November 2

E believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

ACTS viii. 37.

Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. — MATT. xvi. 17, 18.

IN these words Christ inaugurates his church and unfolds its constitution and destiny. His church is to be henceforth the organized and visible form of God's kingdom in the world. Men enter it through a faith and confession wrought in them by the Holy Spirit. Simon Bar-Jona is "blessed," and made "Peter" (a rock) by this spiritually inwrought faith and confession.

When he through the Holy Spirit received and confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, he laid the first stone in that building in which as living stones are builded all who, taught by the Spirit, possess the same faith and make the same confession. When therefore Christ says "On this rock I will build my church" he says his church shall be built on this petrine quality, be built on, and out of Peters, — on and out of characters and lives such as are produced by acceptance and confession of Christ under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, of which Peter is a type. Thus builded, it will endure unshaken every assault and conquer every foe. "The gates of Hades," or all the powers of evil, of darkness, and of death, shall not prevail against it.

John B. Drury.

Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and wane, But the church of Jesus Constant will remain.

Gates of hell can never 'Gainst that church prevail; We have Christ's own promise, And that cannot fail.

BARING-GOULD