In what does the difference lie? Peter knows that he and all who believe with him are members of another world, as well as being temporarily members of the solar system. He tells us, But according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein diwelleth righteousness." 1 take that to be an affirmation by Peter of the spiritual world, not only as to come, but as existing now, of which all who have Peter's faith are as much members now as they ever will be. It is the world vxPaul speaks of when he says we "Jock not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal; and when he says trot "we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven," even if owr world is burnt or frozen up Peter refuses to be frightened. He sees something better ahead for mau, a new world, without the handicaps of this world, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Modern man seems blind to the existence of this higher grander world Ihat ig why there is so much pessimism. Peter does not mind a bit what end the astronomers predict for the world we live in. Peter is already in another world, and it is in him. No wonder unbelievers are a dismal fraternity. Vhey are that unhappy type of man, the man without prospects. The spiritual nian has prospects, above and in himself and ahead of him.
Is Peter right in this affirmation of a world that cannot be ''dissolved by fervent heat?" Indeed he is. Man knows it in hig heart. Tave is not a thing that begins -and ends here. 1t is not a material thing at all that can be burnt up. It is not a "function of the liver" nor of the heart. It is an eternal thing. All true love 1s of God, for "God is love." Faith isn't a mixture of Truth cannot be burnt, though the people that have held it have been. Man is a citizen of this world unseen. It penetrates all things; and can be felt even in nature. As Wordsworth says of the sunset, as he views it from a mountain "From worlds not lighted by the sun, Some portion of this wealth is won; An intermingling of heaven's pomp is spread, On ground, that British shepherds tread."
Yes; all the real, fundamental things are of that world, and they are only "intermingled" with this. The "elements may burn with fervent heat," but love cannot, and the spirit of man cannot. And the more we dwell in the spiritual, the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.