The citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem must keep themselves from everything that tends to render them unfit for their true and abiding home.

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2:12. They speak against you as evildoers."

Compare S. John 18:30. The disciple must not expect to be above his master. These words show the growth of a widespread feeling of dislike, showing itself in calumny.

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Glorify God in the day of visitation."

Here is charity pure and simple. S. Peter anticipates "a day of visitation." But his hope is not that his enemies may be put to shame and perish, but that they may then glorify God by seeing how in the midst of all chaos and disorder the disciples of Christ were distinguished by works that were nobly done in calmness, obedience, and charity.

2:13.

"Be subject to every ordinance of man."

The disciples of Christ must submit to all lawfully constituted authority and in no way allow themselves to be suspected of illegal and disorderly conduct.

The identity of thought here with Rom. 13:3, 4, shows us an interesting coincidence in the teaching of the two Apostles. Both alike recognize that even an imperfect and corrupt government works for a better good than lawless anarchy.

2:16.

"As free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of baseness."

Under the pretense of Christian freedom many a man

has become rude, overbearing, insolent, without regard to the courtesies and amenities of life. But that was not Christian. It was devilish. They but used their liberty as a cloak of baseness.

“License they mean when they cry liberty,” was true of the Apostle's times as it is so often true of us to-day.

2:17. "Honor all men."

This means exactly what it says. It does not mean honor some men. It means honor all men. Honor all men, whether rich or poor, whether high or low, whether exalted or degraded. He carries the image of God, no matter who or what kind of a man he may be for the time being. Honor, then, all men.

"Love the brotherhood."

We are all brothers of one family, children of the same Father. Love as such.

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2:19. Suffering wrongfully."

Natural impulse sanctions the burning indignation and desire to retaliate for a wrong done. Each party to a dispute thinks himself at the moment in the right. It is only by acting on the principle that the more he believes himself to be in the right the more it is his duty to submit patiently, a man can free himself from an endless entanglement of recriminations and retaliations.

2:21.

"For to this you were called."

The thoughts of the Apostle travel from the teaching of Christ which he had heard, to the life which he had witnessed. Here is the great law of Christian life learnt well by the early Christians. We "must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

2:23. Who, when he was reviled, did not revile again." Here is a reminder of Isaiah 53:7 and recalls many actual scenes in the life of our Lord.

It is interesting to note that as S. Peter here passes to the relation of husband and wife after treating of master and slave so Aristotle makes these two relations the main foundation stones of his system of politics "without a word."

A quiet demeanor and Christlike conduct will go a thousand times further to convert an unbeliever than pious talk and little genuine Christlike life.

3:3. "The outward adorning of plaiting the hair."

These words do not condemn the use of jewelry and attention to the color and style of dress, within the limits of simplicity and economy in comparison with one's means. They do, however, tend to minimize that form of personal adornment and bid women to trust not to them, but to moral and spiritual qualities, as elements of attractive

ness.

3:4. "Of great price."

God's estimate of value differs from man's. His measure of our worth cannot be gauged by the standard which the world generally applies.

3:6.

"Like Sara obeyed Abraham."

The sixth satire of Juvenal illustrates the need of such exhortations as this. The general corruption of the empire had extended itself to the life of the home. Not only had adultery and divorce become very common, but wives as a rule had thrown aside all sense of that reverence for

their husbands which the Apostle here indicates as essential to the holiness and happiness of married life.

"By doing good and not being afraid."

The Christian wives of unbelieving husbands have much to bear from them. But they are in no way to be in terror. They are not to cower as if they expect a curse or a blow. Such a demeanor is certain to make matters worse. It is a tacit reproach. It but irritates and annoys. Be certain you are right, S. Peter, as it were, says here, and then go about your daily tasks with a cheerful countenance and without any fear.

"Whose daughters you became."

The daughters of Sarah according to the flesh are here told that they only became her children in the true sense of that term when they reproduced her character. pare Rom. 4:12.

3:7.

Com

"Live with your wives according to knowledge." The wife is not to be treated as a slave, a concubine, nor as a mistress of the house, alone. She is a helpmeet in the daily toil of life, a sharer in its higher hopes and duties, the mother of children to be tenderly and wisely brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

3:9.

"Not rendering evil for evil.”

This clause forbids retaliation in act as what follows forbids retaliation in words.

"For to this you were called."

God blesses so we must bless. He forgives so we must forgive. Vindictiveness in any form is at variance with the conditions on which our inheritance is to come to us and so involves its certain failure.

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3:15. 'Always ready with an answer."

The disciples of Christ are not to take refuge in a silence to which fear might prompt. They are to be ready with a defence, a vindication of their faith and hope. And this answer is to be given, not in a tone of threatening defiance, but in meekness, whether the questions are put by an official or a private person. For the truth should not be made to suffer through any infirmities in its defenders. The spirit of reverential awe toward God is the best safeguard against such infirmities.

No skill of speech will alone do the work of the Christian apologist. His life must be in entire accord with his

professions.

3:18. "Christ suffered."

Compare Hebrews 9: 26: 28, and 10: 6, 8, 18, 26.

"Endued with life in the Spirit."

We have here an antithesis, like that of Rom. 1:3, 4 and 1 S. Tim. 3: 16.

3:19.

in prison."

"In this also he went and preached to the spirits

"In this," means in his human spirit as distinct from the flesh Christ who had preached to men living on the earth now went and preached to the spirits existing separated from the flesh. As S. Paul puts it, Christ "descended first into the lower parts of the earth," that is, into the region which the current belief of the time recognized as the abode of the disembodied spirits of the dead (Eph. 4:9). And so when S. Peter tells us Christ "went and preached to the spirits in prison," he means to tell us he went to Hades and proclaimed the good news of man's