for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste." That is unquestionably Christ. You are aware the Roman Catholics say it is Peter. My answer to that is, was Peter such a precious corner stone? was he such a tried stone? was he a sure foundation? was he so stedfast? did he not fall? But what proves that it cannot have been Peter is the simple fact that Peter did not know it. Long after he was constituted the foundation rock, if ever he was so constituted, upon earth, he wrote to the Christians scattered throughout the world, and he said, "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner; neither is there salvation in any other." And again he says, "It is contained in the Scripture, Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious; but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner." Now could Peter have ever written such words some twenty years and upwards after he was constituted the foundation stone? He seems anxious to disabuse their minds of the least impression that he was anything of the sort, and to rivet and deepen in their minds the conviction "ye are built upon the foundations," plural, "of the apostles and prophets; Jesus Christ being the chief corner and foundation stone;" or as Paul says, “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus." I know the passage, and that passage I have often explained to you,

which is quoted to prove that Peter corresponds to this prophecy. It is said, “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Now if I wished a text to prove precisely the reverse of what it is quoted for by Romanists, I should be abundantly satisfied with that very text; for you will notice that with all the excellence of our Protestant version of the Bible, and there is in it nothing that tends to establish error, there are words rendered I think indefinitely that might have been rendered definitely, and translations which might have been much more perspicuous and clear. This is one of them: it says, "Thou art Peter." In that passage from the 16th chapter of Matthew I believe the word Peter ought not to be used at all; and I will tell you why. The Greek word for a stone is TεTрos; Simon Stono was really his name; we say Simon Peter, but his name was strictly and properly Simon Stone.

Well now, if you recollect that that is the meaning of the word, there is no reason in the world why our translators should have rendered it, "Thou art Peter;" they ought rather to have rendered it, "Thou art a stone." You will notice, there is no sense in saying, "Thou art Peter;" because in the previous verse Jesus asks "Whom do ye say that I

am?

Then Simon Stone answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Then Jesus takes his name, I admit, and he says, This confession that you have made is the confession of the foundation. Thou art better than Simon Stone-thou art a living stone. Now mark how that harmonizes with what Peter says, "Ye as living stones are built upon

πετροι,

Jesus Christ, the foundation stone." As if our Lord had said, Thou art a living stone; and upon this, not πετρῴ, but τῇ πέτρα; "thou art a living stone, and upon this, the rock" -a totally different word from πετρоS-" which thou hast just confessed, namely, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my church." What is that church? The aggregate of the TETрo, the walls, composed of such living "peters" peters" or stones; "I will build my church," or my company of living stones; "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It is the clearest declaration that Christ is the rock, Christ the foundation; and Peter simply one of the principal living stones, quickened by his spirit, laid upon that rock, and built upon it; a wall the cement of which is love, and the foundation of which is Christ, the Rock of Ages. Now therefore, "I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone;" tried in heaven, tried on earth, tried by trouble, tried by promise; a precious corner stone. When the ancients built a house, they had a stone that knit together the two walls, of great length; and this corner stone knits into one edifice Jew and Gentile, the ancient church and the modern church; and he that believeth in it shall not make haste; that is, he shall be safe, be quiet, and enjoy peace.

Then he tells them in the 18th verse-having thus shown them the foundation they were trusting on, and having shown them the foundation they ought to trust in your covenant with death that you profess to have entered into shall be disannulled; and your agreement with hell, that you believe you have settled, will not stand; for the overflowing

scourge that I will send will utterly sweep away you, and the refuges of lies, and all that trust in them, whatever be their character or whatever be their nature.

And then in the close of the chapter, by allusions to agricultural operations, he shows them that just as the farmer does not always plough, but sometimes harrows, sometimes sows, sometimes reaps; just as he varies the seed that he casts into the soil, according to its character, by rotation of crops, to produce better and more profitable results, so will I deal with you; I will not always shine upon you with sunshine, I will not always rain torrents of rain upon you; but I will vary my treatment of you; I will sometimes send you prosperity, that it may test you; I will sometimes send you affliction, that it may try you; I will sometimes visit your land with the hurricane, that I may see how strong you are, and how you can wrestle with it; and I will sometimes reap where I have sown, that you may see that I am looking for fruit. I have a great purpose, I have a grand design; I have planted you a great nation, a choice vine, not for your sakes, but for my glory, and for the good of all succeeding generations; and if you do not give me glory as a free-will offering, I will exact it from you as the sacrifice of a broken and a suffering heart.

ARIEL'S RUIN.-A FUTURE EVENT.—SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.—THE SEALED BOOK.— FUTURE BLESSING.

ISAIAH XXIX.

THE name of the city against which judgment is denounced here is Ariel; the Hebrew word Ariel means "the lion of God;" and it is supposed the allusion is to the statement in Genesis, "Judah is a lion's whelp," and also that the solution of this allusion is in the fact recorded in the Second Book of Samuel, that " David took the stronghold of Zion, and dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David." Ariel, therefore, seems beyond dispute to be the name given to that city, the chief and the most distinguished tribe of which was Judah, the tribe symbolised by the lion; "the city where David dwelt," which identifies it with the expression in Samuel, "David dwelt in the fort." Then God says

of this city he will distress it; and he describes the fearful judgments that shall rise like an advancing tide, and beat against its walls until they are levelled with the dust, and the sufferings of its people be without precedent and without parallel.

The real question before us is, does this describe the first siege of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian, that is to say, about seventy years after the birth of our Lord, and its desolations and its suffer