Vers. 18-25.-Servitude and subJection. Writing to slaves, Peter, like Paul-who was himself a Roman citizen and a Christian freeman-exhorts to patient endurance of the ills and wrongs too often inflicted by irresponsible power upon the unprotected and despised. Beside the specially Christian motives to which the apostle here appealed, he knew that there were other and more obvious motives. There was neces- sity. The power lay with the master, and the bondslave must needs submit. There was expediency. Resistance and rebellion on the part of the slave would only bring upon him punishment and increase of suffering. But Paul relies upon the distinc- tively Christian motives to produce patience and submission. I. CHRIST'S OWN EXAMPLE OF PATIENT ENDURANCE OF WRONG. Our Saviour, though sinless, suffered the contradiction and the contumely, the agonies and the death, inflicted by unjust and unfeeling men. And he did this without even reviling his enemies. The apostle, in vers. 21-24, paints in impressive colours the figure of the meek and much-enduring Redeemer, and holds up this incomparable figure for the admiration and imitation of the Redeemer's followers and friends. II. CHRIST'S EXPRESS COMMAND THAT HIS PEOPLE SHOULD REFRAIN FROM RETALIA- TION, His precepts, preserved in the sermon on the mount, expressly forbade revenge, and inculcated brotherly kindness, and, more than this, the return of good for evil. And when Jesus himself was seized by the agents of those who plotted against his life, he forbade his friends to draw the sword in his defence. Ill. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF ENJOYING A HIGHER, A SPIRITUAL, LIBERTY. The meanest bondman who found Christ found freedom. He may have been treated with contempt and even harshness and cruelty; but he knew within himself that he was the Lord's freedman. He could endure bondage to an earthly master, for Christ had set him free from sin and spiritual slavery and death. Carrying this conviction in his breast, he could joyfully endure insults, injustice, and ill treatment. IV. THE HOPE AND PROSPECT OF LIBERATION. His view might be gloomy as far as the earthly horizon extended. But he looked forward to "death, which sets the captive free." Ho was the free citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and his prospect in the life to come was bright. A Stoic slave, like Epictetus, was conscious of poss~ssing, in the power of suicide, the means of freeing himself from a yoke which became msup- portable. But this power extended only to release; the Christian bondman, for- bidden self-destruction, had before him a brighter hope-a hope not only of release, but of liberty and glory. V. THE DESIRE TO PRODUCE AN IMPRESSION FAVOURABLE TO THE CHR!STIAX FAl'l'U. Submission was not only "thankworthy," and" acceptable with God;" it might well prove profitable to fellow-men. When masters met, not with a sullen acqniesce~ce, not with a surly defiance, not with a stolid insensibility, but with uncomplammg, cheerful obedience, a favourable impression was produced upon their minds. '!'hey 102 THE FITIST EPISTLE GENEHAL OF PE1'ER [err. n. l-2G
could not but inquire into the ea.use which produced fruit so unusual and so admirable, And they could not but, in many instances, ex.amine into the religion which intro- duced into hume.n society a.n element so new, so impressive, and so beneficial.--J. R. T,