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It was in the power of the resurrection of their Lord that they took courage to preach the forgiveness of sins against that external law which lay heavy on men's consciences; but they put instead of it a better law, the love of God per- * RomanR i. 3, 4; and viii. 19 — 23. f 1 Pet. i. 16 JESUS THE CIIKIST. CHRIST's COMING. 371 vading the heart, and the deeper mind which comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit ; and thus bringing men to the Father, through the Son who died and rose again, and through the Holy Spirit who joins together Father and Son, they turned Jewry into Christendom, and a world of sin, and shadows, and perplexities, • into a realm in which the eternal Author of good daily more reigns, through the revelation of His mind in His well-beloved Son. " When the Apostles reasoned how their Master had fulfilled in His own life the deepest substance of all that the law and the prophets meant or were intended for, they could not doubt that the mission He had received was the highest ; so that whatever unction or consecration belonged to the office of king, or priest, or prophet, had a higher reality in the spiritual office of the Saviour. Thus Jesus was most eminently the Christ; hence we are called Christians: and the things spoken of men once anointed for office might be transferred, so far as they were good, to Him. But His anointing was one of the Holy Spirit*, and of marvellous power over men's hearts. For a time it might be that some of the Apostles expected a visible reign of their Lord on earth; but such thoughts would fade in the deeper views of His kingdom of thought, which the Holy Spirit taught them with experience ; and when Jerusalem was razed, and its temple swept away, the simplest must have seen that the coming of the Son of man, which was to be in that generation, meant His coming in spirit and in power. When the old world of Jewry, with its sensuous heavens, and its earth at a distance from God, had passed into a kingdom of the Eternal encom- passing us, the spirit of Christ made all things t new in the Church at large, as from the beginning He had wrought a new and deeper mind in the hearts of those who received Him. " Time would fail us to tell of all the deeds of the Apostles and martyrs who went forth transforming the world in the spirit of Jesus, as the Christ of God. It is far better you should read • Acts X. 38. t Revelations xxi. 2 — 5. 24-2 372 THE APOSTLES. 8T PETER. them in their writings, which yet breathe of the Holy Spirit, by which they spake and lived. Unlearned, and ignorant, and of like passions with ourselves, they wrought by that love of Grod which breathed through them such a victory for His truth over violence and evil, as never men did before. The first in this noble army of the Prince of Peace is Peter, who in the weakness of man denied his master, and then repented, so that he received strength to live and die for Him. He takes up the great lesson of Christ, that God is a Spirit; that our sacrifices* must be spiritual ; that all who come to God in spirit and in truth, are now a royal priesthood, and, no less than the Jews once thought themselves, a chosen race, and a people separate for good. Thus men are delivered firom evil, he says, not by any external rite of purifying, but by the answer of a good conscience which should go with our acceptance of the grace of God as members of His Church. Nor was it an outward price, as of silver and gold, which bought men their freedom of knowing God as He is, and coming to Him as the Father, but the gift of His own life and precious life's blood by our great Deliverer. St Peter, indeed, for a time hesitated between a clear sight of the kingdom of Grod thus imveiled, and some natural feelings as a Jew. He hardly knew whether the old law had not still force, just as some Brahman, become a Christian, might have scruples about food, or caste ; so he hesitated about receiving Gentiles, and eating with them before his countTymen, just as you might in reference to some Pariah, if high-caste men were looking on. But as God taught him more of the mind of Christ in prayer and tranquillity of slumber, he put away such relics of the old man, and rose to a fuller sense of our freedom before Him who readeth the heart, and of mankind's brotherhood before our Father in heaven. Thus he became the first to give Gentiles every Christian symbol of their entering into the kingdom ; and so Christ fulfilled His promise, that he should have its keys, and oj)en its gates, both persuading men's hearts to desire to • I St Pet. ii. 9. ST PETER. PBOMI8E8 TO HIM. 373 come in, and giving them the appointed emblem of allegiance with a blessing. " Thus upon Peter, as upon a living stone, very near to the comer stone, which is Christ, who binds Jews and Gentiles into one, was built the temple of living minds. Thus he too, and the other Apostles, bound and loosed ; for such was their sim- plicity of heart, and innocence of faith, that what their good instinct shrank from, we see still to be wrong, and wliat they praised, we still find right. Such is the power of *an honest and good heart,^ that without learning it discerns things that are excellent ; for it does not quench the Spirit of Grod, and so is sensitive to evil and good. But what such men speak so as to find answer in pure consciences for ever, is doubly an echo of the law of heaven. Their freedom from rules is no rebellion against the inner law of truth. Consider now these precepts of St Peter, and if you find fault with them, say so ; but if they seem to express binding truths, help me to teach them to your children, as the religion of Christ. * Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeyiog the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently : being bom again, not of oor- ruptible seed, but of inoorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.' ' As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of Grod. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro ward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buf- feted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and sufler for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suflered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should fallow His steps : who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth : who, when He was 374 ST JAMES. JEWISH CHRISTIANITY. reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, He threatened not ; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously : who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness : by whose strij>es ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray ; but are now returned unto the Shep- herd and Bishop of your souls.' " Something of a Jewish mind, as once in St Peter, appears in St James. The Gospel wears in him a half unveiled aspect. Its good news is chiefly to the poor, that the Lord* of hosts is their ally against wealthy oppressors. Its righteousness is alms- giving. Its foundation of the Church is the equal value of souls in sight of one Judge. Its motive is fear of judgment, and its tone lias an echo of the Law of Sinai. Yet the law which St James teaches is not that of the letter, but of a free and earnest conscience. His governing principle is, to love our neighbour as ourself. Thus he is a true disciple of Christ, of whom by birth he was a kinsman ; and yet he shews that he has received the Spirit only by measure. Here is some of his wholesome doctrine : — ' Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down fi-om the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.