Receive

believe, and have done with this "But yet" at once, and once for all. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. him as he is freely offered to you in the gospel.

"I do I try-I would," you answer; "But yet-" What! O sinner, perishing as thou art, wilt thou still harp on this poor evasion! When it is thy Saviour, thy God, who is speaking to thee,—giving thee eternal life,— holding forth to thee, as thine for the taking, all that thou canst need for the forgiveness of all thine iniquities and the healing of all thy diseases, is it for thee to cavil and question any further, thwarting the full and free grace of his proposal with this subterfuge of thine, this equivocating "But yet"? You would fain believe, and have peace in believing, and be all that Jesus would have you to be; "But yet-" Nay, whatever you are going to add, whether you are about to complain of coldness, or deadness, or unworthiness, or unbelief,-whatever is to follow this "But yet" of yours-stop, pause, be ashamed and confounded. Whatever it may be that you are on the point of pleading, can it be anything else than an insult to your Saviour and an offence to your God, to put in any plea whatever in bar of the mercy and the grace which he so freely gives? Come, rather close with him now, unconditionally, unreservedly. Let "ifs" and "buts" have place no longer in your surrender of yourself to him, as they have no place in his giving of himself for you, or in his giving of himself to you. Then, "with enlargement of heart, you will run in the way of his precepts: you will walk at liberty when you have respect unto all his commandments."

X:

PETER HIS GENERAL CHARACTER-ITS
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS.

"And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" -MATT. xiv. 28-31.

THE incident here recorded illustrates in a very striking manner the character of the Apostle Peter. His whole conduct, on this occasion, is such as vividly to exhibit the peculiarity of his natural temperament; and the rather, when we trace its remarkable though undesigned agreement with what we read elsewhere concerning him.

The character, indeed, of this holy apostle is not in any part of the sacred writings directly drawn; for the historians of the Bible do not deal in professed delineations of individual character, it being their province to narrate, and not to comment. Hence they never undertake to describe at length what such a man was; they content themselves with telling us simply what he did. And this they do without reserve, and generally without remark, neither elaborately magnifying what is excellent, nor studiously palliating what is wrong, but permitting facts to speak for themselves, and leaving it to the reader to form his own judgment concerning the

merits or defects of the various actors in the scenes which they honestly set before him.

Now, this artless, unaffected simplicity of narration, well becomes the authority of sacred and inspired evangelists; it contributes much to gain credit to their testimony, while it approves itself to the taste of every competent and intelligent judge of such matters. For what person of good sense and good feeling can refuse to believe authors, every page of whose writings bears the stamp of honesty, and of that courage which is fearless and careless of everything but the truth? And, on the other hand, is it not a source of the most refined satisfaction and delight, a high intellectual entertainment as well as an interesting moral experiment, to exercise our own skill in discerning and discriminating character, -to trace for ourselves its broad outline, its marked and distinctive features, its nicer and more minute and delicate shades of peculiarity; and to observe how, in different histories, and in all varieties of situation, the same individual is, without any appearance of artful contrivance or constraint, represented as uniformly and most harmoniously in keeping, if we may so speak, and in accordance both with nature and with himself?

Thus, to those who delight in inquiries and speculations respecting the individual diversities of mental and moral constitution among men, the character of the Apostle Peter must be an interesting study, as it is found to be undesignedly and incidentally delineated in the histories of the New Testament. There is nowhere in these histories any laboured description of his habits and manners, any

formal enumeration or catalogue of his good and bad qualities respectively, such as other historians are so apt to deal in. But a few striking instances of his conduct set the man before us. On whatever occasions we meet with this apostle, we find him always natural, and always the same; distinguished by individual peculiarities from others, yet throughout, in all particulars, fairly and beautifully consistent with himself. And this perfect yet simple consistency we are irresistibly led to attribute, not to any concerted scheme of fiction, but to the native harmony of truth-the unity and uniformity of a common living original. For we feel convinced, as we read and study it, that such a character, thus artlessly unfolded in such different circumstances and by different authors, must have been taken by each of them apart, directly from the life.

The most prominent and distinguishing peculiarities of the Apostle Peter's natural character seem to have been these two-a certain hasty and generous impetuosity of temper on the one hand, and a certain occasional imbecility or infirmity of purpose on the other; two qualities of mind which are found not unfrequently combined. Easily and deeply impressed with new feelings, and prompt to decide at first with frank and fearless honesty, but without enough of calm consideration, he was apt to be afterwards daunted or disconcerted by difficulties unforeseen and unprovided for. When any new object of pursuit was presented to his view, or any new scene or topic crossed his imagination, his eager spirit seized immediately

on some one of its grand, or imposing, or affecting features. This single idea roused his enthusiasm, and so occupied, overpowered, and engrossed all his soul, that doubt seemed impertinent and delay intolerable; and he had neither thought nor feeling for anything except that upon which for the time his ambition might be set, an ambition occasionally perhaps fanciful, yet always amiable, and excellent, and noble. In the ardour and impatience of his confident hope, to resolve was to accomplish. With his eye kindled and his heart burning within him, and both alike intently fixed on some one high and honourable aim, he could not bear to be distracted by the remonstrances of cold and timid caution. He could see nothing formidable in his enemy. He could feel no weakness in himself. But passing over in idea all intervening hazards, confident in the strength of his own determination, he grasped the victory ere yet his armour was put on; and, when he had scarcely even conceived his plan, he seemed to himself to have already attained and secured his end.

Now this honest and dauntless spirit did indeed give boldness, energy, and warm cordiality, to his professions and his resolutions, in every enterprise which he undertook; but then, as it was too hasty for deliberation, and would not suffer him to pause before setting out, that he might look around him or look before him, it exposed him to the risk of being taken at unawares and when off his guard, by dangers, against which a little more of timely foresight might have effectually defended him.

Hence that mixture which we observe in Peter's