Illustration of His Methods
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the sod that had been moistened with the blood drops of His agony—
then the Saviour’s words, “I have prayed for thee: ... when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren,” were a stay to his soul. Christ,
though foreseeing his sin, had not abandoned him to despair.
If the look that Jesus cast upon him had spoken condemnation
instead of pity; if in foretelling the sin He had failed of speaking hope,
how dense would have been the darkness that encompassed Peter! how
reckless the despair of that tortured soul! In that hour of anguish and
self-abhorrence, what could have held him back from the path trodden
by Judas?
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He who could not spare His disciple the anguish, left him not alone
to its bitterness. His is a love that fails not nor forsakes.
Human beings, themselves given to evil, are prone to deal unten-
derly with the tempted and the erring. They cannot read the heart, they
know not its struggle and pain. Of the rebuke that is love, of the blow
that wounds to heal, of the warning that speaks hope, they have need
to learn.
It was not John, the one who watched with Him in the judgment
hall, who stood beside His cross, and who of the Twelve was first at
the tomb—it was not John, but Peter, that was mentioned by Christ
after His resurrection. “Tell His disciples and Peter,” the angel said,
“that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him.”
Mark
16:7
.
At the last meeting of Christ with the disciples by the sea, Peter,
tested by the thrice-given question, “Lovest thou Me?” was restored to
his place among the Twelve. His work was appointed him; he was to
feed the Lord’s flock. Then, as His last personal direction, Jesus bade
him, “Follow thou Me.”
John 21:17, 22
.
Now he could appreciate the words. The lesson Christ had given
when He set a little child in the midst of the disciples and bade them
become like him, Peter could now better understand. Knowing more
fully both his own weakness and Christ’s power, he was ready to trust
and to obey. In His strength he could follow his Master.
And at the close of his experience of labor and sacrifice, the disciple
once so unready to discern the cross, counted it a joy to yield up his
life for the gospel, feeling only that, for him who had denied the Lord,
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to die in the same manner as his Master died was too great an honor.