1 Peter 3:4

Verse 4. But let it be the hidden man of the heart.

Here we have it. Time and patience and labor here should be bestowed. The hidden man of the heart, the real man, the spirit, the affections of the heart this is the important part. This inner man, adorn that. In the sight of God this is of great worth, bodily adornments valueless. This is the view Peter desires the Christian wives to take.

Meek and quiet spirit.

Two words are here used as descriptive of the kind of a spirit recommended to Christian wives, and to which is applied in the Revised Version the words "incorruptible apparel." The meaning of these words, and the ideas intended to be conveyed, were, by the Spirit guiding Peter's pen, considered of importance. What is meekness, and what is quietness, as applied to the spirit? Is there any difference in the signification? There must be, or both terms would not have been employed. Meekness consists in bearing ill-treatment with patience, as in the case of the Savior in the hands of his murderers. Quietness indicates a state where no cause of ill-treatment can possibly arise by either act or speech. In this latter sense Jesus was not quiet. He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, and thus provoked them. While it should have been observed to their profit, evil as they were, it aroused their anger. Well may the apostle call the meek and quiet spirit an incorruptible ornament. To close our remarks upon this verse, I borrow from Macknight a quotation made by him from Blackwell's "Sacred Class":"How must all the short-lived beauties, the shapes, features and most elegant and rich ornaments of the mortal body, which attract the eyes and admiration of vain mortals, fade away, and lose their charms and luster, when compared with the heavenly graces of a pious and regular temper, the incorruptible ornaments and beauties of the soul which are amiable and of high value in the eye of God, the sovereign Judge of what is good and beautiful."