SERM. XVIII.] THE FALL AND THE RISING. 2. 223 peril: the peril of self-confidence, of relying upon their own good intentions, good resolutions, or good principles, and of forgetting the solemn charge given to us all by our Master Himself, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. We turn now to the temptation and to the sin. We have seen the condition of him who is about to enter into temptation: now let us mark the sort of disguise under which the offence comes. The disciple had already had a warning of the truth of his Master's words. He had not found it quite so easy as he had expected, to be firm and resolute. True, in the first excitement of the apprehension, he had used the sword but too readily: he had struck a hasty blow, and, but for Christ's instant interposition, might have brought upon Him the reproach of resisting force by force. Immediately afterwards, Peter, like the rest of the disciples, forsook Him and fled. This surely might have taught him wisdom. This surely might have shown him that he was not so bold or so constant as he had thought himself. But no: worse was to follow. At a distance, a long and timid distance, he had followed the band which led Jesus away. And now he has cautiously entered the high priest's palace, and seated himself there at the fire among the servants to see the end. He thought himself unknown and unnoticed, and hoped thus to combine the two objects, interest in his Master's fate, and freedom from personal risk of sharing it. He was mistaken. A certain maid-St Mark says, one of the maidservants of the high priest-saw Peter warming himself at the fire, and, after attentively observing him, said, This man was 224 THE FALL AND THE RISING. [SERM. XVIII. also with Him; or, Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. The temptation came, as usual, suddenly; and the first impulse was that of self-preservation. He denied Him-denied his loved Master and Lord-saying, Woman, I know Him not. How sad, how shameful, yet, alas, also how natural! Even this fall did not awaken conscience effectually. He moved his position; left the hall, and went out into the entrance; it might be, to escape further questioning. But the temptation was not ended. After a little while another saw him, and said, Thou also art of them; thou too belongest to the company of this man's disciples. Again Peter answered, Man, I am not; denied, St Matthew says, with an oath, saying, I do not know the man. Space was now given him for reflection. An hour passed, and he may have thought that now, however shamefully, his trial was ended. But about the space of one hour after, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with Him: for he is a Galilæan. And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. Or, as it is expressed still more strongly in other Gospels, Then began he to curse and to swear, I know not the man. Temptations, my brethren, are very various. We know that sometimes they assail us, like the first temptation of all, through the body, through some appetite or passion to which we are all liable, and which carries us along, as if tied and bound, to its gratification. But the narrative before us not only represents the sudden and unexpected manner in which all temptation assails us, but shows us as in a glass the likeness and the very image of a whole class of temptations to which we are all SERM. XVIII.] THE FALL AND THE RISING. 225 exposed; those, namely, which derive their power from our sensitiveness to the opinion of others; from our dislike of being singular; from our desire to stand well with our neighbours, both in what we do, and in what we do not. We speak of the world as one of the Christian's three enemies; and this is just what we mean, or ought to mean, by it. The world, which, as Christians, is one of our three enemies, does not mean always the great world, the world of high fashion or of unapproachable rank: it means our world: it means the men and the women who surround and who influence us: it is a very practical thing; and for this reason; because it varies with station and circumstance: the poor man has a world, which is his enemy, just as much as the rich and the great have a still more glittering and powerful world, which is their enemy. O how many of us, my brethren, are slaves of their world, be it what it may-the world of the rich man, or the world of the poor man! Which of us dares—yes, I ask the question of many men not destitute of firmness and courage in a bodily sense; of men who would stand out boldly against the attack of a robber, or repel with spirit the accusation of a slanderer—which of us, I repeat the question, dares to do exactly what he thinks right, without regard to what other men will say of it? Peter, an Apostle, a warmhearted, loving, earnest man, a man who afterwards gave his body bravely to the agonies of the cross, yet, at the time now spoken of, allowed himself to deny Christ rather than be laughed at by a few servants. O what a picture of human nature in all times! What a picture, my brethren, of us, in our little timidities about the V. S. 15 226 THE FALL AND THE RISING. [SERM. XVIII. world's opinion! Peter's world at that moment was the high priest's kitchen: it looked as large, to him, for the time, and as important, as the king's court has looked to men of rank and fashion: the world was his enemy, and the question, Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? put by a maidservant, was enough to make havoc in him of every resolution and of every principle. May God write the lesson deeply upon our hearts! The essence of the warning lies in this: that we are always exposed to a very peculiar risk of denying Christ, that is, of disclaiming our connection with Him, of saying, or acting as if we said, He is not my Master, and I am not His servant, for the sake of avoiding a moment's ridicule or a moment's reproach: and that this is a temptation; this is a solicitation of the devil; this is what brings us under the operation of that solemn sentence of our Lord Himself, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels. 3. In the case before us, the prayer of Jesus, though it prevented not the fall, yet secured the rising. When thou art converted, is said of one who shall first have wandered. The faith shall fail, but not utterly, and not finally. Scarcely had Peter uttered the third denial, with all its sad and grievous aggravations, than that sound was heard, which his Lord's prediction had connected with the sin-immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew-and, at the same moment, his Lord, standing before His judges, exposed to every sort of insult and mockery, yet retaining amidst His sufferings the same SERM. XVIII.] THE FALL AND THE RISING. 227 care for His disciples which He had ever manifested, the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. Not a word was spoken, or could have been heard amidst the uproar then ringing through the palace: but no word was needed: that look, such as we can picture it-full of sorrow, full of pity, full of tenderness-recalled the sinner instantly to himself, and brought after it such a flood of grief, of self-reproach, and of misery, that he could hide his feeling no longer, but straightway went out, and wept bitterly. There, in that anguish, he is left by the Evangelists, until they have to tell how, on the morning of the resurrection, he was one of the first to run to the sepulchre; one of the first to whom Jesus showed Himself risen: and how he who had so lately thrice denied, was invited by his forgiving Master thrice to declare that he loved Him, and invested afresh, and in express terms, with that apostolic commission which he might seem for ever to have forfeited. If any of us, my brethren, have ever, like St Peter, been led to deny Christ; if we have ever been induced, by fear or affection, to say of Him, in our conduct at least, I know Him not, I am none of His; may we, like St Peter, bitterly lament such cowardice and such ingratitude, and hasten back to Him with tears of penitence and earnest prayers for His forgiveness. To some, no doubt, a terrible fall has been salutary, yes, saving. Some can look back upon an act of sin, revealing to them their own weakness, and convincing them of their need of a Divine Saviour and Sanctifier as the very turning-point of a life. Happy are they of whom this is true! But O, for one of these, how many thousands 15-2 |