His theme was the confession of Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), and the promise which grew out of it, that he should have entrusted to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The declaration of Peter was a theme upon which he had thought for years; it was a fact which he regarded the four gospels was written to establish; to which type and prophecy had pointed in all the ages gone by; which the Eternal Father had announced from heaven when out of the waters of Jordan and the Spirit descended and abode upon him, and which was repeated again amid the awful grandeur and solemnity of the transfiguration scene. He then proceeded to show that the foundation truth of Christianity was the divine nature of the Lord Jesus—the central truth around which all others revolved, and from which they derived their efficacy and importance—and that the belief of it was calculated to produce such love in the heart of him who believed as would lead him to true obedience to the object of his faith and love. To show how that love and faith were to be manifested, he quoted the language of the great commission (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15,16), and called attention to the fact that Jesus had taught his apostles “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). He then led his hearers to Jerusalem on the memorable Pentecost and bade them listen to an authoritative announcement of the law of Christ, now to be made known for the first time by Peter to whom Christ had promised to give the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:16), which he represented as meaning the conditions upon which the guilty might find pardon at the hands of the risen, ascended, and glorified Son of God, and enter his kingdom.