with punishment after death. Cephalus was glad to be rich, because his wealth saved him from sins of commission : our Lord denounces riches as dangerous, because they tempt to sins of omission. But this high view of the evil and danger of negative sin is, I think, peculiar to revelation ; and though most reasonable, when judging of things from Christian premises, would not suggest itself to our natural reason, which has but very inadequate ideas of God's penal government.

SERMON XIV.

CONVERSION.

LUKE XXII. 31, 32.

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

We have occasion to observe in many places of the New Testament, that our Lord Jesus Christ is made to stand in the place of all Christians, so that what happened to him is a sort of image, as well as a pledge and assurance of what will happen to his true servants. He suffered and died; and we can none of us expect to escape what our Master did not escape: he rose again, so surely implying by this, that they who are his should rise likewise, that St. Paul does not hesitate to argue, that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen: we are in a manner so

wrapped up with him, that if we are not to rise, he cannot possibly have risen: if he is risen, we shall most certainly rise also. But as our Lord himself is thus put in the place of his people, so also does it often happen with our Lord's first disciples. What is said to them, and of them, is said in very many cases to all, and of all: I do not mean only so far as regards general principles of life, or our common hopes as Christians; but even what may seem to belong to the apostles personally, as so many individual men, relates often to Christians of after times, standing towards one another, and towards their Lord, in the same relation as the apostles did then.

A remarkable instance of this is given in the words of the text. They were spoken to Peter of himself, and the other disciples then seated with him round the table of their Lord. They contain a warning, a comforting assurance, and a solemn charge. And wherever two or three Christians are gathered together to the very end of the world, this same warning, this same assurance, and this same charge, may be equally addressed to them also.

And first for the warning-" Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." We must

remember, that the word "you" is not used here in the sense of our common language, that is, to express a single person. Our Lord does not say that Satan had desired to have Peter only, but all the apostles; this is perfectly plain in the original, and, indeed, to an attentive reader, it is no less plain in the translation; for the translators never use the word "you" in rendering addresses made to a single person, but always the proper singular words, "thee" and "thou." Satan then had desired to have all the apostles, that he might sift them as wheat. The sense is expressed nearly in these words of our Lord, spoken on the same evening, as recorded by St. John; "Do ye now believe? Verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh, yea is now come, when ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone." The hour was coming, when their faith was to be severely tried, when they were to be sifted as wheat, to see what in them was good corn, and what was chaff. For this seems the meaning of Christ's expression; "Satan hath desired to have you, as he desired of old to have Job given up to him, that he might try him to the utmost. And so he will now try you, for it is God's will that you should be tried, that so being found faithful under

trial, God may be glorified in you, and your crown of life may be the brighter."

This was Christ's warning to his apostles; and to all Christians since, in however small a body they may be assembled, the words may be addressed with equal truth; "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." And this his desire will be granted; we shall assuredly all be tempted according to the measure of our strength; not beyond it certainly, yet fully up to it. Nor does it matter much at what period of our lives we apply the warning, for they can never be otherwise than true. They will be sometimes more true than at others; there will be to each of us seasons of extraordinary trial at some one part or other of our lives, when the strength or weakness of our characters will be most decisively proved; but still, no single day is without its trials, no state of life is free from them. If we feel, as we surely must feel, that during no one day, I had well nigh said, during no one hour, of our lives, is it always easy to us to be good; if we are sometimes too lively to think soberly, sometimes too indolent to act vigorously, sometimes too selfish to think or act for others, but bestow our care chiefly on ourselves, then we know that Christ's word is