" At first,
Peter was astounded. Then the sublime principles had their effect,
and his heart was deeply touched with what he heard. How far the
Holy Spirit aided these better feelings, it might be presumptuous,
on the one hand, to say; while, on the other, it will be equally
presuming to think of denying the possibility--nay, the probability-
-that the great change which so suddenly came over the heart of
Peter was produced by more than mere human agencies. We know that
this blessed Spirit is often poured out, in especial cases, with
affluent benevolence, and there can be no sufficient reason for
supposing this savage might not have been thus signally favored, as
soon as the avenues of his heart opened to the impulses of a
generous humanity. The very qualities that would induce such a being
to attempt the wild and visionary scheme of vengeance and
retribution, that had now occupied his sleeping and waking thoughts
for years, might, under a better direction, render him eminently fit
to be the subject of divine grace. A latent sense of right lay
behind all his seeming barbarity, and that which to us appears as a
fell ferocity, was, in his own eyes, no less than a severe justice.
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