these might make shift to pass through this world without a God-as many of them do :-but the Poor man who has no God to work with him in the mill or in the mine,—at the anvil, in the workshop, at the plough—a God to cheer him in his miseries, to watch over him as age steals on him, as sickness shatters him, as life declines,-the Poor man !— who needs these consolations, daily and hourly, more than any other portion of God's children, and who, moreover, might, if he would take the trouble to think,-perceive Him in the floating cloud and the radiant sunshine-might hear Him in the tempest; might feel Him in the breeze; might behold His beneficence in the meadows, and in the cornfields; and catch glimpses of His beauty-at night, in the starry heavens, and by day among the flowers,-such needers of a God claim all our sympathy and all our help.

In conclusion, my friends, as you would be faithful disciples of Jesus, let me exhort you to "think of these things," remembering the maxim of the Gospel Law,-"To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is Sin."

Be not unmindful of what you owe-what we all owe-to God,-what we owe to the world,-what we owe to ourselves; what we owe to enlightenment, to spiritual Liberty-to Truth and Right, and Christian Duty. It is clearly our duty, as it is our privilege, to search out the Truth,—to conserve the Truth,-and to disseminate the Truth to all. It is clearly our duty also, if we ask our neighbours to participate in our views, to let our "Confession of Faith" be unambiguous and honest; for "If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare him to the Battle?" Now, the God of Peace and Love be with you all! Amen.

"STAND UP;

I MYSELF ALSO AM A MAN."

Acts x. 26.

HE chapter from which our text is taken relates that—

THE

"There was a certain man in Cæsarea called Cornelius, a Centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an Angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the Angel who spake unto him was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier who waited on him continually: and when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa."

From this account we gather the condition of Cornelius; namely, that like the other Centurion named in the seventh chapter of Mark's gospel, he might have described himself

as

a man set under authority, having under me soldiers; and I say unto one Go, and he goeth; and to another Come, and he cometh: and to my servant Do this, and he doeth it."

The messengers or Cornelius accordingly proceed to Joppa. Peter in the meantime is warned in a vision of their coming; "The Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee." Then Peter went down to the men who were sent unto him from Cornelius, and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? And they said unto him, Cornelius the Centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among the nation of the Jews, was warned of God by a holy Angel, to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. Then called he them in and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Foppa accompanied him.

And the morrow after, they entered into Cæsarea: and Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsfolk and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. And Peter took him up saying,-Stand up: I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together.

I have preferred to give you the account of this meeting between the Apostle and Cornelius, as well as the account of the occasion, and the object of it, in the words of Scripture, because, whilst it is impossible that words can be more simple, it is equally impossible that any other words can be more graphic and complete.

It is not to direct your attention to the occasion of this meeting, nor the object of it, but simply to the manner of it, to what Cornelius did on meeting Peter, namely, "fell down at his feet and worshipped him;" and to what Peter saia on the occasion, namely, "Stand up: I myself also am a man," that I have selected these words of the Apostle as the nucleus of my discourse to-day.

It was very natural that a man warned by a heavenly vision to send for Peter, that he might converse with him concerning the religion of Jesus-his life, his teaching, his death, his resurrection-should have felt that especial reverence was due to the person of the Apostle; and consequently, that in the presence of those he had assembled in his house, he should fall down at Peter's feet and worship him.

Judging from what we see around us every day, it would perhaps be equally proper to say, that it would have been very natural in Peter to have accepted of this especial reverence, as due, if not to his own personal character, at least to the sacredness of his office, the office of one commissioned of Heaven to propagate a religion so pure, so catholic, so sublime as the religion of Jesus.

But however natural this proceeding would have been in other men—in men conversant with the usages of society and of nations among whom honour is by some exacted as a Right, and, by others, yielded as a Duty,-in an Apostle of Jesus, who was himself the very personification of meek ness and humility, it would have been the assumption of an importance totally at variance with the spirit of the Gospel he was commissioned to teach.

Peter had been a daily witness of his divine Master's conduct through all his public ministrations, and on the occasion we are considering,-tempting as it was in the presence of many witnesses to gratify a mere human feeling, the Disciple proved himself to be worthy of his Master: for when Cornelius had prostrated himself before him, “Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.” From whatever point of view we may regard this act of the Apostle, it is a noble one, and full of instruction to ourselves; as a mere act of courtesy, a Prince who had studied courtesy all his life, could not have exceeded its dignified urbanity. And yet Peter but a few years previously was nothing more than a simple uneducated fisherman, and naturally not the most gentle or refined of the class to which he belonged: he was of an irritable and imperious temper; for on one occasion he drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the High Priest of the Jews. His language was sometimes during the life of his Master, coarse and reprehensible: for on one occasion, when he had been guilty of an untruth, and that untruth nothing less than a denial of his Master, when he was in adversity and danger; a kinsman of Malchus pointing him out as one of the twelve he had seen with Jesus in the garden, Peter began to curse and to swear, declaring that he knew not the

man.

But on the occasion of his meeting with Cornelius, years after the death of Jesus, how different was his character, how changed his manner! As a courteous act no master of the art could have surpassed it in manly simplicity and grace. This is worthy of remembrance, for it is certain