When faith begins, God does not neglect it; He lays the cross upon our back in order to strengthen us and make our faith mighty. The Gospel is a powerful word, but it cannot enter upon its work without opposition, and no one can be sure that it possesses such power, but he who has experienced it. Where there is suffering and the cross, there its power may be shown and exercised. It is a _living_ word, and therefore it must exercise all its energy upon the dead. But if there is no such thing as death and corruption, there is nothing for it to do, and none can be certain that it possesses such virtue, and is stronger than sin and death. Therefore, he says, _are you tried_; that is, God appoints for you no flame or heat (in other words, cross and suffering, which make you glow as in a furnace), except to try you, whether you rely upon His word. Thus it is written, Wisdom x., of Jacob, "God appointed for him a severe conflict, that he might learn by experience that divine wisdom is the strongest of all things." That is the reason why God imposes the cross on all believers, that they may taste and prove the power of God which through faith they have possessed. V. 13. _But be ye partakers of the sufferings of Christ._ St. Peter does not say that we should feel the sufferings of Christ, that thereby we should be partakers with Him through faith, but would say this: just as Christ has suffered, so are you to expect to suffer and be tried. If you do thus suffer, then do you therein have fellowship with the Lord Christ. If we would live with Him, we must also die with Him. If I wish to sit with Him in His kingdom, I must also suffer with Him, as Paul also says, repeatedly. V. 13. _Rejoice, that in the time of the revelation of His glory, ye may be glad with exceeding joy._ Though you should be brought to torture and the flames, you would still be happy. For though there be pain as to the body, there shall yet be a spiritual joy, inasmuch as you are to be happy forever. For this joy springs here from suffering, and is everlasting. Yet whoever cannot bear his sufferings cheerfully, and is dissatisfied, and chooses to contend with God, he shall endure, both here and hereafter, eternal torment and suffering. Thus we read of holy martyrs, that they have submitted cheerfully to torture, thus opening the way to eternal enjoyment; as for instance, of St. Agatha, that she went as joyfully to prison as though it had been to a dance. And the Apostles went also with joy, and thanked God "that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake." _In the time of the revelation of His glory._ Christ does not permit Himself as yet to be seen as a Lord, but is still a sharer with us in our labors. So far as He is Himself concerned, He is truly such, but we who are His members, are not Lords as yet. Still we shall yet be Lords, when His glory at the last day shall be revealed before all men, brighter than the sun.