God forgive
us! We are so heaped with blessings that we neglect them, forget
them, take them as our right, instead of remembering our sins and
ungratefulness, and saying, Thy mercies are new every morning; it is
only of thy mercies that we are not consumed.
But to St. Paul it was very wonderful news. A mystery, as he said;
quite a new and astonishing thought, that heathens had any share in
God's love and Christ's salvation.
And so it was to St. Peter. God had to teach it him by that
wonderful vision, in which he saw coming down from heaven all sorts
of animals, and God bade him kill and eat; and when he refused,
because they were common and unclean, God forbade him to call
anything common or unclean, now that God had cleansed all things by
the precious blood of his dear Son. Then Peter was bidden to go to
the Gentile Roman soldier Cornelius. And he went, though, he said,
he had been used to think it unlawful for a Jew even to eat with a
Gentile. And when he went, he found, to his astonishment, that
God's love was over that Gentile soldier and his family, because
they were good men, as far as they had light and knowledge, just as
much as if they had been good Jews. And God gave St. Peter a sign
which there was no mistaking, that he really did care for those
Gentile Romans, just as much as if they had been Jews; for, as he
was preaching Christ to them, the Holy Ghost fell on them, not
after, but before they were baptised.
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