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SERMON X'.

ST. PETER A LESSON TO THE ENTHUSIASTIC AND IRRESOLUTE.

66

[JOHN XXi. 18.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not."]

THE history of our Lord's Apostles is, with few exceptions, very little known to us; and the scanty notice which the Scripture furnishes us respecting their characters and actions, afford scarcely sufficient materials for the Services in which we commemorate them. Such however is not the case with the history of St. Peter: the facts which are recorded concerning him are so various and striking, that for Lessons, Epistle, and Gospel, the Church has been obliged only to select the most prominent, and has necessarily left many unnoticed which nevertheless

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are very illustrative of his character, and afford us most useful subjects of meditation.

The character of St. Peter is one to which our notice is directed from the very commencement of our Saviour's ministry, and the things which we are told about him are so peculiar and so important, that they plainly demand our especial attention.

Immediately after our Lord's Baptism, He set His mark on this Apostle by giving him the name of Cephas or Peter, instead of Simon, which he had formerly borne; and this mark He afterwards interpreted in the remarkable words of to-day's Gospel. "Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Again, when our Lord began His ministry, Simon Peter was one of the two whom He first called as His constant followers; and there were only two besides him who were admitted to witness our Lord's Transfiguration and Agony.

Nor is St. Peter's own conduct less remarkable than the notice with which he was honoured by his Master. On all occasions his words and actions seem different from those of other men. It was St. Peter that walked on the sea; it was St. Peter who after the Resurrection, when he saw our Lord standing on the shore, girded himself and leapt into the sea. It was St. Peter, whose agitation on witnessing the miraculous draught of fishes, showed itself in the remarkable words, "Depart from me,

for I am a sinful man, O Lord." He it was who, on the night previous to the crucifixion, when he heard that one of those present was to betray their Master, exclaimed with an indignation which he seemed unable to repress, "Lord, though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee;" and who when the servants of the priests and the band of soldiers came out to take Jesus, drew a sword, and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant.

And if we may believe the traditionary account of events which happened after the close of the Sacred History, he, in his last moments, when about to suffer death upon the cross, gave another proof of that peculiar ardour which characterised him throughout life, in requesting that he might be nailed to the cross not in the common way, for that he was unworthy to die the same death as his Master.

Again, in the history of St. Peter there are other points which no less forcibly demand our attention, and which form a sad but instructive contrast with those which have been already mentioned. It was St. Peter, who when he had trusted himself to the sea in full confidence that he should be protected from all danger, found his faith misgiving him in the midst of the waves; "And when he saw the wind strong he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, saying, Lord, save me.” It was St. Peter who the very night after he had declared that he would rather die with his Lord than betray Him,

and at a time too when he was giving evidence of his sincerity by following Christ to the judgment hall, instead of flying with the other disciples; at this very time and with the knowledge of the warning he had received, "This night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice," with these words one may almost say in his ears, yet on being told that he also was one of them, "began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the Man.”

Nor is this all, for even many years after our Lord's death, when St. Peter had proved his penitence by enduring long continued persecutions, and by his own successful ministry, and the mighty works which God wrought through his means, had received ample proof that the Lord's arm was not waxed short, nor unable to bring about its own ends by its own means, after all this, gave occasion to St. Paul to withstand him to the face at Antioch. "For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision." In which thing St. Paul affirms, "that he walked not uprightly according to the grace of the Gospel.”

Such is the very remarkable character which the Scriptures present us of the great man whose life and death we this day commemorate;—the rock on whom the Universal Church is built, the appointed shepherd of Christ's sheep.

On such a character it would be well for all of

us to meditate as an example of human greatness and of human frailty; but there are two classes of persons to whom such a subject of contemplation is more than usually necessary; viz., the enthusiastic and the irresolute. Those in whom the two characters happen to be combined may perhaps in their own experience find a counterpoise to each of their prevailing errors, their timidity may like St. Peter's render them occasionally sensible how little their enthusiastic feelings can be trusted in the day of trial; and the remembrance of the high thoughts which sometimes elevate them, may be sufficient to stimulate their failing resolution, and assist them to acquire courage of heart by urging them to courage of conduct. Yet even to these it may sometimes prove no small encouragement to recollect the recorded actions of one who has sympathised with them; and to feel assured, by the example of one who has finally triumphed, that the difficulties with which they struggle are not insuperable.

But to the two classes first mentioned, to those whose ardent feelings have no natural timidity to counteract them, and those whose irresolute disposition is never supported by the animation of quick feeling, to persons such as these, the example of St. Peter seems to supply a want which must otherwise be irremediable. And, even to those of an intermediate character, whose natural bias is in either of these directions, who are apt either to be too confident or too desponding, the subject is one

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