CHAPTER X.

JEW AND GENTILE-A CHRISTIAN SOLDIER-THE LIGHT WE HAVEGOD KNOWS AND OBSERVETH-CHRISTIANITY INSPIRES DUTY AND HEROISMECSTASY PETER'S VISION-CLEAN AND UNCLEANPETER'S COMMISSION-APOSTLE-WORSHIP-IMMERSION AND BAPTISM.

IN the chapter we have read we have one of those events which to us, enlightened in the knowledge of true and real distinctions, must appear of a very unnecessary or supererogatory character,-namely, that Jew and Gentile should be admitted into the same privileges, and be made heirs of the same blessed kingdom and eternal glory. But though it seems to us a thing that did not require a miracle in order to impress it, yet such was the intense nationality of the Jews, such the bigotry of the Pharisee, the Sadducee, and the Jewish ecclesiastic generally, that nothing short of a clear and unequivocal miracle, testifying the God of Abraham's approval, could persuade them that a Gentile ought to be admitted to the very same rights, and regarded exactly from the same point of view, as the most favoured of God's ancient people. This chapter is the record of an incident that awakened in Cornelius the hopes of amalgamation with Israel, and that convinced Peter that those, whether Jew or Gentile, who are accepted of God, it was no man's business to prohibit, anathematize, or exclude.

The first question that naturally occurs is, who was

this Cornelius, and what was the real amount of his moral, spiritual, or Christian character? Professionally he was a soldier, answering very much to a lieutenant among us, or a subaltern, who had then the command of a hundred soldiers, belonging to a legion; the hundred soldiers he commanded being called the Italian band. He had also with him, as we find from the 7th verse, among his household servants immediately attending upon him as an officer, a devout soldier. Now, we have here a very remarkable feature. It is a complete answer to those who assume that civilians only have a monopoly of the Gospel, and that the soldier is necessarily, like Peter's Gentiles, common or unclean. We have here the express revelation of God-and it does not occur once, but often-that soldiers embraced the Gospel, loved the Saviour, practised righteousness, when ecclesiastics, like the Pharisees, hated Christ, and civilians, like thousands of the Jews, shouted, "Away with him, away with him." It was a soldier at the foot of the cross who acknowledged Jesus to be the Son of God, when all clerical lips were dumb, and all civilian shouts were, "Away with him, away with him; crucify him, crucify him."

I appeal to you, I appeal to the most enthusiastic members of the Peace Society, is it possible that God would have thus specified, so often and so singularly, devout soldiers, Christian soldiers, if the very profession of a soldier were essentially sinful or profane? I cannot conceive it. At the present day there is abundant evidence that there is a church in the Navy and a church in the Army as holy, and perhaps more spiritual and more honest than a church in the nation. From the very habits of a soldier he is accustomed to accept

what he knows to be duty, and to believe what he knows to be true. And hence, when you present the truth to a soldier, with the solemn sanction of the great Captain of the Faith, he will accept it, when a civilian will quibble and cavil about it.

And so the sailor has, with all his sins and defects, a bluntness about him, an openness, a candour, so real, that if you set before him honest truth, and prove to the sailor that you speak from the very heart, it is scarcely in the heart of a sailor in her Majesty's Navy to reject the truth so uttered, in such a spirit, and on such grounds. And hence, in the present day, soldiers and sailors, dread and terrible as the function of the sword is, are at this moment adorning the doctrine they profess; and many a heart that is still beneath the sods of the Crimea has sent up to the skies a spirit that has washed its robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

This Cornelius, the soldier or the officer, is described here as a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." Some say he was a Christian —that is, a convert to the Gospel, even then; but then I cannot accept this, because Peter preaches to him Christ; and on the acceptance of the truths in Peter's sermon he is baptized. Others think-and I feel, with much more justice-that he was a proselyte, or one who knew the truths that were preached to Abraham, that were embodied in the rites of Levi, but did not rest on the mere formalities of worship, but saw above and beyond them, and worshipped God a Spirit in spirit and in truth. The language is so remarkable, that one cannot come to any other conclusion than this; because

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it is said in a subsequent part that he was a just man, and one that feared God, and of good report among all the Jews." Now, if he had been a mere Gentile Theist, he could not have had good report among the Jews; but the probability is that he was a sincere, a pious, and a spiritually minded Gentile proselyte, who believed in Judaism, but did not submit to certain Jewish rites and ordinances which were national peculiarities; and on the supposition that he was, the whole chapter is perfectly intelligible; and therefore the presumption is, that he knew the God of Abraham, and up to the light he had he acted.

I am one of those who think that if a man act up to the light that he has, having the candour to accept more when it is presented, he will never be left in darkness. The man who acts up fully to the light that he has, will not be saved in virtue of that light, but will not be left without further light in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. We have a proof here. Cornelius was just, religious, and feared God, up to the full extent of the truths that he knew; therefore God brought him into contact with Peter, and he learned other truths, and was baptized, and fully initiated in the truths of the Gospel.

To this Cornelius God manifested himself in a vision about the ninth hour-that is, about three o'clock in the afternoon, or between the evenings. This angel or messenger appears to him, and he said to him, "Thine alms"—that is, what you give to the poor" and thy prayers"-so fervent, so spiritual, so real" are come up before God," not as the Roman Catholic reads it, as a sacrifice, but as it is justly rendered in our Bible, "as a memorial”- -no more; not as

a merit, but as a memorial; not as a sacrifice, but as something that God recollects, attends to, and replies to. And then he gives him a commission. "Send to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter." And, then, how minute is the description! God knows the street you live in, the house you live in, the trade, the profession, you are of; what you are, and all about you, as truly as if Simon the tanner and Peter the apostle were the only couple in God's living and created universe. He knows them all.

"When the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier ;" the Christian officer preferring the Christian soldier to serve him. And do you think that this Christian soldier was less heroic because he was a Christian soldier, or less dutiful to his master? Just the reverse. Where there is a profession of religion as a cover for indolence, that is quite a different thing; but where there is the principle of religion, it is the elastic spring of duty to our master upon earth, and worship to our Master in the skies. "And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa."

Now another cotemporaneous vision occurs. "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour." In Eastern countries the houses have flat roofs, as I need not remind you. The door of the staircase,

or rather the end of the staircase that issues on the flat roof, has a little covering like the companion-door of a steamer or a ship upon the deck. The person makes for that, and sits down or reclines upon the roof; and there he either looks around him to breathe the fresh air, or he studies, or meditates, or worships and prays.