'Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched
diligently ... the things which are now reported unto you ... which
things the angels desire to look into.'--1 Peter i. 10, 11, 12.
I have detached these three clauses from their surroundings, not because
I desire to treat them fragmentarily, but because we thereby throw into
stronger relief the writer's purpose to bring out the identity of the
Old and the New Revelation, the fact that Christ and His sufferings are
the centre of the world's history, to which all that went before points,
from which all that follows after flows; and that not only thus does He
stand in the midst of humanity, but that from Him there ran out
influences into other orders of beings, and angels learn from Him
mysteries hitherto unknown to them. The prophets prophesy of the grace
which comes in the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow, and the same Spirit which taught them teaches the preachers of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They that went before had for their deepest
message the proclamation, 'He will come'; they that follow after have
for their deepest message, 'He has come.' And angels listen to, and
echo, the chorus, from all the files that march in front, and all that
bring up the rear, 'Hosanna! Blessed be Him that cometh in the name of
the Lord.'
My purpose, then, is just to try to bring before you the magnificent
unity into which these texts bind all ages, and all worlds, planting
Jesus Christ and His Cross in the centre of them all. There are four
aspects here in which the writer teaches us to regard this unity: Jesus
and the Cross are the substance of prophecy, the theme of Gospel
preaching, the study of angels, and presented to each of us for our
individual acceptance. Now, let us look briefly at these four points.