SPIRITUAL ARITHMETIC.

In reading the Epistles of Peter I am struck with their clear arithmetical expressions of religious truth. I have only space here to indicate this line of Scriptural truth, which each one can easily trace out for himself.

1. Subtraction. Peter, and in fact all inspired writers, represent purity of heart as a work of moral subtraction. He says: "Having escaped the corruption in the world," is the condition of partaking of the Divine nature. 2 Peter i. 4. In the 9th verse he speaks of being "purged from old sins." If people who are constantly con founding purity with growth in grace would only remember that the one is subtraction and the other is addition, it would save them a deal of bewilderment. Any child can see that they are directly opposite, yet in religion many are ever mixing them as one. Purity is the subtraction of all sinful desires and tempers out of the soul — the removing of original sin from the heart. Such terms as to wash, purge, cleanse, put off, cast out, put away, never indicate any growth or addition, but of removing a foreign element from our nature. Sin is no legitimate part of our being; it is an intrusion, a fungus on the soul, a poisonous parasite planted in us by an enemy, and it must be subtracted from us, root and stock, before we find our normal condition.

To be freed from all sin does not indicate growth or maturity, but is the pure normal condition of a soul, whether it be old or young. Processes of growth can no more produce heart purity than addition can produce subtraction. If you have a grain of sand in a glass of water, can you get the sand removed by adding more water? Nor can you remove that ultimate grain of in bred sin by any process of addition; it must be subtracted from the heart by a Divine act, or it will remain forever.

2. Addition. Peter very clearly distinguishes purity from growth. After indicating what Christian purity is — the "escaping of corruption, " he says, "Besides this, give all diligence to add to your faith virtue [or power], and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness [or Godlikeness], and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity."

Here is growth in grace; here is the addition of the positive graces which form the radiant constellation of holiness. But this sum in holy addition is subsequent to the sum in moral sub traction; for after describing simple purity, he says, "And besides this, " that is, in contradistinction to this, in addition to this simple purgation comes the positive growth. We must ever learn spiritual subtraction before we learn spiritual enlargement.

Why does he say, Add to your faith? Because we are cleansed and emptied of sin by simple or naked faith on the promise; and at that awful, still juncture when we are cleansed from all sin, it does really seem that we are emptied of everything but a firm, calm trust, so that naked faith is the plus, factor with which a purified soul begins its growth into the fullness of fruit. Then why does he say, Add to your faith virtue, or, more properly, power? Because, if faith holds firmly on to the fact, "the blood of Christ cleanseth us," that faith will soon be supplemented with the "baptism of power- from on high;" and after the full baptism of the Spirit comes into the soul, He will bring in due order the additional experiences, until "charity" fills the entire being with its everlasting summer of sweet and lowly love. Of course this spiritual addition can be hastened or retarded by the con duct of the subject of grace. Even after we are fully purified from sin, some will grow about twice as fast as others. When freed from sin, we then, in the highest sense, enter the trade and commerce of heavenly graces; we have perfect, saving faith as the capital talent on which to begin, and by the diligent use of faith we add to our soul treasures till we may become millionaires in grace. Hence Peter says, ''give diligence" to make these rich additions.

3. Division. There is to be no division of souls from each other in this Kingdom, and no division of the graces from each other. All the sums in sacred division referred to in Scripture apply to "gifts" and "work." There is a division of talents and a "division of labor" in the kingdom of grace, but no division of the graces or of grace. All are to have the same number and kind of graces, though each has different talents and work. In the grace of the heart we are to be a unit — there is solid addition, but in the gift of head and hand there is variety, division and subdivision.

In the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul ex plains this sacred arithmetic with great beauty. "There are divisions of gifts, but the same Spirit." He enumerates several gifts among early believers, "All these worketh the self same Holy Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." Again Paul exhorts Timothy to "rightly divide the word of truth." Not that truth is to be divided from itself, but its application is to be divided to the various degrees and species of character with which we deal. So that while in grace we are one, and need only addition, yet in branches of holy work, and in modes of operation, there must be division, and this diversity of toil is produced by the same Holy Ghost. Do not think because there is division in talents and toils that there must also be division in hearts and grace. Work is the dividend and talent the divisor. Find how many times your gifts will go into your work and leave no remainder, and the result will be your re ward. If God sees that you will live long, "the selfsame Spirit" may lead you to cipher it by long division; if you are to graduate soon, the same Spirit may hasten you through short division. But while solving this division we must see to it that sin is kept subtracted, and we are constantly adding up the column of grace.

4. Multiplication. This is the most rapid mode of augmenting a sum, but the increase depends on the size of the multiplier. In one place Peter says, "Grace and peace be multiplied." In another place he gives us an enormous multiplier, and says, "Peace be multiplied through the knowledge of God." What a glorious sweep of holy arithmetic is here spread before us.

Peace is the central, staple experience in a life of perfect faith, and because peace is the central stream of heaven and holiness, is why the Holy Ghost selects it as the multiplicand; and because the knowledge of God is everlastingly in creasing, is why the Spirit chose it as the multiplier. Only think of it— peace, the center of heaven, being forever multiplied by the knowledge of God, a quantity ever increasing! It is like multiplying the Pacific Ocean by the ever- increasing drops of rain!

The passage in Isaiah, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace," is literally, "Thou wilt keep him in peace, peace," that is, peace multiplied by two, the peace of pardon and the peace of purity. That was Isaiah's experience. The term, Knowledge of God, in Scripture, means more than our mental views or intellectual in formation about God; it means an inward, spiritual, conscious knowing of God in His personality and character. The most exalted and expanded views of Divinity, and the most voluminous stream of information concerning Him, collected from a thousand tributaries, do not bring or multiply peace. Through the agency of the Holy Ghost on our spirits, we can know the inner, personal life of Jesus better than we know any other being. Our peace deepens and widens as we advance in the inner soul- knowledge of God, of Christ and the Holy Spirit. There is peace with God, when we know Him as our justifier; then different and deeper is the peace of God, that is, God's own peace. When we know Him as our purifier, there is peace with ourselves. When we know Him as abiding comforter, there is peace with all men. When we know His love to our race, there is peace with the virtuous universe. When we know Him as God and Father of all. And so this multiplication of peace goes on and on until we get out into the eternal tranquillities, where dying beds, and bursting tombs, and burning worlds, and groaning spirits, and shouting seraphim and revolving eternity, are insufficient to break the soul's repose.

Thus we see that a human soul, minus all sin, plus all the graces of the Spirit, with its ability divided into the maximum of work, and its peace multiplied by the threefold knowledge of the triune God, equals the full stature of a New Testament Christian.