The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 36

Teacher, Exnmple, and the like, do not really unite us to him. Th,iy mfly lead on to lnfUer and truer thoughts of him, but till we are united to him there will he nn mtl love, nncl therefore no real union. Faint and feeble our love may be, unworthy of him it over is; but ifwe have none we are not Christians. We shall have none unless our faith grasps him as our Saviour by his incarnation, cross, and resurrection. The ques- tion for us all is-Do we trust to Christ who died for us? Do we therefore love him because he loved us, and gave himself for us? Confidence and love have always heen the bonds of union between mea, which alone have made human society better than a den of hyenas. They are the bonds which unite us to God. Christ asks no more of us than that we should transfer to him the emotions and affections which we have lavished oa one another, and let the tendrils which we have twined round rotten bo11~h3 and dead stumps cbsp his cross, that there we may cling and climb, and grow and bear fruit. From his cross, from his throne, he asks of each, "Lovest thou me?" '!'hough our eyes have not seen him, our hearts need not falter in the answer, "Thou knowest that I love thec."-A. M. Vers. 8, 9.-0hristian joy. There are better things than joy. A life framed on purpose to secure it is contemptible, and foredoomed to failure. Like sleep, it comes most surely unsought, and that angel of God meets us as we travel on the way of duty. It is not a worthy motive to urge for loving Jesus Christ that we shall be happy if we do, and much harm has been done by preaching a kind of gospel which winged its exhortations mainly with such calculations. But, on the other hand, it would be over- strained to take no account of the fact that joy follows faith in Christ as surely as fragrance is breathed from opened flowers. A pure and sober-suited gladness is one of the "virgins following" that queen. If it were not so, if there were no connection between goodness and happiness, there would arise a far greater difficulty in vindicating the ways of God than comes from the apparent absence of connection between goodness and prosperity. 'l'he strong words of this text assert th:it connection in the broadest way. I. THE DEPTH AND HEIGHT OF CHRISTIAN JOY. It is a melancholy testimony to the meagre and shallow nature of the ordinary type of Christian life, that, in defiance of plain grammar, the words here have been often taken to refer to the future. They have been felt to be a world too wide for the experience of most of us. They speak of an exuberant joy which might be called a jubilant leaping up of the heart, of a joy far too great to be shut up in the bounds of speech and which has been glorified, transfigured, as if already clothed upon with the light of heaven. No wonder that men whose highest experience of Christian gladness fell far below this, should escape from the questions which the contrast suggests by throwing this joy into the future. But it is clearly meant to be realized in the present. Such joy is possible, and, if it be not actual in us, we should be wiser to look for the reason than to wrap ourselves in the comfortable excuse that it was never meant to be ours here. 1. The true foy is silent. It is but a shallow heart that can tell its treasures. "He is a poor man who can count his flock," says a proverb. All deep emotions pass beyond speech. The deepest love can but "love and be silent." The great river slides along with equable and noiseless motion, while the brook chatters among its pebbles. The Christian joy is not in need of laughter, nor of words, nor of any outward signs. Mirth is noisy; deep joy is calm, grave, still. It sits at the Master's feet, and moves not in its deep restfulness; only the light in the eyes and the holy glow on the still face tell the depth of the blessedness. Earth's joys are the crackling of thorns; Christian joy burns steadily. 2. It is "glorified." It already partakes of the glory which is to be revealed, and thereby is elevated and transfigured. Joy may easily become frivolous. Most of our earthly joys are but light- winged and painted butterflies in summer skies. But the emotion may be heightened and ennobled and changed from the short-lived flutterer among flowers to a strong- pinioned son of light, gazing on and rising to God. Instead of the iridescent bubble that bursts at a touch, it may become solid and permanent. Touched by the glory of that on which it is nourished, joy is glorified, even as, infected by the foulness of that on which it gorges, it may be debased. As is its object, so is it-varying from dignity to degradation. A man may have his face flushed with wine, or may turn to gaze on ihe sun, and be irradiated by the light to which be looks, as Stephen's face glowed  30 THE FJHST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PE'l'EU, [un. 1. 1-26,