The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 125

minent a position in the Church, have we not reason to be on our guard? The builrler8 as overruled by the great .Architect. It has always been matter for surpnse, how lmrl. men get into JJower. Joh makes it matter of complaint in hi3 day, that the earth was given over into the hand of the wicked. There are some who ~o great len°,ths in sin without having much in their power. But when men get a lone, line, a"'s it -were, and go the whole length of it, cruelly tramplin~ on the most s,~cred , ights and tenderest feelings of their fellow-men, the evil seems so great as to call loudly for Divine interference. Think of Nero, for his amusement setting fire to Ilorue, and then, to screen himself, glutting his soul with the slaughter of God's saints. But never did God allow men to go such lengths, while sitting by and refusing to interfere, as when he allowed those builders to r~fuse him on whom the whole building up of a Church in this world depended. Never was human liberty brought into such antagonism to the Divine sovereignty. Those who were in power at the time, finding Christ troublesome, were permitted to crucify him. They laid his dearl body in a tomb, and rolled a atone against the mouth of it, and sealed the stone, and set a watch, and thought they had done with him. It would have been a sad thing if their conduct had prevented the building up of a Church in the world. That, we know, could never be. This may be put on the ground of the Divine purpose. Christ was the living Stone, elect. He was linked to the Divine purpose, tbe great object of the Divine election. And we are accustomed to think that the purposes of God must travel on securely through all to their accomplishment. In the place that God in tended for Obrist must he unfailingly be. But deeper than the puxpose itself is the ground of the purpose in the character of God, and the fitness of the Stone for the place. Divine lo,e struggled for gratification in the building of us up out of the ruins of sin; that was the deepest ground of the purpose. It must, however, have been for e,er pent up, if no path had been found for its egrPss. But when God really formed the purpose, he must liave seen his way to the desired end all elear. To begin to build without knowing how to finish is foolishness, with which only man is chargeable. "Every house is builded by some man; he who built all things is God." He must have had the conception of this uni- verse in his mind before he brought forth those worlds and this earth of ours in all their wonderful order; he had the conception beforehand of the tabernacle (Exod. xxv. 40), and also of the temple (1 Chron. xxviii. 11-19). So when the great Architect h~d planned the Church from all eternity, and had for ages been making preparations for it, an,l directing stones to be put into it, he must have known how the Foundation-stone w,ls to be laid. Christ was a fitting Stone for the place. Ile was not chosen blindly without regard lo qualifications. He was not only elect, but also a tried Stone; and, wbat is the same idea, precious, proved to be precious by trial. One great strain there was that made trial of him, occasioned by our sin; but be stood the test, he was shown to be a precious Stone, sufficient for the purpose of God, and so he was put into the fouudatio11- place. '!'hose builders had not the placing of him there. He was a Stone refused, dis- allowed by them. But God was independent of them, and !!'.Ot others more bumble. than they, but more in sympathy with the purpose, to do whnt they should have done. Ay, even they were taken up into the purpose as unconscious, inYoluntary instruments. For it was in the very refusing of him in his death that he became chief Corner-stone. They were thus doing what they did not intend to do. And he rose triumphant out of their hands when they thought they had effectually secured him in the tomb. Let us admire the placing of Christ as chief Corner-stone. "This is the Lord's doing; it is mar- vellous in our eyes." 'l'he Lord had his purpose of mercy to men and of honour to Christ carried out notwithstaI>ding the criminal conduct of the builders. And in the history of these latter times the same triumph will he repeated. All schemes that leave out Christ will prove abortive, and those that build by them will be left behind an ndv3nc- ing tide of Christianity. And at last it will be shown, by a clear r.nd abumlant induction of facts, that Chri~t is the only Stone in whom men ran be built up into a glorious temple of God. What, then, is the consequence to them that disbelieve, i.e. refuse to believe? The Stone so honomed of God becomes, in the language of another prophecy (Isa. viii. 14)," a Stone of sturubliniz, and a Rock of offence;" i.e., in accordnnce with our Lord's comment on Ps. cxviii. 2~ (Matt. xxi. 44), on which they are broken. They who disbelieve are broken in their spiritual nature; that is their shame. The Foundation-stone wbioh is honour to believers, becomes to them the stone of punish-  lW THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETEit (oli. Ii. 1-23.