Peter was an awful backslider; his crimes deserved hell; so do yours and mine: both he and we should be sent there, if love did not reign in heaven, and grace abound to sinners on earth. One look of love from Christ broke Peter's heart, made him weep bitterly, and earnestly return to a crucified Saviour. A bone broken and set is said to be stronger than it was before: and surely a heart broken by forgiving love grows stronger in love. Having much forgiven, we love much; I have often thought fresh love added speed to Peter's feet, when he ran to the sepulchre to see his dear, his crucified Lord. John 20:4.

See in the subject of our present meditation the happy effects of gracious words from a loving Lord. We saw the backsliding children arraigned, and their conduct condemned in our last meditation! What was the sentence passed on them? Was it, "Go, ye wretches; ye have gone from me in your ways, now I will be glorified in your damnation?" No: break, hard heart; melt, O frozen soul; bow, stubborn knee, and be as the sinews of a new-born babe; for love everlasting, immutable love lives; sovereign unmerited grace proclaims, Return, ye backsliding children, (children still! O matchless grace!) and I will heal your backslidings.

What say gracious hearts to this? Do they reply.

O this is flue doctrine! Come, let us continue to go on to enjoy the world and sin, and delight ourselves in our happy distance from God? "O no: this is the language of reigning sin and pride. If left to themselves, so would men act; but a spark of free grace within us catches fire from gracious words without, and therefore it is; "Behold," see the effects of the Lord's rich grace precious love; like fire it melts down our hard hearts, makes us lament our base conduct; affects us with the deepest sense of sin; inspires our souls with a hope of mercy and assurance of pardon, and "we come unto thee."

Here we see the actings of a holy faith in the heart it works by love; by the declarations of a gracious Father and Redeemer it works love in the heart, and it works by love in returning to God; and here is the joyful claim of faith; "FOR," O precious cause! "FOR thou art the Lord our God,"–were it not so, thou couldst never have borne with our vile conduct: never had a thought of mercy, or deigned a look of love towards us. O let covenant love and faithfulness ever bind our hearts to thee, that we may never more depart from thee, pervert our way before thee, or ever forget thee, O Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit, our one God in Jesus.