1 Peter 4:7-11

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

1 Peter 4:7. End of all things.—Jews naturally thought of the end of organised Judaism as the “end of all things,” The end of one great æon, or dispensation was nigh at hand, and this fact was properly used as an incentive to watchfulness Man is not capable of attaching a definite meaning to the term, “end of all things.” He can understand the “end of his things.” Sober.—letter, “be of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer.” Keep a good check on all bodily desires and passions; sober, or self-restrained, and so able to make everything an occasion of prayer.

1 Peter 4:8. Charity.—Or love; but it is love as influencing Christian fellowship. Distinguish from the love of sex. Charity suggests the mutual consideration, and mutual service, which are the essential elements of social love. Fervent.—Or intense. It is important that the love should be more than cherished good feeling. It should find free expression in daily intercourse. The difficult circumstances of the Churches made mutual confidence, mutual interest, and mutual helpfulness, unusually important. Cover the (a) multitude.—See James 5:20. The idea is, that love tries to hide the faults and failings of brethren; or, love others, and you will find it easy to forgive, and pass over, faults. “It is a truth from which we need not shrink, that every sin which love hides from man’s sight, is hidden in God’s sight also” (Alford), One writer thinks the idea of the sentence is, that the exercise of this grace of charity, or love, makes up for a great many other shortcomings in the man.

1 Peter 4:9. Hospitality.—Suggested by the word “charity,” and an important form of it in those days, when Christians were often turned out of their homes, and dependent on the shelter and kindness of Christian friends. Grudging.—Murmuring, fretting under the claim put upon you. Circumstances of family life often make offering hospitality a great strain on feeling.

1 Peter 4:10. The gift.—Better, a gift, any gift. Each renewed man is thought of as being endowed with some gift, which he is to put to use for the general edification. Activity in the employment of our Christian gifts provides the best security against temptation. Minister.—In the general sense of “use in-service.” Stewards.—Men put in trust. A steward is in no sense a possessor. Manifold.—Various. God’s gifts take various forms, and so the whole circle of the Church’s need is adequately provided for.

1 Peter 4:11. Speak.—Referring to the gift of tongues, which took form as preaching. prophecy, ecstatic utterance, counsel, etc. (See Romans 12:6; Romans 1 Corinthians 12-14). Oracles of God.—R.V. “speaking as it were oracles of God.” Two ideas are suggested, but the latter is probably the one in the apostle’s mind.

1. Speaking in harmony with what was already received as oracles of God; or,
2. Speaking only as inspired by oracles of God. The teacher is to keep himself strictly open to Divine leadings; to speak as one possessed of powers not his own. Minister.—Serve in the Church as the first deacons did. “Serve tables.” General helping in meeting the various claims and duties, perhaps with special reference to the poor. There is a gift of practical ministry to which attention should be directed. God giveth.—It makes all the difference whether we are using our strength, or a God-given strength. The gift of working for others comes from God. Glorified.—Compare Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31. Praise.—Glory. Ever and ever.—Ages and ages.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Peter 4:7

Immediate Duty in Relation to Christian Graces and Christian Gifts.—As the apostle is directly addressing persecuted and imperilled Christians—men whose lives were in danger on account of their steadfast loyalty to Christ—we must understand him as adapting his persuasions to their particular thoughts and fears. There is an end to all things. There is an end to suffering in the flesh. That end may be martyrdom—it is in some cases. That end may be death—it is in all cases; and the uncertainty of death is a constant persuasion to energy and persistency. “Be ye always ready.” It may be true that the early Christians anticipated the end of their sufferings in Christ’s coming rather than in death, and that we have learned to see death as Christ’s coming; but the fact remains, whatever may be the forms under which it is presented, that whosoever suffers in well-doing, suffers but for a time, and he never knows any day how near the end of his sufferings may be. He may find cheer in the thought of that uncertainty. He may be inspired to do and suffer well by that uncertainty. He ought to be full of supreme anxiety to make the very best of the “little while” of possibilities that is given to him. St. Peter urges upon these persecuted Christians that they ought to be—

I. Nourishing all Christian graces.—The moderation of a careful self-restraint and self-management needs to be cultivated and exercised. “Be ye therefore sober.” The term implies the harmony of affections and desires with reason, and the due control of passions. Perhaps the idea prominent in the apostle’s mind was that the last days—as he imagined them to be—would be full of commotions, surprises, and calamities, occasioning great alarm and distress. It should be characteristic of the Christians that they preserved their calmness at such times, “in their patience possessing their souls.” Watchfulness of themselves should be joined with prayer. Lit. “be sober unto prayers” (προσευχάς) Recalling our Lord’s words in Gethsemane, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” “Men are to be sober with a view to prayer. Desires of all kinds, above all, those of man’s lower nature, are fatal to the energy, and therefore to the efficacy, of prayer.” “There can be no preparation for the duty of prayer when the mind is absorbed either in the pursuit of pleasure or in the pursuit of riches, or even in the pursuit of the arts and sciences. He only can bow the knee in a right spirit, and hold real fellowship with God, who is able to throw off all temporal affairs like a loose garment, and, free from distracting thoughts, at once address himself to his Father who is in heaven.” The grace of which Christians in all ages need to be most anxious, the grace which they should most diligently and experimentally cultivate, is the grace of charity, using that term in the sense of love to another finding daily expression in service one of another. “And above all things—as the chief and all-essential thing—having your love toward one another intense, because love covereth a multitude of sins.” There was special need of cultivating this mutual patience and sympathy and helpfulness of brotherly love in times of peril and persecution. It is an important point of St. Peter’s advice that he sees in this cultivated and freely exercised brotherly love the one thing that can master the misunderstandings, and prejudices, and estrangements that inevitably come up in all associations of frail and imperfect men. Christian love can cover, correct, or remove these evils. Hospitality is a Christian virtue which at a peculiar time, and under particular circumstances, found befitting expression for the brotherly love. Jewish Christians scattered abroad would be very dependent on the kindness of Jewish Christians in the countries they visited, or resided in. Hospitality is still a Christian grace, that should be cultivated and exercised, but it must find expression within the limitations and conditions of modern civilised life.

II. Exercising all Christian gifts.—“According as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” The apostles thought of the bestowment and sealing of the Holy Ghost as including the imparting to the believer of some special gift, or ability, which he was to use for the edification of his fellow-believers. Every converted man is an endowed man, placed under the responsibility of a trust. His gift is nothing for him to glory in or boast over, it is his possibility of service; whatever it is, it is to be cultured into efficiency, and exercised with all wisdom, prudence, and energy. “All gifts involve reponsibilities, yet it is an honour to possess them, and if we have also grace to employ them aright, they will be doubled to us in a future life.” The gifts are classified by St. Peter under two heads—

1. Speaking gifts.
2. Ministering gifts. Gifts relating to the tongue. Gifts relating to the hand, or visiting the sick and needy, teaching children, helping those in trouble, etc. And in exercising our gifts it is important to be reminded that there is no absolute standard by which the exercise must be judged; each must minister his own gifts, in his own way, “as of the ability that God giveth.” No man of them must judge his brother. This supreme anxiety should possess them all, that they should not serve themselves in the use of their gift, nor even serve others only; they must keep, as the one inspiring idea in the exercise of all gifts, that they should glorify God through Jesus Christ, whose name they bore, and whose servants they were. “We are often actuated in our Church life by personal motives, seeking our own honour, and anxious to obtain the praise of men; and sometimes we are actuated by mixed motives, having God’s glory partly in view, but not losing sight of our own. When our motives are thoroughly purified, and we learn to live and act only for the Divine glory, how lofty will be our piety, and how transparent our character and our lives” (Thornley Smith).

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

1 Peter 4:7. The End Then and the End Now.—

1. In what sense was it true then, that “the end of all things was at hand”? In the widest and most literal sense that the expression will bear, it was not true, for upwards of eighteen centuries have passed away, and the end has not yet come. “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” The precise period of the final judgment was one of those mysteries which even St. John, in the Apocalypse, did not unfold. Is it surprising, then, if the apostle supposed that the end of all things was nearer than it really was? Some think he referred to the end of that age—to the end of the Jewish dispensation. Some think he meant the end of all these things is at hand—the follies of the wicked, and the persecutions of the righteous. Death would soon put an end to both, and all would soon be called before the Judges 2. In what sense is it true now? We are living in the nineteenth century of the Christian era; is the end of it approaching? or is an end of the present dispensation near? Some interpreters of prophecy believe that the manifestation of Christ from heaven is at hand, when He will raise the bodies of the sainted dead, change those that are alive, and commence His millennial reign on the earth. The conception is a grand one, and possibly it may be realised; but the personal reign of Christ on the earth, as the earth is at present constituted, is difficult to imagine; nor does the language of any of the apostles teach it. When He comes the saints are to be caught up to meet Him in the air, and they are to live and reign with Him a thousand years; but it is nowhere said that this will be on the earth. We cannot, however, affirm positively that these events are nigh.—Thornley Smith.

Watching for the Advent.—It must be held as a first principle that, ever since the appearing of Christ, there is nothing left to the faithful but, with wakeful minds, to be always intent on His second advent.—Calvin.

1 Peter 4:7. The End of All Things.—Respecting the transactions of the last day, many entertain the view that a moment will come when the present order of things will abruptly terminate, to be followed by a general destruction of the present material order. The prophetic language used in reference to those transactions, and the poetic garb in which they are couched, have tended to nourish such a conception; but the true end of things is not an abrupt suspension of their functions, but a completion—a perfect finish—of the ideal purposes for which these materials were created. Moral ends are the highest ideals of all things and all beings. To their fulfilment we must look for the terminus of the railway of time, and not exclusively to their physical constitution, although the movement may be conterminous in both. Human life is the highest of all purposes, and fitted to accomplish the highest and most definite ends. Its course has run for thousands of years, but, having regard to the regeneration of the whole race, we do not see the end of the present order very near. Nevertheless, it is certain, and the fact must have its place among the subjects of contemplation. If, however, we think of the duration of human life, and the uncertainty thereof, to us the “end of all things is at hand.” When this life is over, it will be like the final dissolution of the universe: we shall have none of the present interest in it. Our course will soon be at an end. There is but a step between us and the grave. The contemplation of such a serious step demands soberness, with watching and prayer. “Be ye ready,” is the Master’s call; to which we ought to answer, Ready, Lord.

I. A grave crisis.—“The end of all things is at hand.” There is a terminus in view towards which all things converge. There are no such things as “eternal rounds” for finite creatures, but one straight course, with a sharply defined beginning and ending. In order to take a general view of the subject, we notice four particulars or departments of God’s works which are daily moving towards a finale.

1. Human life. The contemplation of the end of our present life ought to cause no regret. Time and facilities enough will be granted to every man to work out the ideal manhood on which his whole life is based. Time wasted, and circumstances frittered away, will cause sorrow; but the improvement of time and the right use of opportunities will bear a peaceable fruit. Life is a germ, to be developed day by day, and when Death puts in the sickle, the abundant harvest should amply repay the trouble of sowing. He who builds up character according to the Divine model will lay in heaven the topmost stone, with “grace, grace unto it.” It is necessary to keep the end in view, to avoid the waste of time and the abuse of talent. A life in earnest will bring death in pence.

2. Moral means. Within a definite period, either long or short, the foundations of faith must be laid, obedience to God rendered, service to mankind given, and a general assimilation of purpose to the nature and tendency of the gospel made. It is a great work, and must be accomplished within its own period. It is true that we cannot comprehend eternity, or know all the ultimate purposes of God; but those who have abundant opportunities for repentance and faith now, cannot expect a period of probation hereafter. The offer of mercy through Jesus Christ is made within its own term, and the gospel will utter its last word to every sinner in this world. Are there more effective means beyond death—means that will be more certain to produce reformation? In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus there are these words: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead.” Take a more emphatic answer from the parable of the barren fig-tree: “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit thenceforth, well; but if not, thou shalt cut it down.” There is a time set, and means ordained for securing the peace of God, and our obvious duty is to “take the tide at the flood.”

3. The course of nature. The heavens and the earth shall pass away. There are material evidences to show this. We do not build our faith on scientific truths, but we receive them in corroboration of the teaching of the Book. Nature’s course, though long, is terminable. Suns, moons, stars, and the earth will one day declare, We have finished our task. A graphic description of that day is given by St. Peter in the second epistle and the third chapter. After reading these words, the one impression left on our mind is, that the eternal God has created all things for definite purposes in connection with the life and salvation of the human race; and the call is to prayer and to diligence.

4. Moral administration. The course of sin will be arrested, and every discordant note will cease. To-day, sin meets with a series of checks, but then, a complete annihilation. This will necessitate a change in many departments of moral government. The mediation of the Saviour will cease in its intercessory character. The day of forgiveness will end. The unclean will remain so, and the regenerate will rise to a state of perfection. The whole gospel dispensation will advance from its preparatory stages to the final condition of harmony and beauty in God the Father. This will take place after the resurrection and the last judgment. “And when all things have been subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in all.” Seeing that things, material and moral, are working towards that grave crisis, we ought to awake out of sleep, for our salvation is nearer than when we believed.

II. An earnest exhortation.—“Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” The end must be in view, that the means appointed fur its attainment may find a legitimate place in the economy of human life. This reminds us of a motto which a gentleman had inscribed over every door in his house: “Whatever you do, consider the end.”

1. Seriousness. To be sober-minded is to look at human life in all its bearings and responsibilities. Men are liable to several kinds of intoxication, and there are many drunken, but not with alcohol. Some are intoxicated with pride, others with pleasure, others with wealth, and many with imaginary greatness. St. Peter exhorts us in the text to avoid frivolity. Trifling with serious matters is a grave offence against morality, as well as an injury to the soul.

2. Watchfulness. Care must be taken to conserve the good we possess, and to entrench ourselves firmly in every position we occupy. There must be no “unguarded hours” in the Christian’s year. There may be enough courage to fight sin in open battle, where there is not enough caution to retain the advantage. Our Saviour exhorts us to “watch and pray.” The roaring lion is about, seeking us for his prey. Watchfulness is the compass by which the vessel is steered. Thousands have made a shipwreck of the faith because they neglected to look at the compass. Let us watch our very thoughts, fearing they should be vain. Let us watch every emotion of the heart, fearing they are sinful. Let us watch every step of the foot, fearing it may be outside the narrow path. Watch all your moments, and at all times. Temptation is your greatest foe; watch against your besetting sin. Keep yourselves spotless from the world. “Love not the world, nor,” etc.

3. Prayerfulness. The aspirations of prayer are heavenward. God has promised to help us. Prayer leads on to the grand end of moral perfection and eternal joy. “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14). Then pray on. Many of you may look with fear to the end. You are not confident that yours will be peace and joy. It may be that such a blessed assurance is not given to most of the saints until the time comes. But one thing is certain: we must pray on. Prayer leads the way. We enter on holiness by prayer. We secure every blessing by prayer, because we take the name of Jesus with us to the throne of mercy. Prayer leans on His breast. “Pray without ceasing.” Brethren, let us keep the glorious end of our faith in view, even the salvation of our souls. We need to feel the coming of the end in every service, and in every religious exercise, as the sailor sees the beacons of his native land coming in sight when nearing the shore. Bend to the oar, and pull for the shore. Watching and praying will soon be over. Look to the end of these, for there you will see the crown and the Saviour.—Anon.

1 Peter 4:8. The Pre-eminence of Charity.—The grace of charity is exalted as the highest attainment of the Christian life by St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John. These three men were very different from each other. Each was the type of a distinct order of character. And it is a proof that the gospel is from God, and that the sacred writings are inspired from a single Divine source, that personal peculiarities are not placed foremost in them, but the foremost place is given by each to a grace which certainly was not the characteristic quality of all the three. Love is over all and above all, above intellect, freedom, courage.

I. What charity is.—Charity has become identified with almsgiving. Love is appropriated to one particular form of human affection, and that one with which self and passion mix inevitably. Philanthropy is a word too cold and negative. Charity may be defined as the desire to give, and the desire to bless.

1. The desire to give. Not to get something, but to give something. The mightier, the more irrepressible this yearning to give is, the more truly is the love love. Sacrifice, in some shape or other, is the impulse of love, and its restlessness is only satisfied and only gets relief in giving. For this, in truth, is God’s own love, the will and the power to give.

2. The desire to bless. Even weak and spurious love desires happiness of some kind for the creature that it loves. What we call philanthropy is often calm and cool—too calm and cool to waste upon it the name of charity. But it is a calm and cool desire that human happiness were possible. It is, in its weak way, a desire to bless. Now, the love whereof the Bible speaks, and of which we have but one perfect personification—viz., in the life of Christ—is the desire for the best and true blessedness of the being loved. It wishes the well-being of the whole man—body, soul, and spirit; but chiefly spirit. The highest love is the desire to make men good and Godlike. Concerning this charity, notice

(1) It is characterised as fervent. Literally, intense, unremitting, unwearied. Fervent charity—Christ’s spirit—does not tire, and cannot be worn out; it loves its enemies, and does good to them that hate it.
(2) It is capable of being cultivated. We assume that, simply because it is enjoined. How shall we cultivate it? (a) Love cannot be produced by a direct action of the soul upon itself. You cannot love by a resolve to love. Effort of heart is followed by collapse. Excitement is followed by exhaustion. It is as impossible for a man to work himself into a state of genuine, fervent love as it is for a man to inspire himself. (b) We may, however, cultivate charity by doing acts which love demands. It is God’s merciful law that feelings are increased by acts done on principle. If a man has not the feeling in its warmth, let him not wait till the feeling comes. Let him act with such feeling as he has; with a cold heart if he has not got a warm one: it will grow warmer while he acts, (c) We cultivate Christian love by contemplating the love of God. Love begets love. Love, believed in, produces a return of love; we cannot love because we must. “Must” kills love; but the law of our nature is that we love in reply to love.

II. What charity does.—It covereth a multitude of sins. But whose sins? Is it that the sins of the charitable man are covered by his charity in God’s sight? Or is it the sins of others over which charity throws a mantle, so as not to see them? The latter must be meant. There are three ways, at least, in which love covers sin.

1. In refusing to see small faults.
2. By making large allowances. It understands by sympathy. It is that glorious nature which has affinity with good under all forms, and loves to find it, to believe in it, and to see it. Those with such natures—God’s rare and best ones—learn to make allowances, not from weak sentiment, which calls wrong right, but from that heavenly charity which sees right lying at the root of wrong.
3. By tolerating even intolerance. Let no man think that he can be tolerant or charitable as a matter of self-indulgence. For real charity and real toleration he must pay the price.—F. W. Robertson.

1 Peter 4:11. In All Things Glorifying God.

Apply this rule—
I. To the labours of the understanding.—We may read all things, and yet read as God’s scholars; drawing even from the writings of those who thought but of evil, or at least were utterly careless of God, a food for holy and spiritual principles to be nourished with.

II. To our labours of charity, or our acts of kindness to our neighbours.—If we give but a cup of cold water to one of the humblest of our brethren, let it be done for Christ’s sake. Too often our charity is very unsanctified; we think of our suffering brethren only, without remembering who it is that puts Himself forward in their persons to receive our love, and, if we will but see Him, to take, in their behalf, the office of over-paying all that we can do to them. Apply this rule—

III. To all our more general conduct, the things which do not come under the two previous divisions.—There is no real goodness, there is even no safety from condemnation, unless we glorify God through Jesus Christ. With regard to the employment of our time, the exercise of our bodily faculties, the government of our tongues, how soon shall we be satisfied, and into how much of real sin shall we continually be falling, if we do not, in all these matters, remember that we are but stewards of God’s manifold bounties; that our time, our bodies, and the wonderful faculty of speech, were all only lent us to improve them—lent us to glorify Him who gave them.—T. Arnold, D.D.

God Seeks His Own Glory.—The glory of God, or the showing forth of His nature and attributes, is necessarily His own chief end in all His works of creation and providence. It is so especially in the wondrous constitution of the Church, and must therefore be her chief end also in all the service that she renders to His name. And as God’s love to her flows ever in the channel of Christ’s mediation, and Christ’s presence with her by His word and spirit is the sole cause of her life and activity, so, likewise, it is “through Jesus Christ” that her answering tribute of praise reaches the eternal throne.—Lillie.

1 Peter 4:12. The Vindication of Suffering.—Suffering fills a large place in our present system. It is not an accident, it enters into every life. A great amount of suffering may be traced to human ignorance and guilt, and this will gradually disappear in proportion to the progress of truth and virtue. Still, under the imperfections which seem inseparable from this first stage of our being, a great amount of suffering will remain. God intends that we shall suffer. It is sometimes said that He has created nothing for the purpose of giving pain, but that every contrivance in the system has good for its object. All this is true, and a beautiful illustration of kind purpose in the Creator. But it is also true that every organ of the body, in consequence of the delicacy of its structure, and its susceptibility to influences from abroad, becomes an inlet of acute pain. And how much pain comes from the spirit, and from the very powers and affections which make the glory of our nature! Suffering comes to us through and from our whole nature. It cannot be winked out of sight. It cannot be thrust into a subordinate place in the picture of human life. It is the chief burden of history. It is the solemn theme of one of the highest departments of literature, the tragic drama. It gives to fictions their deep interest. It wails through much of our poetry. A large part of human vocations are intended to shut up some of its avenues. It has left traces on every human countenance over which years have passed. It is, to not a few, the most vivid recollection of life. We are created with a susceptibility of pain, and severe pain. This is a part of our nature, as truly as our susceptibility of enjoyment. God has implanted it, and has thus opened in the very centre of our being a fountain of suffering. One of the most common indications of Divine benevolence is found in the fact that, much as men suffer, they enjoy more. We are told that there is a great balance of pleasure over pain, and that it is by what prevails in a system that we must judge of its author There is a grand vindication of God’s benevolence, not reaching, indeed, to every case of suffering, not broad enough to cover the whole ground of human experience, but still so comprehensive, so sublime, that what remains obscure would be turned into light, could all its connections be discerned. This is found in the truth that benevolence has a higher aim than to bestow enjoyment; and this requires suffering in order to be gained. As long as we narrow our view of benevolence, and see in it only a disposition to bestow pleasure, so long life will be a mystery; for pleasure is plainly not its great end. Amidst the selfish and animal principles of our nature, there is an awful power, a sense of right, a voice which speaks of duty, an idea grander than the largest personal interest—the idea of excellence, of perfection. Here is the seal of Divinity on us; here the sign of our descent from God. It is in this gift that we see the benevolence of God. It is in writing this inward law on the heart, it is in giving us the conception of moral goodness, and the power to strive after it, the power of self-conflict and self-denial, of surrendering pleasure to duty, and of suffering for the right, the true, and the good—it is in thus enduing us, and not in giving us capacities of pleasure, that God’s goodness shines; and of consequence, whatever gives a field, and excitement, and exercise, and strength, and dignity to these principles of our nature, is the highest manifestation of benevolence. The end of our being is to educate, bring out, and perfect, the Divine principles of our nature. We were made, and are upheld in life for this as our great end, that we may be true to the principle of duty within us, that we may put down all desire and appetite beneath the inward law; that we may enthrone God, the infinitely perfect Father, in our souls; that we may count all things as dross, in comparison with sanctity of heart and life; that we may hunger and thirst for righteousness more than for daily food; that we may resolutely and honestly seek for and communicate truth; that disinterested love and impartial justice may triumph over every motion of selfishness, and every tendency to wrong-doing; in a word, that our whole lives, labours, conversation may express and strengthen reverence for ourselves, for our fellow-creatures, and above all for God. Such is the good for which we were made; and in order to this triumph of virtuous and religious principles, we are exposed to temptation, hardship, pain. Is suffering, then, inconsistent with God’s love? I might show how suffering ministers to human excellence; how it calls forth the magnanimous and sublime virtues, and at the same time nourishes the tenderest, sweetest sympathies of our nature; how it raises us to energy, and to the consciousness of our powers, and at the same time infuses the meekest dependence on God; how it stimulates toil for the goods of this world, and at the same time weans us from it, and lifts us above it. I do not, then, doubt God’s beneficence on account of the sorrows and pains of life.—W. E. Channing, D.D.

The Mystery of Pain.—We must accept pain as a fact existing by a deep necessity, having its root in the essential order of the world. If we are to understand it, we must learn to look on it with different eyes. And does not a different thought suggest itself even while we recognise that the others fail? For if the reason and the end of pain lie beyond the results that have been mentioned, then they lie beyond the individual. Pain, if it exist for any purpose, and have any end or use—and of this what sufferer can endure to doubt?—must have some purpose which extends beyond the interests of the person who is called upon to bear it. For the ends which have been mentioned include all that concerns the individual himself. That which surpasses these rises into a larger than the individual sphere. From this ground it becomes evident again that to know the secret of our pains we must look beyond ourselves.—Howard Hinton.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4

1 Peter 4:8. “Fervent.”—Literally intense, unremitting, unwearied. Now, there is a feeble sentiment which wishes well to all so long as it is not tempted to wish them ill, which does well to those who do well to them. But this, being mere sentiment, will not last. Ruffle it, and it becomes vindictive. In contrast with that, St. Peter calls Christ’s spirit which loves those who hate it, “fervent charity,” which does not tire, and cannot be worn out; which loves its enemies, and does good to them that hate it. For Christian love is not the dream of a philosopher sitting in his study, and benevolently wishing the world were better than it is; congratulating himself, perhaps, all the time on the superiority shown by himself over other less amiable natures. Injure one of these beaming sons of good-nature, and he bears malice—deep, unrelenting, refusing to forgive. But give us the man who, instead of retiring to some small, select society, or rather association, where his own opinions shall be reflected, can mix with men where his sympathies are unmet, and his tastes are jarred, and his views traversed at every turn, and still can be just, and gentle, and forbearing.—F. W. Robertson.

1 Peter 4:9. Eastern Hospitality.—I was beginning to make my meal upon the food we had with us, when in came nine people, each bearing a dish. A large tray was raised on the rim of a corn-sieve placed on the ground, in the centre of which was placed a tureen of soup, with pieces of bread around it. The stranger, my servant, and a person who seemed to be the head man of the village, sat round the tray, dipping their wooden spoons or fingers into each dish as it was placed in succession before them. Of the nine dishes, I observed three were soups. I asked why this was, and who was to pay for the repast, and was informed it was the custom of the people, strictly enjoined by their religion, that, as soon as a stranger appears, each peasant should bring his dish, he himself remaining to partake of it after the stranger—a sort of picnic, of which the stranger partakes without contributing. The hospitality extends to everything he requires; his horse is fed, and wood is brought for his fire, each inhabitant feeling honoured by offering something. This custom accounts for the frequent recurrence of the same dish, as no one knows what his neighbour will contribute. Towards a Turkish guest this practice is perfectly disinterested, but from an European they may have possibly been led to expect some kind of return, although to offer payment would be an insult. The whole of the contributors afterwards sat down and ate in another part of the room.—Fellows.

Grudging.—The word that is here translated “grudging” signifies murmuring, or unwillingness in doing anything, as if it were torn and forced from one, rather than proceeded from a free inclination. And this hateful, churlish way of almsgiving St. Paul likewise expressly forbids, and says our charity must not be shown grudgingly, or of necessity (2 Corinthians 9:7; Romans 12:8). And here we cannot but admire and adore the infinite goodness of God, who has not only obliged us to the substance of this duty, but has so ordered the very circumstantials of it that the necessitous may be relieved with as much decency and to themselves as can be, and the alms of others look rather like their own propriety, as the payment of a debt, or restoring of a pledge, or bestowing of a reward; and that their souls might not be grieved by frowns, and taunts, and unkind language, when they receive supply for the needs of their body.