address his trembling and downcast hearers, just awakened to a sense of the inexcusable vileness of their past conduct. Repent ye, thererefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." He reminds them that they are "the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with the fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." And he solemnly assures them that "God, having raised up his Son Jesus, had sent him first unto them, to bless them, in turning away every one of them from his iniquities." Thus was the risen Jesus lifted up as a Saviour, the very Saviour foretold by all the prophets, a Saviour from sin as well as wrath. Repentance and conversion, a real turning from sin to holiness, a cordial acceptance of their Messiah, were proposed to them as the conditions of mercy. Thus, turning to him whom they had rejected, their sins, grievous and hateful as they were, would be blotted out, and abounding mercy would erase them from the book of God's remembrance.

While the Apostle, in this discourse, exhorted them to repentance, that they might, individually, obtain forgiveness and salvation, he also urges upon them collectively, the same duties, in order to secure the blessing of the Almighty as a people. In this temple, whither the heart of every Jew turned with such reverence and devotion, and

with this multitude of his countrymen around him, he seemed to be addressing Israel as a nation. His heart beat high with hope, that the whole people would now look with faith and reverence. upon him whom they had pierced, and by bowing before him as one man, bring on that blessed era of Messiah's triumph, of which the prophets had spoken in such glowing terms. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come," or rather, in order that times of refreshing may come "from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive, until the times of restitution of all things, which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began." When the Saviour was about to ascend from Olivet, the Apostles asked him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" His answer was, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." But although they were not to know the times and the seasons, they seem to have expected certainly that the kingdom would be restored to Israel. The Apostle Peter here urges his countrymen with one heart to embrace the gospel, in order to hasten on that period of future light and holiness. He seems to anticipate times of spiri

tual refreshment to attend the ingathering of God's ancient people into his fold. This great event he evidently connects with another manifestation of Christ, and with that "restitution of all things," to which the finger of prophecy had been pointing for so many ages.

That blessed consummation, however, for which the Apostle's heart so yearned, was far more distant than he supposed. The times and the seasons, as his Saviour expressly affirmed, the Father had kept in his own power. Peter and his brethren had not been informed of them. The glorious visions of prophecy, even yet are not realized. Age after age hath passed, and century hath followed century, and still the arm of the Lord is not made bare. The veil is on the heart of Israel, and the times of restitution of all things are delayed; for a thousand years are with the Lord as one day, and one day as a thousand years. Still the promise is Yea and Amen. "The word of the Lord abideth for ever." The times of refreshing shall arrive from the Lord, and the kingdoms of this come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. "Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." But while the bridegroom tarrieth, "Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober." We are not authorized to unfold the secret counsels of God, we

presence of the world shall be

"know not when the time is ;" but the great era of a Saviour's triumph, nearer or more remote, varies not our duty. "Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out," is the voice that speaks to you. Until you repent and turn to God, your sin remaineth. You are alike unpre

pared for the hour of death, or for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. No times of refreshing and consolation will come to your soul, until you bow as a penitent before the cross of Jesus. Oh, how great is that mercy which extends the offer of pardon to the guilty and condemned; which annexes it to conditions so simple and reasonable as repentance and conversion; which imposes no harsh severities; mocks us with no unattainable bliss; but brings salvation nigh, even to our very doors, and proclaims, "Turn, and ye shall live." Aye, even though like those to whom the Apostle spake, we have denied the Holy One and the just, though we have been guilty of preferring the world and its vanities, the flesh and its unholy passions, the tempter and his wiles, to Jesus Christ and his salvation, still the gracious assurance is addressed to us, "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

THE ARRAIGNMENT BEFORE THE

SANHEDRIM.

ACTS IV. 13.

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."

When our Saviour sent forth his twelve Apostles for the first time to do the work of evangelists, it was with a plain and distinct warning of great opposition and persecution to be encountered. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles." The history of Christianity from the beginning is the best comment on these words. The event showed how true a prophet was the founder of this religion, and how perfectly open to his far-seeing eye was the whole progress of his Gospel. He concealed not from his disciples the trials and sacrifices, which their profession