simply rejoices that through his instrumentality a soul is saved, and a multitude of sins blotted out. And what a magnificent thought is the salvation of a soul. The soul shall live when worlds shall have passed away ; and to win a soul from death, and to bring that soul to Christ, is to occasion greater joy, and to rescue from a greater ruin, than tongue can tell, or the language of inspiration itself adequately embody.

But it may be asked, How shall he who thus converts a soul hide a multitude of sins? These sins are not his own, but the sins of the party who is converted; and they are hidden by being brought under the cleansing efficacy of the blood of Jesus. And therefore, this passage is not parallel with another, where it is said, that charity covereth a multitude of sins, which means that charity, seeing sins in a brother, would rather hide than emblazon them; would rather say nothing about them than advertise them to the world.

Here again you have the reward of the Christian. His first reward is his success in saving a soul; his second is his success in hiding a multitude of sins. A Christian longs to see sin expurged from the universe, and finds an accession to his joy in what the Saviour finds an accession to his, when souls are converted, and sins blotted out, and sinners turned from the error of their ways.

EXPOSITION OF PETER.

(FIRST EPISTLE).

CHAPTER I.

NATURE OF THE EPISTLE-AUTHOR OF THE INHERITANCE-JOY IN TROUBLE-OUR RANSOM-FADING GRASS.

IN the course of our ordinary expositions we enter upon one of the most instructive, fatherly, and affectionate, yet inspired, addresses contained in the whole of the New Testament Scripture. It is the first epistle written by Peter, who called himself what he was, "an apostle of Jesus Christ," and addressed "to the strangers," that is, Christians and Jews converted to the truth, who were scattered throughout the various provinces of Asia Minor. The word Peter is the translation of a Greek word which means a stone; and hence the beautiful allusion in a passage very frequently misconstrued, but to a Christian and dispassionate mind perfectly intelligible: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." The error, if error exists, is in our translation; it ought strictly to be translated, "Thou art a stone, and upon this rock I will build"—the figure being of a building and a builder -"my Church." What is "my Church"? Walls made up of "Peters," of living stones. Thou art a living stone, and upon this rock which thou hast confessedthat is Christ-I will build the election of living stones

that constitute the true Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And this was Peter's idea ; for in the second chapter, at the fifth verse of this epistle, he says, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone," or rock, "ye also, as lively stones," literally, as living Peters, "are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood." And, in the next place, when Peter wrote this epistle there is no evidence, from its commencement to its close, that he understood, what others seem to have understood better than himself, that he was constituted the supreme vicar of Christ, the universal ruler of the universal Church. He never speaks of such a thing: he calls himself Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ; and in the second epistle, which must have been written long after he was Bishop of Rome— if he ever was there at all, which is doubtful indeed-he calls himself Peter, a co-presbyter, or a fellow elder, with the rest of the brethren. So it is quite plain, if Peter was made Pope, he must have been made so without himself knowing it; but most popes have generally known quite well who they were, and have shown by their daring acts that they were under no ignorance whatever as to their holding the powers of so magnificent a position. The certainty, I am now able to prove from recent readings, is that not only was Peter never Pope of Rome, but that he was never at Rome at all; and therefore the whole succession of the popedom based upon Peter is a pure myth, a romance, a fancy, without foundation in Scripture, and without a basis of fact in historic testimony.

Peter, addressing these strangers, calls them "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Now I wish you to notice in this verse the broad dis

tinction between the doctrine of election as it is laid down in the Thirty-nine Articles and the Church of Scotland's Confession of Faith, and in other epitomes and formulas of doctrine, and the way it is laid down in God's Word. Wherever election is defined in Scripture, it is always associated with inner and outer personal, practical, and living religion: it is never laid down as a dry dogma. In confessions of faith, election is laid out something like the flowers you have seen between the leaves of books; dry, all the organism perfectly preserved, but dead and withered. Election, in the Bible, is always exhibited like the same plant covered with fragrant flowers and green leaves, full of sap, vitality, and beauty. Hence, when the apostle speaks of election here, it is election, but through sanctification. Sanctification is, if I may so speak, the telescope through which you see that you are elect. To try to find out that you are elect without a knowledge of your own character is as futile as it is to try to climb by the hills till you reach heaven: the thing is impossible. You will find election developing itself in sanctification, next in obedience, next in the peace that springs from the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus; and if you have not these last influences in your heart and in your lives, your ideas of election are a mere dream, and nothing more. The way to find out election is not to begin in heaven, and come down with the inference-I am elect, therefore I may safely do as I like; but the true course is to begin at sanctification of the heart, sprinkling with the blood of Jesus, and rise up till you reach the inference, most legitimate and logical, that you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God.

Then he goes on to give praise to God. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us "i.e. regenerated us. Man by nature is a sinner, man by regeneration becomes a saint. "Hath begotten us again unto a lively hope." Man's hopes are frequently dead hopes, baseless hopes; and hence these hopes fail when they most need to realize what their hopes embosom. But the hope that is produced by God is a living hope; it never disappoints, it maketh not ashamed. As sure as faith will end in fruition, so sure a Christian's hope will end in having. And what has he begotten us to? "An inheritance." What a magnificent thought! Then heaven is not something that we purchase, but something we inherit. But how does a man inherit a thing? He inherits it by relationship; a nobleman's son inherits the title and the property of his father not because he is a good son, but because he is a son. So we inherit heaven, not in virtue of our good deeds, nor in any way as connected with our merits; we inherit heaven because we have been begotten again, and are sons, and if sons, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

I do not say that there will not be good deeds if you be born again; I am merely desirous of showing that the fact of relationship, and not merit, is the reason of our entering into heaven. It is an inheritance, and what a beautiful inheritance; it is "an inheritance incorruptible." What is there on earth that does not corrupt? The gold even has rust; the silver that is purest is corroding; the tree that is loftiest has a worm at its root; the garment that is