Only imagine the scene! Jesus, standing bound, as if he had been a criminal, surrounded by soldiers and exulting enemies, and questioned like an apprehended culprit by the high priest, but dignified, collected, and prepared for the worst; while just below is his chief disciple, in the midst of a servile crowd, agonized with terror, and endeavoring with all his native vehemence, and with native accent too, which of itself contradicts him, to clear himself before his contemptible accusers from the imputation of having anything to do with one whom he had been following daily and hourly for months, and whom, but a few moments ago, he had promised to follow to prison and to death! But the measure of his degradation is not yet full; for again, the third time, is the charge repeated; "Surely, thou also art one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee." And then, as others are apt to do, who become more boisterous the more they are in the wrong and the nearer they are to detection, and who call the God of truth to witness their transgressions of truth, the unhappy man "began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew." How dark is the account now of disgrace and crime against the fallen disciple ! Ingratitude, cowardice, falsehood, profanity! It was the lowest fall; and, happily, it was the last. "The Lord turned, and looked upon Peter."

What a volume of pathos and eloquence is contained in those few simple words! His Lord looked upon him, "and with that gracious and chiding look called him back to himself and him." He remembered all. - remembered his Master's love, remembered his Master's warning, remembered his own duty. Conviction falls upon him, repentance overwhelms him, and he went out and wept bitterly.

"What language in that look! Swifter than thought
The apostle's eye it caught,

And sank into his very soul!

Through every vein a thrilling tremor crept;

From this time till after the crucifixion of Jesus, we hear no more of Peter. He probably passed this distressing interval in remorse and tears; and there is no doubt that his repentance was entire and sincere, and that his character was much improved and purified by the late fiery trial through which it had been led; for we find that Jesus, on the morning of his resurrection, after he had shown himself to Mary Magdalene, appeared also to Peter, according to an especial message which he had sent to him by an angel, in testimony of his continued confidence in him.* That Peter

*The message was delivered by the angel to the Marys, who reported it to Peter. The angel, or young man clothed in white,

had returned to his allegiance is manifest from the fact that he was the first of the male disciples who descended into the tomb wherein the Saviour had been laid.

Some days afterwards, as several of the disciples were fishing together in a vessel, on the sea of Tiberias, Jesus appeared to them on the shore. On this occasion we may again observe a symptom of Peter's characteristic ardor. No sooner had he understood from John that it was the Lord who stood on the shore, and had been speaking with them, than he girt his fisher's coat about him, cast himself into the sea, and in this manner gained the land, while the rest came after him in the vessel. When they had all dined on the fish which had been taken, Jesus required of Peter that thrice-repeated assurance of his love in which a fanciful interpreter would discover a direct allusion to the late thrice-repeated denial. On receiving each assurance, his Lord gives him an especial charge to feed his sheep. He then signified to

says to the women, "Tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you." What a touching pledge of forgiveness and reconciliation! The moral to be derived from the history of Peter's fall is thus well and concisely brought home to us in the following verse by Cowper:

"Beware of Peter's word,

Nor confidently say

'I never will deny thee, Lord,'

But, Grant I never may!""

him, though darkly, by what death he should glorify God; but refused to gratify his curiosity respecting the fate of his fellow-disciple John.

In the Gospels we have no further information respecting this apostle. On turning to the Book of Acts, however, he is immediately presented to us in his former rank and station, as chief of the apostles, speaking in their name, and presiding at their meetings. It is he who proposes that the vacated place of Judas Iscariot should be supplied by lot.

When some of those who were present at the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of tongues, mocked at the disciples, and said that they were full of new wine, it was Peter who in a most spirited manner refuted the slander, and spoke so powerfully of his Master's claims, that on the same day there were added to the number of Christian believers about three thousand souls. It was Peter who healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; who addressed the people on that occasion; who, when arraigned before the chief priests, declared so boldly to them that salvation was alone by Jesus Christ; and who, when he and his companion John were commanded not to speak at all nor teach in that name, returned, jointly with the beloved disciple, that heroic answer, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." It was Peter who exposed the decep

tion of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, and at whose feet they both fell down dead. And it was Peter, who, by his shadow alone, healed many who were laid in his way.*

After Samaria had, through the instrumentality of Philip, received the word of God, Peter and John were sent there by the apostles, in order that they might lay their hands on the converts, and cause them to receive the Holy Spirit.† And then it was that Peter so indignantly rebuked Simon the sorcerer, who thought that the gift of

* It is not expressly asserted in Acts v. 15, that those persons were healed by Peter's shadow, and therefore some commentators have taken it for granted that they were not, and have even gone so far as to assert, that the apostle's neglect of them was a punishment for their superstition. So says Rosenmüller. But in the next verse we are told that great numbers of sick persons were also brought to him from the cities round about, and " were healed every one." Now there seems to be no good reason why these should be healed, and those who belonged to the city should be neglected. Their being placed in Peter's way, so that even his shadow might pass over them, shows more the affectionate and confident faith of them and their friends than it does their superstition. If Peter was empowered from on high to heal diseases, he could do so by his shadow, as well as by a touch or a few words His will was the agent; the signs of its exertion were of no im ortance in themselves. As we are not informed that Peter re buked those who laid the sick under his shadow, the most reason. able and compassionate inference is, that these, as well as the others, were healed.

† The fact that the apostles sent Peter on this mission is proof sufficient that his precedence among them was far from being of the papal character.