lowship as worshippers of our common Saviour and Lord, free from the intrusion of questions pertaining to this life, on which Christians may differ in opinion, and be Christians still. "4. When ministers meet in that capacity to advocate the interests of one part of the community against another (though the cause may be good in itself), a party character is attached to the ministry, which interferes with its catholic, spiritual aspect towards all mankind, and restricts its moral influence. There is a great and palpable difference in the effect between ministers acting only as citizens, along with the mass, and presenting themselves before public view in an isolated and official capacity. "5. These two things together are adapted to associate party politics with the religion of Dissenting Christians in the opinion of the rest of the community. "6. The interference is calculated to enhance the difficulties which lie in the way of our securing our full religious freedom, by provoking the State, but especially the Established Churches, to mix those things together in future measures which we have not kept separate. I am not scared, any more than my friend Dr. Payne, by the fear of the State becoming the handmaid of the Church'-properly so called. As for Dissenters, we are far enough, as I said, from the chair of Alexander the Third. But the State has been too willingly the handmaid of our national churches, and it will be well to afford them no pretext for attempts, in their corporate ecclesiastical capacity, to enforce their wishes on the State again." THE CHARACTER OF PETER. BY THE REV. HENRY EDWARDS. THE attention of our reader has, no doubt, been often called to the internal evidences of truth, which the Gospel history presents to a careful reader of the New Testament: and he has often heard, that proofs of this kind multiply prodigiously, the more the Gospels are studied. To this class of proofs belong the characters, which are occasionally introduced in the evangelical narrative, which, every one must acknowledge, are in general, delineated with great distinctness and consistency. They all have their distinguishing traits, such as we find in real life; and so natural are they, that we reject, at once, all suspicion, that John, Peter, Thomas, Mary, or Paul are either fictitious, or studied portraits. In the number of the twelve, each apostle has his peculiarities. One is bold and precipitate; another, gentle and affectionate; a third, doubtful and hard to be persuaded; and the best of them oc cupies a grade of excellence, which leaves him at an infinite distance below his Lord. If the Gospel history had been a fabrication of some ingenious or fanatical impostor, instead of this distinctness and variety, I think, we should have found a tame uniformity of characters. The disciples would all have been fashioned on the model of their Master; and the delineation of Jesus himself, supposing it to have been the work of imagination, would have presented none of those solemn and indescribable tints of supernatural originality, which now make the character of the Saviour of the world such as it is; such, in fact, as no mortal fancy had, or could have conceived; and such, too, as no being of mortal race would have been able, or daring enough to appropriate. Among the characters of the New Testament, that of Peter is transmitted to us with singular force and individuality. Not that his character is drawn, for there is not an instance in the Gospels of what may be called character painting. What we know of the apostles, we know, as it were, by accident. In the New Testament, there is no circumstantial narration of an individuals life; but all that is said of him is incidental, and unpremeditated, as well as short, and hastily set down. Of Peter, however, the first of the apostles, perhaps in age, certainly in calling and office, more facts happen to be recorded, than of any other in the company of the disciples. He appears to have been a favourite with our Saviour; and though. not so amiable as John, of a cast of mind more characteristic and decisive. If we collect the scattered notices of this apostle, and attempt to combine them in a regular outline, we shall find a character arising out of them, which from its truth and nature must have belonged to a real personage; a character, bold, impetuous, sensible, consistent in its contradictions, uniform in its variations; a character, such as the great drama of human life acknowledges, and often reproduces on the stage of human action. Now when we consider, that four independent historians have recorded circumstances in the life of Peter,-historians, who, from the ocasional discordancies in their narratives, could not have written in concert,—that they have recorded, also, different facts, and, if we include the Acts, have written different portions of Peter's life,-that Paul too has left us, in his letters, indirect, and occasional notices of the same apostle,-and that all these different traits, if combined, make up an original, interesting, natural, harmonious, and well-marked character, is not the conclusion irresistible, that the original existed, or that they all copied from nature, and probably from personal observation? We would have the reader to recollect, that, if one only of the characters of the apostles be supposed to be real, the Gospel history must be true. The facts are so intimately blended, the characters so mutually dependent, that the whole story of Jesus and His immediate disciples must exist together; nay the character of a single apostle is not to be accounted for, but on the supposition of the truth of the principal facts in the evangelical history; and thus from the character of a single apostle, we come to that most grand and glorious conclusion-the Divine original of the Gospel of Christ. The character of Peter is no uncommon union of qualities. In his consitution there was nothing phlegmatic, nothing cold. He was sanguine in his prospects, rash in his movements, tender in his attachments, exposed to change from the very impetuosity of his feelings; with more of courage than of fortitude; more of zeal than of firmness; more of confidence than of constancy. That fact in Peter's history, which has given him such a pre-eminence in the estimation of Christians, and has elevated him in the opinions of a large division of the Christian world to a seat second only to that of Jesus Christ, and secured to him an everlasting primacy in the Church, was that magnanimous acknowledgment, which he first made of the character of his Master: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It was at a time, when, as the reader well knows, the Jews were full of expectation, that the great Deliverer was to appear in the family of David, who should raise His standard of revolt, assume the almost forgotten ensigns of hereditary royalty, place Himself at the head of His oppressed and impatient nation, confirm His authority by visible and splendid prodigies, maintain His cause by supernatural achievements, establish His court in the capital of Judea, and erect an universal and everlasting dominion. In this state of things, when every Jewish mother was longing to give birth to the Messiah, and every Jewish breast beating high with hopes of future greatness, Jesus appears, a perfect contrast to such worldly and ambitious fancies, the poor son of a carpenter's wife, wandering from village to village without a place to lay His head, simple in appearance, spiritual in His conversation,meek and lowly in His views, and daily disgusting His gross and selfish followers by His recommendations of poverty, and predictions of approaching calamity. The disciples were, beyond measure, perplexed. They saw Jesus daily performing the most astonishing and beneficent miracles, which convinced them that God was with Him; but their preconceptions of the Messiah's character were such, as refused to be reconciled with His present situation and prospects. Now, in this crisis of distressing uncertainty among the disciples-for they had left all and followed Jesus-when others were deserting Him in great numbers, dissatisfied and disappointed, and Jesus says to His disciples, "Will ye also go away?"-Peter, with his, usual forwardness, answers for them all : Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal And, soon after, when Jesus explicitly asks them, "Whom say ye that I am?"-Peter alone replies, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus exclaims, "Blessed art thou, Simon; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it nnto thee, but My Father who is in heaven;" that is, you derive this from a higher and better source than the world's opinion. Then our Saviour pronounces this memorable promise: "Upon this rock will I build My Church, and the gates life." of hell shall not prevail against it;" and Peter's confession was not unworthy of such a promise. It was a brave confession; a sentiment of his heart, as well as a dictate of his understanding. It was the united result of Peter's personal attachment to Jesus, and his knowledge of His miracles and character. The most characteristic trait of Peter's mind is, undoubtedly, that impetuosity, and ardour of feeling, which rendered him sometimes too confident, rash, and intemperate, but commonly bold, decisive, and affectionate. Observe, now, I entreat you, how clearly this distinctive feature of his character is presented to us by all the evangelists, and even preserved through the different periods of his life. Permit us, first, to remark, however, that every man's virtues or vices are peculiarly his own: that is, they cannot be transferred to the mind of any other man, though equally virtuous or vicious on the whole, without assuming a different colour, or else producing some manifest incongruity of character. The graces of the best Christian in the world are, in some degree, modified by his peculiar temperament: they are not precisely the same thing in him, which they are in another Christian of the same school. It is not to be hoped, perhaps it is not to be desired, that we should here lose all our characteristic passions, in the uniformity of Christian perfection. The Christian always meliorates the man; but never yet has the man been completely lost in the Christian. The only character, in which every thing constitutional seems to have been lost in a kind of perfection never to be surpassed, is that of Jesus Christ; and this is one of the many proofs of its super-human greatness. But the native ardour of Peter's temper is perpetually breaking out, both before and after the death of his Master. That sudden confidence, which is always attendant on such minds, is curiously exhibited in Peter's desiring our Lord, if it were indeed He, to bid him come to Him on the water. Jesus says, Come; and Peter sets out to walk upon the waves, in all the ardour of faith, but he has proceeded but a few steps, ere his heart fails him. The billows are boisterous, and he sinks, crying out, "Lord, save or I perish." Is it fanciful to imagine, that we discern, in this partial failure of the apostle, the hints and rudiments of that lamentable weakness, which afterwards allowed him to deny his Master? The impetuosity of Peter's temper, united with the strong affection which he bore to Jesus, sometimes mounted into intemperate courage, and sometimes melted into the other extreme of tenderness and humility. When Jesus had requested him and two other of His disciples to watch with Him, during that night of agony, when He was apart, praying that the cup of death might pass from him, Peter, like a man of more ardour than perseverance, was overcome with sleep. He is soon awakened with the noise of the multitude, that approached, with their swords and staves, to arrest his Master. Immediately, he puts his hand upon his sword, and asks his Master, if he shall strike. But, with characteristic impatience, he cannot wait for the answer, but instantly draws, and cuts off the ear of one of the high priest's servants. Jesus cries out-Hold! touches the ear, and heals the wound. Two excellent traits of character, both in Jesus and His impetuous disciple. These are the little circumstances, which give a story the stamp of truth. Let us mention some other instances, equally beyond the reach of the fabricator of a narrative. Jesus after His resurrection, appears on the shore of the lake, where some of His disciples were out in a boat employed in fishing, but without success. They espy some one on the shore, who orders them to throw on the right side, and they shall find. Immediately the net is filled, almost to breaking. They conclude that it was Jesus; and instantly Peter throws himself into the sea to swim to his beloved Master, while the rest of the disciples wait, till the boat reaches the shore. Again, in that affecting interview, when Jesus washed His disciples' feet, when He comes to Peter, he cries out, Lord, Thou shalt never wash my feet." Jesus answers him, "If I wash thee not, Thou hast no part in Me." Melted to tenderness by this reply, he flies to the other extreme of humility, and says, "Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head." A man of such passions, in a moment of affectionate enthusiasm, might rush into death to save a friend, while, in the next moment, his fears might overpower and petrify him. Once more; there is mentioned a trifling circumstance in a visit to the sepulchre, which, though entirely incidental, may, perhaps, be thought happily to illustrate the apostle's affectionate character. On the morning of the resurrection, he arrives with John at the sepulchre, and finds it open. John stoops down, and, looking in only, concludes, that Jesus is not there. But Peter, not satisfied with this, goes in, and searches the sepulchre. After that, John also enters, and they ascertain, that the sepulchre is undoubtedly empty. Now this trait, like the others, is incidental, but they are all worthy of being observed. It is the privilege of simplicity and truth alone, to leave these touches of nature, which are not without difficulty to be attained, and which, in the present case, are utterly inconsistent with imposture. The reader may see, then, the character of Peter. Our Saviour, who had been with him more, perhaps, than with any of His disciples, as He appears to have resided at his house in Capernaum, knew his disposition, and often attempted to discipline and improve it. He even goes so far, as to forewarn him, that, with all his fervour of affection, he would one day deny his Lord. Peter declares, with indignant confidence, "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee." Ah! Simon, though you are ready to fight for your Master, you cannot yet suffer for Him. You have followed Him, hitherto, not only because you love, but in the expectation, that He will discover His Messiahship. You are hoping, that He will soon declare Himself, and lead you to victory in His cause, and to honour and eminence in His kingdom. You are not prepared to see Him die upon a cross. Your faith will falter in that day of disappointment. Your impetuosity alone will not ensure your fidelity. It is one thing, to have the boldness of enthusiasm, and another, to have the firmness and endurance, which are necessary in the apostle of a suffering Master. But we must attend now to that unfortunate event in Peter's history, which, if it were not so instructive, might be forgotten; but, while it has blemished, it has contributed to immortalize the fame of this apostle. Jesus, contrary to the expectation of His disciples even to the last, is arrested and hurried away to trial. He is now entirely in the power of His enemies. His supernatural faculties appear to have deserted him; and the God, iu whom he had trusted, comes not to. His rescue. At this crisis, His hitherto faithful disciples, alarmed, disappointed, and confounded, forsake Him, and flee. Peter, however, yields to his affection, and follows his Master, at a distance, to the palace of the high priest. Eager to see what would be the end, and, no doubt, secretly hoping, that our Saviour would yet deliver Himself, he mixes with the crowd of servants and soldiers at the bottom of the hall, where he might observe all that passed, and remain unnoticed in the multitude and tumult. But either his speech or his perturbation soon betrays him. One of the high priest's maids unfortunately passes him and says, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. He replies, I was not. Again another challenges him. He denies it again. Then a relation of him, whose ear he had cut off, looking at him, says, Did I not see thee in the garden with Him? And now, with all that passion, which we have seen to belong to him, and with that distracting terror, which attends upon great and sudden danger, and upon falsehood in a man unaccustomed to deceive, he begins to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. Oh! faithless fallen Peter! Is this, then, the man, who was just now drawing his sword and ready to fight for his Master? is this the man who lately declared before all the disciples, "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee?" is this the man on whom Jesus was to build His Church so stable, so immoveable, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it? is this the man who was to hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven? Precipitated in a moment from all his dignity, real as well as imaginary, the great apostle is the sport of a maid; the magnanimous, enthusiastic, fearless, and, let us add, honest disciple, is become the prey of his own guilty conscience, and shrinks into the covert of his own shame. "I know not the Man." Though you know not your Master, poor fallen Peter, He is not forgetful of His disciple and friend; "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter." One would think that such a look, in such a moment, would have overwhelmed him with confusion and chilled the blood around his heart; that he must have sunk to the earth, in hope that it might open and swallow him up and his insupportable shame. He cannot, indeed, endure it; he rushes out of the hall, and weeps, says the evangelist, and weeps bitterly.-(To be continued.) THOUGHTS FOR THE THOUGHTFUL. By Religious Tract Society. "Old Humphery" is always welcome. There is a raciness in his style both of thought and expression, that makes his quaintness pleasant. True, each of his papers is very short, and one is apt to think he might have gone on a little longer; but we suspect he is right. It is one of the besetting faults of modern writers, that they cannot be content simply to place a good idea before the reader, but must try to nauseate him with it; the art of leaving off is difficult to acquire, whether for author or preacher. Most of the pieces which constitute this volume, are new to the public, it seems; but a few of them have appeared in the "Tract Magazine." They are all good, but we will copy two of them, to speak for the rest; only adding that the tendency of the book is to form the habit of gathering spiritual lessons from the ordinary occurrences of life, and being led by them up to the observation of Him who "numbers the hairs of our heads," and the recognition of His hand, as in the important crisis, so in the trifling incident. 66 TURN YOUR TELESCOPE. "I will litt up mine eyes unto the hills, from from whence cometh my help."-Psalm cxxi. 1. "WHEN a child, I caught up a telescope to view more distinctly a distant object but soon found myself worse off than ever; for the object in question appeared smaller and farther off than before. Turn your telescope !' said a friend who was standing at my elbow: 'turn your telescope; for you are looking through the wrong end of it: when the telescope is turned, matters will be mended.' 66 Christian, art thou dismayed in thinking how little and how changeable thy love is to God? Turn the telescope; for things will only get worse while thine eye is fixed where it now is: look through the other end, and thou wilt behold the vastness and unchangeableness of God's love to thee. Again, I say, turn the telescope: for a steady gaze at God's love to us, and His promises in the Gospel, is the best means to excite our love to God." 66 THE CRAZY MAN AND HIS WATCH. "A POOR crazy fellow, one day, on finding his watch half an hour too slow, insisted upon it that the sun had gone down that evening half an hour sooner than it ought to have done; when a sober-minded neighbour of his assured him, that, be that as it might, he would find it wiser and easier to regulate his watch by the sun, than to attempt to order the sun's revolutions by his watch. "How many conceited Socialists, how many vain-glorious Deists, and how many proud Atheists, are acting as this poor crazy man acted! Poor, purblind, mortal creatures would do well to remember, when cavilling at the Word and works of Almighty God, that it is much more likely, than the contrary, that Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, should be right, and that ignorance, weakness, infirmity and folly, should be wrong." CHORAZIN; or, An appeal to the child of many prayers, on Questions concerning the great Salvation. By DAVID EVERARD FORD, Author of Decapolis." cl. bds. PP: 115. Simpkin and Co., Stationers' Hall Court. THIS little volume, suggested very naturally by the great success of "Decapolis," is framed much upon the same plan, and aims concurrently at the same end. A main object of that work was to remonstrate earnestly with Christian parents, on the extent to which the unconverted condition of their children excuse. is to be attributed to causes, which the parents might remove, and ought to remove; the object of "Chorazin" is to fasten it upon the conscience of such young persons, that "they are without has insisted very urgently, that the In both these cases, the author doctrine of Divine sovereignty is fearfully perverted, as an excuse for continuing in sin; and we believe he is right, though we must not forget that it is a the Bible. Mr. Ford, however, fastens Truth, and is any thing but hidden in on that which is also a Truth, and with which we have more practically to do conversion. And on this he writes with we mean, man's duty in respect to his that anxious earnestness, which seems to be his forte. Hear him : "But perhaps you answer-I use the means, and what more can I do?' THE THING ITSELF. 'Make you a new heart, and a new spirit. Repent, and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.'-Ezek. xviii. 30. Errors, on this subject, are deeply rooted and widely spread, and they abound even in the most sacred enclosures. Use |