Within the holiest of all, Cleansed by His precious blood, Before the throne we prostrate fall And worship Thee, O God! */ THE CHRISTIAN PRIESTHOOD We want the reader to open his Bible and read I Pet. ii. I-9. In this lovely scripture he will find three words on which we will ask him to dwell with us for a little. They are words of weight and power--words which indicate three great branches of practical Christian truth--words conveying to our hearts a fact which we cannot too deeply ponder, namely, that Christianity is a living and divine reality. It is not a set of doctrines, however true; a system of ordinances, however imposing; a number of rules and regulations, however important. Christianity is far more than any or all of these things. It is a living, breathing, speaking, active, powerful reality--something to be seen in the every day life--something to be felt in the scenes of personal, domestic history, from hour to hour--something formative and influential--a divine and heavenly power introduced into the scenes and circumstances through which we have to move, as men, women, and children, from Sunday morning to Saturday night. It does not consist in holding certain views, opinions, and principles, or in going to this place of worship or that. Christianity is the life of Christ communicated to the believer--dwelling _in_ him--and flowing out _from_ him, in the ten thousand little details which go to make up our daily practical life. It has nothing ascetic, or sanctimonious about it. It is genial, pure, elevated, holy, divine. Such is Christianity. It is Christ dwelling in the believer, and reproduced, by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the believer's daily practical career. But let us turn to our three words; and may the Eternal Spirit expound their deep and holy meaning to our souls! And first, then, we have the word "living." "To whom coming, as unto a living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up." Here we have what we may call the foundation of Christian priesthood. There is evidently an allusion here to that profoundly interesting scene in Matt. xvi. to which we must ask the reader to turn for a moment. "When Jesus was come into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?[XXIII.] And they said, 'Some say Thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.'" There was endless speculation, simply because there was no real heart-work respecting the blessed One. Some said this, some said that; and, in result, no one cared who or what He was; and hence He turns away from all this heartless speculation, and puts the pointed question to His own, "But whom say ye that I am?" He desired to know what they thought about Him--what estimate their hearts had formed of Him. "And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the _living_ God."