'_Like_ precious,' says Peter, and, as I said, there may be defended a
double application of the word, and two sets of pairs of classes may be
supposed to have been in his mind. I do not discuss which of these may
be the case, only I would suggest to you that from this beautiful
gathering together of all the diversities of the Christian character,
conception, and development into one great whole, we are taught that the
one thing that makes a Christian is this trust. That is the universal
characteristic; that is uniform, whatever may differ. Ah! how much and
how little it takes to make a Christian. 'Only faith?' you say. Yes,
thank God! not this, or that, not rites, not anything that a priest can
do to you. Not orthodoxy; not morality; these will come, but trust in
Christ and His blood and righteousness. England is a Christian country;
is it? This is a Christian congregation; is it? You are a Christian; are
you? Are you trusting in that Christ? If you are not; no! though you be
orthodox up to the eyebrows, and though seven or seven hundred
sacraments may have been given to you, and though you be a clean living
man--all that does not make a Christian, but _this_ does--'Like precious
faith with us in the righteousness of God and our Saviour.'
Again, this great thought of the identity or uniformity of the one
characteristic may suggest to us how Christian faith is one, under all
varieties of form. There never has been in the Christian Church again,
notwithstanding all our deplorable divisions and schisms, such a
tremendous cleft as there was in the primitive Church between the Jewish
and Gentile components thereof. But Peter flings this flying bridge
across that abyss, and knits the two sides together, because he knows
that away out yonder, amongst the Gentiles, and here in the little
circle of the Jewish believers, there was the one faith that unifies
all.
So, dear friends, there should be the widest charity, but no vagueness;
for the Christian faith in Him which unifies and bridges over all
differences, mental and theological, is the Christ by whose blood we are
cleansed, with whose righteousness we are made righteous.
Again, from the same thought flows the other, of the identity of the
uniform characteristic, at all stages of development or maturity. The
mustard-seed and the tree, 'which is greater than all herbs,' have the
same life in them. And the feeblest, tremulous little spark in some
heart, just kindled, and scarcely capable of sustaining itself, is one
with the flame leaping heaven-high, which lights up and cleanses the
whole soul. So for those in advance, humility, and for those in the
rear, hope. And something more than hope, for if you have the feeblest
beginning of tremulous trust, you have that which only needs to be
fostered to make you like Jesus Christ. Look at what follows our text:
'Add to your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge,' and so on,
through the whole linked series of Christian graces. They all come out
of that trust which knits us to Him who is the source of them all. So
you and I are responsible for bringing our faith to the highest
development of which it is capable.
Alas! alas! are we not all like this very Apostle, who, in an ecstasy of
trust and longing, ventured himself on the wave, and as soon as he felt
the cold water creeping above his knees lost his trust, and so lost his
buoyancy, and was ready to go down like a stone? He had so little faith,
that he was beginning to sink; he had so much that he put out his
hand--a desperate hand it was--and cried, 'Lord, save me!' And the hand
came, and that steadied him, and bore him up till the water was beneath
the soles of his feet again. 'Lord! I believe; help Thou my unbelief!'