lencies and
glories of His character, of which our earthly qualities, designated by
the same name, are but as shadows.

It is, indeed, true that this same expression is employed in the Greek
version of the Old Testament in Isaiah xliii. in a verse which evidently
was floating before Peter's mind. 'This people have I formed for Myself;
they shall show forth My praise.'

But even while that is admitted, it is to be observed that the
expression here does not merely mean that the audible praise of God
should be upon the lips of Christian people, but that their whole lives
should, in a far deeper sense than that, be the manifestation of what
the Apostle here calls 'excellencies of God.'

I. Here we get a wonderful glimpse into the heart of God.

Note the preceding words, in which the writer describes all God's
mercies to His people, making them 'a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation'; a people 'His own possession.' All that is
done for one specific purpose--'that ye should show forth the praises of
Him who hath called you out of darkness.' That is to say, the very aim
of all God's gracious manifestations of Himself is that the men who
apprehend them should go forth into the world and show Him for what He
is.

Now that aim may be, and often has been, put so as to present an utterly
hard and horrible notion. That God's glory is His only motive may be so
stated as to mean nearly an Almighty Selfishness, which is far liker the
devil than God. People in old days did not always recognise the danger
that lay in such a representation of what we call God's motive for
action. But if you think for a moment about this statement, all that
appears hard and repellent drops clean away from it, and it turns out to
be another way of saying, 'God is Love.' Because, what is there more
characteristic of love than an earnest desire to communicate itself and
to be manifested and beheld? And what is it that God reveals to the
world for His own glory but the loftiest and most wondrous compassion,
that cannot be wearied out, that cannot be provoked, and the most
forgiving Omnipotence, that, in answer to all men's wanderings and
rebellions, only seeks to draw them to itself? That is what God wants to
be known for. Is _that_ hard and repellent? Does that make Him a great
tyrant, who only wants to be abjectly worshipped? No; it makes Him the
very embodiment and perfection of the purest love. Why does He desire
that He should be kn