'That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honour and glory ...'--1 Peter i. 7.
The Apostle is fond of that word 'precious.' In both his letters he uses
it as an epithet for diverse things. According to one translation, he
speaks of Christ as 'precious to you which believe.' He certainly speaks
of 'the precious blood of Christ,' and of 'exceeding great and precious
promises,' and here in my text, as well as in the Second Epistle, he
speaks about 'precious faith.' It is a very wide general term, not
expressing anything very characteristic beyond the one notion of value.
But in the text, according to our Authorised Version, it looks at first
sight as if it were not the faith, but the _trial_ of the faith that the
Apostle regards as thus valuable. There are difficulties of rendering
which I need not trouble you with. Suffice it to say that, speaking
roughly and popularly, the 'trial of your faith' here seems to mean
rather the _result of_ that trial, and might be fairly represented by
the slightly varied expression, 'your faith having been tried, might be
found,' etc.
I must not be tempted to discourse about the reasons why such a
rendering seems to express the Apostle's meaning more fully, but, taking
it for granted, there are just three things to notice--the true wealth,
the testing of the wealth, and the discovery at last of the preciousness
of the wealth.
I. Peter pits against each other faith that has been tried, and 'gold
that perisheth'; he puts away all the other points of comparison and
picks out one, and that is that the one lasts and the other does not.
Now I must not be seduced into going beyond the limits of my text to
dilate upon the other points of contrast and pre-eminence; but I would
just notice in a sentence that everybody admits, yet next to nobody acts
upon, the admission that inward good is far more valuable than outward
good. 'Wisdom is more precious than rubies,' say people, and yet they
will choose the rubies, and take no trouble to get the wisdom. Now the
very same principles of estimating value which set cultivated
understandings and noble hearts above great possessions and large
balances at the bankers, set the life of faith high above all others.
And the one thought which Peter wishes to drive into our heads and
hearts is that there is only one kind of wealth that will never be
separated from its possessor. Nothing is truly ours that remains outside
of us.
''Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands.'
Nothing that is there whilst I am here is really mine. I do not own it
if it is possible that I shall lose it. And so with profound meaning our
Lord speaks about 'that which is another's' in comparison with 'that
which is your own.' It is another's because it passes, like quicksilver
under pressure, from hand to hand, and no man really holds it, but it
leaps away from his grasp. And if a man retains it all his days, still,
according to the grim old proverb, 'shrouds have no pockets,' and when
he dies his hands open, or sometimes they clutch together, but there is
nothing inside the palms, and they only close upon themselves. Dear
brethren, if there is anything that can be filched away from us,
anything about which it is true that, on the one hand, 'moth and
rust'--natural processes--'do corrupt' it, on the other hand, 'thieves
break through and steal'--accidents of human conduct can deprive us of
it, then we may _call_ it ours, but it is not ours. It possesses us, if
we are devoted to it as our best good, and fighting and toiling, and
sometimes lying and cheating, and flinging the whole fierce energy of
our nature into first gripping and then holding it; it possesses us; we
do not possess it. But if there is anything that can become so
interwoven and interlaced with the very fibres of a man's heart that
they and it cannot be parted, if there is anything that empty hands will
clasp the closer, because they _are_ emptied of earth's vanities, then
that is truly possessed by its possessor. And our faith, which will not
be trodden in the grave, but will go with us into the world beyond, and
though it be lost in one aspect, in sight, it will be eternal as trust,
will be ours, imperishable as ourselves, and as God. Therefore, do not
give all the energy of your lives to amassing the second-best riches.
Seek the highest things most. 'Covet earnestly the best gifts,' and let
the coveting regulate your conduct. And do not be put off with wealth
that will fail you sooner or later.