And then I am brought to him in another way from what I now know him to be. If the atonement of Christ is merely the legal acquittal of me, a sinner, and nothing more, then what should I feel? When I enter into heaven I should feel―This day I shall be admitted because I legally forgiven, but not welcome; and that I must dwell throughout eternity in heaven not an accepted son, but in some such relationship as a returned convict from Botany Bay, forgiven by the law, would live in social life, avoided by everybody, to be rated but not approved. If this were the result of the atonement it would be very poor indeed in comparison. But that is not the fact. I find when I shall be brought back to God in responsive love to his, by this great process, that I shall be introduced as a son to a Father, that loves me with all his heart; not as a convict, forgiven legally, but avoided for ever. I could not be tolerated in heaven; I must be welcomed to heaven if I am to be there at all. And thanks be to God that none are so welcome as the greatest sinners that have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and over none will so loud and joyous a congratulatory song be sung, as over him who was lost and is now found, who was dead and is now alive; and is not for one moment tolerated, but is throughout eternity made welcome in heaven.

May God impress these truths upon our hearts; and to his name be praise and glory. Amen.

CHAPTER IV.

LESSONS FOR SUFFERING TIMES.

In the last chapter we had some of the social and moral duties that devolve on Christians who have believed the doctrines, and received the influences of those doctrines, as they are laid down in the opening part of the Epistle. In this chapter we find more especial reference to the sufferings that Christians will be called upon to endure in the course of their ministry, their duties, and their connexions with the world in the various spheres in which Providence has placed them; and as he gives them strength for duties, so he gives them encouragement in suffering. What a glorious gospel is that which meets the sinner at every point, enters by every avenue; if it finds him a sinner it carries in its hand forgiveness; if it finds him a saint it carries in its hand encouragement; if it finds in him a sufferer it pours into his heart the oil of consolation and of enduring joy. Whatever be man's necessity, for that, if you would only believe it, there is an ample and an overwhelming supply in that blessed book which begins with history that has nothing before it, and ends with prophecy that leaves nothing beyond it. He begins by saying that, "as Christ has suffered for

us in the flesh," a sacrifice for our sins, and also an example, for he hath left us an example that we should follow in his steps ; arm yourselves likewise with the same mind;" he so hated sin that he expiated it by his death; he so loved the sinner that he encountered all suffering in order that he might be forgiven. And as he that hath suffered in the flesh,—that is, the man who is dead, has necessarily ceased from sin, being beyond its reach: so, he says, we who are dead unto sin, dead spiritually, should no longer live to the lusts of men, but entirely and wholly to the will of God. And then he says, "For the time past of our life,” evidently speaking to Gentiles as well as to Jews, "may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles ;" we have had enough of that; we have drunk deep enough of that cup; we have tasted long enough of such vile and polluted pleasures. The apostle is willing to let the past be forgiven and forgotten; by Christ's sacrifice forgiven, and by him his minister forgotten, provided they will consecrate the remainder of their life to a new and a nobler cause.

It is a melancholy fact that you cannot cancel the memory of the guilty past of a life; but you may redeem the time by the devotedness of the remaining and the future lifetime. You may obtain forgiveness for what is past; you cannot arrest the spread of the wrongs that you have committed; but you may redeem the time by dedicating with greater intensity the remainder of your life to whatsoever things are pure, and just, and honest, and lovely, and of good report. He shows you in the third verse what are the fruits that paganism practises. "We walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idola

tries." Now have you not this very picture translated into actual life in Hindostan and in Mahometan lands? You recollect it used to be thought by very sensitive and civilized people that the awful picture of paganism, sketched by the Apostle Paul in Romans i., was highly exaggerated; or at least, that if paganism was so abominably depraved in his days, it is not so now. Well, here Peter repeats the same thing, ascribes the same traits; and if you want these two portraits in actual life, just read the history of the late massacres in India, and you will find there lasciviousness, lust, revellings, abominable idolatries. How true it is that civilization never can make a people; it must be a Christian people that generate and spread around them a true civilization. And it is a most remarkable fact that even the world is discovering that Christianity is the only hope of India's progress, prosperity, and peace.

Then he says, "They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you; but they shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." He speaks of those who were martyred for Christ's sake; he does not mean the gospel preached to them as dead, but the gospel preached to them then living, but now dead when he writes this epistle; and he says the gospel was preached to them, and they embraced it; that though judged and condemned by men, who judged after the flesh, yet they lived and rejoiced in joy unutterable before God, who judges righteous judg

ment.

Then he says, "But the end of all things is at hand." Now this could not mean the destruction of the Jewish polity, for he is speaking here not to Jews only, but to Gentiles; it does not mean death; it evidently means the end of this present economy. But why should the apostle say so eighteen hundred years ago? The answer is, the Church of Christ is always contemplated as a unity; Christ's bride, Christ's people; and that Church is always represented as looking for the coming of the Lord, and hastening for the day when the earth and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and a new heaven and a new earth shall be introduced. The end is always contemplated as approaching. And if that was true eighteen hundred years ago, it only grows in truthfulness because it increases in applicability as the accumulate and the end draws near.

years

"Above all things," he says, "have fervent charity," that is, love; "for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." You have heard people quote this as if it meant, that to give money to the poor, is to cancel one's sins. But that is not the meaning of it. It does not mean that charity in me shall cover my sins, but that charity in me will lead me to cast a veil upon your sins. The meaning of it is, that when one judges another he is to judge in charity, putting the best construction upon what looks wrong, not suspecting evil where there is a possibility of thinking it is right. It is said that the Scotch way is to regard every man as a rogue till you prove him to be honest; I should prefer the English, which seems the more Christian one, to regard every man as honest till you prove him to be a rogue. The charity, at any rate, of the gospel puts the best construction upon all things; it will rather in doing so risk