ristian heart of a wholesome awe. If ye call on Him as Father
'who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.'

So then, look at this twofold aspect of God's character.

Both these conceptions ought to be present, flamingly and vividly,
burning there before him, to every Christian man. 'Ye call Him Father,'
but the Father is the Judge. True, the Judge is Father, but Peter
reminds us that whatever blessed truths may be hived in that great Name
of Father, to be drawn thence by devout meditation and filial love,
there is not included in it the thought of weak-minded indulgence to His
children, in any of their sins, nor any unlikelihood of inflicting penal
consequences on a rebellious child. 'Father' does not exclude 'Judge,'
'and without respect of persons He judg_eth_.'

'Without respect of persons'--the word is a somewhat unusual New
Testament one, but it has special appropriateness and emphasis on
Peter's lips. Do you remember who it was that said, and on what occasion
he said it: 'Now I perceive that God is no respecter of persons'? It was
Peter when he had learned the lesson on the housetop at Joppa, looking
out over the Mediterranean, and had it enforced by Cornelius' message.
The great thought that had blazed upon him as a new discovery on that
never-be-forgotten occasion, comes before him again, and this unfamiliar
word comes with it, and he says, 'without respect of persons He judges.'
Mountains are elevated, valleys are depressed and sunken, but I fancy
that the difference between the top of Mount Everest and the gorge
through which the Jordan runs would scarcely be perceptible if you were
standing on the sun. Thus, 'without respect of persons,' great men and
little, rich men and poor, educated men and illiterate, people that
perch themselves on their little stools and think themselves high above
their fellows: they are all on one dead level in the eye of the Judge.
And this question is as to the quality of the work and not as to the
dignity of the doer. 'Without respect of persons' implies universality
as well as impartiality. If a Christian man has been ever so near God,
and then goes away from Him, he is judged notwithstanding his past
nearness. And if a poor soul, all crusted over with his sins and leprous
with the foulness of long-standing iniquity, comes to God and asks for
pardon, he is judged according to his penitence, 'without respect o