The Life of Peter. 66 HE first glimpse we had of him was when Andrew called him. He was first called as a disciple, not as an apostle, The second call was when he was called to the work of the ministry. The next glimpse we had was related in the fifth chapter of the gospel of Luke, when the Lord spoke to the people the words of God from the boat at the sea-side, and then follows the miraculous draught of fishes. Then it was that Peter said: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O God." Then Jesus said that thereafter Peter would catch men. The thought he wanted to call attention to was, that when Peter was called he didn't leave his work until called twice. There were too many unprepared men in the Lord's work; there were too many men made ministers in the world to-day. He said this because there were a good many young men, young converts, who were looking to the work of the ministry and thinking they were called to that. John Wesley used to say to young men, candidates for the ministry, when they preached, "Did you make any one mad? No." "Did you convert anybody?" and then they would say "No." "Then," Wesley said, "that's very good evidence you're not called." Men need to have souls before they begin this work. The Lord first made these men to go to the lake and take a great haul of fish, and then when they were called they had something to leave. They didn't have much to leave, but they left what they had. What had they to leave? A few broken nets and a haul of fish. And that's the way with a great many Christians of the present day; they didn't want to leave their little draft of fishes and their broken nets. The next time we get a glimpse of Peter is in the fourteenth chapter, of Matthew, where the Lord tells Peter to walk on the water. Here we find Peter in "Doubting Castle.” And that was when Peter got his eye off the Lord, and he saw the waves and heard the wind, then his eyes wandered away from Christ. But Peter's prayer was to the point; it didn't begin with a long preamble, which would have put him forty feet under water before the Lord heard it. But it was to the point: "Lord save me; I perish." Again in the sixteenth chapter we find that Christ is saying: "Whom say men that I am ?” and then he asked Peter, and Peter said: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." This shows the power there was in confessing Christ. Peter was a true Trinitarian; he got square on the rock. Again, we find him indulging in manworship, the first beginning of Rome. This was on the occasion of the Transfiguration, on the mountain. Peter said: "God, let us make three tabernacles ;" and as soon as he said this, why, God just snatched Moses and Elias away, and left them only Jesus. There was too much of this minister worship, of this church-worship at the present day. This was illustrated in the twenty-second chapter of Revelations, ninth verse, where the angel said, "Worship God." If Christ was not the Son of God, then Christians were the greatest idolators that ever lived. Again we find Peter in the twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew, at the twenty-third verse, where Peter's fall was recited. He became self-confident and spiritually proud, The Lord couldn't use him until he had been humbled, and here he stood up among the Lord's disciples, just as though he was all powerful. This lesson of humility must be learned by every man whom God uses. "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. The greatest Bible characters fell because they failed in their strongest points. Moses was not allowed to see the promised land, and there were Saul and David and Jacob who fell also, and Peter too, at the very time when he was boasting of his own power. I am always sure that young converts who say they're safe are where the devil will trip them up. Again, Peter was asleep in the garden when the Lord told him to watch. This was the time when Satan had these Christians in the churches asleep, and then troubles came in the churches. Then came the next step-"He followed Him afar off." And this was the gradual downward course. No one would find a Christian man in the theatre; those Christians who are in such places are all asleep. Men of the world said they liked "liberal Christians," but these men were never sent for by dying men. They would never find a card-playing, a smoking and chewing, a horse-racing and a dancing Christian who amounted to anything. Then the next downward step was when Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant; and afterwards, Peter denied the Lord, first to the young maid, and then to another servant. Here were two denials by the very man who but a few hours before had said he would never betray or forsake the Lord. Then, again, the third time the servant said, "Thy speech betrayeth thee," but Peter answered with oaths that he never knew Him. It's hard for a Christian to forget the speech of the Lord's people, even after he has long departed from the ways of God and Christ. But one look brought Peter back, one word undid all that T Satan had been doing for hours; and he went out and wept bitterly. One of the first words that Christ said after the crucifixion and resurrection was: "Tell the disciples and Peter," and Peter had a personal interview with the Lord. And then, when Christ was leaving him, He asked him, "Lovest thou Me more than these ?" But Peter didn't answer; he had learned humility, and after the Lord had asked him again, Peter, now humble, already meet for the Master's use, said, “Lord, Thou knowest." "Christ Jesus came to save sinners.”—1 Tim. i. 15. Is Jesus now your friend? His love shall never end; Is Jesus thine ? Earth's pleasures may decrease, Take Jesus thine. Think what he's done for thee; He bled upon the tree; Is Jesus thine ? See the sun in darkness hide, When for you the Saviour died, Take Jesus thine. He is a friend indeed; Is Jesus thine ? He is the friend you need; He's knocking, let him in, There is no friend like him, He'll cleanse you from your sin; Take Jesus thine. Say is your soul at rest; Jesus alone can bless; Wouldst thou in glory dwell, With saints in rapture tell, Is Jesus now thy friend? Is Jesus thine? He'll save when life shall end; Address to Young Men, II. OU will find my text this evening in the sixth chapter of Galatians, 7th, 8th and 9th verses: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." You who were here last Wednesday night remember that we had for our text, "Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges," and then we tried to find a text which every one would admit was true. I think that we have one tonight that no infidel, no skeptic, or deist can attack. There are some passages which we do not have to prove by the Word of God, but merely by our own experience. Your own lives will prove many passages in scripture. You can take up the daily papers and see them fulfilled under your own eyes. This is one of them. Perhaps there has not been a text of Scripture run out in this Tabernacle as this one has. Night after night we have said something about it; night after night Mr. Sankey has sung out, "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." My friends, we cannot quote it too often. We want to quote it, and preach it till it gets down to the hearts of the people. Now it is very natural to be deceived? I suppose there is not a man or woman here but who has been deceived by his or her most intimate friends. You have been deceived by your own friends, and you have been deceived by your enemies, and how many could rise up here and say they have not been deceived by themselves? How many of us found our own heart more treacherous than anything else? How many of us have not found the truth of that passage, "The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." We can be deceitful to each other, to our friends and to ourselves, but bear in mind we cannot deceive God. How often does man find that Satan had deceived him? But has he ever found God deceiving him? I have never found a man who has said that he has been or that he has heard of anybody whom God has deceived. How many times has man said he has been deceived by his fellows-by his own treacherous heart; and our experience in this direction only shows that we cannot rely upon man, upon . ourselves, but only upon God. Now, it is a law of nature that if a man sows he will reap what he sows. If a man sows water-melons, he don't look for cauliflowers; if a man sow potatoes, he don't look for cabbages; if he sows onions, he don't look for corn. If he plants potatoes, he expects potatoes; if he sows corn, he looks for corn; or wheat, he expects to reap wheat. So in the natural world, a man expects to reap what he sows. If a man learns a carpenter's or a builder's trade, he expects to put up buildings for a living. If a man toils and studies hard for a profession-if he is a lawyer, he expects to practise law. He don't expect to have to preach the Gospel for a living. He has been sowing for years, and he expects to reap. As a man sows, so he expects to reap. This the law in the natural world, and so it is with the spiritual: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted ;" 66 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God;" "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake"-why? because they shall get rich? no-"for they shall be filled." Now, you will see that a certain result is the product of certain conditions. This is the law, which you will find carried out all through the world, in natural and spiritual things. If a man is a thief, you expect to see him come to an ignominious end. If a man is drunken and dissipated, we look, as a natural consequence of his dissipation, to see him go to ruin. Yet men themselves don't see this; their eyes are closed to their folly. A friend who was coming down with me to-night said: "When I look back, I see that I started wrong when I came here. It seems as if I must have been blind. I did not see this till within the last two or three weeks." My friends, that's what Satan does with a man-he just blinds him, and when he has got a man blinded he does anything he wants with him. It is very hard to make men understand this simple truth, that they will have to reap what they sow, especially young men from seventeen to twenty-one. That, you know, is the ugly age. There is more trouble with them then than at any other stage. I remember when I was at that age. I knew a good deal more than my mother or any of my friends. You take a young man at that age, and you'll find he knows a great deal more than his father, his grandfather, or even his great-grandfather, all put together. "He is wise in his own conceit." It is during that ugly age that characters are forming for good or evil; and bear in mind, you young men, that "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' If a man sows tares, he has got to reap them. It may not be to-morrow, |