1 Peter 2

1 Peter 2:11-12

SUCCESS THROUGH 1 Peter 2:11-12IN resuming our study of this First Epistle of Peter, the great Apostle provides us with an introduction. It is a singular thing that every break in this First Epistle is marked by the word “Beloved”.Peter would not have his hearers forget that however severe his strictures against sin, however exacting his calls to holiness, however high, and apparently impossible, his ideals, he is animated in it all by love of them.And so our second study begins:“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; “Having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12). This introduction is remarkable in that it contains practically every thought which the Apostle elaborates in the forty-seven verses chosen for the study of this hour.Those of you who listened to Dr. H. Grattan Guinness, when years ago he occupied this pulpit, will never forget the marvel of his opening sentence. It involved, in almost every instance, the gist of his sermon. When he gave us his exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, his opening sentence, from the text, “I am the Way”, was: “Christ is the way from the hell of sin to the heaven of holiness, and the Epistle to the Romans is a perfect elaboration of that fact. The first chapters deal with the hell of sin; the last with the heaven of holiness, and the intervening ones with “Christ the Way.”So here Peter gives us in two verses what will require forty-five additional to elaborate. It is an appeal to men who are no longer worldlings; while living in the world, they are citizens of another Country—even an Heavenly, hence “strangers and pilgrims.” And such he calls to “abstain from fleshly lusts”, and assigns as the reason that these “war against the soul”; to manifest such a behavior toward the Gentiles that their critical speech shall be silenced by Christian conduct, and their souls converted to God “in the day of visitation”.There are easily three key words to this study— Subjection, Suffering, and Stewardship. First, to the ordinances of law.“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; “Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: ‘“As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king” (1 Peter 2:13-17). If one puts himself back to Peter’s time he will the more keenly appreciate the significance of this Scripture. It was a day when oppression characterized potentates and their appointees. To be obedient to the kings and governors of his hour was not an easy thing. More difficult still was it to “honour the king”.And yet, Peter permits no compromising speech concerning the subject. He understands, by inspiration, what all the centuries have proven— that the most tyrannical form of government is yet to be desired above nihilism, the cry of the Russian; or anarchy, the theory of the south European. Poor laws, poorly executed, are vastly better than no laws, or laws on the statute books but treated with contempt.

So whatever may be the theories of others, it behooves the Christian believer, always and everywhere, to be law-abiding and law-defending.A. J.

F. Behrends, speaking of the conditions of his day, deplored the wide-spread disregard of law, and the contempt for it, saying, “Statutes are defied or evaded as soon as they are enacted. Men talk as if law could be made and unmade at will, without any reference to the eternal verities embodied in nature and in the soul of man. There is slight reverence for legislatures, for congress, for judicial decisions.” And yet, even as Behrends remarked, “There never was a great nation without reverence for righteousness.”Peter puts this obedience to law upon the proper basis, “For so is the mil of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God”.“Honour all men”. No man does it who is not law-abiding.“Love the brotherhood”. Subjection to all is one way of manifesting that love.“Fear God”, the Master of all law-givers.“Honour the king”, whose office is the administration of the law.But the Apostle passes from speaking of subjection to the ordinances of law, to mention another point at which the same requirement is potent.Subjection to the word of masters.“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently f but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the Tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls”. There are some clear suggestions in this Scripture of which the present-day Church stands in sore need. It reminds us that when Peter penned this Epistle, the True Church of God was made up for the most part of servants. The masters and the rich men, in their pride, lust and luxury, had resisted the Spirit and rejected the Christ. Few indeed, were there from their company. Joseph is the solitary exception in his class; Nicodemus another in his; while the cultured Paul, by his very education, stood apart from Peter, John, and James —the plain fishermen.Throughout the length and breadth of the Roman Empire, the servants in the houses were surrendering more and more to the Gospel, and being saved. So far did they dominate in the Church that Peter seems to think it sufficient to address his words to them as almost wholly exclusive, asking that they be in subjection to their masters “with all fear” to the evil as well as “to the good and gentle”, and affirming that this was “thankworthy” since it could be discharged “for conscience toward God”.And, if one suffered in it, he yet did well, bearing with patience, borne up by the conviction of pleasing Jehovah, and inspired by the example of Christ, in whose steps they, who suffered for righteousness’ sake, consciously walked.Alas, that the time should have come when those who made the Church of God possible are not always and everywhere welcomed to its fellowship, and are not always made to feel the bond of its brotherhood.

And yet such is the case! Taking the country over, the masters are now in charge of the Church of God, and they are not always willing that the servants should even have membership in the same.One of the most shameful acts in modern church history was the enforced resignation of Dr.

John H–, the most notable minister of his denomination thirty-five years ago. The difficulty was not that he was a failure, either as a pastor or preacher; not even that he was smitten with senility, though age had come upon him; but that he persistently refused to be a respecter of persons, and while presiding over the interests of a rich church, insisted on giving more of his time looking after the servant girls of his membership, than to any other single class who attended upon his ministry. It is never well for the rafters of a building to despise the foundation-stones or mud-sills; and the church that forgets to keep open door and outstretched hand and warm heart and fellowship in service, for the poorest and plainest of the people, sets seal to its own doom by rejecting the only True Head of the Church—the Christ, who said, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me”.But the Apostle is still more concerned here that these servants should be in subjection to their masters, “with all fear”, knowing that that was the solitary way of success in winning the masters to the faith that was in Christ.There are people, not a few of them among the poor, who fear that if they put themselves into subjection to another they will be despised in consequence. But let it be remembered as a universal principle, that the man who is most obedient to authority over him is the one who comes most rapidly to the possession of command.In 1861, Bill, a colored boy, belonged to John W. Keyes, near Tolahoma, Tennessee. When his master went off to fight with the Confederates, Bill attended him, and seemed thereby, to take position against his own people.When the war was over and the black boy and master returned to their home, only a few days and John Keyes was in his grave.

After which Bill said, “Don’t you think I’m gwine to leave ole missus and de chilluns wit’ a lot of free niggers and a mortgaged farm.”So, as if no emancipation declaration had occurred, this lad, who had learned blacksmithing and horse-doctoring, worked on until the debt against the farm was discharged, as faithfully obedient to every word of his mistress as he had been before the declaration of negro freedom. Yea, it is claimed, he remembered and kept to the very words the master had spoken before he went.

More and more he rose in the estimation of the white and black. His work as a veterinary brought to him the title of Dr. William Keyes. His loyalty to duty begot the confidence of his neighbors; and ere he died, he was a respected citizen, owning considerable property of his own.Obedience to earthly masters has in it the very elements of self-exaltation; but Peter saw deeper still, and understood that only the faithful servant could ever win his master to the Lord, and bring him to a perfect realization of the common brotherhood in Christ, so that he would recognize his own servant as his equal in God’s sight and honor him accordingly.In the third place, Peter mentions subjection of wives to husbands.“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives; “While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. “Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. “For after this manner in the old time the holy women, also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: “Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered”. I am perfectly confident that Peter here employs a Greek word with a perfect understanding of its meaning, and a thorough intent in its use. “To your own husbands”. Many of the women of the Apostle’s time were married to unbelieving men. In their religious experiences, therefore, they would be without sympathy in their homes, and a subtle temptation would come, with which many a wife, so situated, is smitten—namely, to make another man her counsellor, to open her heart entirely to him, telling out her troubles and seeking advice from his lips. There are circumstances under which one feels compelled to seek the advice of those whose characters and positions invite the same, but I know of nothing more wise than this injunction of the Apostle, that “wives, be in subjection to your own husbands”, and learn of them. There is such a thing as a spiritual adultery, a seeking of a fellowship even in matters of religion, outside of the home. But the same fellowship should be assidiously cultivated within its sacred walls.

It is not sufficient to say, “My husband is unconverted, and he cannot instruct me in this, nor even sympathize with me.”This is a greater reason perhaps why the whole subject should be discussed with him, and his advice asked. Else how can he ever learn what you know, and if your spiritual experiences are rehearsed in his ears, and along with them, he beholds your “chaste conversation coupled with fear”, your watchfulness against “the lusts of the world” and “the flesh and the devil,” your “ornament of a meek and quiet spirit”, and your likeness to the “holy women” who believed in God, and were in subjection to “their own husbands!”, he may; aye, the likelihood is, he will be convinced of sin and converted to your Christ.Twice in my life I have known women to live with men whose characters were despicable and for whose conversion I entertained less and less of hope as my knowledge of them became more and more intimate. But in both instances I have seen the wisdom and character of the wives triumph and the men making open confession of Christ, reformed in character and conduct.The world has long sung the praises of Heloise, who, you will remember, for fifteen years never received a word from Abelard. At the end of that time she penned one of the most pathetic letters ever written, the salutation of which included this sentence, “Heloise to her lord, to her father, to her husband, to her brother. His servant—yes, his daughter; his wife—yes, his sister.” And then in verse she writes:“Yet write, oh write all, that I may join Grief to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine. Years still are mine, and these I need not spare. Love but demands what else were shed in prayer; No happier task these faded eyes pursue, To read and weep is all I now can do.” But the Apostle exercises the wisdom of inspiration and concludes this appeal by saying, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered”.I have often wondered whether Browning’s devotion to Elizabeth did not make her beautiful life possible in spite of the illness that smote her from her infancy. When once a stranger, chancing to meet Browning on a train, quoted in his hearing some words from the Portuguese Sonnet, he turned his face to the car window and was so long silent that his new acquaintance feared she had offended, and said, “I suspect sir, that you do not like Mrs. Browning’s poetry?”Then he turned his dark, soulful eyes to her, and in a voice that was almost choked with emotion, said, “Madam, that sonnet is the sweetest, and its singer the most precious gift life has given me. She was my wife!”To keep the fires burning on Love’s altar is not only the safety of the home, but the solution of ten thousand trials, and the salvation of souls. Women, then, can well afford to “be in subjection to your own husbands”; and husbands in like manner “dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered”.The rights of all men are to be regarded.“Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: “Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil”. The obligations of life are as wide as its touch with humankind. Some people find it more easy to be loving and tender-hearted than they do to keep from rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling. The most difficult of all is to bless them who revile us. Yet the Apostle calls to this, and associates with it the sure promise of inherited blessing, reminding us that he who would see good days must refrain “his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile”.I shall have occasion in the progress of this discourse to refer again to Cranmer and not so favorably as now. Hence it is a pleasure to pay this tribute to one side of his character. He discovered the secret of interpreting the sentence of Holy Writ, “as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men”.

Dr. Herrick, speaking of this trait in the man, says, “The very men who plotted against his life, who charged him with heresy, with malfeasance, with treason, were as freely forgiven as if they had charged him with some petty offense against propriety. ‘Do my lord of Canterbury an injury and it will make him your friend.’” He was Christly when maledictions would have been easy. It is the call of this part of Peter’s Epistle. Peter passes from the general subject of subjection to that of suffering, and pronounces some things that every Christian does well to remember, for at some time suffering is sure to be his lot. If it be for righteousness’ sake, one is blessed.“But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and he not afraid of their terror, neither he troubled; “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:14-15). There are many people who love the “Beatitudes.” The most of us seem to forget that in every instance a single beatitude suffices for a subject save in the instance of suffering. On that theme Christ must needs pronounce two, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”. Then, as if to make it more potent and personal, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in Heaven”.People sometimes talk about this proposition and that, raising questions as to whether it would be popular. The subject of popularity is the curse of Christian living. What have I to do with that?

My action rests on another basis altogether. Do we forget that Jesus said, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, * * and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake”.

It was an unpopular thing Peter did on the day of Pentecost.It was an unpopular thing that he and John did when they preached in the streets. It was unpopular for him to depart from Judaism, but in every step of this way he walked according to righteousness. Shame on our catering customs, our unholy ambitions! “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good”?The three Hebrew children, living as they did in an early age, when the darkness was deep, when society was sinful, when even revelation was incomplete, when opposition was terrible, yet voiced a sentiment that shamed our custom of fingering after the public pulse instead of inquiring at the feet of God. The image of gold had been set up; the herald had announced, “That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made These lads refused, and the fires were kindled and they were given another opportunity to make obeisance; to which they replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up”.The twentieth century needs their ensample. Suffering for the Truth’s sake is conscientious.“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and he ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may he ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing” (1 Peter 3:15-17). There is no such thing as Christian character apart from the knowledge of the Truth. There is no such thing as a “knowledge of the Truth” apart from keeping compact with conscience.I spoke of Cranmer’s forgiving spirit. It was the strong side of his character. His weakness was in his love of popular praise; the lack of the courage of his convictions. He was too solicitous after personal comfort. As Bullinger put it, “Too fearful of what might come to him.” Righteous in character, he was not independent in conduct. Under popular pressure, he pronounced Henry’s marriage with Katherine void—a righteous woman robbed of her honor to give place to the licentious Anne Boleyn, because he feared to do the right. He recanted his faith on the same ground.

His whole life was characterized by lack of courage. He lived in compromise, hearing the voice of God with one ear, but ever turning the other to the cries of the people or the demands of potentates. How strangely he is contrasted with Luther who quailed not before the face of all the devils from hell; with John Huss, who having read one day the story of St. Lawrence, the man who roasted on a gridiron, wondered whether the Truth meant so much to him. “Would I die for it?” A companion doubted his devotion, and into the fire he leaped, only to be saved by the forceful interference of this friend, who no longer questioned his conviction, or his constancy.I have lived in the world most of my allotted time; and if there has been one thing impressed upon me more than another, it is this—that the favor of God is surely reserved for the men who are willing to suffer for Truth’s sake. Aye, hear the injunction of the Apostle, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience”. When John Huss was put under the “ban,” the report reached him that one of his oldest and dearest friends, a theological professor in the university, had deserted him. His reply, free from all anger, was, “Truth is my friend and Palecz is my friend, but both being my friends, Truth I must honor in preference.”To suffer for others’ sake is Christ-like.“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: “Who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him”. I do not know what the life of Christ apart from His sufferings might have meant; neither do I understand how much of significance to attach to His sufferings had He not endured them for the sake of others. I am inclined to believe with John Watson that without His Cross, Jesus had been poor this day and unloved. It was suffering that wrought in Him the beauty of holiness, the sweetness of sympathy, and the grace of compassion, which constitute His Divine attractions and are seating Him on His throne. Once when the cloud fell on Him, He cried, “Father, save Me from this hour”. When the cloud lifted, Jesus saw of the travail of His soul, and said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32). In the fact of the Cross, the Son of Man was glorified.

When Jesus talked to the two on the way to Emmaus, He said, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory”? (Luke 24:26). As if the way of suffering was the shining path to His Father’s side.It is remarkable how the Apostle brings out here both the spiritual and physical suffering of Christ. “Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which”—that is, in the spirit—“also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:18-19).

Not in the flesh, not in person, but in His living spirit, at the lips of Noah, these antediluvians, who, while the ark was a preparing, heard the way of escape from the prison of sin unto which the Adversary had thrust them.He suffered for them also; travailed in grief over their godless conduct. He suffers for us now, as baptism signifies, longing to see us put away, not the filth of the flesh, but the stain of the soul, and arise to walk in newness of life with Him, “Who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” (1 Peter 3:22).The antediluvian, the middle ages, the man of modern centuries—we are alike the subjects of the sufferings of Jesus. And when we suffer for another’s sake we only “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ’, and thereby enter into fellowship with the travail of His soul in bringing men to redemption.John Tauler, when he quit his church and went forth to tell men everywhere of the love of God, enduring all personal hardships and all possible dangers, braving even the awful “black death” that was abroad in the land, was only doing that which proved his likeness to his Lord. I sometimes wonder whether people of the present day have made themselves familiar with Tauler and his work. It was done in that hour when this “black death” desolated the world. Having already ravaged the Orient, killing off forty millions there, it was wafted over to Europe where it snuffed out the lives of twenty-five millions more. “The city of London lost one hundred thousand; Italy half of its population; southern France two-thirds.

In the little city of Strasburg “sixteen thousand of its people Jell before its deadly fury.” “The bonds of society were dissolved,” as another has said. Through all this time this man went his way, fearing neither the power of Pope nor the “pestilence that walketh in darkness”.

One passion alone pulsed in his life, that of serving his fellow-man. “Works of love,” said he, “are better than lofty contemplation, and to carry broth to a sick brother more pleasing to God than to be rapt away, at such a time, in devoutest prayer.“Love took up the harp of life and smote On all the chords with might,— Smote the chord of self, that, trembling, Passed in music out of sight.” For the sake of others, suffer, and we have fellowship with Christ. In coming to this fourth chapter, it seems to me that the great subject of stewardship is the one to which the Apostle turns his attention, and yet there is the closest relationship between subjection, suffering, and stewardship—they are steps leading up to God.He reminds us first of all that we are made bond servants by Christ’s death.“Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: “Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: “Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. “For, for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit”. It is the old question that Paul put, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein”? (Romans 6:2). People who have never been convinced of the price with which they are purchased may continue in the lusts of the flesh; but the time past that wrought the desires of the Gentiles more than suffices. Aye, as we think upon it, we are sickened by the memory. To have walked in such corruption, wine-bibbing, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatries, when Christ so loved us that He lay down His life for us.How men do despise their own lives! How men do ignore the secret of happiness! How poorly we appreciate the proffer of holiness!

How lightly do we esteem the great purchase price of our privileges! In this world, men, on a basis of conscience, expect to get a return for what they receive.

How then shall we repay Him who paid for our redemption the price of His own Divine life? Religion is a practical thing. Stewardship does offer bond-servants a chance to serve Him, who by the purchase of a precious price hath made them His own, and it lies along the line of activity.A converted cowboy expressed his notion of religion after the following manner: “Lots of folks, that would really like to do right, think that servin’ the Lord means shoutin’ themselves hoarse praisin’ His Name. Now I’ll tell you how I look at that. I’m workin’ here for Jim. Now, if I’d sit around the house here, tellin’ what a good fellow Jim is, and singin’ songs to him, and gettin’ up in the night to serenade him, I’d be doin’ what lots of Christians do, but I wouldn’t suit Jim, and I’d get fired very quick. But when I buckle on my straps and hustle among the hills, and see that Jim’s herd is all right and not sufferin’ for water and feed, or bein’ off the range and branded by cattle-thieves, then I’m servin’ Jim as he wants to be served.” We see the way!Again Peter affirms that we are made brethren by the gift of grace.“But the end of all things is at hand: he ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 3:7-8). True, men are “one” by creation, for God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26), But there is a closer bond, namely, that of generation. The great world is akin to me, but my cousins are closer; yet they are a distance removed when compared to my brothers and sisters—begotten by one father and born of one mother. The bond of fellowship in Christ rests in the fact that all His are born of the same Spirit. Phillips Brooks said, “The world is covered with a net-work of brotherhoods till hardly any man stands entirely alone.” But the brotherhood that is closer than that which binds us to all men, closer even than that of men and women who have in their veins one blood, closer than that of those begotten by the same father and born to the same mother, is the brotherhood in Christ—the resultant of the second birth, the regeneration of the Holy Ghost. When one realizes this brotherhood, the sense of stewardship is emphasized thereby.We may continue to discuss the question of obligation to the foreigner; we may raise the old query, “Who is my neighbour?” But unless one would walk in the way of Cain, he cannot, and dare not, ask, “Am I my brother’s keeper”? He who would serve God must also serve his brother.Minnie Leona Upton writes:“I met a slender little maid A rosy burden bearing, ‘Isn’t he heavy, dear?’ I said, As past me she was faring. She looked at me with grave, sweet eyes, This fragile ‘little mother’, And answered, as in swift surprise, ‘Ph, no! ma’am, he’s my brother.’ “We larger children toil and fret To help the old world onward; Our eyes with tears are often wet, So slowly it moves sunward, Yet, would we all the secret seek Of this dear ‘little mother’, Unwearying we’d bear up the weak Because he is ‘my brother.’” Finally, we are made stewards by the impartation of gifts.There are people who think that they are to be stewards of money only. We are to be that. The man, who under grace, does less for God than tithe, is robbing Him who is the Author of every good and perfect gift. Robbing God! One who tithes will find it a “schoolmaster to bring him to Christ.” So, he will exceed the tithe and make offerings of love.But our stewardship does include many gifts. We are to be “stewards of the manifold grace of God”.

Our stewardship is to appear in sobriety, living for others’ sakes, in fervent love, in the exercise of hospitality, in the utterance of the Truth, in the ministering to home needs, in all Heaven-born opportunities “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever”.Talk not to me about what you would do if you were only a wealthy man. You are rich and increased, not so much with goods, as with gifts and graces.

The world is in more need of them than it is of gold. What are you doing with them? You can smile, and by your smile chase many a shadow away.What are you doing with that marvelous grace of the face? You can offer a good right hand to men who are away from home and far from friends, and make them feel that both are nigh. You can easily express your care, and, at times, even your affection for them who fear—“no man careth for my soul”. You could teach in the Name of the Lord.

You might, if you would, witness fervently.Financially you have not made your last sacrifice, and you know it. What account could you render today as God’s steward if suddenly He, who has the right, should make the demand?Do not tell me, “If I had higher office I would utilize it.” Only the man who uses the humble office would rightly employ the higher.

William Carey was a good cobbler, and honored God in his shoeshop, and hence God could commission him to India, knowing that he would honor Him as a missionary.I love to dwell on what Tauler said concerning outward rites and obligations, as not necessary to the essence of piety. He affirmed that “True piety is in the application of religious principles to real life.” He showed that piety had its positive as well as its negative aspect. What it is as well as what it is not. To illustrate, he said, “One can spin, another can make shoes, and all these gifts are of the Holy Ghost. I tell you, if I were not a priest, I would esteem it a great gift that I was able to make shoes, and would try to make them so well as to be a pattern to all.” “The measure with which we shall be measured is the faculty of love in the soul—the will of man; by this shall all his life and works be measured.”“So let our lips and lives express The holy Gospel we profess; So let our works and virtues shine, To prove the doctrines all Divine.”

1 Peter 2:17

OF TRUE 1 Peter 2:17. (Decoration Day Sermon) THIS is the one Sunday in the year, which, second to the Fourth of July, invites the people to patriotic thought and expression. Before the week has passed, Decoration Day will have come and gone, leaving the graves of our heroic dead blossom-covered and beautiful; while in schools, churches, and cemeteries speakers will address themselves to a review of the motives and deeds which have enshrined so many in everlasting remembrance.It is meet indeed that at such a season the one theme of patriotism should have a large place in the pulpits of the land. Lord Bolingbroke was right when he remarked, “Neither Montaigne, in writing his essays; nor Descartes, in building new worlds; nor Burnet, in framing an antediluvian earth; no, nor Newton, in discovering and establishing the true laws of nature on experiment and a sublime geometry—felt more intellectual joys than he feels who is a real patriot, who bends all the forces of his understanding and directs all his thoughts and actions to the good of his country.” There are writers and speakers who deplore what they call the decay of patriotism among our American people, but for myself I see little indications of such decay. I think the exigencies of the late war illustrates the fact that the American spirit is today one with that sentiment which immortalized Bunker Hill and rendered famous Appomattox Court House; and there is far less danger that the spirit of patriotism will die than that it will be misdirected. My prime purpose, therefore, in speaking to you this morning is to emphasize some of the principles of true patriotism set forth in the sacred Scriptures, laying special emphasis upon those suggested by our text.Back-tracking this text, there are four fundamental principles of true patriotism which find expression.HOLD IN ESTEEM THE HIGH OFFICER “Honour the king”. The offices of state are set for the execution of righteousness. “For”, as Paul says in his Epistle to the Romans:“rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. ** “For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:3-4). There is a custom growing up in this country— fanned doubtless by anarchistic breaths blowing over from Europe—the custom of holding officials, high and low, in poor esteem.There are not a few people who seem to regard it a virtue to villify and abuse every state official from the deputy-assessor to the chief executive. The newspapers of the country, by their prejudiced partisanship, voiced in Billingsgate against every candidate for office who refuses to speak their shibboleth, have taught the public irreverence alike toward good men and honored offices.It cannot be denied, of course, that there are many politicians where the public has a right to expect statesmen, and offices are often degraded rather than exalted by their occupants; and yet, even this does not justify that wholesale condemnation of municipal, state, and national representatives, which among us has become altogether common.“But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. “Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. “But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; “And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceiving s while they feast with you; “Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children” (2 Peter 2:10-14). The very office itself should command a certain respect even when it is filled by a self-seeking politician. That is why Paul wrote of the officer, “He is the minister of God to thee for good”. That is the original purpose of the office and the Divine purpose as well, and that is why Peter, under inspiration, tells us to “honour the king”.Again, the officer is often a man of integrity. I grant you that in many of our cities the political machine is manipulated at the great expense of the public, and moral rottenness stands in the shoes of ethical righteousness.I grant you that the lobby at Washington is more often filled with bad men than with good, and that very much of our legislation is prompted more by political and money considerations than by interest in the public weal; and yet, when I review the list of names which the American people have elevated to the office of President, I am profoundly impressed with the manliness and integrity of most of them.From the day of George Washington until this hour, the rule of the presidential chair has been a noble man. The ignoble has been the exception, Moses, aside from his Divine inspiration in giving to the world a part of God’s Word, is not more worthy of memory through acts of self-sacrifice and deeds of heroism than is our own first president, Washington; and Joshua, who led the Israel of God across the Jordan into the Land of Promise, was called upon to exercise less courage and evince less conviction than Abraham Lincoln exhibited when he opposed slavery and put his pen to the Emancipation Proclamation.This line of presidents has had in it law-givers, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and unless the American people themselves prove recreant to the power vested with them, they will never have occasion of shame as they read the roll of them that have had the rule over them.If you went across to England, or to the Continent, you would find that integrity there is not a stranger to office. The great Queen Victoria of England, the former Emperors of Germany, together with Gladstone of the first country, and Bismarck of the second, have emphasized the fact that where civilization has been vivified by the touch of Christ, high officials have been superior minds and souls. You are all familiar with the famous speech made by the little girl Victoria when her honors were first announced to her; and I remind you this morning of an extract from that essay of the first German Emperor William, in which he said, “I rejoice to be a prince, because my rank in life will give me opportunities to help others. I am far from thinking myself better than those occupying other positions. I am, on the contrary, fully aware that I am a man exposed to all the frailties of human nature; that the laws governing the action of all classes alike apply to me too; and that, with the rest of the world, I shall one day be held responsible for my deeds. To be an indefatigable learner and striver for the good of my country shall be the one aim of my public life.” For the sake of office and officer, honour the king”.No wonder, then, that Paul wrote to Timothy, that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority”; for long before him, Solomon, out of an extended experience and wide observation, wrote, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2).The second fundamental mentioned by our text is this:GOD IS TO BE FEARED AS THE FIRST “Fear God”! If one takes the Bible as his book of political economy, he will find it true, as one has said, “The idea of a Kingdom of God, of a world in which men would be under the direct rule of God, and the nations governed by the immediate inspiration of God, is the dream of history. This Divine government of the world, this realization of the social order of Heaven among men, is the hope that neither prophet, nor warrior, nor ruler, nor priest, nor poet, nor the great heart of the people, would ever wholly yield. Cyrus and Cromwell, Isaiah and Mazzini, were led by a vision of a kingdom of universal righteousness, however crude were sometimes their notions of right. The Hebrew nation was born into this conception of the Kingdom of God. The Revelation of John closes with the majestic vision of the earth redeemed into universal brotherhood, united in one fellowship of sacrifice, the tabernacle of God spread over it, and the Word of God written in the faith and read in the obedience of every heart.”Peter was simply voicing this same conception when he reminds us that God is the first Sovereign. That idea has never been disputed by the true American.

When George Washington called upon every man in the Continental Army to be a “Christian soldier,” he was voicing his own sentiment that God was the first Sovereign; and from that day to the hour a few years since, when Captain Phillips, after a second naval battle with Spain, in both of which engagements God’s hand was so signally displayed, called his men on deck, and, with uncovered heads, in a silence strangely contrasted with the storm of battle just passed, put up a prayer of thanksgiving to God, he has been regarded as “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting” (1 Timothy 6:15-16).His commandment, therefore, is of first authority. One of the insidious dangers to true patriotism is at this point.

There are not a few people in America who feel that patriotism means always obedience to the command of earthly rulers, and perfect agreement with the party in power, forgetting that there is a higher commandment and a more exalted potentate.The Apostle Peter was on trial one day. He had offended the officers of his nation and they had laid hands upon him and put him in prison, but God sent His angel and delivered him out of it. Afterward, when they discovered him in the Temple teaching the people, then went the captain with the officers and brought him before the Council, and the High Priest asked, saying, “Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this Name”? And Peter’s reply was one of the most patriotic utterances that ever passed the lips of man: “Then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:28-29).Hugh Price Hughes says of Peter’s utterance, “That was a revolution; that was the beginning of a new era. Peter took as his high standard of conduct not the law of his country, but the Law of God as finally revealed to him in Jesus Christ. If the law of his country was wrong, he would break it and go to prison.”What American would question his conduct, when it is the custom in America to praise the Armenian who disregards the outrageous laws of Turkey; when it is the custom in America to praise William Pitt, who stood in the English Parliament, to condemn English supremacy in this country, to condemn taxation without representation, and to affirm that were he an American, as he was an Englishman, he would never lay down his arms until independence was declared; when it is the custom in this country to praise Wendell Phillips, who, when he found the constitution of the United States, touching slavery, in evident conflict with the Divine will and Word,—did not hesitate to invite a curse upon that article of our constitution?Carlos Martyn, his biographer, says of Phillips’ attitude touching constitutional slavery, “He was looked upon as a social Benedict Arnold, * * But, * * he never complained, nor filed down a principle, nor softened a phrase to regain his place and conciliate esteem.

He had counted the cost. He regarded his forfeited distinctions, all possible advancement within his reach, as ‘dust in the measure and fine dust in the balance,’ when weighed against the honor of standing with God and befriending those who were ready to perish.

What he lost he valued; what he gained he held as an abundant compensation. It hurt him to feel that he had disappointed those who loved him. All the more resolutely did he turn for consolation to the service of the poor and miserable and blind and naked. No such sacrifices have been made by any other American. But he had and has his exceeding great reward. All this the poet Lowell has magnificently perpetuated in a magnificent sonnet which he wrote not long afterward and dedicated to Wendell Phillips:‘He stood upon the worlds broad threshold, wide, The din of battle and of slaughter rose; He saw God stand upon the weaker side, That sank in seeming loss before its foes; Many there were who made great haste and sold Unto the coming enemy their swords, He scorned their gifts of fame, and power, and gold, And, underneath their soft and flowery words, Heard the cold serpent hiss; therefore he went And humbly joined him to the weaker part, Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content So he could be the nearer to God’s heart, And feel its solemn pulses sending blood Through all the widespread veins of endless good.’” THERE SHOULD BE FOR ONE’S PEOPLE Peter puts this among the fundamentals of true patriotism.“Love the brotherhood”. There should be loyalty to one’s own blood. This is a point that needs little emphasis. In the bond of blood, nature and grace meet and twine their strongest strands. If one travels the world around, he will be impressed by the fraternity of kinship. The black people love the black best; the brown people love best their brown relatives; the red man regards no one so highly as his painted, feathered brother; and the white man rejoices in the same conceit. We are told that the Ethiopian imagines that God made his sands and deserts, while angels only were employed in forming the rest of the globe.

The Arabian tribe of Ouadian conceive that the sun, moon, and stars rise only for them, The Maltese, insulated on a rock, distinguish their island by the name of “The Flower of the World;” while the Caribees say that they and their brethren alone are entitled to be called men.To love of kin one should add love of country. There can be no question that one’s country includes the broader brotherhood to which the Apostle refers. Why is it that Louis Kossuth is almost always spoken of as “that patriot.” This Hungarian was famed for his opposition to Austrian rule, and for his defense of the party out of power. His voice was hushed, his paper was suppressed, he himself was imprisoned on the charge of treason; and yet, after a half century has gone by, his title is that of “The exiled patriot,” and his title is just, simply because the world has come to see that for Hungary he lived, and for Hungary he was willing to die.When, on one occasion, he sought the protection of the Sultan, that monarch offered him safety, wealth, and high military command, if he would renounce his Christianity and profess the faith of Mahomet; and although he expected his refusal would mean his death at the end of the sword, he made this magnificent answer: “Welcome, if need be, the axe or the gibbet; but evil befall the tongue that dare make to me so infamous a proposal.”This love of country has never been wanting in our own land. It led Stark and Prescott and Putnam and Warren to baptize Bunker Hill with their own blood; Lovejoy, John Brown, and a host of the famed and the unknown of ‘61 and ‘65 to write the story of that affection afresh with the crimson from their veins; and a few years since when our island neighbors were oppressed, the American flag insulted, there were brave men who, by their daring and dying, gave new significance to Dr. Smith’s hymn:“My country, ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing: Land where my fathers died! Land of the Pilgrim’s pride! From every mountain side Let freedom ring! “My native country, thee, Land of the noble free, Thy name I love; I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills; My heart with rapture thrills, Like that above.” But our text mentions another principle of true patriotism:ALL MEN TO BE HELD IN HONOR “Honour all men”. If a man wants that definition of patriotism which shuts him up to’ honor the king of his country and that king alone, which limits his affection to the people in whose veins his blood courses, he must bring that definition from some other source than from the Book of God, for it requires that we “honour all men”.All men are worthy of honor on account of their common origin. Do you remember that in the prayer Christ taught His disciples, the first sentence was this, “Our Father which art in Heaven”. One of the most vigorous writers of the present hour has said, “This is a confession of the brotherhood of man. * * ‘Our Father’ means that railway manager and brakeman, employer and employee, rich and poor, ignorant and wise, privileged and unprivileged—are brothers. * * ‘Our Father’ means that the divisions between human beings made by clothes and creeds, money and culture, position and possessions, are but thin disguises that hide from us the eternal childhood of the soul. ‘Our Father’ leaves no refuge for caste, but makes all separatisms, all withdrawal of man from fellowships, all enthronement of individual rights and privileges, above the rights and privileges of others —fearful blasphemies.”Do you remember that in “Hypatia” Charles Kingsley makes the little hunchback fruitman to say of Hypatia’s teaching; “She revealed to me the glorious fact that I was a spark of divinity itself, while, as he admitted a moment later, that he was a fallen star, still the very conception that he had originated from God exalted him alike in his own esteem, and in that of Phillamon, the monk.” And every time you repeat the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father which art in Heaven”, you must be reminded that all men have a common creation, that God “hath made of one blood ail nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth”, and their very origin invites honor.Their common destiny also requires the same. Some years since, in reading the volume, “Great Books as Life Teachers,” I was impressed with the statement of the author when he says, “A new spirit, like a summer atmosphere, is sweeping all our literature. In reading the works of Cicero or Seneca, one must glean and glean for single humanitarian sentiments. Their writings are exquisite in form and polished like statutes, but they are without heart or humanity. * * Today the people with their woes and griefs are found in standing literature. * * The new era began with ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ when a slave stood forth as a candidate for hero-worship.

Since then none dare insult the common people. A host of writers like Victor Hugo, George Eliot, Charles Kingsley, and Walter Besant have come in to give their whole souls to softening the lot of humanity. * * Books that have no enthusiasm for humanity are speedily sent to the garret.”The reason is not far to seek. The people have learned at last that the destiny of one man is the destiny of another; and that only in proportion as one sorrows with the sorrowing, suffers with the suffering, and rejoices with the rejoicing, is he entering into the fellowship that is of Divine appointment, or entertaining the spirit of patriotism that means advancement to his country by giving honor to all men, and striving to make every man honorable.And I think also that Peter meant that we should see that all men have a common redemption.When God thought redemption, His thought was democratic; when God wrought redemption, He was no respecter of persons; and when God, in order to accomplish redemption, took upon Him the form of man, He gave to manhood itself a dignity which the very devils in hell ought not dare injure or insult.Sometimes the native-born American, the child of America’s public schools, the graduate of America’s college and university, the favorite of an American fortune, is disposed to flaunt a patriotism that would despise the foreigner, and if it had anything whatever in common with the cultured Englishman, the educated German and the polite Frenchman, who had found a home among us, it would scorn to go to the polls, or sit in the pews with a Russian Jew, the Hungarian emigrant, or a despised Italian.And yet, beloved, God has had His men of might among all these. The blood of Daniel and Isaiah and Disraeli is in the veins of the first. The blood of Louis Kossuth courses through those of the second, and the blood of Columbus and Garabaldi and Joseph Mazzini are in the third. And God’s thought is justified, and God’s Word is approved, and the patriotism of God’s appointment brings its wreath of honor for every man of every nation, because for him Christ died, and through Christ’s redemption he may come alike to the crown of earth, or the starred crown of Heaven.