down the principle on which He bestows His gifts when He says,
'According to thy faith be it unto thee!'



THE SERVANT OF THE LORD

'Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to
bless you, In turning away every one of you from his iniquities.'
--ACTS iii. 26.

So ended Peter's bold address to the wondering crowd gathered in the
Temple courts around him, with his companion John and the lame man
whom they had healed. A glance at his words will show how
extraordinarily outspoken and courageous they are. He charges home on
his hearers the guilt of Christ's death, unfalteringly proclaims His
Messiahship, bears witness to His Resurrection and Ascension, asserts
that He is the End and Fulfilment of ancient revelation, and offers
to all the great blessings that Christ brings. And this fiery, tender
oration came from the same lips which, a few weeks before, had been
blanched with fear before a flippant maidservant, and had quivered as
they swore, 'I know not the man!'

One or two simple observations may be made by way of introduction.
'Unto you _first_'--'first' implies second; and so the Apostle has
shaken himself clear of the Jews' narrow belief that Messias belonged
to them only, and is already beginning to contemplate the possibility
of a transference of the kingdom of God to the outlying Gentiles.
'God having raised up His Son'--that expression has no reference, as
it might at first seem, to the fact of the Resurrection; but is