The precious things of St. Peter

Front matter

! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f

THE

PRECIOUS THINGS

Contents

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. — Precious Faith, 9

II.— Precious Faith, . . . , . 35 III. — Precious Faith, . . . . -59 IV.— Precious Trial of Faith, ... 85

Chapter I. Precious Faith

IN the Epistles of St. Peter, we find much use made of the word- '* precious." He speaks of " precious faith," ^^ precious trial of faith," ''precious blood of Christ," ''Christ precious to believers," a " precious corner-stone," and *^ exceeding great and precious promises." Here is a circle of gems, of rare beauty and inestimable value. They are the treasures of the Christian. The humblest of

God*s saints may say, "All these precious things are mine ! *'

This rich treasury is worthy of a special examination. We propose to pass through this store-house of God's grace, and look at the precious things which it contains. We believe that such an examination will be very profitable and pleasant. Much as we may have dwelt upon each of them, and however correct and appreciative may have been our views of them, as we have considered them singly, yet, when we examine them in their relations to each other, we shall see new beauty and find richer value. As a handful of jewels, each brilliant and costly by itself, when brought together in one cluster, combine and so increase their lustre and their value, so these precious things of St. Peter, gathered into one group, form a collection of gems of heavenly beauty and of priceless worth.

The first of these, to which we direct the attention of our readers, is that which is presented under the title of

PRECIOUS FAITH.

The word faith here, may be taken in its objective and its subjective sense. It may thus signify the truths which are revealed for the Christian's faith, and also the act of faith itself. When the Apostle Jude speaks of '' the faith once delivered to the saints,""^ he uses the word in the former of these two senses as the system of Christian doctrine, which the saints of God have received, and which they believe. When the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares, ^' Without faith it is impossible to please Him,"f he uses the term in the latter sense, as the act of receiving the truth ef God, and resting on it for salvation. So when St. Peter speaks of ''precious faith," it is proper to understand him to allude both ♦ Jude 3. t Epis. to Heb. 11:6.

to faith as a system, and to faith as an exercise and grace. And in both these senses he declares that it is '' precious/'

The word "precious'' is derived from the \^?i\\x\ pretium (a price), and means that which costs something and has a value. In the ordinary use of it, the idea of peculiar value is associated. When we speak of anything as precious, we are generally understood to convey the idea of more than ordinary value. As applied to the great truths of the gospel, to the faith delivered to the saints, the word is not too strong. We may well say of these, with St. Peter, '' precious faiths

The great truths of the gospel are precious in themselves:

The truths which pertain to God, to the human soul, to redemption by Jesus Christ as a divine and Almighty Saviour, to the office and work of the Holy Spirit, and to the future life, are, in themselves, the greatest, the

PRECIOUS FAITH.

most wonderful, the most beautiful, the most precious which the mind of man can receive. No truth in nature is so grand, as the truth of the divine existence. That memorable answer to the question — ''What is God?'* '' God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth,'' as it doubtless was a true inspiration of the Divine Spirit Himself, presents to the mind a cluster of the most splendid and impressive attributes of being and character. The more we dwell upon it, the higher and broader it grows, until we are ready to exclaim : '' Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? deeper than hell, what canst thou know ? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea!""^ Yet though the nature and * Job 1 1 : 7-9.

H

PRECIOUS FAITH.

methods of an infinite God must always, in many respects, be beyond the reach of a finite understanding, yet the simple fact of God is one of unspeakable value to the thoughtful, believing soul. As revealing the God of creation, this truth is precious. The instinctive desire to know the origin of things, to find the great first cause of all that we see, can derive no satisfaction from any theory but that with which God's .written word begins. It seems as if the Creator anticipated that His thoughtful creatures would desire, first of all, to know whence all things came ; to know how all the wonderful elements of the earth, and the splendid mechanism of the heavens first sprang into being. And so, in making a revelation to men (His very first declaration), He meets, at once, this instinctive and universal demand of a thinking mind, with the true, comprehensive, satisfactory, and precious declaration — '* In the beginning, God

PRECIOUS FAITH.

created the heavens and the earth. "^ How satisfactory to a rational mind ! How infinitely superior to the absurd theories of human philosoph}^, the puerile negations of infidelity, or the dicta of self-sufficient sciolists ! It is a ''precious faith*' — a faith of real value to the intellectual nature and necessities of man. I look out upon this wonderful world, greeting me everywhere with evidences of design and wisdom ; comt^ining elements of beauty, grandeur, usefulness, and pleasure ; crowded with every provision for the support and comfort of its vast population. I observe the graceful slope of the hills ; the rich fertility of the valleys ; the fragrance of the flowers ; the grandeur of the forests ; the vastness of the ocean, and the splendors of the heavens ; and I find it a very precious thing to have it told me that this order, and harmony, and beauty, are the work of an in- * Gen. 1:1.

l6 PRECIOUS FAITH.

finitely wise, and powerful, and benevolent God. It is a great satisfaction and rest to the instinctive craving of my nature, after an adequate cause of what I see, and of my own mysterious being, to believe that all things are of God. While unbelieving minds are ever tossed on a sea of restless inquiry, and unsatisfying speculation, and credulous fancies, I rejoice that I can say : " O Lord ! how manifold are thy vyorks ; in wisdom hast Thou made them all ; the earth also is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships; there is that leviathan whom Thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season."* I pity the man who cannot receive the truth that God made all things by the word of His power. I do not see how such a ^ Ps. 104 : 24-27.

PRECIOUS FAITH, I7

man can ever have any true intellectual, to say nothing of spiritual rest. An orphan in a fatherless world ! The creature of accident, or fate ! All things around hira, the fruit of irrational forces. How cold and unsatisfactory and comfortless such a faith. It is not ''precious." It has no real value. Let me cling all the more firmly to the simple, sublime revelation : " In the beginning, God created the heavens and the. earth !"

And this faith is not only satisfying to my instinctive desire to know the origin of things. It is precious because of its enlarging and ennobling influence upon my own mind. There is no idea with which the human intellect can have snch strong natural affinities as the idea of God. '' The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.*'"^ Presented to the mind, even of a child, it seems natural and intelligible, and as if it was made to fit the very peculiarities of *Ps. 14: I. • 2 the mental constitution. A child cannot be a sceptic. Atheism, that compound of pride and credulity, cannot find congenial quarters in the unsophisticated mind of the young ; and the man who receives the idea of God cannot but feel the expanding and educating influence of it through all his intellectual nature. Robert Hall, in his splendid discourse on modern infidelity, thus graphically and eloquently presents this thought : '' The idea of the Supreme Being has this peculiar property, that, as it admits of no substitute, so, from the first moment it is formed, it is capable of continual growth and enlargement. God Himself is immutable ; but our conception of His character is continually receiving fresh accessions, is continually growing more extended and refulgent, by having transferred to it new elements of beauty and goodness; by attracting to itself, as a centre, whatever bears the impress of dignity, order, or happi-

PRECIOUS FAITH. ig

ness. It borrows splendor from all that is fair, subordinates to itself all that is great, and sits enthroned on the riches of the universe/'

And what this fundamental idea of revealed rehgion does for the individual, it does for the community and the nation.- The verj^ idea of public virtue, order, and propriety is lost v^hen there is no recognition of this great and . precious truth among the people. A godless people never can be a virtuous people. All history testifies to this. A world without a maker, is, of course, a world without a ruler; and a world without a ruler can never be a world of stabihty, order, or happiness.

The truth of God in Providence is one of the precious things of faith :

The doctrine of providence naturally follow^s that of creation. The same reason which induced the Almighty to make the world, would induce Him to superintend and govern it. It is His creature— and He cannot throw it off to shift for itself. The government of all its parts and interests, in wisdom and goodness, tends as much to His glory as its original creation in beauty and symmetry. No man who had constructed, with great pains and cost, a beautiful edifice or an ingenious piece of mechanism, would naturally abandon all care and oversight of either when completed.

The fundamental ideas in the doctrine of Providence are, that the whole created universe is as dependent on God for its preservation in being and harmony of operation as it was for its original creation; that everything animate or inanimate, in form and substaj|ce, in essence and in power, or quality, is preserved and guided, not by any intrinsic principle of life or motion, but by the wise and sovereign will of God.

This is a part of " the faith once delivered to the saints.'' It has been held by the Church in all ages. And it is ^' precious faith'* It has a great value. It is full of comfort. It is the basis of all practical religion. The presence of God, as a providential governor, everywhere, and at all times, ordering all things according to His own most wise and righteous will, for His own glory, and for the best good of His creatures, meets the wants of our moral nature. It is the foundation of trust, and hope, and submission. It is an anchor of the soul, amid those storms of trial and perplexity which vex the voyager on the sea of life. How intolerable would our lot be if we could not believe that *' the Lord reigneth.'' We must have a God to look up to and confide in — our very nature demands it ; our circumstances demand it ; we cannot live a day in real peace without it. It is a precious truth, that over this great world, in which is so much that baffles our reason, con- ^ founds our philosophy, and tries our patience and submission, no frantic chance or inexorable fate presides, but the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! I wonder that any thoughtful mind can be willing to live without the truth of God's providential government over the world. Atheism makes nothing of the world but a work-shop for the living, and a pit for the dead. Pantheism is sublimer in its theory, but no less cold and comfortless : ** One mighty tide of force, filling immensity, its waves, galaxies and S3^stems ; its foam sparkling with worlds; one immeasurable ocean of life, swelling in endless billows through immensity, at its own vast, vague will. Such is, at once, the universe and the god of Pantheism. The pantheist is himself one little conscious drop in the boundless tide, in the all-embracing infinite. In the branching of the stars, this infinite rushes out ; in the little flower at your feet, it lives. In all the embodying of human thought, in the rearing of nations and polities, in the building of towered cities, in the warring and trading of men, it finds a dim garment ; in the beauties, and grandeurs, and terrors of all mythologies, the grave look of the Olympian king, the still and stainless beauty of the woodland Naiad, the bright glance of the Son of Latona, the thunder brows of Thor, the dawn smile of Balder, it is more clearl}'^ seen. The beauty, which is the soul of art ; the majesty that lives, from age to age, in the statue of Phidias ; the smile that lingers on the perfect lip, and in the pure eye of a Madonna by Raphael, is its very self. You may look at it; you may by effort of thought, evolve it within you ; but the drop holds no converse with the ocean ; the great rolling sea hears not the little ripple on its shore ; you can hold no communion with your God ; your highest bliss is to cease individually to be, to sink into unconscious, everlasting trance.'* This, in the words of

PRECIOUS FAITH.

Peter Bayne,^ is pantheism. And in contrast with this vast, vague, comfortless picture, he gives us the Christian idea of the universe under the providential government of God : "An immensity, to the bounds of which, urge them never so wildly, the steeds of thought shall never pierce, thronged with ordered myriads of worlds, all willed into existence and ever upheld by a Being of whom tongue cannot adequately speak, or mind conceive, but who lit the torch of reason, who hears the voice of man, and whose attributes are dimly mirrored in the human soul. Conceive such a God, infinitely above this stupendous universe, filling it with all His light, as the sun fills the dew-drop (as distinct from it as the sun is from the dew-drop) ; to whom the countless worlds of immensity are as the primary particles of matter comprising the dew-drop, are to the sun. Then add this thought, * ** The Christian Life — Social and Individual."

PRECIOUS FAITH.

that He, around whose throne, the morning stars forever sing, to whom anthems of praise, from all the star-choirs of immensity, go toning on eternally from galaxy to galaxy, hears the evening hymn of praise in the Christian home, the lowly melody in the Christian heart, the sigh of the kneeling child ; and when his sojourn on earth is over, will draw up the Christian, as the sun draws up the dew-drop to rest on the bosom of infinite love."

Such is the Christian idea of the world, under the providential government of a wise and loving God. Well may this article of faith be classed among those *^ precious '* things which St. Peter groups together in his epistles.

But more precious than either the God of creation or of providence, is the God of redemption to the believer.

It is a precious, a valuable thing to know that this great world, and all the systems of worlds that make up the universe, are the work of the Almighty's fingers. It is also a very valuable truth that the world, thus made, is sustained and governed by its wise and benevolent Creator. But if this Creator and Sovereign of the world, whose wonderful power, wisdom, and goodness are declared by the earth, and reflected from the heavens, is not our friend, if we are not in harmony with Him, and cannot expect His personal favor and approbation, but must anticipate His holy displeasure. His moral aversion, then we can gain scanty comfort from the contemplation of His attributes as the Creator and Ruler of the universe. The more we see of these, the more fearful and appalling is the thought that all these wonderful attributes must be arrayed against us. If I am a sinner against God, and an unforgiven sinner, I cannot see the evidences of God's being, power, and goodness in nature and providence with any satisfaction or comfort. What is all this wisdom, this goodness, this power, but the attributes of a God who cannot look upon sin but with infinite abhorrence ! If He were not so wise, so powerful, so good, the thought of my personal relations to Him, as an unforgiven sinner, would not be so hopelessly sad and frightful. But He is infinitely wise to know all my sin ; He is infinitely pure to abhor my sin ; He is infinitely powerful to punish my sin. He can create worlds, and launch them forth into boundless space ; He can guide and govern their mighty movements by the word of His power. A holy being may look on Him in these relations with nothing but admiration, reverence, and joy. " But when I consider, I am afraid of Him \'^ I must know something more of God than creation or providence can teach me, ■<* Job 23 : 15.

before the deepest wants of my soul can be reached, and my most urgent necessities can be satisfied. And I do know something more. The *^ faith/'which is so precious to the humble believer, tells me something more. It not only tells me that, *' In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," and that '' He doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth ;'' it tells me that most wonderful truth, that '' God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.''"^ Ah ! this is what I want to know. This answers that great question which must break in agonizing earnestness from every heart that knows anything of its sinfulness and peril: ''What must I do to be saved ?" This shows me that there is a way by which this great and glorious God, whose * John 3 : i6.

PRECIOUS FAITH.

•hands have built the earth and spread the sky, and before whom all the mightiest forces of nature bow in mute submission, may become my loving Father and Friend,, even though I am, and always have been, a poor, unworthy sinner.

This shows me that there is a w^ay by which He may be just, and yet the justifier of him that belie veth in Jesus ; that there is One who, human to suffer, divine to give dignity and value to suffering, human to feel the pang which the law denounces upon human guilt, divine to secure forever to every believing soul the benefits of that atoning pang, human to sympathize and divine to save, becomes just such a Saviour as I need, and is freely offered to me in the gospel. The great m3^stery of godliness, '' God manifest in the flesh," is the most precious of all the truths revealed to man. It is most precious in itself. It is so unprecedented in its benevolence, so unpar-

PRECIOUS FAITH.

alleled in its sacrifice, so superhuman in its conception, so infinite in its merit, and so unbounded in its saving power, that it commands the wonder of angels, and will forever inspire the profound and adoring gratitude of millions of redeemed souls, who have proved how precious it is. There is no story in all the annals of love, that has such elements of power and pathos, as the story of the Cross. Told in ever}^ language ; told by the mother to the child, by the teacher to the pupil, by the friend to his companion, by the preacher to his flock ; told in the abode of poverty or the home of wealth, in the home of sorrow or the abode of prosperity ; whispered in the ear of sickness, breathed to the mourning heart, spoken in the cell of the prisoner, at the couch of the dying ; preached on the scaffold or at the stake, it has always manifested itself as a precious truth — precious to the living, precious to the dying ; precious to the trem-

PRECIOUS FAITH.

bling sinner, precious to the believing Christian ; precious to the pilgrim on his journey, precious to the saint in his rest. There are no rays of light that stream so sweetly over this dark world, as the rays that come from the Sun of Righteousness ; there is no bread so nourishing to the pilgrim on his toilsome way, as "the bread of life, which came down from heaven ;'* there are no waters so refreshing to the thirsty soul, as those that gush from the " Rock of Ages f there is no friendship so disinterested, pure, and unchangeable as His who is *' a friend that sticketh closer than a brother \' there is no comforter in sorrow so equal to Him of whom it was said, " Jesus wept !'' there is no victory over death like that which He gives, who said : " I am the resurrection and the life/*

This, then, is the " precious faith,*' of which St. Peter speaks, considered in its objective character as a system. God in Creation, Providence and Redemption, in its Alpha and Omega, its beginning and its end. All other important truths are embraced in these. The truth of God as a Creator and Governor, of Christ as a Saviour, of the Holy Spirit as a Sanctifier and Comforter, believed and illustrated in the life, is all that we need to make us wise unto salvation. If you, dear reader, have opened your heart to this precious faith, if you have truly beheved in God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, you have already been enabled to say, precious faith, precious system of truth, precious in itself, precious to me, precious in life, precious in death, and precious in an eternal heaven.

PRECIOUS FAITH.

CHAPTER 11.

PRECIOUS FAITH.

WE have considered Faith in one of the senses in which the word is used — the sense of that system of truth which is contained in the written revelation which God has given to men, and which He calls us to believe. The fundamental truths of the being and government of God, and the system of redemption by Jesus Christ, are the vital points in that system. Whoever receives these great truths with the solid convictions of the understanding, the free consent of the will, and the warm embrace of the affections, is a true believer, and has been made wise unto salvation. He sees in them a heavenly beauty and a divine grandeur, and can cordially assent to the truthfulness and propriety of the language of St. Peter, when he describes the gospel-system as '^ precious faith/'

But the word faith is also very frequently, indeed, in most cases, used to signify that act of the mind, that grace of the heart, hy which, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the believer receives these vital truths, and rests upon them for salvation. It is the grasp of the soul upon truth, its personal reception and appropriation of God's revelation, which is commonly meant by the term. Paul so understood it when, in answer to the earnest question of the jailer at Phihppi, '' Sir, what must I do to be saved ?" he answered, ^^ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'' So the word '' faith " is used in that wonderful eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is such a splendid description of its nature, its heroes, and its triumphs. It is the act of the individual soul, by which, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, it freely and cordially embraces the cardinal doctrines of the gospel, and, receiving and resting upon them for its hope of salvation, exemplifies and illustrates them in the daily life and conversation.

Yet there is scarcely any subject so simple, and at the same time so vital, about which so much diffiulty gathers in the mind of inquirers, as about this article of saving faith. The ordinary definition of the term is behef, trust, confidence — the reception of testimony. Natural faith may be thus defined. There are some propositions which command our faith as soon as they are presented to the mind. We believe that two and two make four, or that the whole of a thing is greater than one of its parts, because we cannot help it. The mind is so constituted that it must receive these statements as true, because the contrary involves an absurdity. So we believe in the life, achievements, and death of Julius Caesar, because the historic evidence is clear and satisfactory as to these facts. But this sort of faith does not exhaust the idea of religious faith. Faith in the mere facts of history, or the axioms of mathematics, has not, necessarily, any operative principle connected with it. Our faith in Julius Caesar is not a faith that exerts any special influence on our life. We neither do, nor refrain from doing, anything because we believe in Csesar, which we might not equally do, or refrain from doing, if we did not believe that he ever existed. The current of our daily lives would flow on in its ordinary channels, quite undisturbed by our faith, or our want of faith, in the distinguished Roman. So we may profess a faith in the historic facts of Christianity, in God and Christ, and a future state, which is no more religious faith than our belief in the facts of Roman history.

That is the highest form of faith, which not only implies the assent of the understanding, but includes, also, the consent of the will, the choice of the heart, and the devotion of the life. One of the finest instances of this kind of faith, inspired only by natural objects, and exercised only on material things, is presented in the history of Christopher Columbus. He believed that there was an undiscovered passage to the East, and this faith became the controlling power and principle of his life. In the face of ridicule, opposition, and persecution, he boldly proclaimed and maintained his theory. No sneers of the learned ; no ribaldry of the mob ; no opposition of friends ; no invective of foes, could affect his invincible confidence in what was unseen, unknown, and purely a matter of faith. The world knows by heart the story of his faith, his toils, and

PRECIOUS FAITH.

his triumphs. AH over Christendom, painting and sculpture and monumental piles, record the grand history. They tell of the power of faith in things unseen, even in natural lines, upon an earnest soul.

This sort of faith, inspired by religious truth, and directed to religious objects and ends, is what we call evangelical faith. This is the faith that saves the soul. When a man is convinced of the truth of the doctrines of religion, gives to them the assent of his mind, the affiance of his affections, and then allows them to be the controlling principle and force of his daily life, then he believes with that faith which saves. He who thus believes " shall be saved."

This faith, however, must be exercised on the authority of a '' Thus saith the Lord.'* It is concerned with the direct revelation of God. It deals with facts, and not with philosophies ; with revealed, and not with secret, things. There are some who stumble here. They complain of the mysteries of religion as inconsistent with intelligent faith. They say that they cannot believe what they do not understand. God does not require this. He requires faith in factSj and not in modes or philosophies. It is quite possible and rational to believe a fact, when we do not understand the theory that is behind it. A man may believe that a steamer can cross the ocean against wind and tide, though he may be entirely ignorant of the mechanism and the philosophy of the steam-engine. A child can tell the time of day by a watch, though the method of its working may be utterly incomprehensible to him. I can believe the fact that the golden grain that waves so richly on the field in the summer, is the product of the seed that was sown in the spring. But no mental effort can enable me to master the mystery of its wonderful multiplication.