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Our Lord had been asking his disciples the question, -Whom do men say that I the Son of man, am? The reply was "Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets." He saith unto them, “Whom say ye that I am?" And Peter, who was the impetuous out-spoken disciple, always foremost of the twelve to answer questions put to them all, at once responds, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." The Master replies "Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven-and I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock"that is, upon this confession of thine, thus divinely revealed, of my true Son hip and Messiahship-a confession embracing the cordial reception of the divine plan for saving a, through the Gospel of

reconciliation, to be afterwards preached by you to the Gentiles upon this confession, the badge, as it is, of a true apostleship, will I build my Church. In other words, Christ declares, "I will build my Church on thee, Peter, as one of the preachers of my Gospel, confessing now, while others disallow and deny me, that thou recognisest my claims, and art ready to go forth at my bidding into all the world, and offer the discipleship of the Gospel everywhere to sinful and benighted men." Or, if we make the epithet refer directly to the disciple rather than his confession, then, "Thou art Peter,-Rock-as thy name imports, and corresponding with this name shall thy work and office be, for upon thee-upon thy ministry as upon a rock-shall the foundation of the Church be laid." And the promise here made was accordingly fulfilled, by Christ's using Peter's ministry in laying the foundation of the Church both among Jews and Gentiles, he being the first and most successful preacher to them both, and making from them the first proselytes to Christianity. At the Pentecostal effusion three thousand were received into the church on confession of faith and baptism, while the first mention of a Christian Church is

d in the same chapter that records this marveloutpouring of the Holy Ghost. Among the Gen

tiles also, the conversion of Cornelius, through the instrumentality of Peter, signalizes the foundation of the Church being laid, the comely superstructure that should arise upon it being composed of idolatrous throngs from various peoples, no longer "strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God."

If, then, any pre-eminence were given to Peter, by the language in which the Lord addressed him, it is a pre-eminence growing out of the position he was to hold, as first preacher to the wandering and sinblinded-a preacher whose labors should, with God's blessing, be productive of larger and more signal results than those of his apostolic co-workers in the missionary field. His doctrines and preaching, with the Master's promised presence and aid, and the doctrines and preaching, none the less, of his fellow "ambassadors for Christ," were the rock on which the fair and well compacted fabric of the Church should securely rest.

This rock, this foundation, thus characterized in general terms, deserves to be considered somewhat more particularly. The Church was appointed to rest upon the apostles, and those who should come after them in the rightful exercise of their high and heaven-derived functions-that is, upon the order of the Christian ministry, which, by Christ's direction

and decree, was to be perpetuated "alway, even to the end of the world."

In the arrangements of God's house, the institution of the Christian ministry is essential to the extension and well-being, and, so far as we can see, to the very continuance and existence of the Church. "For," asks the apostle, significantly, "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent ?" as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel, and bring good tidings of good things;" that is, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and the word of God by the lips of the preacher, and the preacher from Him who called him, raised him up, qualified him by breathing the Spirit on him, made him an accredited minister from the court of heaven, gave him favor in the sight of the people, and crowned his words and labors with the promised success. We thus see the important relation which the ministry sustain to the Church-how necessary they are to the accomplishment of the distinctive objects for which the Church exists. Strike this link from the foregoing series, and the whole chain is parted-the

interval between Christ and the soul, between heaven and the sinner, is boundless and impassable. The sinner indeed might have been saved, perhaps, on other terms and by another process. Christ Jesus might have announced his Gospel everywhere miraculously. A perpetual miracle might have introduced converts into the pale of the Church, and supplied her with what is necessary for her subsistence and expansion. But God, in his wisdom, hath ordered otherwise. He hath ordained the salvation of souls through the "foolishness of preaching," and through the agency of "earthen vessels," men of "like infirmities" with those whom they labor to instruct and win to Christ. It is obvious, then, to see how the Church may be said to be built on Peter, as one of the apostles, and by certain deduction on the preachers of Christ, who perpetuate the sacred order. And in view of all this, the apostle's emphatic language to the Ephesian Church is as intelligible as it is decisive: "Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets."

But the Church is built on this foundation only relatively, and by no means in an absolute and unqualified sense. For the apostles and preachers of