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THE DENIAL OF PETER

"When Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a stone."-JOHN i. 42.

THE text relates at full length what St. Mark and St. Luke had briefly indicated in the words "Simon He surnamed Peter," "Simon, whom He also named Peter." We learn thus that the name Peter, by which we habitually know the Apostle, was not his original name, but a title given him by his Master. And we learn further, that this title was not (as a reader of St. Matthew's Gospel might possibly imagine) given at a late period when the ardent disciple, outrunning the rest in his discernment of his Master's true character, had done something to merit a title of honour. We are told that it was conferred on his very first enrolment as a disciple. It expressed then the view of his character taken by Him who could discern the hearts, who knew what was in man. This disciple was a Rock-man.

What should we expect from such a title ? Firmness, steadiness, stability. We should expect to hear of a calm resolute man on whom implicit reliance might be placed, who would be sure to stand unshaken, however others wavered. But I suppose this would be the last epithet that a student of the life of Peter would apply to him. We find him ardent, eager, impulsive, but easily discouraged. The relation which St. Matthew gives of Peter's walking on the sea affords a really typical representation of this Apostle's character. To see his Master, to long to be with Him, to scorn danger, to feel confident that in his Master's presence he must be safe; all this is his first impulse. But when he actually feels the strength of the boisterous wind, and the tossing of the raging waves, his courage suddenly gives way. And all through his life we have these alternations of confidence and failure. Among the Apostles he was bold to make the first confession of belief in the Messiahship of Jesus, and so was rewarded with the promise that on this Rock Christ would build His Church. Yet immediately after words of commendation so strong that they have given rise in the Christian Church to the very loftiest ideas as to the extent of the privileges conveyed, Peter incurs an equally strong rebuke, and is addressed by his Master in the words "Get thee

behind Me, Satan, for thou art an offence unto Me." A later history equally presents to us alternation of confidence and cowardice. He tells his Lord: "Although all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended. Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee. Why cannot I follow Thee? I will lay down my life for Thy sake." The hour of trial comes, and at first his faith is strong. There are but two swords in his little company, and a great multitude armed with swords and staves comes against them. Yet he hesitates not to draw his sword and strike in his Master's defence. But when his Lord disowns his resistance, and does not, as he had expected, supernaturally render it effective, his courage sinks at once. He sees Jesus led off by His enemies, to all appearance a helpless captive, and he follows in painful anxiety to see what the miserable end would be. Then all of a sudden he finds that he has brought himself into danger, and the lie springs to his lips by which he hopes to escape. And having once involved himself in denial, the pertinacity of those who recognised him forces him to plunge deeper and deeper down the path of shame.

A still later history displays the same unsteadiness of character. The question which then

agitated the Church was the throwing down the barriers that separated Jew and Gentile. Peter goes down to Antioch, the city where first Gentile converts, in any considerable numbers, had been added to the Church. He rejoices in the triumph of the faith, and his warm sympathetic nature expands in manifestations of friendship towards his new brethren. But there come down emissaries from the parent Church at Jerusalem, men bigotedly attached to the law of their fathers, and Peter dreads to lose caste by letting himself be seen by them eating at the same table with the uncircumcised and unclean, whose society a strict Jew had always regarded as pollution. So he draws back in alarm, and resumes his Jewish exclusiveness.

Thus the character of Peter is consistently painted all through the New Testament. There is much to love, much to admire, in his eager impulsiveness, his quick sympathies; but surely, one would say, firmness and steadiness are not the qualities he displays: Rock is not the name by which we should think of describing him. How is it then that this was the title which He who could see the heart bestowed on him?

I believe that by this very title our blessed Lord showed that He really did possess the power of reading men's hearts. Superficial observers

could detect the impulsive unsteadiness of Peter's character; at one moment crying out, as we are told in a history related by St. John, "Lord, Thou shalt never wash my feet," the next moment, “not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." We may be sure it would not have been difficult, on a short acquaintance with Peter, to discover in him inconsistencies of conduct. But our Lord discerned beneath the shifting sands of changing emotions the firm rock of an honest and true heart. We know that Peter's love to his Master was genuine, for, with respect to this, he did not fear to challenge the eye of the All-Seeing. "Lovest thou Me?" his Master asked, and he replied, "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee." Just as in the stormy seas a projecting rock may for a time be buried out of sight by the billows that wash over it, yet in a little while they sink, and the rock is seen unshaken; so, though the waves of panic terror covered up for a time the rock of Peter's faith and love, yet, though hidden from sight, it was still there, and remained to serve as a foundation for the fabric of his subsequent apostolic labours.

The very character which made Peter capable of strong affection, made him specially liable also to the assaults of temptations such as those under