the reservatiini of the inheritance, and as being a strong metaphor intended to convey the certainty of our possession of it, if we on our parts are faithful Nor must we forget that Ch~ist has gone "to prepare a place" for us; his entrance into the heavens making heaven. ready for us in mysterious manner, and his abiding there making our entrance there possible. That other order of things is close around us, enfolding this visible, touching it at every point. The separation is thin and filmy, nothing solid, only a veil. A touch of God's hand on the curtain, and it runs back rattling on its rings, and all the glory blazes out. All is ready-ready from all eternity in the Divine counsels; made ready once for all in time by Christ's death and ascension, being made ready in our hearts day by day by his gracious discipline and indwelling life. At last the veil will be done away and the salvation revealed. What an apocalypse that will be I If we open our hearts wide for the entrance of Christ's healing and upholding power, we shall be made ready to go in with him to the feast prepared for believing hearts from of old. Trusting to his death and sharing his life, the heirs will be kept for the inheritance, and the inheritance for the heirs.-A. M. Ver. 6.-The paradox of the (Jhristian life-joy subsisting with sorrow. When he. wae young, Peter had been peculiarly impatient of sorrow, and blind to its necessity aTid worth. He had forgotten his reverence for Christ in his refusal to believe, even on his Master's authority, that sorrow could touch so dear a head. Years and experience had tauuht him the deep meaning of the prophetic contrast which Christ had_ drawn between° his early self-willed, unhindered action, and his later days, when his will should be crossed and unwelcome compulsion should lord it over him. T_his Epistle is remarkable for the clearness of its insight and the frequency of its references to suffer-. ing,_as an indispensable factor in the Christian life. When he was old, he had learned the lesson which had been so foreign to bis hot youth. Well for us if our past sorrows lie transfigured and illuminated by a beam of light like this in the text! I. THE JOY OF THE CHRISTI.AN LIFE. We have first the source of the joy. " Wherein ye greatly rejoice." The complex whole of the blessings spoken of-the lively hope, tl,e re6erved inheritance, the guarding power, the prepared salvation, its future apoca- OJI. I. 1-2:i.] 'l'IIE FrnST EPIS'l'LE GENEP.AL OF PETEn. 27