tho encl of all the gmncl manifestations of Divine love an,\ power is just this-to make men liko Goel. What is all revelation for? Not, surely, that men may know ab0ut Goel, nor tha.t they may feel devout emotion towards him. We know that we may feel, nnd we know and feel that we may be and love like Goel ancl do his will. A holy God- like character is tho crown of all religion and the highest purpose of all revelation. 'l'hat model is comprehensive, so as to include the whole round of conduct. "All manner of conversation" is included within itR great sweep. And it is homely, so as to m tight to nnd regulate the smallest duties. The commonest things may be done in imitation of the holy God. The plan of the poorest kitchen garden cannot be made without celestial observations. In our pettiest affairs we cnn bring the mightiest principles to hear. Indeed, the only way to make life great is to apply great principles to small duties; and every deed of the humblest career may be glorified by not only being done as unto God, but in being done like his own acts, of which love is the motive and righteousness the characteristic. II. THE PROCESS OF COPYING THE PATTERN. The language of the text snggests very clearly these points. 1. We ourselves are to be the artificers of our own holy charaders. God gives his grace, and implants his Spirit, which transforms; but all these Divine powers, how numerous and strong soever they may be, do not reach their end without our own strenuous effort. They are the tooh put into our hands to fashion the fabric of a holy life; but we must use them, and put our strength into the use of them, or the fabric will not be built. God makes no man holy by magic, without the man's own hard work. 2. The pi·ocess is slow. We fashion ourselves by repeated efforts and gradually build up a character like his. Emotion may be quickly excited, but making character is always slow work. It cannot be struck out at a blow as sovereigns are struck, but has to be patiently elaborated like some delicately chased golden cup. Actions often repeated make habits, and habits make character. It is formed slowly, as the sedimentary rocks are laid down at the bottom of the sea, by an unseen process lasting for long reons. More than "forty and six years is this temple in building." 3. It is accompanied by a painful destructive process. The character already formed after another model has to be recast. Formerly they had been moulded according to their own " lusts." Each man's own desires had shaped him. He did as he liked best. 'l'hat is sin. That is human nature-not in absolute exclusion of sense of law and duty. Yet still, on the whole, self-will moulds men's lives. Negatively, then, the false tendency of pleasing self must be thwarted. The character already formed must be fought against and subdued. The old man has to be put off. The old metal h3.S to be thrown into the melting-pot, and to be run into a new mould. And that cn.nnot be done without self-denial and pain, to which the bodily tortures of crucifixion are compared by St. Paul. 'fears and blood are shed with less pain than accompanies tearing off this worser self. It is like tearing the very skin from the quivering flesh. But, hard as it is, it has to be clone, if we are ever to be holy as he is holy. 4. The command is made blessed by the motive which enforces it. "He has called us." Then, if he has called us to holiness, we may be quite sure that we shall not aim at it in vain. The thought that we are working in the line of the Divine purposes, and obeying a Divine call, inspires a hope which mightily strengthens us for the task, and goes far to fulfil itseif. God's commands arc promises. If he has called us to be holy, certainly, if we try to obey him, we shall be so. He never summons to tasks which he does not give po1'l'er to perform. He has called, and that makes it certain that he will perfect that which concerneth us. Therefore we may set ourselves with good heart to the glorious task of copying the Divine holiness, assured that to do so is not presumption, but simple obedience, and that, however slow may appear our progress upwards to the shiniug, sno\Yy summit, it is verily his will that we shall one day stand there, and be satisfied, when we awake, in his likeness.-A. M.
Ver. 17.-The Father and Judge. The injunction here and the reason for it are equally strange. Both seem opposed no less to the confidence, hope, and joy which have been glowing in the former part of this chapter than to the general tone of the New Testament. "Live in habitual fear, for God is a strict Judge," strikes a noto which at first hearing sounds a discord. Is not Christianity the religion of perfect love which casts out fcn.r? Is not its very promise that ho who believes shall not coma 36 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. [oH. r.1-25,