The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 61

miseries need many mercies." Hence we have revelations of God's mercy, as great mcl'(,y, abui1da11t mercy, plente()'ll,S mercy, tender mercies, muUitude of mercies, mercy that "endttreth for ever." The heart of man may well glow with gratitude as he vows, "I "·ill sing of mercy," etc. II. PRAISE TO Gon FOR A BRIGHT ROPE OF A GLORIOUS FUTURE. 1. Here is praise to God for a hope. This is, indeed, pa.rt of the praise of every heart which thanks God for Christianity. For Christianity does not profess to satisfy all the aspirations of the heart here. Much yearning for knowledge, for pardon, for grace, is met now, but much remains as unfulfilled hope, and for that hope we praise God. What hope? (1) Hope is expectant desfre. What we wish for and what we count on having are the two ingredients of hope. (2) Living hope. (a) This, in contrast to the dead-a.live sur- mises, vague guesses at the future, the pagans had, and above which Jews scarcely rose. (b) This in contrast, as Leighton says, to lying hopes and dying hopes about things in the world-hopes that die before us or die when we die. (c) 'l'his is a hope that makes life a life of hope, an anchored life that does not drift, a brightened life that does not darken into despair; eager, expectant vision; who, though "sojourners o~ the Dispersion," with a vast sense of weariness enfolding all things, were truly p1lgr1ms whose faces and whose feet were set towards the land of sunrise, not of sunset. 2. Here is praise to God for a future. What future? St. Peter describes to them a plan that is (1) a contrast to their present lot as" sojourners of the Dispersion," who had lost inheritance in Palestine; and (2) a completion of what inheritance Palestine might have been and what their Christian character already was. "Inheritance," It can only be known negatively, and there is no actual description of what is beyond apprehension and understanding. But we can know what it has not-that which mars and spoils best thin.:,"!! here. .A possession secured, surely awaiting them. .A state and a condition of the soul and its surroundings. (a) "Incorruptible." No tendency in it to decay and to destruction. Substance imperishable. The tenure not to expire as in Palestine. (b) "Undefiled." Not to be spoiled by defilement or pollution, as their old inheritance in Palestine, by idolatries and tyrannies. (c) "Fadeth not away." It.s beauty immortal. No winter to wither it. Ill. !'RAISE TO GoD FOB ms WONDERFUL METHODS OF INSPIRING THE HOPE AND ENSURING THE FUTURE. The future. Peter is here praising God both as Trustee of such a future, and Guardian of those who inherit it by hope. 1. God has that future reserved. "In heaven "-in safe keeping. 2. God will in due time let it be revealed. " Salvation.'' 3. God has that future for his bestowal as an inheritance. He gives heaven to man as a gift of love-free love. Righteously, and according to their fitness for it; but graciously, and not as measured by their merits. .A heaven we merited would be a poor, meagre heaven in contrast with what is here described; and so might it not be a hell , The heir does not buy, does not win, does not by battle secure inl,eritance; he simply grows up to the age that claims it, So with heaven. When John at Runnymede asked the barons assembled about him there, by what right they held their lands, hundreds of swords flashed like lightning from their sheaths, and defiant tones pealed like a tbunner-clap on the king's ears, "By these we won them, and by these we hold them." But let any inquiring lips ask multitudes above, in blessed possession of the inheritance of heaven, by what right they hold t~ose high and priceless possessions; and, taking crowns of dignity and glory from their brows, and casting them before the Lamb that was slain, their adoring exclamation, is, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in hia blood," etc. Nay, not only when the redeemed are in heaven do they realize that it is an unbought, unmerited inheritance, but even when good men tread the frontier of that kingdom, and step on the threshold of that home, they feel the same. When Bossuet, perhaps the most illustrious of French preachers and prelates, lay dying in great suffering anu. prostration, one who was present thanked him for all his kindness, and, using the court language of the day, begged him when in another world to think of the friends that were so devoted to his person and reputation. .At this last word ("reputation"), Bossuet, who had almost lost the power of speech, raised himself from the bed, and gathered strength to say, not without indignation, "Don't talk like that! Ask God to forgive a sin_ncr his sins." Yes; that is the Christian's attitude, that the Christian's spirit, even enterrng heaveD., 011. 1. 1-25.] 'l'HE FIRST EPIS'l'LE GENERAL OF PETER. 55