ship where they were?' Doubtless this, as each other dealing of God with his servants, is hard to be understood of those to whom the entire life of faith is altogether strange. He will seem to pass them by, seem to forsake them; and so evoke their prayer and their cry, that He would not pass them by, that He would not forsake them. Not otherwise, walking with his two disciples to Emmaus, after his resurrection, He made as though He would have gone further' (Luke xxiv. 28), thus drawing out from them the entreaty that He would abide. It is evermore thus; we have here no exceptional dealing, but one finding its analogies everywhere in the Scripture and in the Christian life. What part does Christ sustain here different from that which in the parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke xviii. 2), or the churlish Friend (Luke xi. 5), He ascribes to God? or different from that which He Himself sustained when He came not to the help of the sisters of Bethany in what seemed the utmost extremity of their need (John xi. 6)? And are not all the complaints of the faithful in the Psalms, that God hides his face, that He gives them into the hands of their enemies, that He is absent from them so long, confessions that He does so deal with his servants, that by delaying and seeming to pass them by, He quickens their faith, and calls out their prayers that He would come to them soon, and abide with them always?

And now, as one by that cry of distress arrested and detained, He at once scatters and rebukes their fears: Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.' How often has He to speak this word of encouragement even to his own; almost always when they are brought suddenly or in any unusual way face to face with Him; thus see Gen. xv. 1; xxi. 17; xxvi. 24; Judg. vi. 23; Matt. xxviii. 5; Luke ii. 10;

1 Augustine (De Cons. Evang. ii. 47): Quomodo ergo eos volebat præterire, quos paventes ita confirmat, nisi quia illa voluntas prætereundi ad eliciendum illum clamorem valebat, cui subveniri oportebat? Corn. a Lapide: Volebat præterire eos, quasi eos non curans, nec ad eos pertinens, sed alio pergens, ut in eis metum et clamorem excitaret.

Rev. i. 17). And now follows that characteristic rejoinder of Peter, which, with its consequences, St. Matthew alone records: Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.' That if' must not be interpreted as implying a doubt whether it was the Lord or not. A Thomas, indeed, may have required to have Jesus with him in the ship, ere he would fully believe that it was no phantom, but his very Lord; but Peter's fault would be of another kind. His words mean rather: Since it is Thou, command me to come unto Thee; for he feels rightly that Christ's command must go before his coming. And, doubtless, it was the promptness and forwardness of love which made him ask for this command, which made him desire to be where his Lord was (John xxi. 7). Perhaps, too, he would compensate for that exclamation of terror in which he had joined with the rest, by an heroic act of courage and affiance. And yet there was a fault in all this, as the issue proved, such as made the whole incident a rehearsal of the greater presumption and the more serious fall in store for the too confident disciple (Matt. xxvi. 33, 70). In that Bid me,' the fault lay. He will outdo and outdare the other disciples; will signalize himself by a mightier testimony of faith than any of them would venture to render. It is but in another shape,' Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.'

Let us observe, and with reverence admire, the wisdom and love of the Lord's answer. Another, with enough of spiritual insight to detect the fault which lurked in Peter's proposal, might yet by a clumsier treatment have marred all, and lost for him the lessons it so much behoved him to receive. Had the Lord, for example, commanded him to remain where he was, He would at once have checked the outbreaks of his fervent spirit, which, when purified from the carnal that clung to them, were to carry him so far, and caused him to miss the instruction which through his partial failure he obtained. But with more gracious and discriminating wisdom the great Master of souls; who yet, knowing

what the event must prove, pledges not Himself for the issue of his coming. Peter had said, 'Bid me;' there is no "I bid,' in the Lord's reply. Peter had said, 'come unto Thee;' the unto Me' disappears from the Lord's answer; which is only Come;' Come,' that is, if thou wilt; make the experiment, if thou desirest.' It is a merely permissive Come;' like Joab's Run' to Ahimaaz (2 Sam. xviii. 22). In that 'Come' an assurance was, indeed, involved that Peter should not be wholly swallowed up by the waves, but no pledge for the successful issue of the feat; which all would in very faithfulness have been involved, had the Lord's words been the entire echo of his disciple's. What the issue should be, depended upon Peter himself,-whether he should keep the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end. And He who knew what was in man, knew that he would not; that this was not the pure courage of faith; that what of carnal overboldness there was in it would infallibly be exchanged, when the stress of the trial came, for fear and unbelief.

It was even so. "When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.' This for a while; so long as he looked to his Lord and to Him only, he also was able to walk upon the unsteady surface of the sea, to tread upon the waters, which for him also were not waves. But when he took counsel of flesh and blood, when he saw something else besides Jesus, then, because he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink,' he cried, saying, Lord, save me.' He who had thought to make a show before all the other disciples of a courage which transcended theirs, must now in the presence of them all confess his terror, and reveal the weakness, as he had thought to display the strength, of his faith. In this moment of peril his swimmer's art (John xxi. 7) profits him nothing; for there is no mingling in this way of nature and of grace. He who has entered the wonder-world of grace must not suppose that he may withdraw from it at any moment that he will, and

1 Καταποντίζεσθαι = βυθίζεσθαι, Luke v. 7 : 1 Tim. vi. 9.

betake himself to his old resources of nature.

He has foregone these, and must carry through what he has begun, or fail at his peril.

But Peter has to do with One who will not let him greatly fall. His experience shall be that of the Psalmist: When I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.'' His Lord, save me,' is answered at once. Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him.' And then how gracious the rebuke! "O thou of little faith!' not 'O thou of none!' and 'Wherefore didst thou doubt ?' not 'Wherefore didst thou come?' not checking, as He then would have done, the future impulses of his servant's boldness, but encouraging them rather; showing him how he could do all things through Christ strengthening him, and that his fault lay, not in having undertaken too much, but in having too little relied upon the strength that would have upheld him in his undertaking. And not until by that sustaining hand He has restored confidence to the fearful one, and made him feel that he can indeed tread under foot those waves of the unquiet sea, does He speak even this word of a gentle rebuke. The courage of the disciple has already returned, so that the Master speaks of his doubt as of something which is already past: Wherefore didst thou doubt? Before the doubt arose in thy heart, thou didst walk on these waves, and now that thy faith has returned, thou dost walk on them again; thou seest that it is not impossible, that it lies but in thy faithful will; that all things are possible to him that believeth.'

6

We must look at this episode of the miracle as itself also symbolic. Peter is here the example of all the faithful of all times, in the seasons of their unfaithfulness and fear. long as they are strong in faith, they are able to tread under

So

1 Augustine very beautifully brings together those words of the Psalmist and this incident, making them mutually to illustrate one another (Enarr. in Ps. xciii. 18).

2 Bengel: Non reprehenditur quod exierit e navi, sed quod non manserit in firmitate fidei.

foot all the most turbulent agitations of an unquiet world; but when they are afraid, when, instead of 'looking unto Jesus,' they look at the stormy winds and waters, then these prevail against them, and they begin to sink, and were it not for Christ's sustaining hand, which is stretched out in answer to their cry, they would be wholly overwhelmed and swallowed up.1

'And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased." Those on the watch for disagreements between one Evangelist and another are pleased here to discover such, between St. Matthew and St. Mark on one side, and St. John on the other. If, they say, we are to believe the former, the Lord did now with his disciple go up into the ship; if, on the contrary, we accept the authority of St. John, we must then suppose that the disciples were willing to receive Him; but did not so in fact, the ship being rapidly, and, as would seem, with miraculous swiftness, brought to the land. The whole question turns on the words which we translate, and I have no doubt rightly as regards the circumstance which actually took place, they willingly received Him into the ship.' It is quite true they would be more literally rendered, they were willing to receive Him into the ship;' but with the implicit understanding that what they were willing to do, they actually did. Those who a little before were terrified and

1 Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. xxxix. 6): Calca mare, ne mergaris in mari. And again (Serm. lxxxvi. 6): Attendite seculum quasi mare, ventus validus et magna tempestas. Unicuique sua cupiditas, tempestas est. Amas Deum, ambulas super mare: sub pedibus tuis est seculi tumor. Amas seculum, absorbebit te. Amatores suos vorare novit, non portare. Sed cum fluctuat cupiditate cor tuum, ut vincas tuam cupiditatem, invoca Christi divinitatem. . . . Et si motus est pes tuus, si titubas, si aliqua non superas, si mergi incipis, dic, Domine, pereo, libera me. Dic, Domine, pereo, ne pereas. Solus enim a morte carnis liberat te, quí mortuus est in carne pro te. And again: Titubatio ista, fratres, quasi mors fidei fuit. Sed ubi exclamavit, fides iterum resurrexit. Non ambularet, nisi crederet, sed nec mergeretur, nisi dubitaret. In Petro itaque communis omnium nostrâm consideranda conditio, ut si nos in aliquo tentationum ventus conatur subvertere, vel unda submergere, clamemus ad Christum. C. De Cant. Novo, 2.

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