to such an audience. What sublime intrepidity and invincible courage does he display in doing so. He, a poor fisherman, stands up before assembled thousands of his nation, and charges home upon them the enormous crime of crucifying the Messiah, their great hope as a people, whom David, their mightiest monarch, predicted and adored as Lord, and who had now ascended the throne of the universe. "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Here is

Thirdly: An exhortation for directing the conduct of the awakened. Peter's argument has succeeded in convicting. "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" The word translated "were pricked" (katevúynoav) is only used here, and nowhere else in the New Testament. It denotes, to penetrate as with a needle, to pierce as with a sharp instrument. It answers to our word compunction. It expresses an agony of being, both intense and sudden. They had been convicted of an act (1) Most guilty. They had murdered the kindest, the holiest, the greatest of beings that ever appeared on earth— the Messiah, the Son of God, the Prince of Life. What ingratitude, what injustice, what impiety, what rebellion, were involved in their act! The sense of their guilt pierced them now with the agony of remorse and foreboding. They had been convicted of an act-(2) Most irreparable. What they had done could not be undone. If they had merely inflicted corporal sufferings upon Him, those sufferings might have been healed, and they might have restored Him; but they had killed Him. He was gone from them for ever. They could make no reparation. They had stained themselves with a guilt that all the water of oceans could not cleanse. Hence their exclamation, "What shall we do? What shall we do? our moral anguish is intolerable, and our apprehensions are most terrible; our moral heavens are black with clouds that threaten a terrible tempest."

Now to this appeal, Peter, with characteristic promptness,

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responds. Though the convicted hearers appeal not only to Peter, but to the "rest of the apostles," Peter is the spokesman; and here is his address:-"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

In this exhortation of his, three things are observable. (1) He directs them to the only blessings that could meet their case. These blessings are the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, which means, Divine pardon, and Divine influence. They needed remission of sine. "The first Greek noun," says Alexander, "(äpɛou) derived from a verb (pin) which means, to let go, is applied by Plutarch, to divorce; by Demosthenes, to legal discharge from the obligation of a bond; by Plato, to the emancipation of a slave, and to exemption from punishment; which last is its constant use in the New Testament. The whole phrase, to (or towards) remission of sins, describes this as the end to which the question of the multitude had reference, and which, therefore, must be contemplated also in the answer." To freedom from punishment he directs them, as one who directs shipwrecked mariners, struggling in the billows and about to sink, to the approaching life-boat bounding on the crested waves. But they needed not only Divine pardon, but Divine influence; not only the remission of sins, but the gift of the Holy Ghost. They would require this Spirit after the remission to remove all the sad effects of sin from their nature, to guide them rightly in their future course, strengthening them evermore to resist the wrong and pursue the right. These two things, the Divine pardon and the Divine Spirit, are essential to the salvation of our fallen world. To these, therefore, Peter directs his sin-convicted hearers.

(2) He directs them to the course of conduct essential to the attainment of those blessings. He knew that those

blessings would not come to them except they, as moral agents, exerted those powers with which they were endowed in a way suitable to the end; and hence he directs them to repentance and baptism. "Repent, and be baptized," &c. If the baptism here is a baptism of water, in those two things we find, first, an internal effort involving a renunciation of evil, and the second, an external effort involving the expression of that renunciation. Repentance is the internal effort involving the renunciation of evil. The word "repent," which etymologically and at first meant after-thought and reflection, means in the New Testament sense, a moral change of mind -a thorough revolution in character. This revolution imIt is not a some

plies great internal effort on man's part. thing imparted from without, it is something produced within. It implies profound reflection upon our conduct, renunciation of the evil connected with it, and a determination in future to pursue a holier course. Baptism is an external effort involving the expression of that renunciation. Peter does not explain to these men what baptism was. They, being Jews, knew its meaning well. They knew it as revealed in the Levitical system; they knew it as it had been just applied to them by John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan; and by the disciples of Jesus who baptized even more than John. They knew that it was a symbol of spiritual cleansing. The language of Peter, perhaps, taken as a whole would mean, "be cleansed from your sins within by repentance, and symbolically express that cleansing by being baptized in the name of Jesus."

John the Baptist had predicted, in connexion with Christ's mission, a baptism of the Spirit. "I indeed," said John, "baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." And Jesus Himself, just before He left the world, promised this baptism of the Spirit. "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." This baptism of the Spirit—a baptism that cleanses

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the soul from all moral impurities-is, after all, the essential thing; a baptism this, of which water-baptism is at the best but a symbol, and without which it is but an impious sham.

(3) He directs them to the gracious promise of Heaven to encourage them in the course of conduct required. "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." The promise he here points to, is that which he held forth to the multitude in the preceding verse, the promise of the Holy Ghost. This promise he had referred to in the introduction of his discourse, when he quoted the words of Joel: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh," &c. This promise he assures them was for them and their posterity, "you and your children." To you, bad as you are,-you that spat in his face, you that derided Him, you that plaited the crown of thorns, you that placed it on His bleeding brow, you that put on Him the purple robe of mock royalty, you that rent the heavens with the cry "away with him, away with him," you that railed at Him when He hung upon the cross, you that gave Him gall to quench His burning thirst-the promise is to you. "Every one of you." "What a blessed every one of you is here," says Bunyan. "To your children." To your posterity down to the latest period of time, it shall echo on the ear and shine on the face of "the last of Adam's race." To those here, and to those everywhere. "To those that are afar off." Not only to Jews who were scattered in different countries, but to Gentiles also. To men on every zone of the globe. "To all that the Lord our God shall call." On whom does He not call? His words are gone out to all the earth. His call in the Gospel is to all. Blessed promise this. It is a rainbow that encircles the world. It reflects the rays of the upper heavens, and heralds universal sunshine for the race.

Such is the substance of the apostle's wonderful Sermon. We say substance, for the whole is not here. We are told that "with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation." Be

saved from the sins of a crooked generation.

Does not this

new order of religious ministry, now inaugurated by Peter, stand in sublime and censuring contrast to much of the ministry that is called "Evangelical" in these days? It has none of the dogmas that form the staple ministry of many pulpits now. There is nothing here about the election of some and the reprobation of others. Nothing here about the final perseverance of the saints, nothing here about a forensic justification. No theory of the atonement is propounded here. Nothing is here about the moral ability or inability of the sinner. No metaphysical theologizings of any kind are here. CHRIST, in His relation to the men and women, the good and bad, who stood before him, was the grand theme of Peter's discourse. As a speaker he steps forth with a distinct object in view, namely, the awakening the souls of the multitude. to a true sense of their sin, and he employs an argument most philosophically suited to gain his end; it was an argument to convince them that they had murdered their Messiah. He understands the subject thoroughly; he feels it profoundly; and he speaks it with all earnestness and point. There is no attempt to be smart, or quaint, elegant, or grand in his speech. Such things, with ranting declamations, and oratorical flourishes, suit the hollow-hearted, self-seeking demagogue, but are ever revolting to a soul in genuine earnest. His words were few, clear, direct, arranged with logical skill, and uttered with a voice intoned by the Spirit of the Living God.

(To be continued.)