IN the concluding part of this chapter, we see that we are especially taught how we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; while God worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Having been told what a glorious inheritance we are called to win, and through what trials and proofs of our faithfulness we must expect to come; how those who prophesied of this wonderful grace now brought to us, seeing it but afar off, did so diligently enquire concerning it; while angels desired to look into it, here we are ourselves bid to beware of carelessness and listless

ness concerning it. (V. 13), “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind;" as men, in that country where our Lord and His Apostles spoke, girt their loose garments around them when they sought to be ready for active work, or for a journey; so should we be ready and on the alert.

We find a like injunction in Luke xii. 35, 36, "Let your loins be girt about and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He cometh and knocketh they may open unto Him immediately." We are to be in the posture of servants always ready, always waiting, always expecting their Lord; that when His footsteps are heard, when He knocks at the door, there may be no dismay, no feeling that all is not ready, no keeping Him waiting while we are trying too late to make up for lost time, but a hearty, immediate, joyful opening of the door to Him. Alas, it is not easy to live in this constant attitude of expectation; doing every earthly duty diligently—yes, all the more diligently, because we are expecting Him; every little daily care attended to, in our houses, or in our business, not neglected, because we are waiting for Him; but faithfully fulfilled because we are waiting for Him. None will continue thus waiting unless they love His appearing. They will weary of it, and the things of this life will prevail to fill our hearts and occupy our thoughts, as St. Luke warns us when he says, (chap. xxi. 34-36), "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare

shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of man." We are to watch and pray, oh do not let us forget it, “to watch" for we have a cruel enemy going about, seeking whom he may devour; let us be sure that he watches, and we are to pray, for we have an Almighty Helper, a Heavenly Shepherd, who will keep and care for His sheep who cry to Him. And we are to beware lest our hearts be overcharged with the things of this life; or as St. Peter says in the verse we are considering, “Be sober." Those whose hearts are overcharged with the things of this life are like persons that are intoxicated, and who have lost the use of their right reason, who cannot see their way or know where danger lies, and so that day comes upon them as a snare, and as destruction, which should have been their hope and joy, as St. Peter here says, "be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation," or appearing "of Jesus Christ;" yes, only with such a hope cheering and sustaining us, the hope of the appearing of Jesus and of the grace that shall be brought to us then, the hope of seeing Him, of entering into His joy, and sharing the glory of His kingdom, only this can keep us

patiently waiting, with loins girt about and lights burning, like men that wait for their Lord; not like the uufaithful servant who says my Lord delayeth His coming;* nor like the foolish virgins who weary and fall asleep, and find their lamps gone out when that solemn cry is heard, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him."

In verse 14 we are addressed as obedient children. In the 2d verse of this chapter we are told that it is through the sanctification of the Spirit that we are brought into obedience; here we are told that we must walk as obedient children, and take heed that we do not go back into that condition from which the Lord came to deliver us, "not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." In Acts xvii. 30, we are told that "the times of ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth He all men everywhere to repent," and it will be a terrible condemnation to those who have heard this call to repentance, who have heard the glad tidings of salvation, and still more, who have been baptized into Christ, if they are found living as those heathens who knew not God, and to whom His message had never come. The Apostle goes on to say, (v. 15, 16), "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy,

* Matt. xxiv. 48.

for I am holy." He who has called us is holy, evil cannot dwell in His sight, and He is seeking to bring us to that inheritance, which is undefiled and may not be defiled, we must be made holy if we are to have our part there. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” (Heb.xii. 14). Without holiness it never could be our joy and blessedness to dwell evermore in the presence of the Holy One, seeing His face, and serving Him.

(V. 17), "And if ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judgeth, according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." Do we call on that Father? Do we daily kneel down before Him and say, Our Father which art in heaven ?" Do we really feel towards Him as a Father, as a reconciled Father, who permits us to approach Him as His children; and yet do we remember that without any respect of persons, without favouring one above another, He judgeth according to every man's work, yours and mine; our daily life, our daily works, good or bad? Should we not then pass the time of our sojourning here with fear? Not the fear of a servant fearing the punishment of a hard master, but the fear of a child fearing to grieve the Father whom he loves, fearing the attacks of that cruel enemy who seeketh to devour, fearing the example of an evil world, and the deceitfulness of his own heart.