steady us, and so we find, e. verse or two before our text, that the apostle has bid his readers be "steadfast in the faith," where he employs a word which is cornate with that here used. Faith knits us to God, and sets wide the portals of the hea~t that the flood of his power may enter in. If we trust him, he will hold us up. If we set the Lord at our right hands, we shall not be moved. Our hearts are chan"eful and our temperaments mo.y be impulsive and fickle, but God's grace is given us to h~lp us to conquer our tern peramen ts and change our dispositions. If we will let it work its work upon us, it will make us partakers of an inviolable and unshaken evenneos of soul which is a faint shadow of God's own unchangeableness. ' III. Oua WEAKNESSES WILL BE STRENGTHENED. Our manifoi<.l need may be con• tomplated in yet another o.spect. We are weak, and we need strength. If we mcru.nre our power compared with what we have to do, still more aa compared with what we .bave to resist and suffer, how disproportionate it is! Heavy tasks have to be done hard battles to be fought, bitter sorrows to be borne_ and" who is sufficient for thes~ things?" Our weakness is our misery, and often it is our sin. It comes partly from the natural limits of our powers, but far more from the enfeebling influence of livino- to self, which, like fever, bums away energy and leaves us exhausted. What we are :ntit by nature to do i.s not duty to do. It may be and often is duty to attempt what seems more than we can manage, and experience confirms faith in the expectation that power grows in the effor~. But that which is plainly beyond our measure is not binding on us. God never bids us do what he does not strengthen us to do. .And the feeblest Christian may cherish the triumphant assurance given to us all here that he will gtt all the power he needs for work, warfare, and sorrow. How will the strength come? It will be breathed into us by the communication of the mighty Spirit who dwells in all Christian souls. He is the Comforter, in the proper meaning of that word-the Strengthener, by whose companionship all weakness is invigorated, and the whole nature quickened into higher energy. We shall be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. It will come by the increase of faith; for dependence on God of itself brings strength, and to be persuaded that we have him to lean on makes the weak strong. H will come from self-control and self-denial ; for the life purged of that taint is strong. t<- _, "l\Iy strength is as the strength of ten, Bec11use my heart is pw:e."
An indwelling God will be the glory of our strength, and, possessing his grace, "the weakest may be as David, and David as an angel of God." IV. 'vVE SHALL BE FIXED ON THE FOUNDATION. The Revised Version omits the word "settle," and is probabl7 correct in doing so. In addition to the external evidence against it, we may notice that. it conveys an idea of a somewhat different order to tho~e of the preceding verbs, inasmuch as it introduces the thought of a foundation external to us, while they pointed entirely to inward processes. 'rhat very difference in the point of view may have been the reason for the insertion of the word, which, even if it be spurious, conveys a very striking and important concluding thought. .All the pre- ceding assurances will only be realized in proportion as we are fixed and abide on the one foundation. This unmoved repose on it is expressed by that final word "settle." All repair of our manifold imperfections and sins, all fixity of character and purpose, all strength for service or for suffering, comes from union with Christ the Foundation. Our organic oneness with him is not only like the resting of a building on the rock, it is like the rooting of a tree in the ground from which it draws nourishment, and, more won- derful still, is like the union of a branch with the stem from whkh it draws life. If we rest by faith on Jesus Christ, we have a basis for our thoughts, a foundation on which we can build holy, strenuous, and blessed lives. We have union with the personal Source of all completeness, of all resolute self-command and heroic persistence, as well as of all strength. If we keep near to Christ, his life will pass into our dead- ness, and all our needs will be supplied from that fulness of which all who believe receive, and grace for grace.-A. M. Vars, 2-4.-T/ie true pastorate. The office of the Christian pastor-the bishop, the presbyter, the deacon-w~s somethinz new in the history of mankind. 'l'he functiollB 224 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. [en. v. 1-14,