made us His μέτοχοι (this is the force of the γεγόναμεν), or as St. Paul says (Rom. 8:17), συγκληρονόμοι with Him. We have become so already, but continue in this fellow-holding with Christ only so far as we suffer not ourselves to be bereft of that hope which has for its substance and its aim this our common possession, the heavenly glory. This is the leading thought of the conditional clause, ἐάνπερ τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑποστάσεως μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν κατάσχωμεν. The ancient Greek, Syrian,