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Satan gained little by sifting St. Peter.

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sifted out the chaff: but the wheat was left behind

safe for God's garner.

The chaff was St. Peter's

rashness and self-conceit, which came from his own sinful nature; and that went, and St. Peter was rid of it for ever. The wheat was St. Peter's courage, and faith, and honour, which came from God; and that remained, and St. Peter kept them for ever. That, we read, was St. Peter's conversion; that worked the thorough and complete change in his character, and made him a new man from that day forth. And then, after that terrible and fiery trial, St. Peter was ready to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gave him courage with fervent zeal to preach the gospel of his Crucified Lord, and at last to be crucified himself for that Lord's sake; and so fulfil the Lord's words to him. When thou wast young, thou girdedst thy'self, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but ' when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth 'thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry 'thee whither thou wouldest not.' By that our Lord seems to have meant, You were strong and 'proud and self-willed enough in your youth. The 'day will come when you will be tamed down, 'ready and willing to suffer patiently, even agony 'from which your flesh and blood may shrink'; and the Lord's words came true. For, say the old

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stories, when St. Peter was led to be crucified, he refused to be crucified upright, as the Lord Jesus had been, saying, 'That it was too great an 'honour for him, who had once denied his Lord, 'to die the same death as his Lord died.' So he was crucified, they say, with his head downward; and ended a glorious life in a humble martyrdom.

And what may we learn from St. Peter's character? I think we may learn this. Fraukness, boldness, a high spirit, a stout will, and an affectionate heart; these are all God's gifts, and they are pleasant in his eyes, and ought to be a blessing to the man who has them. Ought to be a blessing to him, because they are the stuff out of which a good, and noble, and useful Christian man may be made. But they need not be a blessing to a man; they are excellent gifts: but they will not of themselves make a man an excellent man, who excels; that is, surpasses others in goodness. We may see that ourselves, from experience. We see too many brave men, freespoken men, affectionate men, who come to shame

and ruin.

How then can we become excellent men, like St. Peter? By being baptised, as St. Peter was, with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

Baptized with the Holy Ghost, to put into our hearts good desires; to make us see what is good,

and love what is good, long to do good: but baptized with fire also. He shall baptize you, John the Baptist said, 'with the Holy Ghost and 'with fire.'

Does that seem a some at least of you Some know, I believe. for it is true for all. Christ comes to baptize them with fire; with the bitter searching affliction which opens the very secrets of their hearts, and shows them what their souls are really like, and parts the good from the evil in them, the gold from the rubbish, the wheat from the chaff. And he shall gather 'the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he shall 'burn up with unquenchable fire.' God grant to each of you, that when that day comes to you, there may be something in you which will stand the fire; something worthy to be treasured up in God's garner, unto everlasting life.

hard saying? Do not know what that means? All will know one day; To all, sooner or later,

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But do not think that the baptism of fire comes only once for all to a man, in some terrible affliction, some one awful conviction of his own sinfulness and nothingness. No; with manyand those, perhaps, the best people it goes on month after month, year after year: by secret trials, chastenings which none but they and God can understand, the Lord is cleansing them from

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their secret faults, and making them to understand wisdom secretly; burning out of them the chaff of self-will and self-conceit and vanity, and leaving only the pure gold of his righteousness. How many sweet and holy souls look cheerful enough before the eyes of man, because they are too humble and too considerate to intrude their secret sorrows upon the world. And yet they have their secret sorrows. They carry their cross unseen all day long, and lie down to sleep on it at night; and they will carry it for years and years, and to their graves, and to the Throne of Christ, before they lay it down and none but they and Christ will ever know what it was; what was the secret chastisement which he sent to make that soul better, which seemed to us to be already too good for earth. So does the Lord watch his people, and tries them with fire, as the refiner of silver sits by his furnace, watching the melted metal, till he knows that it is purged from all its dross, by seeing the image of his own face reflected in it. God grant that our afflictions may so cleanse our hearts, that at the last Christ may behold himself in us, and us in himself; that so we may be fit to be with him where he is, and behold the glory which his Father gave him before the foundation of the world.

SERMON XIX.

ELIJAH.

(Tenth Sunday after Trinity.)

1 KINGS xxi. 19—20.

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? and thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine? And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.

OF all the grand personages in the Old Testa

ment, there are few or none, I think, grander than the prophet Elijah. Consider his strange and wild life, wandering about in forests and mountains, suddenly appearing, and suddenly disappearing again, so that no man knew where to find him; and, as Obadiah said when he met him, 'If I tell my Lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here; then, as soon as I am gone from thee, the Spirit of the Lord shall

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carry thee whither I know not.' Consider, again, his strange activity and strength, as when he goes, forty days and forty nights, far away

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