And if your comfort in tribulation be thus connected with the peace of Christ, so be assured is your progress in holiness. Can there be any motive to obedience like the intense desire to maintain this peace of Christ in the soul? This peace cannot live in the atmosphere of strife, and worldliness, and pride, and sensuality. It is the result of faith, and confidence, and love, and gentle and holy affections. The least wilful sin will interrupt the even flow of this intercourse. The Spirit will "be grieved," if sin be wilfully indulged. There is no barrier against sin so strong, as the thought, that thereby fellowship with Christ will be broken and injured! He who knows what that fellowship imports; he who can glory in the cross, and turn from the vexations of men to lodge his anxieties in the bosom of Christ, he will know that the withdrawing of the consolations of the Spirit is dearly purchased by any pleasure of sin which is but for a season, and which degrades him whom it gratifies! How well did the Psalmist exclaim, in

reference to this subject, "I will run the way of thy commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty." "With my whole heart have I sought thee, oh let me not wander from thy commandments." Thy testimonies have I taken as my heritage for ever-for why? they are the very joy of my heart." Believers in

66

Christ! approach then the mercy seat of God with peace and gladness of heart. Contemplate more precisely the varied memorials of his compassion and goodness. Let your imaginations soar beyond the barriers of this poor world to the mansions prepared for you above. Seek often in hallowed faith, the interior of his banquetting house, and expect his "banner over you to be love." There "will he manifest himself to you, as he doth not to the world;” and" in the multitude of your thoughts within you, his comforts shall refresh your souls."

245

SERMON XVI.

REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION.

ACTS iii. 19-21.

"REPENT YE THEREFORE, AND BE CONVERTED, THAT YOUR SINS MAY BE BLOTTED OUT WHEN THE TIMES OF REFRESHING SHALL COME FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. AND HE SHALL SEND JESUS CHRIST WHICH BEFORE WAS PREACHED UNTO YOU, WHOM THE HEAVEN MUST RECEIVE UNTIL THE TIMES OF RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS WHICH GOD HATH SPOKEN BY THE MOUTH OF ALL HIS HOLY PROPHETS SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN."

A REMARKABLE event had recently occurred near the temple at Jerusalem. An unfortunate cripple had been long the recipient of alms at the temple gate, called "Beautiful." He had arrested at length the notice of the apostles Peter and John. Looking earnestly upon him, Peter said unto him, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." The man believed the authority of the command, and he rose up and walked, and with a new and singular gratitude, he followed

the apostles into the temple, and then praised God. The surrounding multitude witnessing both his cure and his gratitude were filled with wonder and amazement. Peter immediately took advantage of the curiosity which this miracle had excited, and addressed the multitude in the following words, "Ye men of Israel, why marvel you at this, or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk. The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses; and his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent therefore," added the apostle, "and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refresh

ing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

My brethren! you who now hear the word of God, have an equal interest in its reception with the Jews of old, and to those among you who may be in the same state of spiritual ignorance, is the exhortation of the text as appropriate. We say to you, in the first place,

I. REPENT AND BE CONVERTED. And

II. WE URGE YOU BY THE SAME REASONS AS WERE INFLUENTIAL UPON THE JEWS OF OLD, viz. that your sins may be blotted out, and that you may at length possess a share in the great restitution of all things, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall return "the second time without sin unto salvation."

I. In the first place, I would draw your attention to the exhortation, "REPENT AND BE CONVERTED."

The words are truly applicable to those who have hitherto known nothing to any effectual purpose, either of God or of his salvation. You have been brought up, it may be, amidst the ceremonies and institutions of Christianity. You have heard of Jesus Christ, and may have