So Peter, on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand conscience-smitten and heart-broken hearers cried out under the sermon—“What shall we do?” immediately replied—“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” And so in the sermon whence we have taken our text, when he saw that the truth had found its way to the understanding, and the conscience, and the heart—that many were awakened, and convinced of sin—he exhorted them to repentance and faith in Christ, as the condition of salvation:—“Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.” The doctrine of this text is—the necessity of Christ’s return to heaven till the consummation of his mediatorial work. It is generally admitted, that the twenty-second psalm has particular reference to Christ. This is evident from his own appropriation of the first verse upon the cross:—“My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” The title of that psalm is—“Aijeleth Shahar;” which signifies—A hart, or—the hind of the morning. The striking metaphors which it contains are descriptive of Messiah’s peculiar sufferings. He is the hart, or hind of the morning, hunted by the black prince, with his hell-hounds—by Satan, and all his allies. The “dogs,” the “lions,” the “unicorns,” and the “strong bulls of Bashan,” with their devouring teeth, and their terrible horns, pursued him from Bethlehem to Calvary. They beset him in the manger, gnashed upon him in the garden, and wellnigh tore him to pieces upon the cross. And still they persecute him in his cause, and in the persons and interests of his people.