Let not the proposal made by an old subscriber in the last Herald be permitted to pass into forgetfulness. A general adoption of it, by the heads of Christian families, could not fail to produce a most beneficial effect, The thought that thus many thousand families were praying for the divine blessing on the mission every Lord's day morning, and that they were giving under the influence of solemn prayer to Him, is indeed who has been recently baptized by diminished, if kind attention be given Mr. NOEL, has taken Nottinghamshire to this oft-repeated request. and Leicestershire; Mr. WHEELER, North Devon; and Mr. TRESTRAIL and Mr. NEW of Birmingham, the Worcestershire Auxiliary. Some few of these engagements will run partly into the first week of the present month. We would fain hope that they will be found, in every respect, most profitable missionary engagements, and that a liberal, devout, and earnest spirit has pervaded them. We again respectfully remind the delightful. May the suggestion thrown officers of the Auxiliaries of a request, out by a most liberal and zealous friend very often made, to send up their re-soon become a fact ! mittances speedily. We would say to We would intimate to any friends them, don't wait until all your accounts who may not have received their copies are finally adjusted before you remit; of the Report, that they may have them but send up what cash is in hand. At on application at the Mission House, or this period of the financial year we are by intimating in what way they may be compelled to borrow of the bankers. But sent, if possible, free from expense to the amount required may be seriously the society. POSTSCRIPT. We take the present opportunity of years, passed a resolution in acknowcorrecting a mistake in the list of ledgment, and placed his name in the honorary members of the Committee, as printed in the Report. Our esteemed friend, the Rev. C. E. BIRT, A.M., of Wantage, felt it last year to be his duty, in consequence of the state of his health, to resign his seat on the Committee. This resignation was reluctantly accepted, and the Committee, to mark, in the only way open to them, their sense of Mr. BIRT's services for upwards of twenty list of honorary members. By an oversight, which was not discovered till it was too late to correct the error, Mr. BIRT's name was omitted from the printed list in the Report for the present year. It is due to the Committee, and to Mr. BIRT, to explain this circumstance, which the Secretaries most sincerely regret. FOREIGN LETTERS RECEIVED. AFRICA..........CLARENCE..................... Saker, A..........June 28. ASIA ............... CALCUTTA CHITTAGONG LANDOUR BRITTANY ...... MORLAIX ..Lewis, C. B.......July 1. ,,Jenkins, J. August 20. SERAMPORE..................Denham, W. H..July 1, HAITI ............JACMEL. The thanks of the Committee are presented to the following friends Friends at Lewisham Road, for a box of clothing; Juvenile Missionary Society, Hanley, for a box of clothing, for Africa; A subscriber, for a parcel of Baptist Magazines; Drawing Room Society, Camberwell, by Mrs. Doxsey, for a parcel of useful articles, for India; Friends at Kettering, for a box of clothing, for Rev. H. Capern, Bahamas; Friend at Hammersmith, for a parcel of magazines and reports; Friends at Mint Lane, Lincoln, for a case of useful articles, including a number of boots and shoes from Mr. Penney, for Mr. J. Fuller, Bimbia; Miss Eley, Wotton under Edge, for copies of Reports; Rev. C. Kirtland, Canterbury, for do. The Committee will feel obliged to any friends who may have copies of the last year's Annual Report of the Society, which they do not require for their own use or for distribution, if they will kindly return them, carriage free, to the Mission House; as the Committee's reserved copies are quite exhausted. CONTRIBUTIONS, Received on account of the Baptist Missionary Society, during the month In the amount, £63 13s. 3d., acknowledged in the Annual Report as received from W. D. Horsey, Esq., Wellington, the following sums are included :— THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1852. LOVE TO CHRIST. A SERMON BY THE LATE REV. PHILIP GROSER. "So, when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep."-JOHN xxi. 15—17. about a hundred yards from the beach, when a stranger addressed them, and finding they had taken nothing, advised them to cast their net on the other side of the vessel. They did so, and to their astonishment their net was immediately full. John, the disciple whom Christ THE scene of this most interesting conversation was the shore of the sea of Galilee, and took place during the six weeks that our Lord remained on earth between his resurrection and ascension. The disciples were in Galilee by appointment of our Saviour, who had promised to meet them there; and the even-loved, the youngest of the party, and ing before this conversation, Peter and John and five other of the disciples were together, probably waiting till the time fixed had arrived. Peter proposed to go upon the sea, as they had been wont, fishing. The others agreed, but so little success did they meet with, that though they had been toiling the whole night when the morning was come they had caught nothing. They were probably about to come on shore, and were XV.-FOURTH SERIES. perhaps the quickest of sight and thought-at all events one whose loving character would lead his thoughts to anything connected with his Masterremembered a similar miracle performed when first he became his disciple, and looking again at the stranger, exclaimed, "It is the Lord." Peter no sooner heard than, prompted by his natural ardour, and stimulated by sorrow at his late denial of his Master and a longing to 4 G testify his love, drawing his loose coat tightly round him and leaving the others to bring the ship to land, he casts himself into the water and swims ashore to the spot where Jesus stood. The others having at length come, and a meal having been prepared and ended, this conversation took place. The intention of our Lord appears to have been to deepen Peter's sorrow, and to induce in him humility and selfdistrust; to reinstate him in the opinion of his fellow disciples, and to give him self an opportunity of expressing his own complete forgiveness of Peter's desertion. Nor can we fail to notice the exquisite delicacy and kindness with which he accomplishes his purpose. Though Peter had been at least three times in his company since his resurrection, this appears to have been the first allusion to the subject. The threefold repetition of the question could not but call to Peter's mind his threefold denial; though in a manner of all others the least calculated to wound his tenderest feelings. The first time that our Lord put the question, "Lovest thou me more than these ?" there was doubtless an allusion to Peter's boast on the night of the denial, "Although all men deny thee, yet will not I;" but in how gentle, in how tender, in how loving a manner is this allusion made. Peter had learnt humility from his fall, and silently passing by all comparison with the rest, he appeals to his Master's knowledge of his heart. Our Saviour kindly accepted this silent acknowledgment, and the second time asked merely, "Lovest thou me ?" "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Peter answered as before. The force of this answer, however, cannot be fully conveyed by a translation; since Peter does not use the same word that Jesus employed. There are two words in Greek signifying love; but one, the one which Christ used, denoting rather esteem, the love of admiration or respect, the love which may be shown to a neighbour, or that of a disciple to his teacher; the other, that Peter used in reply, denoting warm affection, the love of a friend to his friend.* This distinction is the more interesting from the fact, that though Peter in each of his replies uses the same word, the stronger one; Christ using the weaker word in the first two questions, in the third adopts instead Peter's word, as if he had said, Dost thou indeed love me so warmly? We may notice, too, that Peter seems in each case to have laid stress on the word thou, as if he had said, These my fellow disciples might well doubt my love to thee, but thou, thou knowest that I love thee. Nor is this all; in his last answer, when the third time our Lord put the question, and Peter saw that he referred to his conduct on the night he was betrayed-when his thoughts went back to the hall of the high priest, and his cowardly denial, and his eyes filled with tears as he seemed once more to see his Lord's glance fixed sorrowfully upon him, and above all when Christ now takes his word, and deeply sensible of his unworthiness, yet conscious of the love he really felt, says, Dost thou, indeed, love me so warmly? he employs a stronger word than before, and declaring his belief in his Master's omniscience, says, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee; thou art confident, thou knowest certainly that I love thee." "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep," are the encouraging words with which Whether the preacher derived this criticism, which we have not found in any commentary, from the work of Tittmann on the Synonyms of the New Testament, or from any other book, we do not know; but it is abundantly justified in the dissertation of that eminent scholar, on the words 'Ayarâv [AGAPAN] and deív [PHILEIN]. Young ministers may very advantageously study that treatise, if they with the philological lore. take care to reject the bad theology which is mingled |