to triumph through all creation; there is to be a
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And holiness
is then to be unfolded in ever-growing blessedness and glory in the
fellowship of the Thrice Holy: 'He that is holy, let him be holy yet
more.' Surely it but needs the question to be put for each believer to
feel and acknowledge its force: 'Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look
for these things, what manner of men ought ye to be in all holy living
and godliness?'

And note now the need and the point of the question. 'What manner of
persons ought ye to be?' But is such a question needed? Can it be that
God's holy ones, made holy in Christ Jesus, with the very spirit of
holiness dwelling with them, on the way to meet the Holy One in His
Glory and Love, can it be that they need the question? Alas! alas! it
was so in the time of Peter; it is but too much so in our days too.
Alas! how many Christians there are to whom the very word Holy, though
it be the name by which the Father, in His New Testament, loves to call
His children more than any other, is strange and unintelligible. And
again, alas! for how many Christians there are for whom, when the word
is heard, it has but little attraction, because it has never yet been
shown to them as a life that is indeed possible, and unutterably
blessed. And yet again, alas! for how many are there not, even workers
in the Master's service, to whom the 'all holy living and godliness' is
yet a secret and a burden, because they have not yet consented to give
up all, both their will and their work, for the Holy One to take and
fill with His Holy Spirit. And yet once more, alas! as the cry comes,
even from those who do know the power of a holy life, lamenting their
unfaithfulness and unbelief, as they see how much richer their entrance
into the Holy Life might have been, and how much fuller the blessing
they still feel so feeble to communicate to others. Oh, the question is
needed! Shall not each of us take it, and keep it, and answer it by the
Holy Spirit through whom it came, and then pass it on to our brethren,
that we and they may help each other in faith, and live in joy and hope
to give the answer our God would have?

'Seeing that these things are, then, all to be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought we to be in all holy living and godliness?' Brethren! the
time is short. The world is passing away. The heathen are perishing.
Christians are sleeping. Satan is