thout end--Peter
has no hesitation in saying that Christ was our 'Pattern,' and that,
even when He went to the Cross, He died 'leaving us an example that we
should follow in His steps.' So, brethren, the truth needs to be known
and believed: the truth needs not only to be believed but to be trusted
in; the truth needs not only to be believed and to be trusted in, but to
be obeyed.

Still further, another thought following upon and to some extent
modifying the preceding one, is suggested here, and that is that the
faith, which I have just been saying is sometimes mistakenly regarded as
being all that truth calls for from us, is itself obedience. As I have
said, the language in the original here implies that there was a given
definite moment in the past when these dispersed strangers obeyed, and,
by obeying the truth, purified their souls. What was that moment? Some
people would say the moment when the rite of baptism was administered. I
would say the moment when they bowed themselves in joyful acceptance of
the great Word and put out a firm hand of faith to grasp Jesus Christ.
That _is_ obedience. For, in the very act of thus trusting, there is
self-surrender, is there not? Does not a man depart from himself and bow
himself humbly before his Saviour when he puts his trust in Him? Is not
the very essence of obedience, not the mere external act, but the
melting of the will to flow in such directions as His master-impulse may
guide it? Thus, faith in its depth is obedience; and the moment when a
man believes, in the deepest sense of the word, that moment, in the
deepest realities of his spirit, he becomes obedient to the will and to
the love of his Saviour Lord, Who is the Truth as He is the Way and the
Life. We find, not only in this Epistle, but throughout the Epistles,
that the two words 'disobedience' and 'unbelief,' are used as
equivalents. We read, for instance, of those that 'stumble at the word,
being disobedient,' and the like. So, then, faith is obedience in its
depth, and, if our faith has any vitality in it, it carries in it the
essence of all submission.

But then, further, my text implies that the faith which is, in its
depth, obedience, in its practical issues will produce the practical
obedience which the text enjoins. It is no mere piece of theological
legerdemain which counts that faith is righteousness. But, just as all
sin comes from selfishness, so, and therefore, all righteousness will
flow from givi