deeply gratified with the declaration, and that He recognized in it a spiritual insight and capacity which qualified the speaker for high office and ser- vice in the Kingdom of God. But, though Peter had grasped the truth that Jesus was the Messiah, he was still in bondage to the traditional concep- tion of the Messiah as a conqueror. For hardly had our Lord, relying on his confession, proceeded for the first time to announce plainly His impending death, when Peter, shocked at His apparent de- spondency, remonstrated with Him, and thus drew from His lips the rebuke, ' Get thee behind me, ' Satan' (Mt \&%
The prediction of His death was made by Jesus at least thrice, in language which admits of but one meaning ; but neither Peter nor any of the Apostles appears to have believed that the words were in- tended to be taken literally. Not one among them seems to have accepted the truth that Jesus would be crucified. But that event drew near, and Peter, as was to be expected, figures largely in the closing scenes. He refuses to allow his Master to degrade Himself by washing his feet ; but when told that this refusal involves forefeiture of all interest in Him, under the impulse of the reaction generated by this reproof, he wishes that his hands and head as well as his feet should be washed (Jn IS***'^-). Conscious of his devotion to his Lord, he declares that though all men should stumble at Him, he never will, but would die for His sake ; and draws from our Lord's lips the sorrowful announcement that he is about to deny Him thrice (Mk 14-^). When our Lord is arrested in Gethsemane, he has the courage, perhaps rather , the rashness, to draw a sword and seek to cut down the very person who, it may be, was making the arrest (Jn 18^") ; he follows our Lord into the palace of the iiigii priest, and there, outworn, perplexed, thrown off his guard, unmanned, he three times declares that he knows nothing of Jesus. Then, having met the eye of his Master as He was led from one room to another, the sense of his guilt becomes intolerable, and he bursts forth into tears of deepest penitence and self-abasement (Lk 22^^-). What the Apostle did after he quitted the palace of the high priest, has not been told us. Whether he was too overpowered by emotion to draw near the cross we cannot tell, but it is certain that his hopes were buried in the grave of Jesus.- He and the rest of the disciples must have poured out their hearts to one another, suggesting, doubting, fearing, unable to resolve as to the future.
Not two days after the Crucifixion, Mary of Magdala informed Peter and John that the grave of Jesus was open and no body there. The two disciples started off' in hot haste to verify the statement. John, the younger and fleeter, reached the tomb first, but awe prevented him from enter- ing. Peter, unaffected by this motive, went into the grave as soon as he arrived, and then both disciples saw the grave-cloths lying in orderly array, with the napkin which had bound the head rolled up in a place by itself : facts which excluded the view tliat the corpse had been removed by enemies. The meaning of the words which they had heard again and again from Jesus as to His rising again from the dead began to dawn on their imderstand- ing : He was risen from the dead (Jn 20''^-)- Soon the testimony of the women confirmed the infer- ence they had drawn, and if any doubts continued to haunt the Apostle's mind, they were finally dis- pelled by a personal appearance made by Jesus to liimself. The interview stands with no record save the bare circumstance, but is possibly on that account only the more impressive (Lk 24''^). It formed perhaps the most important event of Peter's life, and certainly produced on him the most extra- ordinary eft'ects. What was soft and fluid in his
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ideas and convictions now hardened into rock : his courage acquired a new temper : his passionate loyalty to our Lord became measureless trust and devotion, chastened by a new reverence and awe. All that he had ever ventured to hope regarding Jesus was now confirmed, and rested on a basis of adamant.
Another scene is related in the appendix to the Fourth Gospel (ch. 21), which forms the fitting close to the earthly relations of the Master and His disciple. Here again Peter and John are the two chief actors, and each exhibits his distinctive characteristics. John is the first to identify the solitary figure on the shore of the Sea of Galilee with the Lord ; while Peter is the first to try to reach Him, casting himself into the lake in his eagerness to welcome Him. There followed the triple question to Peter touching his love for Jesus, with answers from the Apostle which show that he had now been purged of presumption, boasting, and rash self-confidence. Then he in his turn is en- trusted with the weightiest and most honourable of all charges : he is commissioned and commanded to feed and tend the flock of Christ. Finally, and as if it were the natural sequel of the high trust just allotted him, he is told that he will end his days by martyrdom. Accepting this declaration Avithout a shadow of doubt, he ventures to inquire as to the fate of his fellow-disciple John, but is forbidden to meddle with such questions, his task being to concentrate his energies on the fulfilment of the duties imposed on himself.