men!~. If we gorge ourseh·es on tho sugared delights of earth, or on the rank "leeks and garlic" of Egypt, how can tbo manna but taste insipid to our palates? 'l'herelore abstinence from these, and a tight hand on our desires and passions, are esseutial if we are to have any healthy hunger for wholesome food. Again, the appetite will in this case securo its being satisfied. This hunger is unlike all other hunger, in that it will certninly be filled. So the apostle does not even say drink, but he only says desire. For he knows that if there be the longing there will be the fruition, as certainly as the air flows into expanded lungs, or the sunshine into opened eyes. Other longings are often pain, and often vain, This is blessed in itself, and blessed in its sure fulfil- meut, He who can say, "I long for thy \Vord," will al ways be able to say," I did eat it, and it was the joy and rejoicing of my heart." Is this eager appetite for the Word of God the characteristic of our Christianity? Does the neglect of Scripture, the prefer- ence of almost any book to the Bible, which so many of us must confess, look like it? Does the utter disuse of meditation by such multitudes of professing Christians look like it? Can anybody suppose that people who scarcely ever occupy their minds with Divine truth, except when they languidly sit out a. sermon, are thirsting for tbe pure milk of the Word? III. 'l'HE GROWTH. "Unto salvation" is now usually admitted, as in the Revised Version, at the close of the verse. Of course, that word is here used, as it is in ver. 9 of the previous chapter, for the complete deliverance from evil anrl investiture with good, which waits the believer in heaven. The whole Christian life on earth, then, is to be a continuous growth. Here we are all but as infants at the best, and we only come to maturity in another life. Salvation is the possession of "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." It is not, as some caricature the Christian doctrine, a mere escape from an outward hell, but is the attainment of the full height of man- hood made God-like. That is the izoal set before the Christian-an ever-progressive approximation t-0 the unreachable God, an ever-increasing appropriation of infinite perfection into his indefinitely expanding being. .And towards that endless gro1Vth and eternally increasing knowledge of and likeness to the revealed God in Christ, we may .be steadily advancing here. If we will only use the amply adequate means provided for us, and let our souls feed on the Word of God, we shall grow as certainly as the child passes from infancy to boyhood and adolescence. But in order to feeding on that Word there must be rigid self-restraint, and many a struggle with lower appe- tites. Christian growth is no natural process. 'l'he painless, unconscious, spontaneous growth of the infant at the breast, or of the corn in the field, does not tell ns all the facts. There are other symbols of Christian progress. It is a pilgrimage often to be trodden with bleeding feet. It is a building which does not "rise like an exhalation," but tasks strength and skill to lay its courses. It is a fight often desperate, al ways real, and in which that Word of God which is milk for the growing babe, is the sword for the warrior-band. We have to fight that we may have room to grow; and of our conflict and of our growtll the instrument is the Word of God.-.A. M.
Vers. 4, 5 (to" built up").-Living stone!, We have here incidentally a plain proof that to Peter, Jesus Christ was Divine. He has just been quoting Old Testament words which speak of "the Lord" ns "gracious,'' and he goes on, "to whom coming, as unto a living Stone." He therefore regards Christ as standing in the place of the Jehornh of the old covenaut, and has neither scruple in asserting that he is the "gracious Lord" of the psalm, nor thought that be need pause to explain or vindicate the assumption. Obviously such a tone indicates that the truth of our Lord's Divinity was familiar to the recipients of the letter. We have here, in broad, general outline, the great office which Christ sustains; the highest gift which he bestows; and the condition on which we receive it from him. J. CHRIST'S GREAT OFFICE-THE FOUNDATION-STONE FOR ALL MEN'S LIVES AND HOPES. In this metaphor many Old Testament references unite. 'l'he Shepherd, the Stone of Israel bad been celebrated in ancient poetry. Isaiah had spoken of the triEd Foundation laid by God's own hand in Zion, which yet should be a Stone of st1;1illbling to those who refused to build on it. A psalmist of a later period had sung amidst the ruined walls of Jerusalem, and the effort to rear again the temple, of the Stone rejectecl by the builders becoming tho Head of tho corner. A prophet of the same epoch had 89 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. [<itt. n. 1~2/),