ear but few and shrivelled fruits. The
Apostle uses a very remarkable expression here, which is rendered in our
Bible imperfectly 'giving all diligence.' He has just been saying that
God has 'given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and
exceeding great and precious promises.' The Divine gift, then, is
everything that will help a man to live a high and godly life. And, says
Peter, on this very account, because you have all these requisites for
such a life already given you, see that you 'bring besides into' the
heap of gifts, as it were, that which you and only you can bring,
namely, 'all diligence.' The phrase implies that diligence is our
contribution. And the very reason for exercising it is the completeness
of God's gift. 'On this very account'--because He has given so much--we
are to lay 'all diligence' by the side of His gifts, which are useless
to the sluggard.

On the one hand there are all great gifts and boundless possibilities as
to life and godliness, and on the other diligence as the condition on
which all these shall actually become ours, and, passing into our lives,
will there produce all these graces which the Apostle goes on to
enumerate. The condition is nothing recondite, nothing hard either to
understand or to practise, but it is simply that commonplace, humdrum
virtue of diligence. If we will put it forth, then the gifts that God
has given, and which are not really ours unless we put it forth, will
pass into the very substance of our being, and unfold themselves
according to the life that is in them; even the life that is in Jesus
Christ Himself, in all forms of beauty and sweetness and power and
blessedness. 'Diligence' makes faith fruitful. Diligence makes God's
gifts ours.

Then, again, the Apostle gives an even more remarkable view of the
possible field for this all-powerful diligence when he bids his readers
exercise it in order to 'make their calling and election sure.' Peter's
first letter shows that he believed that Christians were 'chosen
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.' But for all that he
is not a bit afraid of putting the other side of the truth, and saying
to us in effect. 'We cannot read the eternal decrees of God nor know the
names written in the Book of Life. These are mysteries above us. But if
you want to be sure that you are one of the called and chosen, work and
you will get the assurance.' The confirmation of the 'call,' of the
'election,' bo