PETER'S LADDER—HOW TO CLIMB IT.
By A. C. Bourdeau
PETER'S ladder, which sets forth true sanctification as being a progressive work, is composed of eight rounds: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." 2 Peter 1:5–7. There are seven steps from faith to charity. The convert has first a deep sorrow for his sins; or "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." From this point, the work is onward and upward till the top round is reached. But sanctification is a work which is not accomplished in a moment; neither should it take long years of anxious toil to attain the most excellent grace, charity, or love. In music the diatonic scale consists of eight sounds with seven intervals called steps, of which two are small and five are large. The scale is likened to a "ladder," and it is but carrying out the figure to apply the term "step" to the parts of it. In going up the scale from one to eight, the eighth tone is the octave of the first; and in ascending from this point the same tones in the scale are gone over, yet they range an octave higher, and so on. Thus it is, in a certain sense, in going up the ladder of Christian sanctification. In adding to faith virtue, and the rest of the Christian graces, when the eighth round, charity, is reached, it is, as it were, the octave of the first, it is operative, or working faith—faith that works by love and purifies the heart. This kind of faith is needed in the earliest stages of Christian experience. At this point the child of God finds himself on a higher plane of action. He realizes that he must hold fast whereunto he has attained. And as he continues to ascend, in perfecting the work that he has begun, he steps onto the same rounds in the ladder, yet they range higher. In this way, we may truly sing as we go:—
"We are climbing, climbing, climbing up Zion's hill."