So acting, we shall find, sooner or later, tliat we reap a great reward.
We should observe, thirdly, in this passage, how much a seme of OocFs presence abases man and makes him feel his sinfulness. We see this strikingly illustrated by Peter's words, when the miraculous draught convinced him that One greater than man was in his boat. We read that '^ he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.''
In measuring these words of Peter, we must of course remember the time at which they were spoken. He was, at best, but a babe in grace, weak in faith, weak in experience, and weak in knowledge. At a later period in his life he would, doubtless, have said, " Abide with me," and not, '' depart." But still, after every deduction of this kind, the words of Peter exactly express the first feelings of man when he is brought into anything like close contact with God. The sight of divine greatness and holiness makes him feel strongly his own littleness and sinfulness. Like Adam after the fall, his first thought is to hide himself. Like Israel under Sinai, the language of his heart is, ^' let not GFod speak with us, lest we die." (Exod. XX. 19.)
Let us strive to know more and more, every year we live, our need of a mediator between ourselves and God. Let us seek more and more to realize that without a mediator our thoughts of God can never be comfortable, and the more clearly we see God the more uncomfortable we must feel. Above all, let us be thank- ful that we have in Jesus the very Mediator whose help our souls require, and that through Him we may draw
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