1 Peter 1:6

The first word, wherein, refers to the apostle's foregoing discourse about the excellency of their present state, and their grand expectations for the future. "In this condition you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, or a little while, if need be, you are made sorrowful through manifold temptations," Pe1 1:6.

I. The apostle grants they were in great affliction, and propounds several things in mitigation of their sorrows. 1. Every sound Christian has always something wherein he may greatly rejoice. Great rejoicing contains more than an inward placid serenity of mind or sensation of comfort; it will show itself in the countenance and conduct, but especially in praise and gratitude. 2. The chief joy of a good Christian arises from things spiritual and heavenly, from his relation to God and to heaven. In these every sound Christian greatly rejoices; his joy arises from his treasure, which consists of matters of great value, and the title to them is sure. 3. The best Christians, those who have reason greatly to rejoice, may yet be in great heaviness through manifold temptations. All sorts of adversities are temptations, or trials of faith, patience, and constancy. These seldom go singly, but are manifold, and come from different quarters, the effect of all which is great heaviness. As men, we are subject to sorrows, personal and domestic. As Christians, our duty to God obliges us to frequent sorrow: and our compassion towards the miserable, the dishonour done to God, the calamities of his church, and the destruction of mankind, from their own folly and from divine vengeance, raise, in a generous and pious mind, almost continual sorrow. I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, Rom 9:2. 4. The afflictions and sorrows of good people are but for a little while, they are but for a season; though they may be smart, they are but short. Life itself is but for a little while, and the sorrows of it cannot survive it; the shortness of any affliction does much abate the heaviness of it. 5. Great heaviness is often necessary to a Christian's good: If need be, you are in heaviness. God does not afflict his people willingly, but acts with judgment, in proportion to our needs. There is a conveniency and fitness, nay, an absolute necessity in the case, for so the expression signifies: it must be; therefore no man should be moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto, Th1 3:3. These troubles, that lie heavy, never come upon us but when we have need, and never stay any longer than needs must.

II. He expresses the end of their afflictions and the ground of their joy under them, Pe1 1:7. The end of good people's afflictions is the trial of their faith. As to the nature of this trial, it is much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire. The effect of the trial is this, it will be found unto praise, honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Note, 1. The afflictions of serious Christians are designed for the trial of their faith. God's design in afflicting his people is their probation, not their destruction; their advantage, not their ruin: a trial, as the word signifies, is an experiment or search made upon a man, by some affliction, to prove the value and strength of his faith. This trial is made upon faith principally, rather than any other grace, because the trial of this is, in effect, the trial of all that is good in us. Our Christianity depends upon our faith; if this be wanting, there is nothing else that is spiritually good in us. Christ prays for this apostle, that his faith might not fail; if that be supported, all the rest will stand firm; the faith of good people is tried, that they themselves may have the comfort of it, God the glory of it, and others the benefit of it. 2. A tried faith is much more precious than tried gold. Here is a double comparison of faith and gold, and the trial of the one with the trial of the other. Gold is the most valuable, pure, useful, and durable, of all the metals; so is faith among the Christian virtues; it lasts till it brings the soul to heaven, and then it issues in the glorious fruition of God for ever. The trial of faith is much more precious than the trial of gold; in both there is a purification, a separation of the dross, and a discovery of the soundness and goodness of the things. Gold does not increase and multiply by trial in the fire, it rather grows less; but faith is established, improved, and multiplied, by the oppositions and afflictions that it meets with. Gold must perish at last - gold that perisheth; but faith never will. I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, Luk 22:32. The trial of faith will be found to praise, and honour, and glory. Honour is properly that esteem and value which one has with another, and so God and man will honour the saints. Praise is the expression or declaration of that esteem; so Christ will commend his people in the great day, Come, you blessed of my Father, etc. Glory is that lustre wherewith a person, so honoured and praised, shines in heaven. Glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, Rom 2:10. If a tried faith be found to praise, honour, and glory, let this recommend faith to you, as much more precious than gold, though it be assaulted and tried by afflictions. If you make your estimate either from present use or the final event of both, this will be found true, however the world may take it for an incredible paradox. 4. Jesus Christ will appear again in glory, and, when he does so, the saints will appear with him, and their graces will appear illustrious; and the more they have been tried the more bright they will then appear. The trial will soon be over, but the glory, honour, and praise will last to eternity. This should reconcile you to your present afflictions: they work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

III. He particularly commends the faith of these primitive Christians upon two accounts: -

1. The excellency of its object, the unseen Jesus. The apostle had seen our Lord in the flesh, but these dispersed Jews never did, and yet they believed in him, Pe1 1:8. It is one thing to believe God, or Christ (so the devils believe), and another thing to believe in him, which denotes subjection, reliance, and expectation of all promised good from him.

2. On account of two notable productions or effects of their faith, love and joy, and this joy so great as to be above description: You rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Learn,

(1.) The faith of a Christian is properly conversant about things revealed, but not seen. Sense converses with things sensible and present; reason is a higher guide, which by sure deductions can infer the operation of causes, and the certainty of events; but faith ascends further still, and assures us of abundance of particulars that sense and reason could never have found out, upon the credit of revelation; it is the evidence of things not seen.

(2.) True faith is never alone, but produces a strong love to Jesus Christ. True Christians have a sincere love to Jesus, because they believe in him. This love discovers itself in the highest esteem for him, affectionate desires after him, willingness to be dissolved to be with him, delightful thoughts, cheerful services and sufferings, etc.

(3.) Where there are true faith and love to Christ there is, or may be, joy unspeakable and full of glory. This joy is inexpressible, it cannot be described by words; the best discovery is by an experimental taste of it; it is full of glory, full of heaven. There is much of heaven and the future glory in the present joys of improved Christians; their faith removes the causes of sorrow, and affords the best reasons for joy. Though good people sometimes walk in darkness, it is often owing to their own mistakes and ignorance, or to a fearful or melancholy disposition, or to some late sinful conduct, or perhaps to some sad occurrence of providence, that sinks their comfort for the present, yet they have reason to rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of their salvation, Hab 3:18. Well might these primitive Christians rejoice with the joy unspeakable, since they were every day receiving the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls, Pe1 1:9. Note, [1.] The blessing they were receiving: The salvation of their souls (the more noble part being put for the whole man), which salvation is here called the end of their faith, the end wherein faith terminates: faith helps to save the soul, then it has done its work, and ceases for ever. [2.] He speaks of the present time: You are now actually receiving the end of your faith, etc. [3.] The word used alludes to the games at which the conqueror received or bore away from the judge of the contest a crown or reward, which he carried about in triumph; so the salvation of the soul was the prize these Christians sought for, the crown they laboured for, the end they aimed at, which came nearer and more within their reach every day. Learn, First, Every faithful Christian is daily receiving the salvation of his soul; salvation is one permanent thing, begun in this life, not interrupted by death, and continued to all eternity. These believers had the beginnings of heaven in the possession of holiness and a heavenly mind, in their duties and communion with God, in the earnest of the inheritance, and the witness of the divine Spirit. This was properly urged to these distressed people; they were on the losing side in the world, but the apostle puts them in the mind of what they were receiving; if they lost an inferior good, they were all the while receiving the salvation of their souls. Secondly, It is lawful for a Christian to make the salvation of his soul his end; the glory of God and our own felicity are so connected that if we regularly seek the one we must attain the other.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Pe_1:6-9

Wherein ye greatly rejoice.

Joy and trial in the Christians life

I. The Christians joy.

1. It is present joy. Gods service is gladsome even now (1Pe_1:8; Php_4:4). Nor is this joy for advanced believers only, but for all true-hearted seekers after God (Psa_105:3).

2. It is great joy (Psa_68:3).

3. There are many sources of the Christians great joy, but the particular one here mentioned is the present happiness afforded by a believing expectation of the joys laid up for him in eternity.

4. There are important reasons why we all ought to be joyful Christians.

(1) It is our privilege as Christians. When we may be so much happier than we are, what folly not to exercise our right!

(2) Our influence for good over others depends greatly upon the apparent result which religion produces in our own case.

(3) Very much of our own stability as Christians depends upon our joyfulness (Neh_8:10).

II. The Christians trial. There is nothing whatever unchequered here below-no joy without sorrow, no sunshine without shadow, no harmony unmixed with discord, Life is like an April day.

1. Ye are in heaviness-pressed down, forced to the earth, as if under some cruel load. The Christians joy is from heaven, his grief from earth. These two are ever at war with one another.

2. Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Persecutions abounded. The devil aimed his fiery darts at them. The world spread its allurements for them.

3. Yet this state of trial has its alleviations.

(1) It is only for a season, whereas the Christians joy endures forever (Psa_30:5; 2Co_4:17).

(2) It is only if need be-if there is a necessity, if some good can be effected by it.

III. The union of joy and trial in the Christians earthly lot. Does the text teach that times of trial are destroyers of the Christians joy, even for a season? On the contrary, St. Peter speaks of the heaviness only to give us a more exalted idea of the mighty power of the joy. Ye greatly rejoice, though ye are in heaviness; your hearts remain glad in spite of your trials. Clouds come, but the sun breaks through them and goes on shining still. Obstacles arise, but the bright river of the Christians peace flows past and over them, deep and glad as before. The one great peculiarity of the Christians joy is its comparative independence of outward circumstances-nay, its triumph over them. Worldly men can rejoice when all is prosperous. If, therefore, the Christians joy vanished at the approach of sorrow, men might well ask wherein the Christian differed from others? (J. Henry Burn, B. D.)

The Christians joy and the Christians sufferings

I. The Christians joy.

1. Its greatness. Wherein ye greatly rejoice. There are only three things really great in the universe-God and the soul and eternity, and as religion has to do with them all its dealings have something superior in them all.

2. Its ground.

(1) The Christians joy is not unfounded.

(2) The Christians joy is founded principally upon spiritual and eternal things.

II. The Christians grief.

1. The nature of the Christians sufferings.

2. The number.

3. Their influence.

4. Their expediency.

5. Their duration. (W. Jay.)

The Christians heaviness and rejoicing

I. His heaviness.

1. If we were not in heaviness during our troubles we should not be like our Covenant Head-Christ Jesus.

2. If we did not suffer heaviness we would begin to grow too proud, and become too great in our own esteem.

3. In heaviness we often learn lessons that we never could attain elsewhere. Ah! said Luther, affliction is the best book in my library, and let me add the best leaf in the book of affliction is that blackest of all the leaves, the leaf called heaviness, when the spirit sinks within us, and we cannot endure as we could wish.

4. This heaviness is of essential use to a Christian if he would do good to others. Who shall speak to those whose hearts are broken but those whose hearts have been broken also?

II. His rejoicing. Mariners tell us that there are some parts of the sea where there is a strong current upon the surface going one way, but that down in the depths there is a strong current running the other way. Two seas do not meet and interfere with one another, but one stream of water on the surface is running in one direction, and another below in an opposite direction. Now the Christian is like that. On the surface there is a stream of heaviness rolling with dark waves, but down in the depths there is a strong undercurrent of great rejoicing that is always flowing there. The apostle is writing to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus.

1. The first thing that he says to them is, that they are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, wherein we greatly rejoice. Ah! even when the Christian is most in heaviness through manifold temptations, what a mercy it is that he can know that he is still elect of God!

2. The apostle says that we are elect through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ-wherein we greatly rejoice. Is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ girt about my loins, to be my beauty; and is the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon me to take away all my guilt and all my sin, and shall I not in this greatly rejoice?

3. But the great and cheering comfort of the apostle is, that we are elect unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. And here is the grand comfort of the Christian.

4. There is one more doctrine that will always cheer a Christian, this perhaps is the one chiefly intended here in the text. Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. This will be one of the greatest cordials to a Christian in heaviness, that he is not kept by his own power, but by the power of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The sweetest joys learned in trial

Very many of the sweetest joys of Christian hearts are songs which have been learned in the bitter ness of trial. It is said of the canary bird that he will never learn to sing the song his master will have him sing while it is light in his cage. He learns a snatch of every song he hears, but will not learn a full separate melody of its own. And the master covers the cage and makes it dark all about the bird, and then he listens and learns the one song that is taught to him until his heart is full of it. Then, ever after, he sings the song in the light. With many of us it is as with the bird. The Master has a song He wants to teach to us, but we learn only a strain of it, a note here and there, while we catch up snatches of the worlds songs and sing them with it. Then He comes and makes it dark about us till we learn the sweet melody He would teach us. Many of the loveliest songs of peace and trust sung by Gods children in this world they have been taught in the darkened chamber of sorrow.

Triumph of the soul over trial

There are even many facts in our ordinary human experience that render quite conceivable this triumph of the soul over all surrounding tribulations and distresses. What cares the patient, toiling man of science for the incredulity and jeers of his neighbours, or the vexations of poverty, when first the obscurity and meanness of his lonely chamber are lighted up by the flash of some great discovery? How superior to threats and discouragements of every kind was the mighty heart of Columbus as he calmly forced his way through the veil of waters toward this unseen world! Nay, how often has the bitterness of death itself been overcome to the soldier on the battlefield and the patriot on the scaffold, by the silent anticipation of the freedom and glory which their agonies secured for the country they loved! And need we then wonder if the confessors of Jesus have gone singing to the stake, and their shout of victory has been stifled only by the flames into which they sank? (J. Lillie, D. D.)

Joy in heaviness

They say that springs of sweet fresh water well up amid the brine of salt seas; that the fairest Alpine flowers bloom in the wildest, ruggedest mountain passes; that the noblest psalms were the outcome of the profoundest agony of soul. Be it so. And thus amid manifold trials souls which love God will find reasons for bounding, leaping joy. Have you learnt this lesson yet? Not simply to endure Gods will, nor only to choose it, nor only to trust it, but to rejoice in it. Of such joy there are two sources: first, the understanding of the nature and meaning of trial; second, the souls love and faith in its unseen Lord. There is enough in these two for unsullied and transcendent joy; in fact, we may question whether we ever truly drink of Christs joy till all other sources of joy are eliminated by earthly sorrow, and we are driven to seek that joyous blessedness which no earthly sun can wither and no winter freeze (Hab_3:17-19). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Christian joy

Greek, ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, Ye dance for joy, ye dance a galliard, or as children do about a bonfire: ye cannot but express your inward joy in your countenance, voice, and gesture. (J. Trapp.)

Variableness of Christian moods

The variableness of Christian moods is often a matter of great and unnecessary suffering; but Christian life does not follow the changes of feeling. Our feelings are but the torch; and our life is the man that carries it. The wind that flares the flame does not make the man waver. The flame may sway hither and thither, but he holds his course straight on. Thus oftentimes it is that our Christian hopes are carried, as one carries a lighted candle through the windy street, that seems never to be so nearly blown out as when we step through the open door, and, in a moment, we are safe within. Our wind-blown feelings rise and fall through all our life, and the draught of death threatens quite to extinguish them; but one moment more, and they shall rise and forever shine serenely in the unstormed air of heaven. (H. W. Beecher.)

The needs be

When our hearts grow a grain too light, God seeth it but needful to make us heavy through manifold temptations. (J. Trapp.)

The duality of Christian life

As there are two men in every true Christian, a new man and an old one, so heaviness in manifold temptation and rejoicing may readily co-exist. (J. P. Lunge.)

In heaviness through manifold temptations.-

Why the godly must undergo many troubles

1. To drive them to repentance (2Sa_12:18; Gen_42:21). They are as the shepherds dog, to fetch us out of the corn, to bring us into compass again (Psa_32:4-5; Psa_119:67; Psa_119:71).

2. To keep them from sin, being therefore compared to a hedge of thorns (Hos_2:6; Job_33:17; 2Ch_20:37).

3. To humble them. We have a proud nature, and while in health we think our heads half touch the clouds; therefore God pulls us down by troubles.

4. To make them more holy, to scourge off the rust, purge out some of the remnant of the old man, and renew the inner man (Isa_4:4; Heb_12:10; Isa_27:9).

5. To wean them from the world, to which even the best are too much addicted, and to make them willing to die and to be gone hence, so setting them on work to look after and make sure of a better inheritance.

6. To prove the devil a liar (Job_1:9).

7. To keep them from hell and condemnation.

8. To bring them to heaven. (John Rogers.)

Heavens discipline of the good

I. The disciplinary elements are very manifold.

II. The disciplinary elements are very painful. Ye are in heaviness. Or, as Dr. Davidson renders it, made sorrowful. Heaviness is a relative term. What is heavy to one would be light to another. Paul gloried in tribulation.

III. The disciplinary elements are only temporary. Now for a season.

1. The trials of life are short compared with the enjoyments of life. They are exceptional.

2. The trials of life are short compared with the blessedness of the future.

IV. The disciplinary elements are very necessary. If need be. As storms in nature are necessary to purify the air, so trials are necessary to cleanse the atmosphere around the soul.

V. The disciplinary elements are always beneficent. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. Nothing is more important to man than that it should be genuine. (Homilist.)

The uses of grief

What! would you choose that you alone may fare better than all Gods saints? that God should strew carpets for your nice feet only, to walk into your heaven, and make that way smooth for you which all patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, confessors, Christ Himself, have found rugged! Away with this self-love, and come down, you ambitious sons of Zebedee, and, ere you think of sitting near the throne, be content to be called unto the cross. Now is your trial. Let your Saviour see how much of His bitter portion you can pledge. Then shall you see how much of His glory He can afford you. As snow is of itself cold, yet warms and refreshes the earth, so afflictions, though in themselves grievous, yet keep the soul of the Christian warm and make it fruitful. Let the most afflicted know and remember that it is better to be preserved in brine than to rot in honey. After a forest fire has raged furiously, it has been found that many pine cones have had their seeds released by the heat, which ordinarily would have remained unsown. The future forest sprang from the ashes of the former. Some Christian graces, such as humility, patience, sympathy, have been evolved frown the sufferings of the saints. The furnace has been used to fructify. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Needful afflictions

Consider that all thy afflictions are needful, and work for thy good. Nothing is intolerable that is necessary. If need be, whilst we have diseased bodies, physic is as needful as food; whilst we have diseased souls, misery is as needful as outward mercies. The winter is as necessary to bring on harvest as the spring; affliction is as necessary to bring on the harvest of glory as any condition. (W. Swinnock.)

Trials and glory

Look upon a painted post or sign whose colour is laid in oil, how the rain beats upon it in stormy weather, that one would think all the colour would be washed off, yet how the water glides away and leaves it rather more beautiful than before. And thus it is with every child of God, being well garnished with graces of the Spirit, let the wind of persecution blow, and the floods of affliction lift up their voice, they shall never deface, but rather add unto their beauty; such is the condition of grace, that it shines the brighter for scouring, and is most glorious when it is most clouded. (J. Spencer.)

The use of trials

Suppose I made a very wonderful steam engine, and put it into a ship, to make it into a steam packet. It is all beautifully made, and complete, and I want to try whether it is all good; whether the machinery is right and works well. Where should I send it, into a smooth sea or a rough sea? I should send it up the rapids-up the river-against the stream, to see whether it would go up, I should. So God does with you. He furnishes you with everything you want-then puts you up the rapids, sends you on the rough water, just to try you, to see what you are made of.

The trial of your faith.

The trial of faith

I. The Christians temptations.

1. They are manifold in their nature. What a world of change and sorrow we live in t

2. They are difficult to bear; for they cause heaviness or depression of mind (Heb_10:32). If you are in heaviness bear it manfully, but do not show it openly. Speak of your troubles to your bosom friend, but do not talk of them to men of this world. Above all, tell them to Jesus.

3. They are temporary. The longest trials, and those which leave the deepest wounds, are but for a season.

4. They are necessary. If need be. Oh, there is a needs be for every stroke, and though we do not now understand why this trial or the other falls upon us, yet we shall know hereafter.

II. The end and aim of these temptations must be carefully observed. They are for the trial of our faith.

1. The value of faith cannot be overestimated. Gold perishes, but faith lives-lives in death, and far beyond it (1Co_13:13).

2. But it must be tried, and sometimes in a very severe furnace. It is proved, tested, or verified by trial, and the faith which cannot stand the ordeal is of little or no value (Job_23:10). There are many ways in which faith is tried.

(1) It is tried by Divine commands. God gives His servants some difficult task to perform. True faith will surmount all difficulties.

(2) Faith is often tried by doubts.

(3) And faith is tried by fire-the fire of discipline, of persecution, of protracted bodily affliction.

3. The ultimate design of the trial is that it may be found, nothing of it being lost, unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. (Thornley Smith.)

The testing of religious faith

I. The process of testing a mans faith involves much pain. This we gather-

1. From the use of the word that describes the process-temptation.

2. From the fact that those who are being tested are often possessed with heaviness, grief.

3. From the nature of the elements employed in the process.

(1) No material element causes more pain than fire.

(2) These elements are manifold. With those to whom Peter wrote it was Gentile scorn, slander, persecution, martyrdom.

II. The process of testing a mans faith is of such supreme worth as to compensate for all such pain.

1. The testing is only temporary.

2. The worth of the soul is tested.

3. The purpose of the process.

(1) To try the genuineness of faith.

(2) To remove alloy.

(3) To train for highest uses.

(4) To lead to highest destiny. (U. R. Thomas.)

Afflictions a test of faith

1. To try whether we have any faith.

2. To try whether our faith be as much as we take it to be or more; this, affliction will discover.

3. To purge and purify that true faith which we have, and increase it. (John Rogers.)

The trial of our faith

The apostle here expresses his very cordial sympathy with his Christian brethren under the circumstances of trial to which they were exposed. Ye greatly rejoice in that last time, or, as the passage might be rendered, Wherein ye shall greatly rejoice. Now for a season ye are in heaviness, but in the last time-the time of Christs appearing-the time of your entering upon the inheritance that is incorruptible, ye shall greatly rejoice. But still the prospect of the great rejoicing in the last time gives some measure of rejoicing in the present. It is impossible for us to hope with anything like assurance for something that will make us very joyful without feeling in a measure joyful now. We can in a somewhat cheerful spirit bear the most dismal wintry weather, as we have the assurance of the spring and summer that are to follow. But this joy is mingled with sorrow. Now for a season ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And this brings us to the subject of our text-namely, the trial of our faith. Now your faith is your confidence in God. Your faith is your confidence in Gods being, and doing all that in His Word He is represented to be and to have done; your confidence in God as infinitely wise, and mighty, and righteous, and merciful; your confidence in Him as having provided a full and free redemption for mankind through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ; your confidence in Him as certain to fulfil all the great promises that He has given to His people. That is your faith, your confidence in God. And concerning the trial of this the apostle here speaks. But, first, of this faith he says that it is more precious than gold. I think I can appeal to every Christian here, and say, Now, you would be sorry to lose your property, no doubt? Quite natural. But still, do not you as Christians feel that we would rather be beggared today than lose this precious faith of which the Apostle Peter speaks? Well, this faith, he tells us, is to be tried. That is to say, our faith is subjected to proof-put to the test. If we profess to be Christians, it is very important that the world and the Church and ourselves should have some proof of our Christianity that this profession of ours is a right, honest thing, and neither a piece of hypocrisy nor a piece of self-delusion. And so for our own sakes first of all, but also for the sake of the Church, which we have no right to deceive, and for the sake of the world, which also has a claim to know the genuineness of our religious profession-it is necessary that our faith should be proved. Now, unfortunately, we have in our religious phraseology nearly lost sight of this very common sense meaning of the word trial. When you talk about the trial of a steamship or the trial of a hundred-ton gun, well, we understand that it is putting these things to a proof. But in our religious phraseology, a trial, forsooth, is simply a calamity-some terrible thing. And that is almost the only light in which we regard it, with scarcely any recognition of Gods design, and of His design being the proof of character. But that is His design. Now here is an alleviation at once, and a very great alleviation of the trials that you and I may have to pass through. Here is a man who comes forward and professes to be a seaman. Well, it is a very reasonable thing that he should be required to prove his seamanship by having, sometimes at any rate, to navigate his vessel amid the perils of a storm. And here is another who professes to be a soldier. Well, no injustice is done, but very much the contrary, if this man be required to prove his courage and skill by being sent, occasionally at any rate, upon some exceedingly hazardous military duty. And here is one who professes to be a servant of God, and do not let him be surprised if God, like any other master, shall subject him to proof, and ascertain, by practical experiment, what he is worth and what he can do, and whether he really be what by his profession he ought to be. So our faith is tried. A reasonable and perfectly right thing that tried it ought to be, as I said just now, for our own sake, if for the sake of nobody else. And, as the apostle reminds us here, the trial of our faith is conducted through manifold temptations. Let us take the word trials, not temptations, for God does not tempt any man in this evil sense of the word temptation. We are tried through manifold trials. That is to say, our faith is subjected to more proofs than one; and so it ought to be. I suppose that when they try a ship they make her go through many manoeuvres; and when they try a horse there is more than one sort of test to which the creature is put. And when a student goes in for examination, success in which is to be crowned with some distinguished honour, he is subjected to a considerable number of trials in order that the height and breadth and length and depth of the mans mind, if there be any height and length and depth and breadth in it, may be ascertained. And he is subjected to various manifold trials, because the very brilliant capacity in one direction may, unfortunately, be accompanied by miserable incapacity in another direction, and so the man is subjected to manifold trials. And faith, likewise, is subjected to more trials than one. We find that poverty tries our honesty. A sad reverse of circumstances, such as is very frequently witnessed, does certainly try the integrity of a mans principles as a man of business. And then I need not say that unkindness, injustice, is a great trial of our charity; and persecution would be a severe trial of our courage. Insolence is a trial of our meekness. And there are trials of a peculiar character, not very peculiar either, for they are not uncommon. I mean the trials of our faith that are often experienced by men who really find it difficult to retain their confidence in the revelation of Gods will in His Word. And you must not at all suppose that because a man never knew what bad health is, and never knew anything of poverty, and never had the slightest reason to be anxious about a single secular concern, that that mans faith is going untried. It may be being tried a great deal more than yours in the midst of sickness and of poverty. There may be a terrible war going on within that mans mind and heart as he is endeavouring, with all earnestness, but often finds himself failing, endeavouring to retain his confidence in the great principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus our faith is tried, and severe is the trial sometimes, as the apostle indicates when he says, Though it be tried with fire. It has been in the most terribly literal sense tried with fire, for, as you know, for a long time burning to death was the method commonly resorted to in the persecution of those who stood faithful to the truth as it is in Christ. And so the faith of men like John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and Bishop Latimer, and thousands upon thousands more in the noble army of martyrs, was in the most literal and severe sense tried with fire. But, of course, we can understand this expression tried with fire, in a metaphorical sense, as indicative of any peculiarly severe trial to which faith may be exposed, such as a long and wearisome and painful illness. And now to notice some of the alleviations that we have graciously granted to us in these trials of our faith. Do not let us give way to a hopeless sorrow over the matter, for God has mingled very much comfort with all this distress. In the first place, as the apostle reminds us, it is only for a season, or, as we might render his words, Now for a little while ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation-for a little while. It will not be long. It cannot be long. And then, again, there is a necessity for it. If need be, but not if need not be. Only if need be, and only in proportion as the need really is. And we really must allow God to be the judge and the only judge of this need. We leave it, of course, to the goldsmith to determine how he is to deal with the gold that he is to make up into an article of use or adornment; and we leave it to the lapidary to decide how to cut and to polish the jewels which he intends to set in this fashion or in that. It would be an impertinent thing for persons not skilled in such work even to venture an opinion, and an impertinent thing to venture opinions about the manner in which God Almighty should deal with and make up the gold and the gems whereof He is preparing a glorious crown for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. No, if need be, and only if need be. The sculptor, you know, would not on any account chip off a block of marble one atom more than in his judgment is necessary to the realisation of his idea in the statue. And no surgeon or physician of ordinary humanity will give his patient any more pain than is unavoidable in order to the healing of the wound or the curing of the disease. And we, as the children of God, are in very wise hands, in very tender hands, in very safe hands. And then there is a great object secured by these trials, that this faith thus tried is found to be unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Unto whose praise and honour and glory? Not unto ours-at least, not unto ours in the first place, but unto our Lords, an Archbishop Leighton says, God delights to bring out His strongest champions, that they might fight great battles for Him. And although, certainly, it is sad to think of a good man being cast into prison, and sadder still to think of his being committed to the flame, yet I can imagine that God, not although He loves His people, but just because He loves them, rejoices over such a scene as that. I can imagine God rejoicing to see how His grace strengthens a poor, feeble, mortal man, and makes him firm and enduring unto the end. And at the last it will be found that this trial of their faith was ever unto the praise and honour and glory of their Lord, and to their own praise and honour and glory likewise. But, again, there is this alleviation in the trial of faith suggested in the words, Whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing-the love that we bear to our Lord Jesus Christ will greatly help us in the trial of our faith. You know that for a person whom you love you will do and suffer things that you would never think of doing or suffering for a person towards whom you felt no particular regard. How much a man will do, and how much he will suffer for his wife and for his children! And so, in proportion to the love we bear to Jesus Christ will be the lightness of the infliction involved in any trials to which our faith is subjected. Once more, there is this alleviation, that believing in Christ we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. But some will say, Have not we already received the salvation of our souls? Now salvation is a great compound blessing, if I may so speak, and some of it we have received already, and some of it is in reserve. In fact, salvation is a blessing, of which a Christian is receiving something every day. I had so much salvation yesterday; I have got more today, and I shall have more tomorrow, if I am living the Christian life, that is to say. Now, in so far as salvation is the forgiveness of sins, salvation is ours now. (H. S. Brown.)

Trials

Trials are of many kinds. Some are very slight; but often a little thing is more severely felt than one that is greater. There are all the little annoyances which happen every hour; things go contrary to our wishes; we have to give up our wills; we are disappointed of our hopes. There are pains of body and sickness; there is the sickness of our dear friends. Now trial is natural to us: it belongs to us as children of Adam. But to Christians trials come in a somewhat different way. They belong to us as members of Christ.

I. The first thing to be thought when we have any trial, is that it comes from God. It is not a proof of any special wickedness in the person to whom it is sent, nor of Gods being specially angry with that person. Quite the contrary. God feels towards each of you the very same tender fatherly love that you feel to your dear boy; and so He corrects you as you correct that boy. And just as you take the trouble to prune and attend to the fruit tree which bears well, in the hope that it will bear still better, so God sends trouble to them who are doing good, in the hope that they will do still better. In all troubles, then, look to God-receive them from Him as the best things which your loving Father can send you.

II. Think, next, what are they sent for? They are punishments for sins, that is true; but see the wonderful goodness of God: these punishments His love turns into mercies and blessings. What does He send them for?

1. To remind us of our sins; to make us remember our sins, that through His mercy we may repent of them.

2. To draw our thoughts towards Himself. In their affliction they will seek Me early.

3. They are called trials-that means things which try. What do they try? They try us, whether we can trust God when matters seem to be going wrong.

4. To make us patient. Patience is that great gift which most especially helps to make us perfect Christians. Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. When we quietly give up our way to others-when we are disappointed and do not fret-when we ourselves have sharp pains to bear and we do not repine-then we are learning to become more perfect Christians-then we are becoming holier-we are really growing into what God intends us to be.

III. They lead us on to the crown. To conclude.

1. Try to think in this way of all troubles whatsoever, of all the little vexations of life, as well as of the heavier afflictions which come more seldom.

2. Look on continually to the end-the end of all things-heaven and eternity! This will encourage you to bear what now seems so painful. The hope of what is coming will cheer you up.

3. And especially look continually to Jesus Christ, and the example He has set us. Look to Him continually, lest you be weary and faint in your minds. (W. H. Ridley, M. A.)

Trials

These words are spoken to Christians, to persons called by the apostle elect according to the foreknowledge of God, and begotten to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. How great a privilege to be chosen to eternal life I Well may the Christian be delighted with such thoughts, wherein, says St. Peter, ye rejoice. But before the enjoyment of these things there are many troubles to be encountered; we may be glad, yet may we perchance, when we look at intervening difficulties, be in heaviness. It is well known that the most devout Christians are sometimes in heaviness. Do not think it any strange thing for the Christian man to be in heaviness, even as to his salvation. The Lord often lays the severest trial, that is, this feeling of desertion, on the most perfect, as you would place the boldest soldier in the front of the battle. Hence, then, assurance is not necessary; the spiritual atmosphere is variable.

1. Poverty is a great temptation-a temptation which throws many into heaviness.

2. But again, the temptations of the rich lie in another direction.

3. The heaviness which sometimes arises from the oppression and power of sin.

4. And some persons are in heaviness-they themselves know not why. None are more to be sorrowed with. There seems to be no known cause-and yet they are in lowness of spirits, and weary of the world. (J. M. Chanter, M. A.)

Trial as fire

Trial is here compared to fire; that subtle element which is capable of inflicting such exquisite torture on our seared flesh; which cannot endure the least taint or remnant of impurity, but wraps its arms around objects committed to it with eager intensity to set them free and make them pure; which is careless of agony, if only its passionate yearning may be satisfied; which lays hold of things more material than itself, loosening their texture, snapping their fetters, and bearing them upwards in its heaven-leaping energy. What better emblem could there be for God, and for those trims which He permits or sends, and in the heart of which He is to be found?

1. But this fire is a refiners fire (Mal_3:3).

(1) It is He who permits the trial. The evil thing may originate in the malignity of a Judas, but by the time it reaches us it has become the cup which our Father has given us to drink. The waster may purpose his own lawless and destructive work, but he cannot go an inch beyond the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. The very devil must ask permission ere he touches a hair of the patriarchs head. The point up to which we may be tested is fixed by consummate wisdom. The weapon may hurt and the fire sting, but they are in the hands which redeemed us.

(2) It is He who superintends the trial. No earthly friend may be near, but in every furnace there is One like the Son of Man.

(3) It is He who watches the progress of the trial. No mother bending over her suffering child is more solicitous than He is. Suiting the trial to your strength.

2. Trial is only for a season. Now for a season ye are in heaviness. The great Husbandman is net always threshing. The showers soon pass. Our light affliction is but for a moment.

3. Trial is for a purpose. If needs be. There is utility in every trial. It is intended to reveal the secrets of our hearts, to humble and prove us, to winnow us as corn is shaken in a sieve, to detach us from the earthly and visible, to create in us an eager desire for the realities which can alone quench our cravings and endure forever. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The theology of sufferings

I. Temptations or trials reveal faith.

1. On the one hand, they show us the evil that is in us. More evil dwells in the heart than we have ever realised. I never before could believe, exclaims the afflicted man, that so many hard thoughts of God were nestling in my brain, and so many rebellious passions lodging in my heart. God sends trouble to bring out and make palpable that which is latent.

2. Not only so, but afflictions further serve to evoke our good, to lead forth into visibility the faith, the hope, and the charity God in His loving kindness has infused into our souls. Certain things will not disclose what is in them save under pressure. Aromatic herbs will not diffuse their aroma till they are bruised.

II. Temptations or trials strengthen faith.

1. Bitters are the best tonic for the spiritual man as for the physical. All who are a little acquainted with gardening operations know how careful the gardener is to lop off all redundant growths which genial weather calls forth, growths which he significantly calls suckers, because they drain away the sap which would otherwise go to form fruit. On just the same principle the Divine Husbandman treats the Trees of Righteousness growing in His vineyard-He mercilessly lops off the worldly suckers which steal away the juice, the fatness, of your religion, and thereby drives the whole energy of your spirit back upon your faith.

2. Sorrows further invigorate faith, because they call it into frequent, yea, constant exercise. And it is an universally admitted truth that all our natural faculties and spiritual graces grow in exercise. To be a robust Christian you must battle with difficulties.

III. Temptations or trials purify faith.

1. They release it from the impurities which attach to it. Religion in this world lives among pots, and, as might be expected, it does not quite escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. And God in His wisdom judges it expedient to cast it into the sea; but, as Leighton quaintly remarks, He does it not to drown it, but to wash it. But this process of separation is not an easy one, pleasant to flesh and blood; rather it requires the penetrating action of the flame.

2. Adversity, moreover, throws faith more upon its own proper resources, making it draw its aliment and inspiration more directly from God as revealed in His Book.

IV. Temptations or trials beautify faith.

1. Trials evolve the latent beauty of faith. Faith is intrinsically a beautiful grace, but to disclose its beauty it must often undergo the severe operations of chisel and hammer.

2. But it is also true that sorrows impart beauty to faith, a kind of weird-like fascination that makes it, in its struggle with obstacles, a spectacle worthy of the gods. God throws the Christian into many-coloured afflictions that he may be thereby adorned and made meet to enter the society of heaven. He makes His Church a coat of many colours to show His love to her and appreciation of her. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

The trial of faith

I. The value of faith

1. Even considered intellectually, as a mere belief of revealed truth, faith is of the highest possible value, as the great instrument by which we obtain religious knowledge and wisdom.

2. But its value-as it is not merely an intellectual exercise, but an act of trust, and thus a work of the heart-is shown by this, that it connects us immediately and personally with the merits of the great Atonement.

3. The value of faith is seen in this, that it not only connects man, as guilty, with the meritorious atonement of the Saviour, but man, as weak and helpless, with the omnipotence of Divine grace.

4. Another proof of the value of faith is found in that wonderful property which the Apostle Paul assigns to it, and which, indeed, we find by actual experience that it possesses-the property of fixing its eye on invisible and eternal realities, and keeping the soul continually under their influence.

II. The trial of faith.

1. In its lower sense-merely considered as belief of truth-faith will be tried. This may occur in many circumstances, and especially from infidel sophistry.

2. But our faith will not only be tried by sophistry; it will be tried also by what may be termed practical unbelief. This is especially the ease in all temptations to sin.

3. Faith, in that higher sense in which the word is used-as implying a simple trust in the atonement of the Saviour-will be tried by our proneness to self-dependence.

4. Faith is also tried by afflictions and sorrows. In sorrows our faith has to repose entirely on the great doctrine that all that concerns us is in the hands of God, that here there is no chance, no oversight, no delegation of the Divine power to the creature.

III. The final honours of faith. It has, indeed, its honours now, far greater than any of which unbelief can boast. Is it not that which brings man to God for the blessings of reconciliation and adoption? Is it not that which brings with it the mighty influence of that Holy Spirit which works in man the death unto sin and the new life unto righteousness? Is it not that which is the source of our spiritual victories, which gives us strength to do and strength to suffer? Is it not that which enables us to resist the temptations with which the present world continually surrounds us? And is it not that which extracts the sting of death? Such are the honours of faith here on earth. Where shall we look for those of formality and unbelief? But the apostle refers to its future honours, to the praise and glory in which our faith shall issue at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall the faith which has received the mysteries of God be honoured. (R. Watson.)

The trial of faith

I. Faith is much more precious than gold.

1. Gold is of an earthly, but faith of a heavenly origin.

2. Faith has its object, as well as its origin, in God; whereas gold, unless placed in the hands of him who has the new nature, tends to the place whence it came, and is often also in the child of God the means of dragging hint too much to earth.

3. Faith always enriches the possessor, but gold often impoverishes.

II. This faith must be tried, and that with fire.

1. The world is a great trial to faith.

2. Satan is always attempting to try and to overstep the faith of Gods people.

III. What is the great end and purpose for which faith is so tried? It is that it may be proved to be faith, just as the gold is tried in the fire. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

The trial of your faith

I. Your faith will be tried surely.

1. Faith, in the very nature of it, implies a degree of trial. God never gave us faith to play with. It is a sword, but it was not made for presentation on a gala day, nor to be worn on state occasions only, nor to be exhibited on a parade ground. It is a sword, and he that has it girt about him may expect, between here and heaven, that he shall know what battle means. Faith is a sound sea-going vessel, and was not meant to lie in dock and perish of dry rot. To whom God has given faith, it is as though one gave a lantern to his friend because he expected it to be dark on his way home. The very gift of faith is a hint to you that you will want it, and that, at all points and in every place, you will really need it.

2. Trial is the very element of faith. Faith is a salamander that lives in the fire, a star which moves in a lofty sphere, a diamond which bores its way through the rock. Faith without trial is like a diamond uncut, the brilliance of which has never been seen. Untried faith is such little faith that some have thought it no faith at all. What a fish would be without water or a bird without air, that would be faith without trial.

3. It is the honour of faith to be tried. He that has tested God, and whom God has tested, is the man that shall have it said of him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

4. The trial of your faith is sent to prove its sincerity.

5. It must also be tested to prove its strength.

6. The trial of our faith is necessary to remove its dross. Why, a week ago, says one, I used to sing, and think that I had the full assurance of faith; and now I can scarcely tell whether I am one of Gods people or not. Now you know how much faith you really possess. You can now tell how much was solid and how much was sham; for had that which has failed you been real faith, it would not have been consumed by any trial through which it has passed. You have lost the froth from the top of the cup, but all that was really worth having is still there.

II. Your faith will be tried variously.

1. There are some whose faith is tried each day in their communion with God. That is, God in Christ, who is our God, is a consuming fire; and when His people live in Him, the very presence of God consumes in them their love of sin and all their pretentious graces and fictitious attainments, so that the false disappears and only the true survives. The presence of perfect holiness is killing to empty boastings and hollow pretences.

2. God frequently tries us by the blessings which He sends us.

(1) Riches.

(2) Praise.

3. Another trial of faith is exceedingly common and perilous nowadays, and that is heretical doctrine and false teaching.

4. The trial of our faith usually comes in the form of affliction. I remember Mr. Rutherford, writing to a lady who had lost five children and her husband, says to her, Oh, how Christ must love you! He would take every bit of your heart to Himself. He would not permit you to reserve any of your soul for any earthly thing. Can we stand that test? Can we let all go for His sake? Do you answer that you can? Time will show.

III. Your faith will be tried individually. It is an interesting subject, is it not, the trial of faith? It is not quite so pleasant to study alone the trial of your faith. It is stern work when it comes to be your trial, and the trial of your faith. Do not ask for trials. Children must not ask to be whipped, nor saints pray to be tested. The Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified by the trial of His peoples faith. He has to be glorified by the trial of your faith.

IV. Your faith will be tried searchingly. The blows of the flail of tribulation are not given in sport, but in awful earnest. The Lord tries the very life of our faith-not its beauty and its strength alone, but its very existence. The iron enters into the soul; the mans real self is made to endure the trial.

V. Your faith will be tried for an abundantly useful purpose.

1. The trial of your faith will increase, develop, deepen, and strengthen it. We may wisely rejoice in tribulation, because it worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and by that way we are exceedingly enriched, and our faith grows strong.

2. The trial of our faith is useful, because it leads to a discovery of our faith to ourselves. I notice an old Puritan using this illustration. He says, you shaft go into a wood when you please, but if you are very quiet, you will not know whether there is a partridge, or a pheasant, or a rabbit in it; but when you begin to move about or make a noise, you very soon see the living creatures. They rise or they run. So, when affliction comes into the soul, and makes a disturbance and breaks our peace, up rise our graces. Faith comes out of its hiding, and love leaps from its secret place.

3. Besides, when faith is tried, it brings God glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The trial of faith precious

It is not faith, but the trial of faith, that is here pronounced to be precious. Precisely because faith is the link by which the saved are bound to the Saviour, it is of unspeakable importance to have faith tested in time and proved to be true. Here the fire and the crucible are the most valuable of all things for the investor. These are his safeguards, In like manner, it is dangerous to venture our eternity on a fair weather profession; an assay in some form is essential to determine whether there is life or only a name that you live. The trial of faith by affliction is com pared to the testing and purifying of gold by fire. The greatest results will be seen within the veil. When Christ comes the second time to reign, the effect of these trials will appear to his praise. (W. Arnot.)

The trial of faith

This trial is made upon faith principally, rather than any other grace, because the trial of that is, in effect, the trial of all that is good in us. (M. Henry.)

Trials are tests

The surest way to know our gold is to look upon it and examine it in Gods furnace, where He tries it for that end, that we may see what it is. If we have a mind to know whether a building stands strong or no, we must look upon it when the wind blows. If we would know whether that which appears in the form of wheat has the real substance of wheat or be only chaff, we must observe it when it is winnowed. If we would know whether a staff be strong or a rotten, broken reed, we must observe it when it is leaned on and weight is borne upon it. If we would weigh ourselves justly, we must weigh ourselves in Gods scales that He makes use of to weigh us. (Jonathan Edwards.)

Burnt in

Yonder is a porcelain vase just fashioned; it is now in the decorators hands, who paints on it various pretty and delicate figures-here and there he paints a passage of Scripture. Presently he passes it into the hands of another who glazes it, who in his turn passes it on to a third. But what is the third doing? Why, he is putting the vase into a hot oven. Sir, we exclaim, you will spoil your ware, and your labour will be in vain. Smiling at our alarm, he placidly replies, Gentlemen, I will take care that the vase suffers no injury. I put it into the oven to enhance its value, for I mean thus to burn in what has been painted on it, which would otherwise wash off. There-it is finished now, he adds, and you may wash that vase for twelve months without making any impression on the colours. They are burnt in, sirs, burnt in. Similarly God burns in verses of the Bible into our experience. Having infused His grace into us in regeneration, and made wholesome impressions on the mind through the ministry of the Word, He consigns us to the furnace of affliction that they may be burnt into the very core of our being, so burnt that nothing will ever again erase them. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

Much more precious than of gold that perisheth.-

Tried faith more precious than gold

1. Gold comes out of the earth; faith from heaven, whence every good and perfect gift is.

2. Faith is more rare, termed therefore the faith of Gods elect, whereas most, even of the wicked, are not without gold.

3. Faith cannot be purchased with all the gold in the world.

4. It is hardly gotten and hardly kept, and has many and strong enemies-our own nature, the world and the devil are all against faith, but not against getting of gold.

5. It apprehends salvation and life eternal, and so is the instrument of our happiness. So is not gold but the instrument of many a mans damnation; by unconscionable getting, and covetous keeping the same, many cast away their souls.

6. It will comfort a man with true comfort in his life, carry him strongly through troubles, and boldly through the gates of death.

7. Gold perisheth, here canker and rust consume it; we may be taken from it, as it from us; but faith endureth till Christs appearing, to our full redemption, as the fruit thereof forever.

Uses:

1. To them that want gold, and yet have faith. Know that thou art richer than he that hath thousands of gold and hath not faith.

2. To the rich. Rejoice not that thou art rich, but that thou hast faith. Again, think all your pains to become you well, and well bestowed in getting this precious faith.

3. To those who have not faith. Poor souls, labour after it, that you may be made inwardly rich.

4. To rich men who have toiled for gold. Seek this that is so much better. (John Rogers.)

Genuine faith more precious than gold

I. Gold cannot satisfy the soul. Genuine faith does. As a rule it will, perhaps, be found that he who has the most gold is the most discontented and restless in heart. Faith fills the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

II. Gold cannot strengthen the soul. Genuine faith does. In what does the strength of the soul consist? In force of sympathies generous and devout; force of determination to pursue the right; force to bear up with buoyant magnanimity under all the trials and sorrows of life. Gold cannot give this strength. How strong were the men mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews!

III. Gold cannot ennoble the soul. But genuine faith ennobles the soul, enthrones it above the tide of passion and the force of circumstances. (Homilist.)

Peters list of valuables

Peter is very fond of this word precious. He uses it more frequently than all the other New Testament writers, with the exception of John in the Revelation, where, however, it is only employed in reference to things of material value, such as jewels and costly woods. Paul uses it only once, and in a similar connection, speaking about gold, silver, and precious stones. James employs it once in regard of the fruits of the earth; and all the other instances of its use are in Peters writings. Here are the cases in which he uses it. First, in my text, about the process by which Christian faith is tested; then about the blood of Jesus Christ; then, in a quotation from Isaiah, about Christ Himself as the cornerstone. These three are the instances in the first Epistle. In the second we find two, where he speaks of like precious faith, and of exceeding great and precious promises.

I. That our true treasures are all contained in, and clustered round, the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, in order to estimate the value of a thing, the first necessity is a correct standard. Now, if we are seeking for a standard of value, surely the following points are very plain. Our true treasure mast be such as helps us towards the highest ends for which we are fitted by our make. It must be such as satisfies our deepest needs; it must be such as meets our whole nature; and it must be such as cannot be wrenched from us. I do not want to undervalue lower and relative good of any kind, or to preach an overstrained contempt of material, transient, and partial blessing. Competence and wealth, gold and what gold buys, and what it keeps away, are good. High above them we rank the treasures of a cultivated mind, of a refined taste, of eyes that see the beauty of Gods fair creation. Above these we rank the priceless treasures of pure reciprocated human love. But none of them, nor all of them put together, meet our tests, simple and obvious as they are. They do not satisfy the whole, or the depths, of our natures. Only God can fill a soul. So Peter is right after all, when he points us in a wholly different direction for the true precious things. Christ is precious. Now, the word that he employs there is slightly different from that which occurs in the other verses. The speaker in the original words of the prophet is God Himself. It is the preciousness in Gods sight of the stone which He lays in Zion that is glanced at in the epithet. Let me suggest how the preciousness of His beloved Son, in the eyes of the Father who gave Him, enhances the preciousness of the gift to us. God obeys the law which He lays upon His servants; and He will not give to us that which costs Him nothing. But Christ is precious to us. Yes, if we know ourselves and what we want; if we know Him and what He gives. Do you want wisdom? He is the wisdom of God. Do you seek power? He is the power of God. Do you long for joy? He will give you His own. Do you weary for peace? My peace I leave with you. Do you hunger for righteousness? He of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. Do you need fulness and abundance? In Him dwells all the fulness of God; and of His fulness have all we received. Whatever good any soul seeks, Christ is the highest good, and is all good. Let us turn our hearts away from false treasures and lay hold on Him who is the true riches. Further, Christs blood is precious. Peter believed in Christs atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and of each single soul therein. If you strike that element out of the work of our Lord, what remains, precious as it is, does not seem to me to so completely satisfy human necessities as to make Him the one all-sufficient and single treasure and riches of mens souls. And then there is the third precious thing, clustering round and flowing from Jesus Christ and His work-and that is, the exceeding great and precious promises, which are given to us that by them we may be partakers of a Divine nature. I presume that these promises referred to by the apostle are largely, if not exclusively, those which have reference to what we call the future state. And they are precious because they come straight to meet one of the deepest needs of humanity, often neglected, but always there-an ache, if not a conscious need. What about that dark, dim beyond? Is there any solid ground in it? Christ comes with the answer: I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Then it is not mist; then I can fling my grappling-iron into it and it will hold, and I can hold on to it.

II. That which puts us in possession of the precious things is itself precious. So the apostle speaks, in his second Epistle, about like precious faith, using a compound word, which, however, is substantially identical with the simple expression in the other verses. The only preciousness of that faith which the New Testament magnifies so greatly is that it brings us into possession of the things that are intrinsically precious. Suppose a door, worth half a crown. Yes! but it is the door of a storehouse full of bullion. Here is a bit of lead pipe, worth twopence. Yes, but through it comes the water that keeps a besieged city alive. And so your faith, worth nothing in itself, is worth everything as the means by which you lay hold of the durable riches and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Therefore cherish it. A cultivated mind is a treasure, because it is the key to many treasures. Refined tastes are treasures because they bring us into possession of lofty gifts. AEsthetic sensibilities are precious because they make our own a pure and ennobling pleasure. And, for precisely the same reason, high above the cultivated understanding, and refined tastes, and the artistic sense, ay, and even above the loving heart that twines its tendrils round another heart as loving, we rank the faith which joins us to Christ.

III. The process which strengthens that faith is precious. My nominal text speaks about the trial of your faith as being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire. Peter meant that the process by which faith was tested, and, being tested, is purified and perfected, is a precious treasure. If Christ and what pertains to Him are our real wealth, and if our faith is the means of our coming into possession of our property, then everything that tightens our grasp upon Him, and increases our capacity of receiving Him, is valuable. Let us lay that to heart, and it changes all our estimates of this worlds mistaken ill and good. Let us lay that to heart, and it interprets much. We do not understand life until we have got rid of the prejudice that enjoyment, or any lower thing, is the object of it. Let us understand that the deepest meaning of all our experience here is discipline, and we have come within sight of the solution of most of our perplexities. Sorrow and joy, light and darkness, summer and winter, sunshine and storm, life and death, gain and loss, failures and successes-they all have the one end, that we may be partakers of the wealth of His holiness. Let us try to clear our minds of the delusions of this world, and to rectify our estimates of true good. A very perverted standard prevails, and we are too apt to fall in with it. Many of us are no wiser than savages that will exchange gold for trash, and barter away fertile lands for a stand of old muskets or a case of fiery rum. Listen to Jesus Christ counselling you to buy of Him gold tried in the fire. Turn away from the fairy gold, which by daylight will be seen to be but a heap of yellow fading leaves, and cling in faith, which is precious, to Him who is priceless, and in whom the poorest will find riches that cannot be corrupted nor lost forever. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.-

Perfect salvation

These words have reminded me of a phrase which, twenty or thirty years ago, was constantly recurring in sermons of many of the younger and more ardent preachers of that time. They insisted that Christ had come to achieve for us what they described as a present salvation. There was a polemical element, too, in preaching of this kind, for the doctrine of a present salvation was asserted as though it were a part of the Christian gospel that had never been clearly apprehended; it was implied that most Christian people had thought of salvation as something future, something that could not be known on this side of death, while in fact we are to be saved, if saved at all, here and now. Those who preached a present salvation said in substance, Many of you Christian people have missed the power and glory which Christ came to make yours in this life, because you are always thinking of heaven and the life to come; your religion is unpractical, you do not see that Christ came to make an infinite difference in the whole life of man in this world, as well as to make eternal blessedness our inheritance in the next. There is no need to preach like that now. None of us, I imagine, are too much occupied with thoughts of heaven and the life to come. Richard Baxter, as some of you remember, tells us that in the afternoon, when it began to be too dark to go on with his reading and writing, and before the candles were brought in, he used to sit quietly in the twilight meditating on the saints everlasting rest. There are not many Christian people, I imagine, who spend much of their time in that way now. Whether we realise the present salvation more fully than our fathers did I cannot tell, but I imagine it is certain that we think very much less about any salvation that is still to come. There is a present salvation, there is also a salvation to be hoped for, Wherein ye greatly rejoice. Christ, not the earthly Christ but the ascended Christ, is the head of the new race. His larger, diviner, human life is ours, and the life which we have received from Him, and into the full possession of which He entered at His resurrection and ascension, that life has in its essence the hope and assurance of passing into the same glory into which Christ has entered. Having this life we are born, therefore, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. This inheritance is not here; it is not ours in possession yet; it is no part of the present salvation; it is reserved for us in heaven. And lest we should come to harm before we reach it, we are kept safely for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the last time. In this it is that we Christian people are to rejoice. The present salvation is an incomplete salvation; the perfect salvation is to come. The future life of those who are to live forever in God-the complete salvation-transcends all thought as well as all hope; we cannot see the inheritance for the golden haze that surrounds it; it is too intensely bright for mortal vision; it belongs to another order than this; it cannot be revealed to knowledge until it is revealed in experience. But some elements of the present salvation will in the future salvation be perfect. Our sins, through the infinite mercy of God, are already forgiven, and we may have the full assurance that they are forgiven. But not until we are capable of a fuller knowledge of God shall we know the infinite blessedness of the discovery that He has blotted out our sins as a thick cloud which varnishes and leaves no stain on the blue of heaven. That blessedness is to come. There are times when we see the manifestations of the love of God for us-manifestations given to us in secret and wonderful ways by the power of the Spirit of God, making the heart tremble with a blended reverence and joy. We have no strength to bear them for long. If they remained glory would break upon glory, and we should anticipate the blessedness we hope for. What we hope for is a life that appears so enlarged, and with so Divine an environment that these manifestations of the personal love of the Eternal for us, and manifestations still more wonderful, will be with us always; that we shall move freely among them as we move in the common air and in the light of the common sun; they will never become dim, never be interrupted, but that in their tenderness and in their power they will increase through age after age of increasing wonder and joy. There is something in this great hope to give us courage and to renew the strength which too often faints and the resolution which too often falters. The joy of the Christian life would be immeasurably augmented if we dwelt more constantly on its eternal consummation in the Divine Presence, and the joy would give strength. We have great memories to sustain us, and, above all, the memory of the supreme manifestation of the Divine love in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But when hope is confederate with memory, and both are confirmed by the present consciousness that we have found God, every power of our better life receives new animation, and we see that all things are possible to us. Further, apart from a clear vision of the perfect salvation, faith is subject to an unnecessary strain. Forget too how large and free and blessed a life men are destined for in Christ in the next world, and it will sometimes seem as if there were disproportion between the great discoveries of the Christian gospel and what the gospel actually accomplishes. It is as if you were to judge of the labour which has been spent on the fields by the appearance of early spring, when the dark ground is hardly relieved by the faint green of the wheat which has just begun to shoot-it is so frail, apparently of so little value. Is this all that is to come of cleaning the ground and ploughing it and enriching it with the seed? Ah! you must wait-wait till the spring has expanded into the bright days of summer, and the summer into early autumn, and then the corn ripened, perfected, rising and falling in golden billows under the glowing sun, will reveal the end for which the farmer laboured. And Christs harvest home is not ended here, but in worlds unseen. Not until we know the perfect righteousness and the perfect blessedness of the saints in glory shall we see for what great ends the Son of God became man and rose again for our race. (R. W Dale, LL. D.)

Whom having not seen, ye love.-

Love to an unseen Saviour

To produce in us a love to Christ it is not necessary that we should see Him with our bodily eyes. Those who actually saw Jesus and loved Him are comparatively few to those who love Him unseen.

I. The properties of this love.

1. It is sincere and hearty. We must not judge by one single act in life, but by the habitual frame and the general tenor in behaviour. A real concern of mind for offending a friend is a sign that we esteem him.

2. It has respect unto Christ in all His characters and titles.

3. This love is superlative. It exceeds the esteem which the soul has for all other things. Christ will accept of nothing less.

4. This love is constant and everlasting. It is not like the esteem which we have for our fellow creatures, which frequently stops upon receiving an affront, and is often changed into resentment.

II. The grounds and reasons why the Christian loves an unseen Jesus.

1. The Christian loves an unseen Jesus because of the excellencies which He possesses, Whatever excellency is in the creature may be found in the highest perfection in Jesus Christ, for He inherits all true perfection: creatures glories are all imperfect.

2. The Christian loves an unseen Saviour because of the relation which He stands in to him. The ties of nature and relation are strong inducements to affection; a mother must turn monster if she does not love her babe.

3. The Christian is under the greatest obligations to Jesus for the wonders of His free and unmerited love: no wonder, then, that he loves Him, though unseen.

III. The reasonableness of the Christians love to an unseen Saviour.

1. Let us view the infinite glory of His person.

2. The amazing greatness of His condescension for His peoples advantage.

3. The blessings which He has conferred upon the Christian,

4. The endearing titles He has given him.

5. The care He continually takes of him, and the glory He has prepared and will secure for him.

6. The freeness of this love. (S. Hayward.)

Love to an unseen Saviour

I. Believe, though we never saw. We should not count this a hardship, since we every day believe in places and peoples whom we have not seen. Thus, you all believe that there is such a city as Rome, although few of you may have seen it. You believe also that a Pontiff rules there. But in these days of widespread scepticism men object to believe, in the first place, because the events to which we ask their credence happened so long ago. But if you believe that Julius Caesar fell at Pompeys pillar pierced by traitorous wounds, surely it is not more difficult to believe that about the same period in our worlds history the Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary for the sins of the world. It is objected, however, in the second place, that we ask faith in something supernatural concerning Jesus Christ, the like of which is not to be found in the history of Julius Caesar-namely, that He was raised from the dead, and that He ascended into the heavens. Quite true; but our God affords evidence correspondingly strong. But the faith that pleases God is not a mere conviction that the sacred oracles are true-it should include also a hearty acceptance of Christ as a Saviour for our own sinful souls. It is one thing for you to believe that a certain individual is the richest man in the city, and quite an additional thing if he, hearing of your straits, should write you to go to the bank and draw on him to any amount. And suppose you had really never seen the rich man, but had only heard of his goodness, as you found all your wants supplied at that bank, you would resemble these primitive Christians who were thus addressed. Though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

II. Although these Christians had never seen Christ, they, nevertheless, loved him. It is possible to love those whom we have never seen. The experience is felt every day. For example-

1. Men love unseen benefactors, and it becomes us to love the unseen Saviour-the greatest Benefactor of all. When the emancipation of the West Indian slaves became an accomplished fact, the liberated Negroes in their humble dwellings loved the men who had done so much for them, and suffered so much for them. They had never seen them, and yet they loved them.

2. But let us introduce another element into the claims of the ascended Christ, and consider that He is also a brother unseen. It sometimes happens that an unseen benefactor is also an unseen brother. I knew a family in this city, the elder brother in which had gone out to an Indian appointment before the younger members of it were born. Their father died before he could be called an old man, leaving a widow and large family without great resources. But this elder brother did a fathers part. He sent home remittances quite regularly, which maintained, clothed, and educated the younger children, and, as the daughters grew up, and were, one after another, married, he sent them special presents for their marriage outfits. Oh, how they loved him, although they had never seen him! Does not my parable once more suit? Is not this Jesus whom we have never seen occupied in high heavenly administration?

3. Further, the believer loves Christ, though he has never seen Him, on account of His beauty. We sometimes fall in love with the character of men whom we have never seen.

III. Though believers never saw Christ, they rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory. A doubtsome faith, leaving a man uncertain as to whether he is saved or not, is not countenanced in the Word of God. Further, the New Testament does not discourage ecstasy in religious experience. It expects joy unspeakable in the heart of the Christian. And if we see men and women in tumultuous joy, making processions and waving banners in honour of Bruce and Wallace, Tell and Garibaldi, whom they never saw, have we not infinitely greater cause to rejoice in present salvation and the hope of future glory through an unseen Christ? When the foreman of the jury says Not guilty, the prisoner leaps up in the dock with joy unspeakable. When the physician, feeling the pulse, says to the anxious patient: Your symptoms are much improved today; in fact, you are out of danger, and will henceforth progress to complete recovery, his joy is unspeakable. Now, what is holiness but wholeness in health?-the great blessing which we receive at the Cross, the salvation of the soul, the pardon of sin and the accompanying indwelling and renewal of the Holy Ghost. But the best is coming yet; the joy is also full of glory. We are down in the valley; but the hilltops are already radiant with the rising orb of eternal day. Beyond these hills our Redeemer is preparing a place for us. In conclusion, let me speak first a word of caution, and then a word of encouragement.

1. The word of caution I address to those who may be ready to proclaim their love to Christ and their assurance of salvation while yet their lives are unholy. Not only must Christ have the throne of our affections, but also the government of our wills freely and habitually surrendered-wills married to His and sweetly lost in His.

2. Such is the word of caution; now for the word of encouragement. How many worthy people are there who, when we ask them whether they love the Lord, or not, are unable to answer in the affirmative. Restricted views of the extent of Divine grace keep some in darkness, while others are the victims of hypochondriacal spiritual or rather unspiritual melancholy. As to the first cause of fear I would simply say that there is no doubt of Gods love to you, and therefore you should love Him in return. As to your morbid anxieties, I would exhort you to dismiss them all. Do not go about constantly feeling your own spiritual pulse. The best proof of your love to God is that you keep His commandments. (F. Ferguson, D. D.)

Love to Christ

I. The nature and grounds of love to Christ. Love to Christ is not to be confounded with the raptures of a visionary enthusiasm. Its foundation must not be laid in those ideal representations of His person and character which a luxuriant fancy is apt to picture. It signifies simply that sincere esteem of His person and character, which is founded on what is revealed respecting Him in the records of inspiration.

1. Love to the Redeemer is the first movement of the soul when illumined to discern the perfect excellencies of His Divine character. Is perfect holiness the proper object of delight and love? Are truth and faithfulness, combined with mercy and grace, the proper objects of moral approbation and delight? In Him mercy and truth have met together. He is justly entitled to our supreme regard, whose nature is infinitely excellent, and whose perfections are boundless.

2. But the believer will not confine himself to the contemplation of his Lord in the attributes of His Divine character; he will consider Him in His human nature also, and, as such, the proper object of enlightened attachment. As a man He exhibited an example of perfect conformity to the whole will of God.

3. The mediatorial character of Jesus justly entitles Him to our especial affection. From what Christ hath done, we learn what He is; and the glories of His character shine with peculiar lustre through the veil of His mediation, suffering, and death. And can we contemplate so much love without feeling some corresponding emotion of love in return?

II. Christ, though unseen, is the object of a Christians love.

1. Although Christ was never seen by us, yet we have been favoured with the most full and satisfactory information regarding Him. He is brought near to our view in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and in the varied writings of the New.

2. Jesus, though we never saw Him, is ascertained to be unquestionably our best friend and nearest relation. He is our instructor to point the way; our high priest to redeem and intercede for us; our Captain and King to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

3. He hath given us the most stupendous evidences of His disinterested love.

4. This kind friend hath sent us many kind messages of love, and hath actually left us a legacy to perpetuate His remembrance.

5. Though not personally present with us, He hath given us, as His representative, His Holy Spirit to abide with us forever, to enlighten our understandings, to purify our hearts from the power of corruption, to raise our affections to things spiritual and heavenly, to check in us the power of sin, and to guide us amid the snares and temptations of our pilgrimage through the world.

6. Though we see not Christ now, we are assured that if we love Him truly we shall see Him afterwards.

III. The manner in which love to Christ will practically express itself.

1. Love to Christ will lead us to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance with Him.

2. Love to Christ will lead us frequently to think and to speak of Him.

3. Love to Christ will lead us to seek intercourse with Him in all His ordinances.

4. If we love Christ, we will love His people and cause.

5. Finally, If ye love Me, says Jesus, keep My commandments. This is the most substantial test of the sincerity of our love. (R. Burns, D. D.)

Love to an unseen Saviour

I. The general nature of love to Christ. There are four essential acts that form the perfect notion of love. First, there is esteem, which is as the groundwork of love. And on all accounts Christ deserves this in the highest degree. Again, there is inclination of goodwill to the party beloved. This is called a benevolential esteem, as the former is complacential. The former considers its object as fit to do us good or give us pleasure. The latter regards its object as worthy to receive good, whether absolutely or from us or others. Esteem and benevolence, then, are the two leading branches of love, and both find room enough in Christ. The two remaining, desire, fitly enough called love in motion, and delight or complacency, called love at rest, rank themselves under each of the former respectively; for it is of the nature of true love to desire and delight in the happiness of the object as really as its own proceeding from it.

II. The object of the Christians love-the Lord Jesus Christ-with the grounds that are found with Him, of our loving Him. And here we might first observe how the many names, titles, and characters which Christ bears in Scripture, that convey various ideas of beauty, use, and pleasure, do of themselves recommend Him to our highest love. The particular grounds of love to Christ which His various names import and lead to.

1. If the greatest personal excellencies and beauties imaginable.

2. If the most intimate relation to God and His manifestative glory, joined with the highest interest in His favour and respect.

3. If the most amazing love to us.

4. If the most arduous and excellent works performed for our service and advantage.

5. If the most numerous, valuable, benefits conferred on us or promised to us.

III. The particular acts and expressions of a genuine love to Christ.

1. In the first place, wherever love to Christ is found, it will certainly show itself in frequent thoughts, attended ever and anon with discourse of Him. And what thoughts are they which love to Christ will inspire? They are thoughts of a noble elevation and of a comprehensive reach-thoughts which dignify our understandings. Further, the thoughts influenced by the love of Christ will be with regard to ourselves, and other things viewed in comparison with Christ, humbling and disdaining. Again, the thoughts about Christ which love to Him prompts are the most chosen and pleasing thoughts of any that can employ the mind. Finally, the thoughts that love to Christ inspires are affectionate thoughts and influential into the heart from whence they are united.

2. Love to Christ will express itself in desires towards Him accompanied with suitable endeavours, and these of two sorts, such as respect ourselves immediately, or Christ for ourselves, and such as respect Him for Himself.

IV. The properties and characters of genuine love to Christ. True love to Christ is sincere and unfeigned, love incorrupt.

2. True love to Christ is a judicious and rational affection. Though Christians love an unseen, they do not love an unknown Saviour.

3. Love to Christ is free, as being the effect of rational choice; and yet more free still, as being a supernatural habit influenced by Divine grace.

4. True love to Christ is of a very active and fruitful nature. There is a great deal of life, strength, and sprightliness in the affection of love.

5. True love to Christ is entire and universal. He must be loved in His whole character, or He is not loved at all.

6. It must be supreme.

7. It is constant.

8. This love to Christ is great, so as to become unspeakable and full of glory.

V. How faith accounts for this love in want of sight, so that this should not in reason be any obstruction to, while yet it is a commendation of it.

1. Let us see how faith contains a just reason for loving Christ, though never seen. Than which nothing will appear more manifest, if we only consider what faith is, in these two parts wherein the apostle sums it up (Heb_11:1).

2. Want of seeing Christ, though no reasonable bar against loving Him, must be allowed to import some greater commendation of love under this circumstance than in the case of personal sight.

VI. Improvement.

1. How much should we be concerned to observe the too obvious want of love to Christ in the Christian world, and withal to inquire whether it be not wanting in our own hearts also!

2. Suffer the word of exhortation, to give to Christ all the love we are capable of, suitable to His glorious dignity, and the obligations He has laid on us, heartily and bitterly lamenting withal our sin and folly in having withheld from Him so long and so much what has been His due. (J. Hubbard.)

The highest Christian experience

I. Love for the unseen. This is an axiom with all true affection.

1. It appears difficult theoretically.

2. It is common in experience. The absent, the dead are loved.

3. It is an element in the highest form of love. The non-sensuous.

4. It is a very blessed emotion. The band of love brings the distant near, makes the remote easily discerned.

II. Trust in the loved. Love Christ more, and you will trust Him more. You will believe what He says about-

1. Salvation.

2. Duty.

3. Trial.

4. Sacrifice.

III. Joy in the loved and trusted.

1. The joy of rest.

2. The joy of communion. (U. R. Thomas.)

The reign of Christ in Christendom

In the first place, think how wonderful a phenomenon the very existence of Christendom is. It is so in three particulars. In the first place, when we turn to the page of history, the existence of Christendom is wonderful when we consider the opposition which it had to overcome. And then, above all, the establishment of Christendom is wonderful when we consider the character of the doctrine which determined it. The gospel flattered no pride, it gave quarter to no passion. Now I wish further to direct your attention to the present reign of Christ in this present Christendom. And here I observe, in the first place, that our blessed Lord reigns over the intellect of Christendom by His authority. Human thinkers do not really govern thought. There has been no one-man government in the realm of intellect since Aristotle was deposed in the middle ages. These apparent governors of human thought rule a party, or a school, or a clique. Even there they are not really taken at their own word. The thing is not believed to be true just because they say it is true. Now, our blessed Lord, beyond all question, does not propose for the acceptance of His people a self-evident doctrine. You must make an act of faith in it, and that act of faith is an inclusive act. You cannot parcel it off into two separate divisions or compartments, and say: Here is the sentiment, supremely beautiful, and there is the dogma, of which we cannot say quite so much. We must believe the dogma of Christs authority, or we do not fully receive Christ. But then it may be said to the Christian, What is thy beloved, more than another beloved? There are other teachers who receive the adoration of thousands of souls: the Buddha reigns over as many souls as Christ does, and possibly a good many more. Yes, but not over as many sorts of souls. Jesus reigns over varied races. At all events, all nations who renounce Him, lose, or begin to lose, their place amongst the nations of mankind; and the fact of their denial is written upon their bodily and material organisations. Now, I mention further that Christ reigns over the hearts of men by love. Consider for a moment mans relation after death to the affections of those who survive him. The place which any of us can keep in the affections of those who survive is a narrow one indeed. Forgetfulness, in a very short time, must grow over us like the grass. And now, with this, contrast Christ after His death as an object of human affection. This love is illimitable in extent as well as in time. Every minute some dying man or woman invokes that name with a light of love upon the dying face. I am a judge of men, and I tell you that this Man with His power of awakening and perpetuating love was more than man. Jesus reigns as God by love in Christendom. Here is the strange fact of the spiritual world-this intense personal love towards One whom we have not seen. As St. Bernard says: When I name Jesus I name a Man, strong, gentle, pure, holy, sympathising, who is also the true and the Eternal God. And the image of the beauty is the best proof to the heart of the reality of the object which it represents-something in the same way as when we are walking along in meditation by a clear river that runs into the sea, the reflection of the white sea bird in the stream, even when we are not able to look up, is a proof to us that the bird is really sailing overhead. There is no fear of disappointment in that love toward Christ. There was a wife once who was all in all to a husband who had been blind from very early childhood, and when the question came about an operation being performed, she was troubled. She confessed she was troubled lest when sight was restored to her husband, whom she had loved and tended, he should be disappointed in the features of which he had thought so tenderly. Yes! but as spiritual sight is given to us, as we start up in the light of the Resurrection morning, there will be no disappointment; when we wake up after His likeness we shall be satisfied with Him, with the likeness of Him, whom not having seen, we love. (Bp. Alexander.)

Love to the unseen Christ

We are apt to suppose that, had we lived in the days of Christ, our faith and love would have been very much nearer perfection than they ever can be now. Witnessing the expression of His countenance would have given so much fuller a comprehension of His character, that our strongest affections would necessarily have been moved towards Him. There are persons who need the perceptions of the senses to help out the operations of the understanding, before they can realise facts with sufficient distinctness for their feelings to be excited. But this is not true of most earnest minds-of some, it is the very reverse of the truth. It is the same with regard to both Christs teaching and His moral qualities, as with regard to all other things in life-the mind comprehends only what it is prepared to receive. Things affect us, not only according to their nature, but according to our own. What we see depends, not only upon what there is to be seen, but also upon our capacity for seeing. Goodness and purity immeasurably above us will only affect us in that degree in which we are able to take them in. Hence, those Jewish disciples standing around our Saviour, gazing into His eyes, would only be moved by His character, in proportion as their own goodness, purity, and inner spiritual beauty enabled them to enter into sympathy with Him. Then, too, there is another consideration greatly in our favour: the love which rests upon the idealisation of a character must, necessarily, be more refined and spiritual than that which is derived through the sensuous perceptions. For the senses lend influences of their own, which, mingling with the spiritual elements, prevent the pure and simple operation of the latter, and oftentimes distort their proper impressions, Hence, a mans character is frequently better understood by those unacquainted with his person than by those round about him. And, still more frequently, it is only when distance of space or time removes the sensuous presence that the spiritual qualities of a man become thoroughly understood. And, upon this principle, too, it is that a friend removed from us by death, soon loses, in our imagination, his distinctive physical characteristics, whilst his moral and spiritual qualities Stand out more and more clearly defined. To this objection it may possibly be replied, why should our love for Christ be different from the love called forth by our living companions and friends? Why since He was in all points like unto us, should not the sensuous mingle with the spiritual? I answer, first, because it is unnatural; seeing He is removed from our sight, we can truly only follow the natural law of our minds and draw an ideal representation of Him. But, secondly, and most of all, because the whole spiritualising influence of the love depends upon its spiritual character. For the power of the love of Christ to elevate us depends upon two elements, First, although it is love for a son of man, it is a son of man who is not standing before us in hard forms of sense, but whose very humanity becomes to us as a spiritual essence, who eludes us when we attempt to grasp him, but who takes all the brightest lines our purified fancies project upon him. And this impalpableness of the sensuous image leads us, more and more, to enter into the second element upon which the power depends, namely, the spiritual and moral qualities of his nature. By dwelling almost exclusively upon these, the mind becomes, as it were, saturated with their influences, and is brought into closer and closer sympathy with them. The ideal it thus forms of the Christ is continually rising higher and higher; brighter and more candescent with Divine holiness, truth, goodness, spiritual beauty, the wondrous image glows-no wonder that the adoring, quickened soul enthusiastically exclaims, Whom having net seen we love. And the qualities upon which this love for Christ rests, are the qualities upon which all true love ever rests. For love is the going forth of spirit to spirit, of soul to soul-the giving of ones own inward spiritual life to another. When the soul thus discerns Him, all its deepest life is awakened; admiration, delight, and ineffable joy harmonise as melodious chords of holy music within its inmost being; it yields itself in love to Him whom thus it knows. And it is worth our while to note the qualities which the soul thus discerns in Christ which so call forth its love.

1. First of all, there is the Divine truthfulness. I mean the inward harmony of the thought and feeling with Gods law, with Gods idea, with eternal and unchangeable facts. Stronger, by reason of this truthfulness, than the granite rock, more immovable than the mountains of Lebanon, He stands forth for God, and for Gods law of right within Him.

2. But, then, this truthfulness led to purity; for purity is truth reduced to life; it is the embodying of what is right in ones own character. And you know how the Saviour did this. You know how He followed the right through evil and good report. There may, however, be all this, but in hard forms like the granite rock, glittering in the sun and standing out with its sharply defined, hard lines against the sky, exciting our wonder and admiration, but touching no chord of love in the heart.

3. And therefore there must be love-the gentleness and tenderness of a loving nature added on to and rising out of these. Annihilating self, it seeks to lavish the resources of its own life and blessedness on the world around. And I need not dwell upon the manifold forms in which this gentle and tender love manifested itself in Him who did not cry nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets-who brake not the bruised reed nor quenched the smoking flax. But then, I take it, that it is neither the truthfulness, the purity, nor the love which in itself and alone calls forth our love. But these qualities constitute, when existing together in their proper proportions, that wonderful thing which we call spiritual beauty-a thing we all recognise, according to our culture, when we meet with it, but which is so subtle as to defy our definition. Whilst theologians have been constructing their theories and doctrines about the Divine nature, and rival sects have been fighting for their individual shibboleths, the simple, loving souls of all churches have, out of the brief narratives of the Gospels, been idealising to themselves the Christ, and before the overpowering spiritual beauty which thus they have discerned in His character, have yielded their hearts strongest love and purest devotion. (James Cranbrook.)

The believers joyful love

There have been those who, by plausible arguments, have attempted to prove that love to an unseen Saviour is impossible. Sight is not of itself the foundation or cause of any affection to be dignified by the name of love. It was not by sight that you learned the character of your friend so as to esteem him for its excellence. And do we not know our blessed Saviour? From the delineations of the rapt Isaiah and the simple stories of the gospel, we know Him as He walked On earth, as far as men need know. And besides this blessed book, we have other sources of knowledge. The works of nature are ever telling of His wisdom, power, and goodness; are ever exciting to His love. The history of the Church, which is the body of Christ, is another continuous revelation of His character, more perfect now than in any former age. Just as you learn the temper of your friend by marking the methods which he uses in governing his household, you may read the heart of our Saviour by interpreting His dealings with the Church. But our most intimate and personal knowledge of the Redeemer is obtained by personal experience and by the revelation of the Holy Ghost to our hearts. But our text speaks of joy as well as love: In whom though now you see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. They always exist together. Who ever thinks of a love which does not convey satisfaction and delight? And who ever imagines that genuine happiness can be enjoyed where the pure affections of the heart have no exercise? Wherever there exists true faith and love to Christ, there must be, to some extent, happiness and delight in Him. And this is just in proportion to the purity and simplicity of our confidence and affection. (N. C. Locke, D. D.)

Love of Christ

Affections are evoked, not created, educed from within, not implanted from without. The quality of the object determines indeed the kind and quality of the affection. Perfect love is perfect joy only where the loving and the loved are alike good, holy, and true. Love again may be evoked in one of two ways-by instinct and nature, or by reason and spirit. If a man loves his son simply because the boy happens to be his, or a woman her daughter simply because the girl chances to be hers, and for no other and higher reason, the love is only blind impulse; it has no regard to actual or possible spiritual qualities, or any high moral end. But love awakened through the reason and in the spirit is spiritual love. The qualities admired belong to the spirit, the eye that sees is the spirits, and the admiration excited lives in the spirit. Instinctive affection is blind and arbitrary, but spiritual is not. Many a man would perceive and despise in another boy the moral qualities he scarcely observes in his own son. The first is due to a relation, natural or arbitrary, but the second to worth, personal, inherent, moral, real. Instinctive affection may be blind and impure, but spiritual must be altogether lovely and true. Perhaps it may now be superfluous to remark that the Christians love to Christ must be of the latter kind. The sight is spiritual and the affection the same. The love may lack the passion and intensity of instinct, but it has the calmness and the power of spirit. The claims of Christ have not appealed to eye and ear, but to heart and mind. We love Him, not for His beautiful face, or fine voice, or winsome ways, but for His mercy, and grace, the righteousness and truth that blend so perfectly in His character. The moral excellencies of Jesus, and these alone, can be inexhaustible sources of spiritual love. This distinction may enable us to deal with a too common difficulty. Many a devout soul has said, I cannot love my Saviour as I love my child. I do not, I cannot, love God more than I love my husband. There is an intensity in my affection for my family and friends entirely wanting in my affection for Divine things. I need to be reconverted. I must be altogether wrong. But the error lies in confounding things that differ. Mans affection for man must be more or less instinctive. Mans love for Christ must be altogether spiritual. Our love for Christ, then, while wanting the warmth of our love for man, has more depth and root in our being; while its form is less fervent, its essence is more real. The one seems to be, but the other in reality is the greater. Indeed, it cannot be rightly compared to our love for the living. It resembles much more closely our love for the dead. Death at once sanctifies and spiritualises our affection. It is, then, no hardship to have an invisible Saviour. We can love Him the better that He is unseen. Were God localised, He would seem to our thought much less awful and majestic than when He is conceived as everywhere, like the air we breathe, the element in which all beings live. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that the disciples never loved Christ aright till He became invisible. Their love had much of the intensity of passion, co-existed with much self-seeking. But when Jesus ascended all this was changed. Their affections were enlarged and clarified. Note, now, how this invisibility enables the mind to glorify, to idealise Jesus, as the object of its love. The senses are very prosaic and tyrannical. They see but a little way into a man, and retain only what of him is superficial and transient. The image of Christ that haunted the disciples would be very unequal, one of blended power and weakness, glory and shame. He would rise in their memories now as a weary man, sitting on Jacobs well, or asleep in the hinder part of the ship, and again as a mighty God, feeding the hungry multitude, or stilling the tempest. Now, He would be seen amid the glories of the transfiguration. But in our ease there is no such hindrance. We enjoy the privilege of never having seen Jesus. The Saviour, we know, is one whose griefs are past, whose glories have come, whom having not seen we love. Imagination should often come to the help of love. Does not the loved, lost mother appear adorned with every grace, and the father apparelled in every virtue? Does not boyhood, too, gleam to the old man, when he recalls the meadows on which he played with a light such as the sun never threw from its burning face? And since imagination can lend a brilliance of hue, a splendour of colour to the objects of time, calling forth deeper and tenderer love, why not to the Object at once of sacred memory and eternal hope-the invisible Saviour? The love of the invisible Jesus may thus be developed in us like any other normal affection, and our growth in grace will be commensurate with this development. Here we may note Gods wisdom and goodness in thus enlisting our natural capacities on the side of our own eternal interests. But can we define this love? What are its constituent elements? Love, like light, seems simple, but is in truth compound. In a simple beam of white light there are varied colours. Pass the beam through a prism and it breaks into those bright and dark hues that blend so beautifully in the rainbow. The beam is one, yet several, each constituent colour being necessary to its very existence. So love has its essential elements, each complementary to the other, and all combining to give it real and ample being-goodwill, approbation, delight, desire, and trust. Where any of these is not, love cannot be. O Thou Christ of the living God, teach us to love Thee, not simply as a short and easy method of deliverance, not as a convenient way of escaping the terrible pains of hell; but as our Brother, our Fellow, our Friend, our one Supreme Good, in whom alone everlasting happiness and peace can be found I And now, consider what a privilege, what an honour thou hast in being permitted to love the invisible Jesus. Pencil cannot delineate His perfection; colour cannot express His beauty. The human form must be transfigured and transformed into the Divine, ere it can tell the glory and the grace of the indwelling Christ. We would not then, O Christ, wish Thee to become visible-One we could see with our fleshly eyes, and handle with our fleshly hands. Remain Thou within the veil; there Thou art worthier to be loved; and while here we abide we shall enjoy the blessedness of those who, because they have not seen, have only the more believed and the better loved. (A. M. Fairbairn, D. D.)

Seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing

I. How come we into contact with Jesus? The uppermost point of contact, the most apparent in the believers life, is love. Whom not having seen ye love. But the text tells of another point of contact, In Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing. We are again reminded here that we do not see, but we are assured of the possibility of believing in Him without sight. Ah, have I not by faith made real to myself the Saviour on the Cross? In Christ you have believed, and you know that your sin is forgiven, that His righteousness is imputed to you, and that you stand accepted in the Beloved. This is not to you a matter of hope; it is a matter of firm conviction. You have not seen, but you have believed. As to His resurrection also. You did not see him when He rose early in the morning from the tomb and the watchmen in terror fled far away, but you have believed in Him as risen. I believe that because He lives I shall live also, and it is possible to believe this as firmly as though we saw it. Christ is in heaven pleading for us. We cannot see the ephod and the breastplate, but we believe that He intercedes successfully there for us. We choose Him to be our advocate in every case of sore distress, in every case of grievous sin; we believe that He is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, and we leave our suit with Him in perfect confidence. Still the point is, that carnal people will imagine that if there could be something to touch or smell they should get on, but mere believing and loving are too hard for them. Yet such thought is not reasonable. An illiterate man cannot see that mental work is work at all, but he who is capable of mental labour soon feels the reality of it. Just transfer that thought. Coming into contact with Christ by touch looks to most people to be most real, that is because their animal nature is uppermost; coming into contact with Jesus by the spirit seems to them to be unreal, only because they know nothing of spiritual things. Thoughtless persons think that mental pain is nothing. Mere animal men will often say, I can understand the headache, I can understand the pain of having a leg cut off; but the pain of injured affection, or of receiving ingratitude from a trusted friend, this by the rough mind is thought to be no pain at all. Oh, says he, I could put up with that. But I ask you who have minds, Is there any pain more real than mental pain? Just so the mental operation-for it is a mental operation-of coming into contact with Christ by loving Him and trusting Him is the most real thing in all the world, and no one will think it unreal who has once exercised it.

II. What virtue is this which flows from him?

1. The first result of trusting and loving Christ is joy, and joy of a most remarkable kind. It is far above all common joy. It is spoken of as joy unspeakable. Now earth-born joys can be told to the full. But spirit-born joys cannot be told because we have not yet received a spiritual language. I have seen mens faces lit up with heavens sunlight when the joy of the Lord has been shed abroad in their hearts. The very people who a day ago looked dull and heavy look as if they could dance for mirth because they have found the Saviour, and their soul is at peace through Him. The apostle adds that it is full of glory. Many sensual joys are full of shame-a man with a conscience dares not tell them to his fellows. The joy of making money is hot full of glory, nor is the joy of killing ones fellows in battle. There is no joy like that of the Christian, for he dares to speak of it everywhere, in every company.

2. The apostle mentions another blessing received by loving and trusting Christ. He says, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Every man who trusts and loves Christ is saved. When we trusted Jesus, though we used no forms and ceremonies, we received the salvation of our souls.

III. What follows then from the whole of this?

1. It follows, in the first place, that a state of joy and salvation is the fitting and expected condition of every believer in Christ.

2. There is another inference to be drawn from my subject, and that is for the seeking soul. If you want comfort go to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Love a way to faith

You notice that in the apostles words love comes before belief. This is certainly not what we should have expected. How can we love before we believe? Must we not first feel convinced of the reality of Christ and the genuineness of His claims? And yet, if we take the case of one who saw Christ, is it not clear that love to Him must have preceded faith? Would not love spring up at once in witnessing some act of Christ or listening to some of His words? And yet faith may have involved more difficulty. It was impossible not to love; but how was it possible to believe, in spite of all the difficulties lying in their expectations regarding the Messiah? Nay; do we not see the love of the disciples to their Master actually struggling to attain to faith in the face of their old beliefs? Love took no heed of these obstacles. For it, in view of Christ, there was no obstruction. It went straight to its object. But faith could not avoid the encounter. It had to grapple with its enemies. Is the case different with men now? Do not men in general learn to love Christ before they ever ask the question of His reality and the genuineness of His claims? And here the first thing that strikes us is the adaptation of the Gospels especially, and also, but not so markedly, of the Epistles to awaken love above all. The appeal is not made mainly and directly to the understanding and reason. Men are not argued with. There is no elaborate demonstration presented. There is no shutting up of men by inexorable logic. On the contrary, there is a picture presented of a great and marvellous life and a death of outward ignominy but transcendent moral glory. Observe how insinuating this appeal to love is. It works itself into your heart before you are aware. You are surprised into admiration and into love. The life of Jesus is so exquisitively human, so full of little touches that mean nothing to the bare intellect, but are mighty with the heart. The great qualities of Christ have the effect of rousing some answering feelings in the souls of men. Every truly elevated life has such an influence; but that of Christ in an altogether transcendent manner, Men, in this way, by a personal attachment to Christ, or admiration of Him, or enthusiasm for Him, according as their particular bent may be, grow into a love of all things noble and pure. And then another result appears. Keeping pace with this love of righteousness, penitence shows itself. A sense of sin, and a bitter shame on account of it, grows on the man who earnestly admires Christ. What takes place when this stage is reached? The man is now in a position to appreciate the rich and tender things which Christ utters about forgiveness. And now he comes to understand that Christ is a Saviour. Whenever sin is felt to be a burden, a deeper insight is gained into Christ. And now faith in Christ has been reached. The needs of the soul, combining with love to Christ, have called out faith. They have made Christ real. When faith in Christ begins to work, then love becomes both wider and more earnest. Then love feels obligation. It feels that it has got a task to fulfil and a debt to discharge. Faith becomes henceforward the great feeder and tributary of love, bringing down supplies to it from all the mountains of truth and showers of grace. Let us notice one or two inferences from this line of thought. We see how love to an unseen Christ operates in keeping Him near to the soul in spite of the lapse of centuries. There are humble, earnest souls today in myriads that feel Christ more real and nearer than many who had seen Him in the flesh. How finely the natural and the spiritual blend in love to Christ! There are those who never seem to get beyond the natural. They love Christ as they love any great benefactor of the world. And who can tell just precisely when his love to Christ rose out of this sphere, and became spiritual; or when any such love becomes spiritual, aspiring, and active? Is not all true love to good and right at bottom and ultimately a love to God, if only it knew itself? Must we not speak of it as both an inspiration and an instrument of the Spirit of God who besets men everywhere and broods over them? Is not the manifestation of Christ the one grand means by which this latent love of goodness is kindled and lifted up, and recognises its centre and home? Is not the immense power that Christ has over the natural admiration of men one of His own greatest weapons and one of the things which the Spirit of God most uses? And is not this one of the main adaptations of the gospel to the whole world? And if a man attempts no tour round the world, but simply seeks what medicine he can apply to human hearts, what antidote he can find for sin and woe, how he can touch souls, and win them out of despondency and darkness, hardness and sloth and shame into light and love and joy; if he is only intent on sweetening and ennobling human life, he will find there is but one simple, ready, efficacious universal means, the story of that marvellous life and death-love to the unseen Christ (J. Leckie, D. D.)

Christ, though invisible, the object of devout affection

It is familiar to all experience and observation how much the action of our spiritual nature is dependent on the senses, especially how much the power of objects to interest the affections depends on their being objects of sight. The objects we can see give a more positive and direct impression of reality; there can be no dubious surmise whether they exist or not. The sense of their presence is more absolute. Again, the good or evil, pleasure or grievance, which the visible objects cause to us, are often immediate; they are now; without any anticipation I am pleased, benefited-or perhaps distressed. Whereas the objects of faith can be regarded as to have their effect upon us in futurity. Visible objects, when they have been seen, can be clearly kept in mind in absence-during long periods-at the greatest distance. But the great objects of faith having never been seen, the mind has no express type to revert to. With visible objects (speaking of intelligent beings) we can have a sensible and definite communication. Invisible beings do not afford us this perfect sense of communication. With visible beings (that is, with human beings) we have the sense of equality, of one kind; we are of the same nature and economy; in the same general condition of humanity and mortality. But as to the unseen existences we are altogether out of their order. With the visible beings, again, we can have a certain sense of appropriation; can obtain an interest in them which they will acknowledge. But the invisible beings! they have a high relationship of their own! They stand aloof, and far outside of the circle within which we could comprehend what we can call ours. Such are some of the advantages of converse with objects that are seen over that with the invisible. And, in view of this, taken exclusively, it was a high privilege that was enjoyed by those who saw and conversed with our Lord on earth. But this is only one side of the subject. Look a moment at the other. And we need not fear to assert-that, on the whole, it is a high advantage not to have seen Jesus Christ; an advantage in favour of the affections claimed to be devoted to Him. We need not dwell on the possibility of feeling a great interest in objects we have never beheld, Recollect what a measure of sentiment, of affection in its various modes, has been given to the illustrious heroes, deliverers of their country, avengers of oppression, and men of transcendent intellectual power. But there is a nobler manifestation of this possibility. Think of all the affection of human hearts that has been given to the Saviour of the world since He withdrew His visible presence from it! And we still assert that it is to the advantage of the affection of His disciples toward Him that they see Him not. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. But, more than this; revert in thought to the personal manifestation of our Lord on earth, and consider how it would act on the believing spectators mind. Sublime greatness would, must, by an inevitable law of human feeling, be reduced, shaded, diminished, as to its impression on the mind, by being shrouded and presented in a mere human form. Consider also that, in beholding a glorious and Divine nature in such a manifestation, the affection of those devoted to hint would fix very much, often chiefly, on the mere human quality of the being before them, and therefore would be familiarised, shall we say vulgarised, down to that proportion; it might be most warm and cordial, but not elevated and awful. Consider besides that, under the full direct impression of sight, there would be a great restriction on faith, acting in the way of imagination. The mind does not know how to expand into splendid ideal conception upon an object presented close and plain and familiar to sight. Should not such considerations make it evident that to see the Messiah in His personal manifestation was a mode of contemplating Him very inferior, for the excitement of the sublimer kind of affection, to that which we have to exercise by faith? The text may suggest to us an additional idea, which it could not to those to whom the apostle wrote. We not only have not seen Him, but we live very long after the time in which He could be seen; we, therefore, in endeavouring to form a sublime conception of Him, can add, and accumulate upon the idea, all the glory that has arisen to Him from the progress of His cause in the world ever since. (J. Foster.)

Gratitude to Christ

I. Gratitude naturally begets an affectionate attachment to its object. We ought not only to guard against an error too prevalent in our own times, namely, the excluding the affections altogether from religion, and imputing the signs of them in others to the impulse of a heated imagination, but we ought to cherish their influence as a becoming expression of our love to Jesus Christ, and a pleasing symptom of our sincerity, when we make a public profession of it.

II. It is a natural effect of gratitude to keep the object of it much in our thoughts. Do the privileges and benefits of the gospel interest our affections. Do our hearts burn within us when we contemplate His doctrine, His character, His astonishing humility and benevolence?

III. Another effect of gratitude is to proceed to outward expressions of those thankful sentiments which inspire our hearts. When we either love or hate, or grieve or rejoice in an intense degree we are sensibly gratified by the verbal expression of these affections. Words not only flow from the affections, but react upon them, and add to their vivacity and strength.

IV. Gratitude naturally disposes us to do everything in our power agreeable to our benefactor, or that tends to promote his interest. To pretend to love Jesus Christ while we love our sins and hold them fast is not less absurd than it would be for a man to avow allegiance to his prince while leagued with those rebellious subjects who have conspired against his person and government. When overtaken in a fault are we affected with sorrow, not only from the fear of danger, but from the consciousness of ingratitude?

V. Gratitude naturally leads us to glory in our connection with our benefactors. Jesus, a man of sorrows while He tabernacled on earth, is now exalted to the right hand of the throne of God. Our gratitude cannot add to His glory, nor can our ingratitude detract from it. But His Church, or kingdom on earth, like the kingdoms of this world, is not exempted from the vicissitudes of prosperous and adverse fates. How many alarming symptoms of the declining credit and influence of the Christian religion are exhibited in the age and country in which we live! (T. Somerville, D. D.)

In whom … believing, ye rejoice.-

The duty and discipline of Christian joy

I. The grand possibilities of Christian joy-unspeakable and full of glory. It is quite possible to be beset all about with cares and troubles and yet to feel a pure fountain of celestial gladness welling up in our inmost hearts, sweet amidst bitter waters. There may be life beneath the snow. There may be fire burning, like the old Greek fire, below the water. A man has this power if he have two objects of contemplation, to one or other of which he may turn his mind-he can choose which of the two he will turn to. Like a railway signalman, you may either flash the light through the pure white glass or the darkly coloured one. You may either choose to look at everything through the medium of the sorrows that belong to time, or through the medium of the joys that flow from eternity. The question is, which of the two do we choose shall be uppermost in our hearts and give the colour to our experience. And then the text reminds us that the gladness which thus belongs to the Christian life is silent and a transfigured joy unspeakable and glorified, as the word might be rendered. He is a poor man who can count his flock, said the old Latin proverb. Those joys are on the surface that can be spoken. The deep river goes silently, with equable flow, to the great ocean; it is the little shallow brook that chatters amongst the pebbles. The true Christian joy is glorified, says Peter. The glory of heaven shines upon it and transfigures it. It is suffused and filled with the glory for which the Christian hopes, like Stephen when Gods glory smote him on the face and made it shine as an angels.

II. The one great act by which this possibility of gladness is turned into a reality. In Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing ye rejoice. The act of faith is the condition of joy. Joy springs from the contemplation or experience of something calculated to excite it, and the more real, permanent, and all-sufficient that object the fuller and surer the joy. But where can we find such an object as Him with Whom we are brought into union by our faith? Jesus Christ is all-sufficient, full of pity, full of beauty and righteousness, all that we can desire-and all this forever. But mark, the language of our text shows that our gladness will be accurately contemporaneous with our trust. As long as we are exercising faith, so long shall we experience joy-not one instant longer. It is like a piano, whose note ceases the moment you lift your finger from the key-not like an organ, in which the sound persists for a time after.

III. The gift which enhances joy. The exercise of faith is itself joy, apart from what faith secures. We stretch out our hands to Christ, and the act is blessedness. Faith is the condition of joy, and the salvation of our souls, which we receive as its end, is the great reason for joy. Salvation is past, present, and future. Here it is clearly regarded as present. That present salvation will be a source of pure and noble joy. If my heart is humbly and even tremulously resting upon Him, I have got, in the measure of my faith, the real germ of all salvation. What are the elements of which salvation consists? The fact and the sense of forgiveness to begin with. Well, I have that, have I not, if I trust Christ? A growing possession of pure desires, heaven-wrought tastes, of all that is called in the Bible the new man-well! I have that, surely, if I trust Him. Such progressive salvation is given to me if I am trusting in Him, Whom, having not seen, I love. All these will tend to joy. The present salvation points onwards to its own completion, and in that way becomes further a source of joy. In its depths we see reflected a blue heaven with many a star. The salvation here touches the soul alone, but salvation in its perfect form touches the body, soul, and spirit, and transforms all the outward nature to correspond to these and makes a worthy dwelling for perfected men. That prospect brings joy beyond the reach of aught else to afford. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christian joy

I. Its source.

1. Belief in the unseen Christ is present joy because it creates harmony in the soul.

2. Because it tills the heart with the deepest love.

II. Its nature.

1. It is inexpressible from the depth of its emotion.

2. It is the earnest of the future heaven. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

Believers rejoicing

I. The Christians rejoicing. Joy belongs to them, and it belongs to them only in this lower world. Joy is their duty, their privilege; joy is commanded, promised, insured: their joy is begun.

II. The source of this joy. There is enough in Christ to relieve every want, to fulfil every hope, to surpass every wish.

III. The medium of this joy.

1. Faith is the only medium of an acquaintance with Him.

2. Faith is the medium of all our intercourse with Him.

IV. The inexpressibleness of this joy. Who can describe its sweetness, its efficiency?

V. The excellency of this joy. (W. Jay.)

Rejoicing indicates strength

Oh, that we might have such joy as that which inspired the men at the battle of Leuthen! They were singing a Christian song as they went into battle. A general said to the king, Shall I stop those people singing? No, said the king. Men that can sing like that can fight. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Joy unspeakable

It were a poor thing if he that hath it could tell it all out. (T. Leighton.)

Deep joys

It is with joys as they say of cares and griefs, the deepest waters run stillest. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Heart joys

True joy is a solid, grave thing, dwells more in the heart than in the face; whereas base and false joys are but superficial, skin deep (as we say); they are all in the face. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Glorified joys

Glorified already-a piece of Gods kingdom and heavens happiness aforehand. (J. Trapp.)

Glorious enjoyment

When Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, was dying, a friend sitting by his bedside asked of what he was particularly thinking. I dont think now, he replied, with great animation. I am enjoying. (Tinlings Illustrations.)

Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul.-

The godly, by faith, do even here enjoy salvation

The servants of God, by faith, do even here enjoy salvation and eternal life, even presently we have glory, though not in its fulness.

1. Because we are as sure of it as if we had it, as having Gods hand for it, even His word, His seal, His sacrament.

2. Because even here we have the earnest of it, which is His Spirit. When earnest is given between honest men there is no going back, and shall God say and not do it?

3. Because by faith we are already entered into the first degree of it; being knit to Christ, and so perfectly justified, we are come to the suburbs of our glory, and are, as it were, at the gate, lacking nothing but to be let in by death. (John Rogers.)

Your personal salvation

(Psa_119:41):-I shall aim at commending the salvation of God to those of you who possess it, that you may be the more grateful for your choice inheritance; and still more shall I labour to commend it to those who possess it not, that having some idea of the greatness of its value they may be stirred up to seek it for themselves.

I. I shall try to commend the salvation or God by opening up what Peter has said in the verses before us.

1. Let me urge you to give earnest heed to the salvation of God, because it is a salvation of grace (1Pe 1:10). The Lord proposes to save you because you are miserable and He is merciful; because you are necessitous and He is bountiful.

2. Again, your closest attention may well be asked to the salvation of God when you are told in the text that it is by faith. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. All that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. He that believeth in Him is not condemned. He that believeth on Him hath everlasting life.

3. The gospel of salvation ought to be regarded by you, for it has engrossed the thoughts of prophets. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. If men that had the Holy Ghost, and were called seers, nevertheless searched into the meaning of the Word which they themselves spoke, what ought such poor things as we are to do in order to understand the gospel? It should be our delight to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the doctrines of grace. Furthermore, when prophecy had ceased, the Holy Spirit came upon another set of men of whom our text speaks. Peter says of these things, that they are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

4. The apostles followed the prophets in testifying to this salvation, and with the apostles there was an honourable fellowship of earnest evangelists and preachers. These noble bearers of glad tidings continued to report this salvation till they had finished their missions and their lives, and therefore I feel that for us in these times to trifle with Gods Word, and give a deaf ear to the invitations of the gospel, is an insult to their honoured memories. You martyr them a second time by contemptuously neglecting what they died to hand to you. From the dead they bear witness against you, and when they rise again they will sit with their Lord to judge you.

5. Nor have we merely prophets and apostles looking on with wonder, but our text says, Which things the angels desire to look into. They take such an interest in us, their fellow creatures, that they have an intense wish to know all the mysteries of our salvation. We have already gone a long way with this text, rising step by step. We now behold another wonder: we rise to the angels Master.

6. Christ is the substance of this salvation. For what saith the text? The prophets spake beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Ah, there is the point. To save men Jesus suffered. One other step remains. It cannot be higher; it is on the same level. It is this.

7. The Holy Ghost is the witness to all this. It was the Holy Ghost that spake in the prophets; it was the Holy Ghost who was with those who reported the gospel at the first; it is the same Holy Spirit who every day bears witness to Christ.

II. So far have I commended my Lords salvation, and now I would desire you, with all this in your own minds, to turn to the prayer in the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm: Let Thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Thy salvation according to Thy word. Use the prayer with this intent: Lord, I have been hearing what prophets and apostles and angels think of Thy salvation, what Thy Son and what Thy Spirit think of it; now let me humbly say what! think of it: Oh, that it were mine! Oh, that it would come to me!

II. Thus, then, I would recommend the prayer of the psalmist.

1. I will say about it, that it is in itself a very gracious prayer, for it is offered on right grounds.

(1) There is no mention of merit or desert. His entreaty is for mercy only.

(2) It is a gracious prayer, because it asks for the right thing: even Thy salvation, not a salvation of my own invention. Gods salvation is one in which His Divine sovereignty is revealed, and that sovereignty must be accepted and adored.

(3) You see that the prayer is put in the right form, for it is added, Even Thy salvation according to Thy Word. He wishes to be saved in the manner which the Lord has appointed. Lord, if Thy Word says I must repent, give me Thy salvation, and cause me to repent; if Thy Word says that I must confess my sin, give me Thy salvation in the confession of sin; if Thou sayest I must trust to Christ, Lord, help me now to trust Him; only grant me Thy salvation according to Thy Word.

(4) Observe that the whole prayer is conceived and uttered in a humble spirit. It is, Let Thy salvation come also unto me. He owns his helplessness. He cannot get at the mercy, he wants it to come to him. He is so wounded and so sick that he cannot put on the plaister nor reach the medicine, and therefore he asks the Lord to bring it to him.

2. In the second place this prayer may be supported by gracious arguments. I will suppose some poor heart painfully longing to use this prayer. Here are arguments for you. Pray like this. Say, Lord, let Thy mercy come to me, for I need mercy. Next plead this; Lord, Thou knowest, and Thou hast made me to know somewhat of what will become of me if Thy mercy does not come to me: I must perish, I must perish miserably. Then plead, If Thy mercy shall come to me it will be a great wonder, Lord. I have not the confidence to do more than faintly hope it may come; but, oh, if Thou dost ever blot out my sin I will tell the world of it; through eternity I will sing Thy praises, and claim to be of all the saved ones the most remarkable instance of what Thy sovereign grace can do. Then you can put this to the good Saviour. Tell Him if He will give you His salvation, He will not be impoverished by the gift. Lord, I am a thirsty soul; but Thou art such a river that if I drink from Thee there will be no fear of my exhausting Thy boundless supply. There is another plea implied in the prayer, and a very sweet argument it is-Let Thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord. It means: It has come to so many before, therefore let it come also unto me. Lord, if I were the only one, and Thou hadst never saved a sinner before, yet would I venture upon Thy word and promise. Especially I would come and trust the blood of Jesus: but, Lord, I am not the first by many millions. I beseech Thee, then, of Thy great love, let Thy salvation come unto me.

3. I will close by assuring you that this blessedly gracious prayer, which I have helped to back up with arguments, will be answered by our gracious God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Salvation the end of faith

I. Consider the article saved-the soul, the deathless spirit by which we are distinguished from the beasts that perish.

1. Its origin. The Lord God breathed into man the breath of life. The body was composed of what existed before; but the soul that animated it came immediately from God.

2. Its immortality. Earthly possessions are estimated according to their duration. These bodies of ours must soon go to the dust; but the soul shall exist through endless duration. What, then, can be of so much importance as the salvation of the soul?

II. What does this salvation include?

1. Redemption from the curse of the law. This is the first step in the way to heaven.

2. This salvation includes personal meetness. We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds.

III. Observe the connection between faith and salvation. When the Christian dies he receives the end of his faith. How is this to be understood? In the verse before the text the apostle mentions believing as the cause of joy. The whole end and object of faith is the salvation of the soul. The Scriptures place this principle in a most prominent position (Joh_3:18-36). (American National Preacher.)

Salvation-its subjective elements

I. Faith. In whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing.

1. Faith is the first Christian grace. Without it you are no Christian at all.

2. This faith is a personal trust in a personal Saviour. It is more than intellectual assent, even heart-reliance.

3. This faith was, moreover, a faith in an invisible Saviour. In whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing.

II. Love. Whom, having not seen, ye love.

1. Love is one essential element of the Christian religion. This it is indeed which distinguishes the Christian religion from the other religions of the world.

2. Our supreme love. His place in our affection is unique-He enjoys a love deeper, profounder, more lasting, than that of father or mother, of brother or sister.

3. These strangers of the Dispersion evinced their supreme love of the Saviour by suffering themselves to be despoiled of all their possessions rather than deny Him. Their love was sorely tested.

III. Joy. Ye rejoice, etc.

1. Joy is an essential element in the religion of Jesus Christ; not joy to the exclusion of sorrow, lint joy in the midst thereof.

2. This joy not only defies philosophy to explain it, but language to express it-joy unspeakable, that cannot be told out.

(1) The innermost joy of the Christians heart is too Divine a thing, of too delicate a texture, to be exposed to the curious, unhallowed view of worldlings. And we all know of experiences too sacred, too precious and sweet, to be exposed to every gazers eyes.

(2) The joy which wells up in the Christians heart cannot be conveyed in language, being too subtle and volatile a thing, evaporating in the very attempt to pour it from the heart into the bottles of grammatical construction.

3. This joy is full of glory, or already glorified.

(1) The inner centre of this joy is already white and glowing.

(2) This joy has the evidence in itself of its ultimate glorification in the world to come. The process has been begun here, it will be perfected yonder. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

Soul salvation

I. The great worth of soul salvation. This is seen from-

1. The illustrious beings interested in it.

(1) Prophets.

(2) Angels.

(3) Apostles.

(4) The Spirit of Christ in them all.

2. The Saviour Himself by whom salvation comes.

(1) His sufferings.

(2) His following glories.

II. The gradual development of the revelation for soul salvation.

1. Predicted by the prophets.

(1) Gradually and partially.

(2) Unconsciously.

(3) By Divine illumination.

2. Fully declared, announced, and reported.

III. The simple means of attaining soul salvation.

1. Salvation is-

(1) The thing for which we believe.

(2) The end to which belief leads.

2. This faith is-

(1) Assent of the mind.

(2) Consent of the heart.

(3) Response of the will. (U. R. Thomas.)

Salvation as it is now received

I. What of salvation is received here?

1. The whole of it by the grip of faith and the grace of hope.

2. The absolute and final pardon of sin is ours at this moment.

3. Deliverance from slavish bondage, and from a sense of awful distance from God is a present relief. Peace, reconciliation, contentment, fellowship with God, and delight in God, we enjoy at this hour.

4. Rescue from the condemning power of sin is now complete.

5. Release from its dominion is ours. It can no longer command us at its will, nor lull us to sleep by its soothing strains.

6. Conquest over evil is given to us in great measure at once. Sins are conquerable. Holy living is possible. Some have reached a high degree of it.

7. Joy may become permanent in the midst of sorrow.

II. How is it received?

1. Entirely from Jesus, as a gift of Divine grace.

2. By faith, not by sight or feeling.

3. By fervent love to God. This excites to revenge against sin, and so gives present purification. This also nerves us for consecrated living, and thus produces holiness.

4. By joy in the Lord. This causes us to receive peace unspeakable, not to be exaggerated, nor even uttered.

III. Have you received it, and how much?

1. You have heard of salvation, but hearing will not do.

2. You profess to know it, but mere profession will not do.

3. Have you received pardon? Are you sure of it?

4. Have you been made holy? Are you daily cleansed in your walk?

5. Have you obtained rest by faith and hope and love? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The greatness of salvation

A German writer illustrates the greatness of our salvation after this manner. A gentleman, after the most exemplary life, died. The gate of heaven was opened, and he was welcomed as an heir of glory. One of the glorious ones was commissioned to be his conductor and teacher. First he took him to a point where he could see the most fearful representation of sin in its fruits of misery. The objects of horror made him shudder. Then his guide bade him look farther and farther down in the dismal vault, and he saw the most hideous and terrible of beings, the fruit of sin. That, said his guide, is what in ages of eternity you would have been had you gone on in sin. His guide next took him to a point from which could be seen the glories of the redeemed. He saw rank after rank of angels, seraphim, and cherubim, dwelling in ineffable glory. He bade him look beyond these; and in the far distance he beheld a being transcendently more radiant and glorious, around whom floated the soft music of unspeakable sweetness and joy. That, said the guide, is yourself many ages hence. Behold the glory and bliss to which the salvation of Jesus will bring you.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 1:6. Wherein — In which living hope of such a glorious inheritance, and in being so kept to the enjoyment of it, ye, even now, greatly rejoice — Αγαλλιασθε, ye are exceeding glad, or leap for joy, though for a season, ολιγον αρτε, now — A little while: such is our whole life compared to eternity! if need be — When God sees it needful, and the best means for your spiritual profit; ye are in heaviness — Λυπηθεντες, grieved, or in sorrow; but not in darkness: for they still retained both faith and hope, 1Pe 1:3; 1Pe 1:5; yea, and love, 1Pe 1:8. From this we learn that the people of God are never afflicted except when it is either necessary for, or conducive to, their spiritual improvement. What a consolation is this to the afflicted! That the trial of your faith — The trying whether it be genuine, or the proof of it upon trial; being much more precious — Or much more important, or of greater consequence, than the trial of gold — Or that your faith, being tried, and proved to be genuine upon trial, which is more precious than gold, (for gold, though it bear the fire, will yet perish with the world,) may be found, though it doth not yet appear, unto praise — From God himself; or may be approved and commended by him; and honour — From men and angels; and glory — Assigned by the great Judge; at the appearing of Jesus Christ — At the time of the restitution of all things, when he shall appear for the perfect and final salvation of his followers. One reason why the Christians, in the first age, were subject to persecution and death was, as Macknight observes, “that their faith being put to the severest trial, mankind might have, in their tried and persevering faith, what is infinitely more profitable to them than all the gold and silver in the world; namely, such an irrefragable demonstration of the truth of the facts on which the Christian religion is built, as will bring praise, and honour, and glory, to God, and to the martyrs themselves, at the last day. For what can be more honourable to God, than that the persons, whom he appointed to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ, and to the other miracles by which the gospel was established, sealed their testimony with their blood? Or what greater evidence of the truth of these miracles can the world require, than that the persons who were eye-witnesses of them, lost their estates, endured extreme tortures, and parted with their lives, for bearing testimony to them? Or what greater felicity can these magnanimous heroes wish to receive than that which shall be bestowed on them at the revelation of Jesus Christ, when their testimony shall be put beyond all doubt, their persecutors shall be punished, and themselves rewarded with the everlasting possession of heaven?”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Joy in the blissful prospect in contrast with severe temporary trial, 1Pe_1:6-7.

6. Wherein—Referring to 1Pe_1:3-5, generally.

Rejoice—With a deep, holy exultation.

In heaviness—Better, afflicted, or made sorrowful, and yet exulting. The manifold temptations were the various trials of their Christian integrity to which they were exposed, in which they had suffered and were still to suffer. The path to glory for those early Christians lay through opposition and tribulation. Their religion made no compromise with other beliefs; its friends were subjects of constant social reproach and frequent persecutions. They were tried on every side and in every way. It was good to be reminded that the season was short in any event, and very short as compared with eternity. The need of these troubles was not in God’s imposing them, but in the circumstances in which they were providentially placed, and the malignancy of their Jewish and heathen neighbours.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Peter

SORROWFUL, YET ALWAYS REJOICING

1Pe 1:6

You will remember the great saying of our Lord’s in the Sermon on the Mount, in which He makes the last of the beatitudes, that which He pronounces upon His disciples, when men shall revile them and persecute them, and speak all manner of evil falsely against them for His sake, and bids them rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is their reward in Heaven.

Now it seems to me that in the words of my text there is a distinct echo of that saying of Christ’s. For not only is the whole context the same, but a somewhat unusual and very strong word which our Lord employs is also employed here by Peter. ‘Rejoice and be exceeding glad,’ said Christ. ‘Ye rejoice greatly,’ said the Apostle, and he is echoing his Master’s word. Then with regard to the context; Christ proposes to His followers this exceeding gladness as evoked in their hearts by the very thing that might seem to militate against it--viz., men’s antagonism. Similarly, Peter, throughout this whole letter, and in my text, is heartening the disciples against impending persecution, and, like his Lord, he bids them face it, if not ‘with frolic welcome’ at all events with undiminished and undimmed serenity and cheerfulness. Christ based the exhortation on the thought that great would be their reward in Heaven. Peter points to the salvation ready to be revealed as being the ground of the joy that he enjoined. So in the words and in the whole strain and structure of the exhortation the servant is copying his Master.

But, of course, although the immediate application of these words is to Churches fronting the possibility and probability of actual persecution and affliction for the sake of Jesus Christ, the principle involved applies to us all. And the worries and the sorrows of our daily life need the exhortation here, quite as much as did the martyr’s pains. White ants will pick a carcass clean as soon as a lion will, and there is quite as much wear and tear of Christian gladness arising from the small frictions of our daily life as from the great strain and stress of persecution.

So our Apostle has a word for us all. Now it seems to me that in this text there are three things to be noticed: a paradox, a possibility, a duty. ‘In which ye rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.’ Look at these three points.

I. This paradox.

Two emotions diametrically opposed are to be contained within the narrow room of one disposition and temper. ‘Ye greatly rejoice.... Ye are in heaviness.’ Can such a thing be? Well! let us think for a moment. The sources of the two conflicting emotions are laid out before us; they may be constantly operative in every life. On the one hand, ‘in which ye greatly rejoice.’ Now that ‘in which’ does not point back only to the words that immediately precede, but to the whole complex clause that goes before. And what is the ‘which’ that is there? These things; the possession of a new life--’Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again!’--the springing up in a man’s heart of a strange new hope, like a new star that swims into the sky, and sheds a radiance all about it--’Begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’; a new wealth--an ‘inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away; a new security--guarded by the power of God through faith unto salvation.’ These things belong, ipso facto, and in the measure of his faith, to every Christian man, a new life, a new hope, a new wealth, and a new security; and in their conjoint action, all four of them brought to bear upon a man’s temper and spirit, will, if he is realising them, make him glad.

Then, on the other hand, we have other fountains pouring their streams into the same reservoir. And just as the deep fountains which are open to us by faith will, if we continue to exercise that faith, flood our spirits with sweet waters, so these other fountains will pour their bitter floods over every heart more or less abundantly and continually. ‘Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.’ There are confluent streams that one has sometimes seen, where a clear river joins, and flows in the same bed with, one all foul with half-melted ice, and the two run side by side for a space, scarcely mingling their waters. Thus the paradox of the Christian life is that within the same narrow banks may flow the sunny and the turbid, the clear and the dark, the sorrow that springs from earthly fountains, the joy that pours from the heavenly heights.

Now notice that this is only one case of the paradox of the whole Christian life. For the peculiarity of it is that it owns two;--it belongs to, and is exposed to, all the influences of the forces and things of time, whilst in regard to its depths, it belongs to, and is under the influence of, ‘the things that are unseen and eternal’; so that you have the external life common to the Christian and to all other people, and then you have the life ‘hid with Christ in God,’ the roots of it going down through all the superficial soil, and grappling the central rock of all things. Thus a series of paradoxes and perennial contradictions describes the twofold life that every believing spirit lives, ‘as unknown and yet well known, as dying and, behold we live, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.’

Remember, too, that according to Peter’s conception neither of these two sources pours out a flood which obliterates or dams back the other. They are to co-exist. The joy is not to deprive the heaviness of its weight, nor the sorrow of its sting. There is no artificial stoicism about Christianity, no attempt to sophisticate one’s self out of believing in the reality of the evils that assail us, or to forbid that we shall feel their pain and their burden. Many good people fail to get the good of life’s discipline, because they have somehow come to think that it is wrong to weep when Christ sends sorrows, and wrong to feel, as other men feel, the grip and bite of the manifold trials of our earthly lives. ‘Weep for yourselves,’ for the feeling of the sorrow is the precedent condition to the benefit from the sorrow, and it yields ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.’

But, on the other hand, the black stream is not to bank up the sunny one, or prevent it from flowing into the heart, ay! and flowing over, the other. And so the co-existence of the joys that come from above, and the sorrows that spring from around, and some of them from beneath, is the very secret of the Christian life.

II. Further, consider the blessed possibility of this paradox.

Can two conflicting emotions live in a man’s heart at once? Rather, we might ask, are there ever emotions in a man’s heart that are not hemmed in by conflicting ones? Is there ever such a thing in the world’s experience as a pure joy, or as a confidence which has no trace of fear in it? Are there any pictures without shadows? They are only daubs if they are. Instead of wondering at this co-existence of joy and sorrow, we must recognise that it is in full accord with all our experience, which never brings a joy, but, like the old story of the magic palace, there is one window unlighted, and which never brings a sorrow so black and over-arching so completely the whole sky, but that somewhere, if the eye would look for it, there is a bit of blue. The possibility of the paradox is in accordance with all human experience.

But then, you say, ‘my feelings of joy or sorrow are very largely a matter of temperament, and still more largely a matter of responding to the facts round about me. And I cannot pump up emotions to order; and if I could they would be factitious, artificial, insincere, and do me more harm than good.’ Perfectly true. There are a great many ugly names for manufactured emotions, and none of them a bit too ugly. Peter does not wish you to try to get up feeling to order. It is the bane of some type of Christianity that that is done. You cannot thus manufacture emotion. No; but I will tell you what you can do. You can determine what you will think about most, and what you will look at most, and if you settle that, that will settle what you feel. And so, though it is by a roundabout way, we can regulate our emotions. A man travelling in a railway train can choose which side of the carriage he will look out at, either the one where the sunshine is falling full on the front of each grass-blade and tree, or the side where it is the shadowed side of each that is turned to him. If he will look out of the one window, he will see everything verdant and bright, and if he will look out at the other, there will be a certain sobriety and dulness over the landscape. You can settle which window you are going to look out at. If the one--’in which ye greatly rejoice.’ If the other--’ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.’ You have seen patterns wrought in black and white, you may focus your eye so as to get white on a black ground, or black on a white ground, just as you like. You can do that with your life, and either fix upon the temptations and the heaviness as the main thing, or you can fix upon the new life, and the new wealth, and the new hope, and the new security as the main things. If you do the one, down you will go into the depths of gloom, and if you do the other, up you will spring into the ethereal heights of sober and Christian gladness.

So then, brethren, this possibility depends on these things, the choice of our main object of contemplation, and that breaks up into two thoughts about which I wish to say a word. The reason why so many Christian people have only religion enough to make them gloomy, or to weight them with a sense of burdens and unfulfilled aspirations and broken resolutions, and have not enough to make them glad, is mainly because they do not think enough about the four things in which they might ‘greatly rejoice.’ I believe that most of us would be altogether different people, as professing Christians, if we honestly tried to keep the mightiest things uppermost, and to fill heart and mind far more than we do with the contemplation of these great facts and truths which, when once they are beheld and cleaved to, are certain to minister gladness to men’s souls. These great truths which you and I say we believe, and which we profess to live by, will only work their effect upon us, so long as they are present to our minds and hearts. You can no more expect Christian verities to keep you from falling, or to strengthen you in weakness, or to gladden you in sorrow, if you are not thinking about them, than you can expect the most succulent or most nutritive food to nourish you if you do not eat it. As long as Christ and His grace are present in our hearts and minds by thought, so long, and not one moment longer, do they minister to us the joy of the Lord. You switch off from the main current, and out go all the lights, and when you switch off from Christ out goes the gladness.

Then another thing I would point out is that the possibility of this co-existence of joy and of heaviness depends further on our taking the right point of view from which to look at the sources of the heaviness. Notice how beautifully, although entirely incidentally, and without calling attention to it, Peter here minimises the ‘manifold temptations’ which he does expect, however minimised, will make men heavy. He calls them ‘temptations.’ Now that is rather an unfortunate word, because it suggests the idea of something that desires to drag a man into sin. But suppose, instead of ‘temptations,’ with its unfortunate associations, you were to substitute a word that means the same thing, and is free from that association--viz.,’trial,’--you would get the right point of view. As long as I look at my sorrows mainly in regard to their power to sadden me, I have not got to the right point of view for them. They are meant to sadden me, they are meant to pain, they are meant to bring the tears, they are meant to weight the heart and press down the spirits, but what for? To test what I am made of, and by testing to bring out and strengthen what is good, and to cast out and destroy what is evil. We shall never understand, even so much as it is possible for us to understand, and that is not very much, of the mystery of pain until we come to recognise that its main purpose is to help in making character. And when you think of your sorrows, disappointments, losses, when you think of your pains and sickness, and all the ills that flesh is heir to, principally as being ‘trials,’ in the deep sense of that word--viz., a means of testing you, and thereby helping you, bettering you, and building up character--then it is more possible to blend the sorrow that they produce with the joy to which they may lead. The Apostle adds the other thought of the transitoriness of sorrow, and yet further, the other of its necessity for the growth of humanity. So they are not only to be felt, not only to be wept over, not only to make us sad, but they are to be accepted, and used as means by which we may be perfected. And when once you get occupied in trying to get all the good that is in it out of a grief, you will be astonished to find how the bitterness that was in it was diminished.

We may have the oil on the water, calming, though not ending, its agitation. We may carry our own atmosphere with us, and like the diver that goes down into depths of the sea, and cannot be reached by the hungry water around his crystal bell, and has communication with the upper air, where the light of the sun is, so you and I, down at the slimy bottom, and with the waste of water all around us, which if it could get at us would choke us, may walk at liberty, in peace and gladness. And so, ‘though the labour of the olive shall fail and the fig tree not blossom, though the flocks be cut off from the folds and the herd from the stalls,’ we may joy in the Lord, and ‘rejoice in the God of our salvation.’

III. Now lastly, we have here a duty.

Peter takes it for granted that these good people, who had persecution hanging over them, were still rejoicing greatly in the Lord. He does not feel it necessary to enjoin it upon them. It is a matter of course in their Christian life. And you will find that all through the New Testament this same tone is adopted which recognises gladness as being, on the one hand, an inseparable characteristic of the Christian experience, and on the other hand as being a thing that is a Christian man’s duty to cultivate. Now I do not believe that the most of Christian people have ever looked at the thing in that light at all. If joy has come to them, they have been thankful for it, but they have very, very seldom felt that, if they are not glad, there is something wrong. And a great many of us, I am sure, have never recognised the fact that it is our duty to ‘rejoice in the Lord always.’ Have you realised it? I do not mean have you tried to get up, as I have been saying, factitious emotions, but have you felt that if you are doing what, as Christian men or women, it is your plain duty to do, there will come into your hearts this joy of the Lord. I have told you why you are not happier Christians, why so many of us have, as I said, only got religion enough to make you gloomy and burdened. It is because you do not think enough about Jesus Christ, and what He has given you, and what He is doing for you and in you. It is because you have not the new life in strong experience and possession, and because you have not the new hope springing in your hearts, and because you have not the new wealth realised often in present possession, and because you have not the new security which He is ready to give you. It is your duty, Christian man and woman, to be a joyful Christian, and if you are not, then the negligence is sin.

It is a hard duty. It is not easy to turn away from that which is torturing flesh or sense or natural desires or human affections, and to realise the unseen. It is not easy, but it is possible. And, like all other difficult things, it is worth doing. For there is nothing more helpful, more recommendatory, of our Christianity to other people, and more certain to tell on the vigour and efficiency of our Christian service, than that we should be rejoicing in the Lord, and living in the possession of the experience of Christ’s joy which He has left for us.

There is one other thing I must say. I have been talking about the co-existence of joy and sorrows. In one form or another that co-existence is universal. The difference is this. A Christian man has superficial sorrows and central gladness, and other men have superficial gladness and central sorrow. ‘Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.’ Many of you know what that means--the black aching centre, full of unrest, grimly unparticipant of the dancing delights going on about it, like some black rock that stands up in the midst of a field flooded with sunshine, and gay with flowers. ‘The end of that mirth is heaviness.’ Better a surface sadness and a core of joy than the opposite, a skin of verdure over the scarcely cold lava. Better a transient sorrow with an eternal joy than the opposite, mirth, ‘like the crackling of thorns under a pot,’ which dies down into a doleful ring of black ashes in the pathless desert. Choose whether you will have joy dwelling with and conquering sorrow, or unrest and sorrow, darkening and finally shattering your partial and fleeting joys.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 1:6. Ἐν ᾧ) in which circumstance.—ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ye rejoice) The present, 1Pe 1:8. Augustine, gaudete, imperative: rejoice ye.[6] Comp. Jas 1:2.—ὀλίγον, for a little time) This is spoken with reference to the whole Church, ch. 1Pe 5:10. Comp. 1Pe 4:7.—εἰ δέον ἐστὶ, if it be needful) If (since) has here the force of an affirmation: so in 1Pe 1:17.

[6] Vulg. “exultatis.” Other MSS. of Vulg. “exultabitis.” So Orig. 1,300b has ἀγαλλιάσεσθε. But ABC, Rec. Text, ἀγαλλιᾶσθε.—E.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe_1:6. ἐν ᾧ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε] The verb expresses the liveliness of the Christian joy, equivalent to: exult; it is stronger than χαίρειν, with which it is sometimes connected (chap. 1Pe_4:13; Mat_5:12; Rev_19:7[59]).

ἐν ᾧ refers either to the preceding thought, that the salvation is ready to be revealed (Calvin: articulus in quo refert totum illud complexum de spe salutis in coelo repositae; so also Estius, Grotius, Calov, Steiger, Jachmann, de Wette, Brückner, Steinmeyer, Schott; similarly Gerhard, who, however, applies it to all that precedes: ἀναγεννήσας, etc.), or to καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ (Oecum., Erasmus, Luther, Wiesinger, etc.). In the first construction ἀγαλλ.in form as in meaningis praesens, and denotes the present joy of the Christians over their future salvation (ἐν ᾧ: over which, cf. chap. 1Pe_4:4[60]). In the second construction a double interpretation is possible, inasmuch as ἐν ᾧ may denote either the object or the time of the joy; in the first case the sense is: the καιρὸς ἔσχατος is for you an object of joy, because in it the salvation will be revealed; in the second case the sense is: in that last time ye shall rejoice (so Wiesinger and Hofmann); here the object of joy is doubtless not named, but it may be easily supplied, and the want of it therefore cannot be urged against this view (as opposed to Brückner). The last of these different views deserves the preference, both on account of the subsequent ὀλίγον ἄρτι … λυπηθέντες, which forms a distinct antithesis to ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, and of the idea peculiar to the epistle, that in the present time the Christian has to suffer rather than to exult, and only in the future can he expect the full joy;and the prevalent manner of conjunction, too, precisely in this section of the epistle, by which what follows is linked directly on to the word immediately preceding, cf. 1Pe_1:5; 1Pe_1:8; 1Pe_1:10, shows that ἐν ᾧ applies to καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ. In this combination, however, it is more natural to take ἐν in the same sense as in that which it has before καιρῷ, rather than in another.[61]

Doubtless the present ἀγαλλιᾶσθε will then have a future force; but this occasions no difficulty, there being nothing uncommon in such a use of the present (cf. also Winer, p. 249 [E. T. 331 f.]).

The present tense strongly emphasizes the certainty of the future joy, rays of which fall even on the present life.[62]

ὈΛΊΓΟΝ ἌΡΤΙ] ὈΛΊΓΟΝ not of measure (Steiger), but of time, chap. 1Pe_5:10, where it forms the antithesis to ΑἸΏΝΙΟς; cf. Rev_17:10; ἌΡΤΙ denotes present time. The juxtaposition of the two words is explainable by the apostles hope that the ΚΑΙΡῸς ἜΣΧΑΤΟς would soon begin.

ΕἸ ΔΈΟΝ ἘΣΤΊ] not an affirmative (Bengel), but a hypothetical parenthesis: si res ita ferat: if it must be so, that is, according to divine decree; cf. chap. 1Pe_3:17. Incorrectly Steinmeyer: qui per peregrinationis spatium, quamdiu necessarium est, contristati estis.[63]

ΛΥΠΗΘΈΝΤΕς ἘΝ ΠΟΙΚΊΛΟΙς ΠΕΙΡΑΣΜΟῖς] The aorist with ἌΡΤΙ has reference to the future joy: after that ye have now for a short time been made sorrowful. It signifies the inward sadness, in consequence of outward experiences (Wiesinger).

Particula ἐν non solum est ΧΡΟΝΙΚΉ, sed etiam ΑἸΤΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΉ (Gerhard). Both meanings pass over into each other, so that ἘΝ is not to be interpreted as synonymous with ΔΙΆ.

ΠΕΙΡΑΣΜΟΊ are the events by which the faith of the Christian is proved or also tempted; here, specially the persecutions which he is called upon to endure at the hands of the unbelieving world, cf. Jam_1:2; Act_20:19. By the addition of the adjective, the manifold nature of their different kinds is pointed out.

[59] Steinmeyer, whilst combating the opinion that ἀγαλλ. has a stronger force than χαίρειν, correctly describes the ἀγαλλίασις as affectio fervidior animi hilaris, but χαρά unwarrantably as: perpetua ilia cordis laetitia, quae neque augeri queat neque imminui.

[60] Brückner explains ἐν ᾧ as above stated, but he understands ἀγαλλιᾶσθς in a future sense, of that which shall most surely come to pass; this interpretation is undoubtedly inappropriate, inasmuch as the present assurance of the future salvation, stated in ver. 5, may now indeed be an object of rejoicing, but will not be so then, when that future salvation itself is attained.

[61] Schotts assertion, that, as a rule, ἀγαλλ. is connected by ἐν with its object, is erroneous. In the N. T. the passage, Joh_5:35, at the most, can be quoted in support of this construction; whilst in Luk_10:21, ἐν accompanies the simple indication of time. In Luk_1:47, ἀγαλλ. is construed with ἐπί c. dat.; Joh_8:56, with ἵνα.

[62] It is altogether inappropriate to interpret ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, with Augustine, as an imperative; the exhortations begin only in ver. 13.

[63] The older Protestant commentators, more especially, sometimes employ this passage to combat the arbitrary seeking after suffering; thus Luther says: It is not to be our own works which we choose, but we must await what God lays upon us and sends, so that we may go and follow, therefore thou mayest not thyself run after them.

REMARK.

When Schott, in opposition to the interpretation here given, maintains the purely present force of ἀγαλλ. on the ground that it must be the apostles object to commend by way of exhortation the readers for their present state of mind, it is to be remarked(1) That the apostle here gives utterance to no exhortation; and (2) That the apostle might perfectly well direct his readers to the certainty of the future joy, in order to strengthen them for the patient endurance of their present condition of suffering. It is perfectly arbitrary to assert, with Schott, that by ἄρτι the present trials as transitory are contrasted with the present joy as enduring, as also to maintain that by the aorist λυπηθέντες the suffering is reduced to the idea of an ever-changing variety of individual momentary incidents which, in virtue of the uniform joy, may always lie behind the Christian surmounted(!).

Schott insists again, without reason, that εἰ δέον [ἐστι] cannot be taken as referring to the divine decree, in that it is impossible to make the accomplished concrete fact of the λυπηθῆναι hypothetical with respect to the will of God; for it is not clear why Peter should not characterize the λυπηθῆναι ἐν ποικ. πειρασμοῖς as something hypothetical here, where he does not as yet enter more particularly into the concrete facts. Nor can it be assumed that εἰ δέον (ἐστί) is added in order to remind the readers that the τοικιλοὶ πειρασμοί should in reality occasion no sadness,the less so that thus the intimately connected λυπηθέντες ἐν ποικ. πειρασμοῖς are torn asunder.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 1:6-9 . Exult then. These various temptations to which you are exposed cause present grief. But they are part of God’s plan for you. Even material perishable gold is tried in the fire. So is your faith tested that it may be purged of its dross and the good metal be discovered when Jesus Christ is revealed. You love Him whom you never saw; though you see Him not you believe on Him. Exult then with joy that anticipates your future glory. You are winning the prize of your faith, the ultimate salvation of souls. St. Peter returns to the present and regards it from the point of view of those whom God is guarding but only to advance again to the glorious future (7 fin, 9) when Jesus Christ the present object of their love and faith shall be revealed. He is the central figure of this section which is based upon two of His sayings which are appropriate to the circumstances of these His persecuted followers (Son 4:13 ) v . Mat 5:12 = Rev 19:7 from Psa 21:1 ; Psa 118:24 . Compare Jas 1:2-4 and John cited below.

1Pe 1:6 . ἐ ν ᾧ . There are four possible antecedents. (1) καιρῷ , (2) Jesus Christ, (3) God, (4) the state of things described in 3 5. (1) would imply that they must live in the future and is least probably right. (2) is supported by 8 but is unlikely at this point. The choice lies between (3), God being hitherto the dominating figure; and (4): cf. Luk 1:47 = 1Sa 2:1 α ἀ . with ἐν in LXX as well as ἐπὶ . ἀγαλλιᾶσθε . Indicative (with or without quasi future meaning) rather than Imperative. Bye form of ἀγάλλομαι (Homer downwards) first found in LXX especially as assonant rendering of גיל : used later in bad sense ( λοιδορεῖται , Hesych): here borrowed from Mat 5:11 f. χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε . ὀλίγον , (1) for a little time , or (2) to a small extent (contrast Joh 16:6 , ἡ λύπη πεπλήρωκεν ὑμῶν τὴν καρδίαν ). εἰ δέον , they cannot but feel grief at their trials (Joh 16:20 , ὑμεῖς λυπηθήσεσθε ἡ δὲ λύπη ὑμῶν εἰς χαρὰν γενήσεται ), but they must not indulge their natural weakness. To take the “necessity” as referring to their trials (for not all the Saints are oppressed, Oec.) limits λυπ . to the external sense of vexation without reference to the feelings of the grieved corresponding to the feelings implied in ἀγ . The contrast is thus destroyed, but this sense harass would suit the other military metaphor, τοὺς φρουρουμένους . ἐν ποικίλοις πειρασμοῖς , the adjective rules out the limitation of π . to external trials which St. James who has the entire phrase seems to put upon it.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherein--in which prospect of final salvation.

greatly rejoice--"exult with joy": "are exuberantly glad." Salvation is realized by faith (Pe1 1:9) as a thing so actually present as to cause exulting joy in spite of existing afflictions.

for a season--Greek, "for a little time."

if need be--"if it be God's will that it should be so" [ALFORD], for not all believers are afflicted. One need not invite or lay a cross on himself, but only "take up" the cross which God imposes ("his cross"); Ti2 3:12 is not to be pressed too far. Not every believer, nor every sinner, is tried with afflictions [THEOPHYLACT]. Some falsely think that notwithstanding our forgiveness in Christ, a kind of atonement, or expiation by suffering, is needed.

ye are in heaviness--Greek, "ye were grieved." The "grieved" is regarded as past, the "exulting joy" present. Because the realized joy of the coming salvation makes the present grief seem as a thing of the past. At the first shock of affliction ye were grieved, but now by anticipation ye rejoice, regarding the present grief as past.

through--Greek, "IN": the element in which the grief has place.

manifold--many and of various kinds (Pe1 4:12-13).

temptations--"trials" testing your faith.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice] Some refer wherein, ενω, to the salvation mentioned above; others, to the last time, καιρωεσχατω, in 1Pet 1:5; others think that it applies to the being kept by the power of God through faith; and others, that it refers to all the preceding advantages and privileges. It was in the present salvation of God that they rejoiced or gloried, though not without having an eye to the great recompense of reward.

Though now for a season] ολιγον αρτι. A little while yet - during your pilgrimage here below, which is but a point when compared with eternity.

If need be] ει δεον εστι. If it be necessary - if your situation and circumstances be such that you are exposed to trials and persecutions which you cannot avoid, unless God were to work a miracle for your deliverance, which would not be for your ultimate good, as he purposes to turn all your trials and difficulties to your advantage.

Sometimes there is a kind of necessity that the followers of God should be afflicted; when they have no trials they are apt to get careless, and when they have secular prosperity they are likely to become worldly-minded. "God," said a good man, "can neither trust me with health nor money; therefore I am both poor and afflicted." But the disciples of Christ may be very happy in their souls, though grievously afflicted in their bodies and in their estates. Those to whom St. Peter wrote rejoiced greatly, danced for joy, αγαλλιασθε, while they were grieved, λυπηθεντες, with various trials. The verb λυπεω signifies to grieve, to make sorrowful: perhaps heaviness is not the best rendering of the original word, as this can scarcely ever consist with rejoicing; but to be sorrowful on account of something external to ourselves, and yet exulting in God from a sense of his goodness to us, is quite compatible: so that we may say with St. Paul, always sorrowing, yet still rejoicing.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, or, In which ye exult. Though the termination of the Greek verb is doubtful, yet the meaning requires that we read, “ye exult,” rather than “exult ye.” In which refers to the whole that is said of the hope of salvation laid up in heaven. But he rather exhorts than praises them; for his object was to shew what fruit was to come from the hope of salvation, even spiritual joy, by which not only the bitterness of all evil might be mitigated, but also all sorrow overcome. At the same time to exult is more expressive than to rejoice.

But it seems somewhat inconsistent, when he says that the faithful, who exulted with joy, were at the same time sorrowful, for these are contrary feelings. But the faithful know by experience, how these things can exist together, much better than can be expressed in words. However, to explain the matter in a few words, we may say that the faithful are not logs of wood, nor have they so divested themselves of human feelings, but that they are affected with sorrow, fear danger, and feel poverty as an evil, and persecutions as hard and difficult to be borne. Hence they experience sorrow from evils; but it is so mitigated by faith, that they cease not at the same time to rejoice. Thus sorrow does not prevent their joy, but, on the contrary, give place to it. Again, though joy overcomes sorrow, yet it does not put an end to it, for it does not divest us of humanity. And hence it appears what true patience is; its beginning, and, as it were, its root, is the knowledge of God’s blessings, especially of that gratuitous adoption with which he has favored us; for all who raise hither their minds, find it an easy thing calmly to bear all evils. For whence is it that our minds are pressed down with grief, except that we have no participation of spiritual things? But all they who regard their troubles as necessary trials for their salvation, not only rise above them, but also turn them to an occasion of joy.

Ye are in heaviness, or, Ye are made sorrowful. Is not sorrow also the common lot of the reprobate? for they are not free from evils. But Peter meant that the faithful endure sorrow willingly, while the ungodly murmur and perversely contend with God. Hence the godly bear sorrow, as the tamed ox the yoke, or as a horse, broken in, the bridle, though held by a child. God by sorrow afflicts the reprobate, as when a bridle is by force put in the mouth of a ferocious and refractory horse; he kicks and offers every resistance, but all in vain. Then Peter commends the faithful, because they willingly undergo sorrow, and not as though forced by necessity.

By saying, though now for a season, or, a little while, he supplied consolation; for the shortness of time, however hard evils may be, does not a little lessen them; and the duration of the present life is but a moment of time. If need be; the condition is to be taken for a cause; for he purposed to shew, that God does not, without reason, thus try his people; for, if God afflicted us without a cause, to bear it would be grievous. Hence Peter took an argument for consolation from the design of God; not that the reason always appears to us, but that we ought to be fully persuaded that it ought to be so, because it is God’s will.

We must notice that he does not mention one temptation, but many; and not temptations of one kind, but manifold temptations It is, however, better to seek the exposition of this passage in the first chapter of James

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) Wherein ye greatly rejoice.—“His scope,” says Leighton, “is to stir up and strengthen spiritual joy in his afflicted brethren; and therefore having set the matter of it before them in the preceding verses, he now applies it, and expressly opposes it to their distresses.” There is a little doubt as to the antecedent of the word “wherein.” At first sight it would seem to be “in the last time,” and the thought would then be that this “last time,” with all its predicted afflictions, was already begun, and that the Pontine Hebrews were fulfilling the injunction of our Lord in Luk_21:28, and “rejoicing” (the word is one of enthusiastic and demonstrative joy) in the near approach of their redemption. This makes good sense, but it is better to see the antecedent in “the whole complex sense of the preceding verses, concerning the hope of glory. In this thing ye rejoice, that ye are begotten again; that there is such an inheritance, and that you are made heirs of it; that it is kept for you, and you for it; that nothing can come betwixt you and it, and disappoint you of possessing and enjoying it, though there be many deserts and mountains and seas in the way, yet you are ascertained that you shall come safe thither.” (Leighton.)

Though now for a season.—Literally, after having been grieved in the present (if it must be so) for a little while in the midst of manifold temptations. The Apostle takes his stand at the moment of the revelation and looks back upon the fast-passing present and its griefs. What the temptations were we cannot tell; but the word “manifold” shows that it was not only one type of temptation under which all lay alike. The chief was probably the unkind attitude of Gentile neighbours (1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_2:15; 1Pe_3:14-17; 1Pe_4:4; 1Pe_4:12-19), which was the most searching “test of faith.” Identical words (in the Greek) occur in Jas_1:2-3, so as almost to suggest a common origin—possibly to be found in Rom_5:3.

If need be.—Or, if it must be so. To encourage them to bear up St. Peter throws in this phrase, so as not to take it for granted that they will have to suffer; he hopes it may not be so. (Comp. 1Pe_3:17.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice] The English verb and adverb answer to the single Greek word which expresses, as in Mat_5:12, Luk_1:47; Luk_10:21, the act of an exulting joy. The verb occurs three times in this Epistle, not at all in St Paul’s, and may fairly be regarded as an echo from our Lord’s use of it as recorded above in the Sermon on the Mount.

though now for a season, if need be] Literally, for a little, but as the words almost certainly refer to the duration, not to the degree, of the sufferings spoken of, the English version (or for a little while) may be accepted as correct. In the “if need be” we have an implied belief that the sufferings were not fortuitous, nor sent without a purpose. They had their necessary place in the process by which God was working out the sanctification of His children.

ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations] The sense of the Greek participle would, perhaps, be better expressed by ye were grieved, or, made sorry. He writes of what he had heard as to their sufferings. He does not actually know that they are still continuing. In the “manifold temptations” we note the use of the same phrase as in Jas_1:2, with which St Peter could hardly fail to have been acquainted. Here, as there and in Act_20:19, the “temptations” are chiefly those which come to men from without, persecutions, troubles, what we call the “trials” of life.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice,.... The Vulgate Latin version reads, "in which ye shall rejoice": and so the Syriac version, adding, "for ever"; and refer these words to the "last time"; or, times spoken of in the preceding verse; when the saints will greatly rejoice, being in full possession of eternal salvation; in distinction from the present time, in which they are in heaviness; but it is better to read the words in the present tense, and as expressive of the saints in this life, who are blessed with that fruit of the Spirit, joy, and have always reason to rejoice, and greatly rejoice. The connection is with the whole that goes before; and the sense is this, that regenerated persons rejoice, in that they are the elect of God, according to his everlasting love towards them, and free grace, and good will; in their regeneration, which is an evidence of their election of God; in the abundant mercy of God displayed in their regeneration; and in that lively hope of eternal life which is the effect of it; and in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which secures their justification of life, and their resurrection from the dead; and in the inheritance they are born heirs unto; and in their preservation to it by the power of God through faith; and in that complete salvation which is ready for them, and in a short time will be revealed, to which they are kept:

though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations. This seems to be a contrast, but is no real contradiction; for the character of the saints in this world is, that they are as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, Co2 6:10 rejoicing even in their tribulations and temptations; yea, for them, and on account of them, in some respects, which in others make them sorrowful, and heavy, or "heavy" with sorrow: the cause of this heaviness is not only indwelling corruptions, the hidings of God's face, and the temptations of Satan, but afflictions and persecutions, which are here meant by "manifold temptations"; for not the temptations or to sin, are here intended, but the temptations with which God tempts and tries his people: so he sometimes does, by calling them to hard service, to do things difficult and disagreeable to flesh and blood, in which way he tempted Abraham; and by laying afflictions, or suffering afflictions to come upon them, by which he tried Job; and by permitting wicked men to reproach and persecute them, and to injure them in their characters, persons, and properties; and which was the case of the primitive Christians, and has been more or less the case of the saints ever since: now such exercises are called, from the quality of them, temptations, or trials; because they try the hearts, principles, and graces of them that believe, and particularly their faith hereafter mentioned; and from the quantity of them, they are said to be various; they are of different sorts; as reproach, imprisonment, loss of goods, and death itself in divers shapes; and are more or less at different times and ages; and are exercised on various persons: and are sometimes very heavy, and grievous to be borne, and cause great heaviness and sorrow of heart; and yet there are things, and circumstances, and which are here hinted at, that greatly mitigate the heaviness occasioned by them; as, that these afflictions, and the heaviness that comes by them, are but little, and light, in comparison of the eternal weight of glory; though they are great tribulations in themselves, through and out of which the people of God come to the kingdom; and so the Syriac version renders it, "though at this time" "ye are a little made sorrowful"; and then it is only "now", for the present time, and but for a short time; for a little season, even for a moment, comparatively speaking; and also, "if need be", which the Syriac version omits, though by all means to be retained: afflictive dispensations, in whatsoever form, are necessary, by the will of God, who has appointed them, and therefore must be, and ought to be, quietly submitted to, and patiently borne, on that consideration; and are also necessary, on account of Christ the head, to whom there must be a conformity of his members; and likewise on their own account; for the humbling of their souls; for the weaning of them from the things of this world; for the restraining, subduing, and keeping under the corruptions of their nature; and for the trial of grace: and it is only "if", and when there is a necessity for them, that they are in heaviness by them; otherwise God does not delight to afflict and grieve the children of men, and much less his own; see Lam 3:33 so the Jews say (y), that "there was a necessity" of God's tempting Abraham as he did, to humble and purify him,

(y) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 22. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

Ver. 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice] Gr. αγαλλιασθε, ye dance for joy, ye dance a galliard, or as children do about a bonfire; ye cannot but express your inward joy in your countenance, voice, and gesture.

If need be, ye are in heaviness] When our hearts grow a grain too light, God seeth it but needful to make us heavy through manifold temptations. When our water (as it were) looks but a little too high, our heavenly Father, a physician no less cunning than loving (saith Bayn), doth discern it, and quickly fits us, whom he most tendereth, with that which will reduce all to the healthful temper of a broken spirit.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice - In which hope of salvation. The idea is, that the prospect which they had of the future inheritance was to them a source of the highest joy, even in the midst of their many sufferings and trials. On the general grounds for rejoicing, see the Rom 5:1-2 notes; Phi 3:1; Phi 4:4 notes; 1Th 5:16 note. See also the notes at 1Pe 1:8. The particular meaning here is, that the hope which they had of their future inheritance enabled them to rejoice even in the midst of persecutions and trials. It not only sustained them, but it made them happy. That must be a valuable religion which will make people happy in the midst of persecutions and heavy calamities.

Though now for a season - A short period - ὀλίγον oligon. It would be in fact only for a brief period, even if it should continue through the whole of life. Compare the notes at 2Co 4:17; “Our light affliction which is but for a moment.” It is possible, however, that Peter supposed that the trials which they then experienced would soon pass over. They may have been suffering persecutions which he hoped would not long continue.

If need be - This phrase seems to have been thrown in here to intimate that there was a necessity for their afflictions, or that there was “need” that they should pass through these trials. There was some good to be accomplished by them, which made it desirable and proper that they should be thus afflicted. The sense is, “since there is need;” though the apostle expresses it more delicately by suggesting the possibility that there might be need of it, instead of saying absolutely that there was need. It is the kind of language which we would use in respect to one who was greatly afflicted, by suggesting to him, in the most tender manner, that there might be things in his character which God designed to correct by trials, instead of saying roughly and bluntly that such was undoubtedly the fact. We would not say to such a person, “you certainly needed this affliction to lead you to amend your life;” but, “it may be that there is something in your character which makes it desirable, or that God intends that some good results shall come from it which will show that it is wisely ordered.”

Ye are in heaviness - Greek, “Ye are sorrowing,” (λυπηθέντες lupēthentes;) you are sad, or grieved, Mat 14:9; Mat 17:23.

Through manifold temptations - Through many kinds of trials, for so the word rendered “temptation” (πειρασμος peirasmos) means, Jam 1:2, Jam 1:12. See the notes at Mat 4:1; Mat 6:13. The meaning here is, that they now endured many things which were suited to try or test their faith. These might have consisted of poverty, persecution, sickness, or the efforts of ethers to lead them to renounce their religion, and to go back to their former state of unbelief. Anyone or all of these would try them, and would show whether their religion was genuine. On the various ways which God has of trying his people, compare the notes at Isa 28:23-29.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Wherein; this refers to the whole foregoing sentence; Ye rejoice in your being kept by the power of God unto salvation.

Ye greatly rejoice: the Greek word signifies something more than a bare rejoicing, and therefore is added to a word that signifies to rejoice, Mat 5:12, and implies an outward expression of the inward gladness of the heart, by looks, words, gestures, &c. Some read the word in the imperative mood, by way of exhortation; but the indicative, according to our translation, seems most agreeable to the context, in which, as yet, he commends the saints, to whom he writes, for the grace of God in them; descending to his exhortation afterward, 1Pe 1:13.

Though now for a season; viz. while this life lasts, which is but a little time, 2Co 4:17.

If need be; if God see it fit, needful for your good, and conducing to his glory; intimating, that God doth not always afflict believers, but when he sees just cause, and never doth it without cause.

Ye are in heaviness:

Question. How could they be in heaviness, and yet rejoice?

Answer. Their grief and joy were about different objects; they might be in heaviness by reason of present afflictions, and rejoice in hope of future glory; they might grieve as men, and rejoice as saints; sense of suffering might affect them, and yet the faith of better things coming relieve them. If their heaviness did in any degree abate their joy, yet it did not wholly hinder it; and though their joy did overcome their heaviness, yet it did not wholly exclude it.

Through manifold temptations; he so calls afflictions, from the end and effect of them, the trial of their faith, Luk 22:28; Act 20:19; Gal 4:14; Jam 1:2; 2Pe 2:9; he calls them manifold, as being not only numerous, but various, and of divers kinds.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice. Is the word "wherein" (ejn w) to be referred to the whole sentence, and to be understood of the Christian"s present privileges and hopes? or is it to be taken in a temporal sense with the words immediately preceding it, "in the last time"? Authorities are divided. Of those who take the latter view some regard "the last time as the object of the Christian"s joyful hope he rejoices now in the hope of the glory of God; others give the verb a quasi-future sense wherein ye will greatly rejoice." But the former connection seems more natural; the Christian rejoices in his present and future blessings in the new birth, in the hope of the heavenly inheritance, in the assured protection of God. The verb (ajgalliasqe) is a strong expression; it means "to exult, to leap for joy." St. Peter may have had in his thoughts the well-remembered sermon on the mount, where the same word occurs, (Mat_5:12) and, as here, in connection with sorrows and persecutions. It is used of our Lord himself in Luk_10:21, of the Philippian gaoler"s joy in his newborn, (Act_16:34) as well as of the joy of the blessed in heaven. (Rev_19:7) There is, therefore, nothing unsuitable in taking the verb in its proper present signification; the Christian"s experience is often, like St. Paul"s, "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." Some commentators, following St. Augustine, regard the verb as imperative. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. The word rendered "for a season" (ojligon, a little) may mean that the present suffering is but little compared with the future glory; it may cover both meanings. (comp. 2Co_4:17, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment St. Peter, like St. Paul, enforces the lesson that that light affliction, which seems sometimes so heavy, is sent in love and wisdom; the words, "if need be," imply his belief that these trials were necessary for his readers" salvation they would work for them "a tar more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The words, "ye are in heaviness," represent the aorist participle luphqentev, having been put to grief; it refers to definite afflictions, known to St. Peter, which had been suffered by those to whom he is writing. The words, "manifold temptations," remind us of Jam_1:2.

The paradox of the Christian life joy subsisting with sorrow.

When he was young, Peter had been peculiarly impatient of sorrow, and blind to its necessity and worth. He had forgotten his reverence for Christ in his refusal to believe, even on his Master"s authority, that sorrow could touch so dear a head. Years and experience had taught him the deed meaning of the prophetic contrast which Christ had drawn between his early self-"willed, unhindered action, and his later days, when his will should be crossed and unwelcome compulsion should lord it over him. This Epistle is remarkable for the clearness of its insight and the frequency of its references to suffering as an indispensable factor in the Christian life. When he was old, he had learned the lesson which had been so foreign to his hot youth. Well for us if our past sorrows lie transfigured and illuminated by a beam of light like this in the text!

I THE JOY OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. We have first the source of the joy. Wherein ye greatly rejoice." The complex whole of the blessings spoken of the lively hope, the reserved inheritance, the guarding power, the prepared salvation, its future apocalypse these are the golden threads from which the bright tissue is woven. So this is the first distinction between the majestic Christian joy and the lighter-winged fluttering mirths and pleasures. It flows from no surface-pools, but from deep fountains, and is fed from everlasting fields of pure snow high on the mountains of God. Then we have the depth and calm rapture of the joy in the strong word of the original, which expresses a high degree of exultation. Peter was possibly quoting our Lord"s words to his persecuted people, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad." At all events, Christian joy should be no pale and feeble thing, but full-blooded and fall-voiced. It is far unlike boisterous mirth, which is noisy like the thorn-bushes which crackle and flare in flame for a moment. "The gods approve the depth and not the tumult of the soul." A present salvation, fellowship with a present Christ, the large and. sure hope of his appearing, the exercise of faith and love and obedience, the immunity from fear, and the escape from the miseries of self-will, should all combine, like so many streams pouring down the hillsides, in this one deep and smooth-flowing stream of calm and equable gladness. Religion does us good. only as it makes us glad. Any firm and. adequate grasp of the facts and relations which the gospel brings will certainly make a man joyful. The average religion of this day does not believe in its own creed heartily enough to find in it support against temptations or joy in sorrow. If our Christianity has not the power to bless us with gladness in our hearts, there is something wrong either in the completeness of our surrender to it or in the articles of our belief. If our religion is largely self-inspection, or if it dwells on the sterner side of truth, or is mainly a prohibitory law keeping us from doing what we would like, or if it is a languid emotion not half so powerful as common appetites, we cannot expect to get sweet juice of gladness from such shrunken fruit. The coexistence of this joy with sorrow is, further, brought into prominence here. This paradox of Christian experience has seemed so startling that the future tense has been proposed as the true rendering; but a much deeper and grander sense results from adhering to the present tense. It is possible that joy should live side by side in the same heart with sorrow, and neither converting the other wholly into its own substance, and each made more noble by the presence of its opposite. "Central peace" may "subsist at the heart or" endless agitation." Greek fire will burn under water. Flowers bloom on the glacier"s edge. The depths of the sea are still, while winds rave and waves heave and currents race above. In the darkest night of sorrow and loss, starry and immortal hopes wilt brighten in our sky, and the heart that is united to Christ will have an inward solemn blessedness which no tempest of sorrow can extinguish.

II THE SORROW OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. There is much unreality and consequent powerlessness in the one-sided pictures of the religious life so often drawn. To listen to some people, one would fancy that religion was meant to abolish all trial and sorrow. A picture without shadows is unlike anything on earth. The true Christian view neither portrays an impossible paradise nor preaches a hardening stoicism. Here we have in half a dozen words a theory of the meaning and uses of pain and grief, sufficient to live by and to alleviate many a pang.

1. Nonce the insight rote the true nature and purpose of all sorrow. It is temptation, or, more properly, trial. It is intended as a test, a proof, to reveal us to ourselves and so to better us. We do not get to the bottom of our sorrows till we look at the moral purpose which they serve, and regard them as discipline rather than pain. They take a shallow view who contemplate only the smart of the wound and leave out of sight the surgeon"s purpose. They take as shallow a view who dispute or deny the benefit of sorrow, and assert that happiness tends to a sweeter virtue than it does. There is a lowly self-distrust quickly passing into calm faith which only sorrow can produce. The will is never bowed into submission without being softened in the furnace, and there is no real goodness but from a submissive will. The props round which the heart twines its tendrils have to be cut down, that it may fasten itself on the only true support. Only when we have nothing else to lean on do we lean all our weight on him.

2. Observe, too, the recognition of the wise adaptation of our sorrows to our need. They are not sent unless "need be." They are sent as need is. In the great Surgeon"s instrument-ease are many shining blades, all for cutting and paining. He chooses the right knife, and cuts where wanted, and close beside the sharp instrument lie bandage and balm. It is hard to believe that a sorrow which strikes many is at the same time proportioned in its force to each. But faith knows that Providence neither forgets the general mass in care for the individual, nor loses sight of the wants of the individual in the crowd, but is at once special and general.

3. Finally, observe the transiency of sorrow. It is for a season. That is the highest attainment of faith, to see how short are the long slow hours which pain and grief lengthen. They seem to creep, as if the sun and the moon stood still as of old, that the storm may have time to break on us. But we have to take Heaven"s chronology in our sorrows, and, though their duration seems interminable, to feel that after all it is but a little while. The long hours as they appear of a dream are but moments in reality, and seem so when the sleeper awakes. His anger is but a moment; his favor lasts all the life. Weeping may come to lodge with us a somber guest for a night; but when the bright morning dawns Joy comes with a shout, radiant as the morning, and at his coming the black-robed visitant steals out of sight. Then the joy that coexisted with sorrow shall survive alone, and "sorrow and sighing shall flee away. A.M.

Vers. 6-9.

The saints" joy notwithstanding heaviness.

In the previous verses the apostle describes the state of salvation; he then says here, "Wherein," etc. So the experience recorded here is the possible experience of the believer. Comp. ver. 5, "Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time," with ver. 9, "Receiving now the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls;" i.e. salvation is not a future matter only. We can receive the end of our faith now; heaven is only fully revealed hereafter, but it is already possessed. And here the apostle tells them how. Heaviness may minister to it; out of heaviness may grow such joys as shall be the salvation which is the goal of their hopes. Heaviness joy salvation; that"s the order here. Sometimes when the sun is setting behind the hills, making the peaks glow like burnished gold, the beauty is repeated on the peaks opposite, eastern and western both aglow; but the valleys between are already in twilight or darkened with mist. That is an emblem of many a Christian life; the beginning and the end are radiant, but the years between are filled with shadows. Now, that need not be. The Light of the world is a sun which no more goes down, and when he has risen on our hearts henceforth east and west horizons, the summits of our history, but no less the broad plain, and every little glen and lowly place that comes between, may lie in the soft full glow of perpetual noon. The hindrance to this, we say, is the "heaviness through manifold trials," which will come; but, says Peter, there is a secret by which out of these may grow "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Not only notwithstanding these, but because of these, the believer"s life may be a continuous chastened joy; and to have that is to anticipate heaven.

I THE SAINTS" HEAVINESS THROUGH MANIFOLD TRIALS. The trials must be; they are part of the necessary discipline of sonship. If "man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward," more still is the new man. But for our help, then, consider:

1. The necessity for the heaviness. "If need be." Only "if need be;" that is assured by the paternal love of God. It is a witness to his love that, when trial cannot be avoided consistent with our good, he is willing to bear the pain of inflicting it. It does not follow that we can see the "need be;" it may be the needs be of preparation for some exceptional blessedness rather than that of chastisement. Perhaps the "need be" is implied in the text: "Ye are kept through faith unto salvation;" but "ye are in heaviness that the trial of your faith might be found," etc., equivalent to "we are kept in the state of salvation only through faith, and affliction is one of the means by which alone faith is maintained." The love of God, however, assures us that there is a needs be for the affliction which would satisfy even us could we see it.

2. The manner of the heaviness. "Manifold trials," and these like the "fire" of the refiner. God"s trials are not all of one pattern, but are "afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes." Loneliness, weakness, a nervous temperament, discordance in the home, responsibility, or duty, may be as real a trial to us, though no one detects it, as the more manifest sorrows of others. Does it burn? that"s the question; is it to the soul what fire is to the body deep, searching, consuming pain? If so, it is the "heaviness" of the text, and may issue in joy unspeakable" And if it be fire, we know who presides at the crucible, who regulates the heat, and blows aside the blue flame to see if the dross be gone, and waits to see his face mirrored in the clear]iqui0 metal. "He shall sit as a refiner," etc.

3. The duration of the heaviness. "Now for season." Only "for a season." If a continuous line from here to the sun, and beyond the sun as far again, and beyond that as far again, represent only a part of our immortal history, the season of suffering would be represented by the smallest point you can make on that line. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is not worthy," etc. Presently we shall say

Now the crucible is breaking, Faith its perfect seal is taking, Like the gold in furnace tried. Through the test of sharp distresses, Those whom Heaven most richly blesses For its joys are purified.

Sighs and tears at last are over. Breaking through its fleshly cover, Soars the soul to light away. Who while here below can measure That deep sea of heavenly pleasure, Spreading there so bright for aye?

II THE SAINTS" JOY GROWING OUT OF THIS HEAVINESS. Sorrow and joy at the same time! The believer ought to be "always rejoicing," and that is a puzzle to many. But there is great difference between always rejoicing and only rejoicing. The idea that the believer ought only to rejoice is as foolish as it is false. But it is possible always to rejoice as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." Here we have some of the grounds of this joy. They concern faith, hope, love.

1. Heaviness is said to be the proving of our faith. "Trial," equivalent to "trying, testing, proving." Is it not? Is it not just in darkness that our faith

2. is tested? That gives a new aspect to heaviness. Heaviness is the time when we show what we are. Then we are being watched. Heaven and earth are gathered around us then, God and Satan looking on, and the Divine honor and joy are at stake. What a solemn, sublime moment that!

3. It is also said to be the enlargement of our hope. "That the trial of your faith might be found," etc. That carries our thought forward. Our present life is often unbearable because we live as though it were all In almost every other department we are cheered on through difficulty by hope. So in this. See what the angel of hope did for Paul on the wrecking ship, when all hope that they should be saved had been taken away: "Be of good cheer, fear not, thou must be brought before Caesar." Hope ever points to the blessed end, and whispers, "Be of good cheer." Moreover, the heaviness is going to minister to our enrichment then. We shall not only escape the storm, but be stronger because of it.

1. Heaviness is said to be the quickener of our love. "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though," etc. A kind of tender pity in the words, as though Peter said, "Oh that you had but seen him, and how you would have loved him!" The sentence is equivalent to "love to Christ imparts to heaviness an unspeakable joy." Does it not? This for the Lord"s sake. By this, too, I get nearer to the Lord!

III THE SAINTS" SALVATION IN THIS JOY. "Ye rejoice with joy receiving the," etc.

1. Salvation is a mystery to be revealed in heaven. He has said that. ready to be revealed at the last time." However much is revealed of it here, "eye hath not seen, nor ear," etc.

2. But the unfolding of this mystery begins in Divine joys on earth. It is possible to anticipate heaven, to receive now the salvation of our souls, and heaviness may be the means to this. Then blessed heaviness! the storm may bring us to the very shore of eternal bliss, and though as yet we cannot land, its sacred chimes may be our music even now. C.N.

Vers. 6, 7.

he testing of religious faith.

As we saw in our exposition of the preceding verses, Peter taught that a man"s faith, i.e. trust in Christ and fidelity to Christ, is a pledge of and preparation for the heavenly inheritance. It is a pledge. The example of Columbus sailing westward in search of unknown America is often and rightly quoted as an instance of faith. The Christian man is a spiritual Columbus, whose faith alone leads him across mysterious seas of time to shores of eternity. Moreover, faith is a preparation for that inheritance; for it has been well said that Faith and Hope and Love are so related that if Faith dies as, indeed, it does often die first Hope and Love are very prone to say, "Let us also die with her." Indeed, the three often perish hand-in-hand. Therefore a man"s faith is of profound importance to him precious faith;" hence Peter touches here with a strong hand the question of the testing of religious faith .

I THAT THE PROCESS OF TESTING A MAN"S FAITH INVOLVES MUCH PAIN. Peter sees souls rejoicing in the hope of heaven ye greatly rejoice and yet, by this very process of testing their faith, meanwhile, in much pain. How much pain we gather:

1. From the use of the word that describes the process; i.e. "temptations A word that really means" testing," but that, because of theusual nature of testing, is a synonym for "affliction." Does not the word "trial" contain in itself tears, battles, persecutions, martyrdom, even death?

1. From the spirit in which Peter says the tried are. In heaviness, in grief, sorrowful, dejected, heavy-hearted.

2. The nature of the element employed in the process. Compared to fire. No material element causes so much pain as fire.

II THE PROCESS OF TESTING A MAN"S FAITH IS OF SUCH UNTOLD WORTH AS TO COMPENSATE FOR ALL SUCH PAIN.

1. The testing is only temporary. "For a season" even if lifelong, the days dwindle to hours, etc. Already Peter uses words of retrospect: ye have been," etc.

2. The worth of the soul for which testing is designed. Though not grammatical, this is application. "Much more precious than gold." This is implied that gold loses luster and becomes worn out with hourly use. The soul is imperishable!

3. The purposes of the process. "If need be;" deep, inevitable, necessary,

(1) Try the genuineness of faith. God knows whether it is genuine. Men may not; we do not frequently. Chaff looks like wheat; hence the threshing-floor the tribulum. Gilt locks like gold; hence the crucible. Devoutness of ceremonial, orthodoxy of creed, decorum of conduct, look like faith; and yet it may be absent.

(2) Tend to purification. That is even more merciful. Remove alloy and dross. Not only detect, but refine. As Elizabeth Browning says, purification being the joy of pain." This is the Christian woman"s echo of the conviction of the old patriarch of Uz, "When I am tried, I shall come forth as gold.

(3) Train for highest uses. Higher purposes for which metal is designed keener furnace, etc. The most durable and precious metal in ancient art was Corinthian bronze, which was said to have been first obtained, at least discovered, by the fusing of all precious metals when the city of Corinth was burned, Joseph, David, Peter, our blessed Lord, were most blessed products of the experience reached by the fires of suffering.

(4) Lead to highest destiny. Praise; honor; glory. U.R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherein - That is, in being so kept. Ye even now greatly rejoice, though now for a little while - Such is our whole life, compared to eternity. If need be - For it is not always needful. If God sees it to be the best means for your spiritual profit. Ye are in heaviness - Or sorrow; but not in darkness; for they still retained both faith, 1 Pe i, 5, hope, and love; yea, at this very time were rejoicing with joy unspeakable, 1 Pe i, 8.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice: That is, in the belief and expectation of which glorious and incorruptible inheritance in heaven, ye now joy and rejoice here on earth; plainly intimating, that a believer may be assured of his title to the glorious inheritance above, and both may and ought to rejoice in it abundantly below.

Observe, farther, By what way and method God brings his people to heaven, it is by heaviness, by affliction, yea, by manifold afflictions. As if he had said, "you that are the present candidates for heaven, the heirs of salvation, must not think yourselves past the rod and the ferula; and that you are to expect nothing but comfort, and to do nothing but rejoice in the hopes of your salvation. But I tell you, you may have need of heaviness before you get to heaven, and of manifold temptations for the mortifying your corruptions, before you enter upon an inheritance incorruptible."

Observe, 3. The supposition made concerning the the necessity of a believer’s afflictions: If need be.

Intimating, 1. That we should never feel any affliction from the hand of God, never be in heaviness, if there were not need.

And, 2. That there is need that the holiest in this world should sometimes be made heavy, and that heaviness should be upon them for a season. We should always have calms and fair weather, never any storms and tempests from God, did not our needs call for it. As we need our daily bread, so verily do we need a daily bread, so verily do we need a daily rod, both the rod of God’s mouth to admonish and reprove us, and the rod of his hand to chasten and correct us: Ye are in heaviness for a season, if need be, through manifold temptations.

Hence learn, That the trials and afflictions which God exercises his children with, are many, yet they never feel them but when they need them, and then only for a season. As the coldness of the winter kills the weeds in our grounds, so the cold blasts of affliction (under the mortifying influences of the Holy Spirit) kill our corruptions in our souls. Perpetual shinings and fair seasons are reserved for heaven: cold blasts and nipping frosts are needful and useful here on earth: Ye are in heaviness for a season, if need be.

Learn farther, That as God doth not afflict us but when there is need, so he will not afflict us more than there is need. Ye are in heaviness for a season: we shall not be afflicted an hour longer, nor shall our cross be a drachm or a grain heavier, than God thinks needful.

Observe, 4. The happy effect and fruit of the saints’ manifold temptations: they all work for their advantage; they receive good and not hurt by them; no more hurt than the gold receives by the fire.

That the trial of your faith: that is, that your tried faith, being more precious than gold. Faith is more precious than gold, because more pure, more durable, especially when purified in the furnace of affliction. A good man is no loser, but a great gainer, by being tried. He, who before had much dross in his, comes out of the furnace as gold, without losing any thing either of its weight or worth; nothing is consumed ut the dross and rubbish of his corruptions. O happy consumption! Grace is not only grace still, but more gracious, yea, glorious, after trial. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of Jesus Christ.

Learn hence, That the trial of a Christian’s faith in their manifold afflictions and temptations now, will bring abundance of honour and glory to God in the day of Christ; yea, not only to God, but to ourselves. Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment now, will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory then.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6–9. Wherein. In this glorious hope you rejoice. Though now for a season. This implies that a persecution was in progress, or threatened. Manifold temptations. Trials which put faith and patience to the test.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

You are very glad about this

The word "this" refers to all the blessings that Peter mentions in the previous verses.

This is for the proving of your faith

In the same way in which fire refines gold, hardships test how well believers trust in Christ. (See: Metaphor)

the proving of your faith

God wishes to test how well believers trust in Christ.

faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, even though it is tested by fire

Faith is more valuable than gold, because gold does not last forever, even if it is refined in fire.

your faith will be found to result in praise, glory, and honor

Possible meanings are 1) that "God will honor you very highly" because of your faith or 2) that "your faith will bring praise, glory, and honor" to God.

at the revealing of Jesus Christ

"when Jesus Christ is revealed." This refers to the return of Christ. This can also be expressed with an active form. AT: "when Jesus Christ appears to all people" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

trouble

faith

precious

gold

test

fire

praise

glory

honor

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

6. ἐν ᾧ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε. Dr Hort, recognizing the difficulty of connecting these words with καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ in the sense of “season of extremity,” would make ᾦ masculine—“In whom,” i.e. Christ. This would match the following phrase: εἰς ὂν πιστεύοντες ἀγαλλιᾶτε. But if καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ means the Messianic age in which the readers were living, ἐν ᾧ can be taken in its more obvious grammatical connexion and would mean “living in that age as you do.” Another interpretation would be to take ἐν ᾧ as neuter (cf. 1Pe 2:12, 1Pe 4:4) = wherein, i.e. in the thought of your new birth and its privileges.

ἀγαλλιᾶσθε must be taken as present indicative (not imperative) in view of the ἀγαλλιᾶτε in 1Pe 1:8. The active only occurs again in Luk 1:47 and in Rev 19:7 (v. l.). Dr Hort suggests that the middle voice may here denote a state of exultation caused by God’s dealings, while the active regards exultation more as their own act. But a more usual distinction is that the middle denotes inward feeling and the active merely states a fact (e.g. ὑστερεῖν = to lack; ὑστερεῖσθαι = to feel a sense of want).

ὀλίγον may mean either for a little time or to a small degree, cf. 1Pe 5:10, ὀλίγον παθόντας. The relative shortness of their sufferings is perhaps only one feature of their slightness as compared with the glory which is to follow.

ἄρτι = just for the moment.

εἰ δέον may mean, seeing that such sufferings are part of the appointed order of things, “These things must come to pass” (Mar 13:7, etc.), or it may imply some uncertainty whether some of the readers at least may escape persecution; cf. 1Pe 3:17, εἰ θέλοι τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ.

λυπηθέντες = ye have been put to grief. The word denotes not merely sufferings but the mental distress caused by them. The aorist participle does not necessarily mean that the grief is ended before the exultation can begin. Christian exultation does not preclude the presence of sorrow, cf. 2Co 6:10, “as sorrowful yet alway rejoicing.” Aorist participles coupled with an aorist frequently denote an action contemporaneous with that of the verb, e.g. προσευξάμενοι εἶπον, Act 1:24, and there is no reason why this should not be the case when they are coupled with a present tense, although the present participle is generally employed, but the aorist may have a summarizing force describing what may be a long continued experience as a single whole which has to be completed.

ἐν ποικίλοις πειρασμοῖς = surrounded as you are by a variety of trials. The phrase, together with τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως, is borrowed from Jas 1:2-3. (See Introduction, p. lv.)

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6-9.] Joy of the Christian at the realization of this end of his faith.

6.] It has been much disputed whether this verse (as also ver. 8, see there) is to be taken of present joy, or of future. In the latter case the present ἀγαλλιᾶσθε in both places must be a categorical present, used of a future time: as Thl., Œc. τὸ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε ἀντὶ μέλλοντος εἴληπται. And this sense seems to be sanctioned by ver. 8, in which he could hardly predicate of his readers, that they at the present time rejoiced χαρᾷ ἀνεκλαλήτῳ καὶ δεδοξασμένῃ. To avoid this, those who suppose the whole to allude to the time present, and the realization of future bliss by faith, imagine the present ἀγαλλιᾶσθε (not to be an imperative, as , al., but) to have a slight hortatory force, reminding them of their duty in the matter. This however again will hardly suit the very strong qualifying terms above quoted from ver. 8. On the whole, after consideration, I prefer the former interpretation, and the quasi-future sense of ἀγαλλιᾶσθε in both places, with Syr., Œc. (alt.), Thl., Erasm., Luther, Huther, Wiesinger, against Calv., Estius, Grot., Calov., Steiger, De Wette, al. And this interpretation will be found confirmed, as we proceed, by many lesser accuracies and proprieties of rendering.

In which (i. e. ἐν ἐσχάτῳ καιρῷ: the ἐν ᾧ is temporal, ἐν bearing the same sense in the resumption as it did at the end of ver. 5, from which it is resumed. Such is our Apostle’s manner, to resume, in proceeding further, the thing or person just mentioned, in the same sense as before: cf. vv. 5, 8, 10. Or, ἐν ᾧ may mean, ‘at which,’ ‘wherein,’ as ch. 4:4: the καιρὸς ἔσχατος being not the time, but the object of your joy. Those who regard ἀγαλλιᾶσθε as strictly present, understand ἐν ᾧ as in ch. 4:4, but refer it to the whole preceding: so Calv., “Articulus, ‘in quo,’ refert totum illud complexum de spe salutis in cœlo repositæ”) ye rejoice (ἀγαλλ. is a stronger word than χαίρειν, implying the external expression and exuberant triumph of joy. It is sometimes joined with χαίρειν, as in reff. Matt. and Rev.), for a little time (as in ch. 5:10 and other reff.) at present (ἄρτι would, on the hypothesis of ἀγαλλιᾶσθε being a proper present, be superfluous) if it must be so (= ‘si res ita ferat,’—if it be God’s will that it should be so: ‘si’ is hypothetical, not affirmative as Bengel. Cf. Œc. (alt.), τουτέστιν, εἰ καὶ τοῦτο δεῖ· οὐ γὰρ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι θλίβονται) having been afflicted (this past part., more than any thing, favours the quasi-future acceptation of ἀγαλλιᾶσθε: looking back from the time of which exultation, the grief is regarded as passed away and gone. It carries with it a slightly adversative sense—‘though ye were troubled,’ ‘troubled as ye were,’ or the like) in (not = διὰ, but the element and material of the λύπη) manifold temptations (πειρασμοῖς, as in ref. James, trials, arising from whatever cause; here, mainly from persecution, see ch. 4:12 ff., on the πύρωσις πρὸς πειρασμὸν ὑμῶν γινομένη.

ποικίλοις: cf. Jas 1:2: “non unam tentationem ponit, sed plures; neque unum tantum genus, sed diversa.” Calv.),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye greatly rejoice [αγαλλιασθε] . The word is always employed in the New Testament for great or lively joy. See Mt 5:12; Luk 1:47; Luk 10:21.

For a season [ολιγον] . More literally and correctly, as Rev., for a little while. Compare ch. 5 10. The word is used nowhere else in the New Testament in this sense.

In heaviness [λυπηθεντες] . Lit., having been grieved. Rev., ye have been put to grief.

Through [εν] . But Rev., better, in; the preposition not being instrumental, but indicating the sphere or environment in which the grief operates.

Manifold [ποικιλοις] . Literally the word means variegated. It is used to describe the skin of a leopard, the different - colored veinings of marble, or an embroidered robe; and thence passes into the meaning of changeful, diversified, applied to the changing months or the variations of a strain of music. Peter employs it again, ch. 4 10, of the grace of God, and James of temptations, as here (i. 2). Compare polupoikilov, manifold, in Eph 3:10, applied to the wisdom of God. The word gives a vivid picture of the diversity of the trials, emphasizing this idea rather than that of their number, which is left to be inferred.

Temptations [πειρασμοις] . Better, trials, as in margin of Rev., since the word includes more than direct solicitation to evil. It embraces all that goes to furnish a test of character. Compare Jas 1:2.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.