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If we are true Christians, we shall find it essential to our comfort in religion, to have clear views of Christ's priestly office and intercession. Christ lives, and therefore our faith shall not fail. Let us beware of regarding Jesus only as one who died for us. Let us never forget that He is alive for evermore. St. Paul bids us specially remember that He is risen again, and is at the right hand of God, and also maketh intercession for us. (Rom. viii. 34.) The work that He does for His people is not yet over. He is still appearing in the presence of God for them, and doing for their souls what He did for Peter. His present life for them is just as important as His death on the cross eighteen hundred years ago. Christ lives, and therefore true Christians "shall live also."

We learn, thirdly, from these verses, the duty incumbent on all believers who receive special mercies from Christ. We read that our Lord said to Peter, "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren.”

It is one of God's peculiar attributes, that He can bring good out of evil. He can cause the weaknesses and infirmities of some members of His Church to work together for the benefit of the whole body of His people. He can make the fall of a disciple the means of fitting him to be the strengthener and upholder of others.Have we ever fallen, and by Christ's mercy been raised to newness of life? Then surely we are just the men who ought to deal gently with our brethren. We should tell them from our own experience what an evil and bitter thing is sin. We should caution them against trifling with temptation. We should warn them against pride, and presumption, and neglect of prayer. We should tell

them of Christ's grace and compassion, if they have fallen. Above all, we should deal with them humbly and meekly, remembering what we ourselves have gone through.

Well would it be for the Church of Christ, if Christians were more ready to good works of this kind! There are only too many believers who in conference add nothing to their brethren. They seem to have no Saviour to tell of, and no story of grace to report. They chill the hearts of those they meet, rather than warm them. They weaken rather than strengthen. These things ought not so to be. The words of the apostle ought to sink down into our minds, "Having received mercy we faint not. We believe, and therefore we speak." (2 Cor. iv. 1, 13.)

We learn, lastly, from these verses, that the servant of Christ ought to use all reasonable means in doing his Master's work. We read that our Lord said to His disciples, "He that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one."

It is safest to take these remarkable words in a proverbial sense. They apply to the whole period of time between our Lord's first and second advents. Until our Lord comes again, believers are to make a diligent use of all the faculties which God has implanted in them. They are not to expect miracles to be worked, in order to save them trouble. They are not to expect bread to fall into their mouths, if they will not work for it. They are not to expect difficulties to be surmounted, and enemies to be overcome, if they will not wrestle, and struggle, and take pains. They are to remember that it is "the hand of the diligent which maketh rich." (Prov. x. 4.)

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We shall do well to lay to heart our Lord's words in this place, and to act habitually on the principle which they contain. Let us labour, and toil, and give, and speak, and act, and write for Christ, as if all depended on our exertions. And yet let us never forget that success depends entirely on God's blessing! To expect success by our own "purse" and "sword" is pride and selfrighteousness. But to expect success without the "purse and sword" is presumption and fanaticism. Let us do as Jacob did when he met his brother Esau. He used all innocent means to conciliate and appease him. But when he had done all, he spent all night in prayer. (Gen. xxxii. 1-24.)

NOTES. LUKE XXII. 31-38.

31.[Simon, Simon.] The repetition of Simon's name implies solemnity and importance in the statement about to be made, and deep concern on behalf of Simon's soul. It is like the address to Martha, when she was "careful about many things," and to Saul, when he was persecuting disciples. (Luke x. 41; Acts ix. 4.)

Our Lord's addressing Peter in this place, seems to make it probable that Peter was one of those who were most forward in contending for the pre-eminence in the verses preceding those we are now considering. Our Lord tells him that while he is seeking greatness, he is on the very point of making a grievous fall.

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[Satan hath desired to have you. There is something very awful in this expression. It shows us that the devil is often desiring" to accomplish our ruin, and striving to accomplish it, while we know nothing of his doings, because he is invisible. On the other hand, there is some comfort in the expression. It teaches us that Satan can do nothing without God's permission. However great his "desire" to do mischief, he works in chains.

The distinction should be marked between "you" in the verse before us and "thee" in the verse following. Satan desired to have all the apostles. Christ's intercessory prayer was specially on behalf of Peter.

[Sift you as wheat.]

This expression signifies that Satan desired to shake, toss to and fro, and harass the apostle, just

as corn is shaken to and fro when it is dressed and winnowed, to separate the grain from the chaff. It aptly describes the effect of temptation on a believer. Whatever Satan's intention may be, the result of temptation is to bring out the chaff, or infirmity of a believer, and generally in the long run to purify his soul. It was strikingly so with Peter and the other apostles in the present instance.

32.-[I have prayed for thee.] We need not hesitate to regard this as an example of our Lord's exercise of His office as an intercessor for His people. What He did for Peter, when Peter knew nothing of his danger, He is daily and hourly doing for all who believe on His name.

[That thy faith fail not.] The Greek word translated "fail" is the root of our English word "eclipse." The object of our Lord's intercession was that Peter's faith might not altogether die, though for a time it might be very weak.

Let it be noted that "faith" is the root of the whole Christian character, and the part which Satan specially labours to overthrow. In the temptation of Eve, of Peter, and of our Lord Himself, the assault was in each case directed against the same point, and the object sought was to produce unbelief.

The Roman Catholic commentators, Cornelius à Lapide, Maldonatus, and Stella, endeavour to prove from the words before us, that the Roman Catholic Church, of which, they say, Peter was the head, was never to depart from the faith, and that our Lord gave a prophetical intimation of its perpetuity and fidelity. It is because of the words before us, we are told, that the Church of Rome has never fallen, while the Churches of Alexandria, Constantinople, and Antioch, have gone to decay!

A more gratuitous and baseless application of Scripture it is difficult to conceive. For one thing, there is not the slightest proof that Peter was the founder or head of the Roman Church; or indeed that he was Bishop of Rome at all. For another thing, the words before us apply most clearly to Peter only as an individual, and have no reference whatever to any church. Above all, the words were not spoken as indicating any special honour put upon Peter. They were meant on the contrary to teach, that Peter was about to fall more shamefully than any of the apostles, and that nothing but Christ's special intercession would save him from total ruin. The faith of all the apostles was about to prove very weak, but no one would be so near a complete eclipse of faith as Peter!

Lightfoot says, "Certainly it was Peter's advantage, that Christ prayed for him; but it was not so much for Peter's honour, that he, beyond all others, should stand in need of such a prayer."

Wordsworth says, "The Roman divines say that the prayer

and precept of our Lord extends to all the Bishops of Rome, as St. Peter's successors, and that in speaking to St. Peter, our Lord spoke to them. Will they complete the parallel, and say that the Bishops of Rome specially need prayer, because they deny Christ? Let them not take a part and leave the rest."

[When thou art converted.] This expression is somewhat remarkable, and has occasioned difference of opinion among commentators. For one thing, the word translated "art converted," would be rendered more literally "hast converted." For another thing, to speak of an apostle like Peter being "converted," seems a strange saying to some. The following explanations of the expression have been given.

1. Some think that the word rendered "converted" was not intended to bear so strong a meaning. They regard it as a Hebrew form of speech, and a kind of expletive word. They compare it to such phrases as this in the New Testament, "Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven." (Acts vii. 42) They would then render it as Bengel does, like an adverb, "do thou in thy turn strengthen thy brethren."

2. Some think, with Sir Norten Knatchbull, that the word translated "art converted," should have been rendered in an active sense, and that it means, “When thou hast converted thy brethren, strengthen them."

3. Some think that the conversion here spoken of, means simply "recovery from a fall," and that it does not necessarily mean that first conversion to God which takes place when an unconverted person becomes a Christian. This is by far the most satisfactory interpretation of the expression. For the Greek word being rendered, “art converted,” though an active verb, there is authority in Acts iii. 19.

Burkitt remarks, "This conversion was not from a state of sin Peter was so converted before: but it was from an act of sin into which he should lapse and relapse."

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[Strengthen thy brethren.] There seems a tacit reference here to the dispute about pre-eminence, which had just taken place among the apostles. Instead of wasting time in wrangling about primacy, give thyself to the better work of raising up, confirming, and doing good to thy brethren. Warn the unruly. Comfort the feeble minded. Teach all the beauty of humility. Show them by thine own sad experience the danger of pride and high thoughts."

Most commentators think that the general tone of the Epistles of St. Peter shows special marks of the effect of this command. They are pre-eminently hortatory, direct, and instructive to believers.

Alford calls attention to the fact that the Greek word for

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