repressed his well-meant, but ineffectual zeal; "Put up again thy sword into its place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword'." Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.

Still, however, Peter, though his animation was much repressed, was bolder than the rest; though he did not deliver himself up, according to his promise, to partake of his Master's imprisonment and death, yet he did not altogether desert him; he followed him whither he was led, but cautiously, and at a distance.

Our Lord was taken to the High Priest's palace. He was there, by his enemies, charged with the crimes of blasphemy and sedition; his accusers were violent, his judge was prejudiced; and we need not therefore wonder that he was found guilty, and declared worthy of suffering death. This Peter must have heard, for he had followed him to the High Priest's palace, and had been permitted to enter into the judgment-hall

1 Matt. xxvi. 52.

itself. No doubt he was an anxious spectator of what was going forward. Perhaps he hoped, in his secret heart, that some turn of affairs might take place, that his Lord might summon to his assistance those legions of angels, which, he told them, his Father could, if he pleased, send him; that, by some miracle, he might confound his enemies, and declare himself to be the promised Messiah. He hoped, perhaps, that this might be, and then, that he, being present with his Lord, being found, as it were, by his side, accompanying him, though but covertly, in his distress, would receive from him an approval, and would be exalted to the highest place of favour and of power in his kingdom.

It is not improbable that some such thoughts as these passed through his mind; and if so, how great must have been his disappointment. He saw his Lord ignominiously bound, dragged to the judgment-seat of the High Priest; he heard him reviled; he saw him buf

fetted and spit on; and he perceived that he neither answered the accusations of his enemies, nor replied to their calumnies. He heard his assertion of his being the Christ ridiculed; he heard the chief magistrate pronounce the sentence of death, and he saw nothing intervene capable of preventing it from being executed. His hopes of obtaining wealth by means of his Lord were overthrown; his prospects of becoming the favourite of a powerful prince were defeated; and, inasmuch as it is evident from the whole tenor of the Gospels, that the disciples, in their unenlightened state, had no other idea of the Messiah but as a temporal monarch, there cannot be any great doubt but that his faith in his Master was shaken, and that he was altogether overwhelmed with disappointment and despair.

At this moment was his courage tried. The tempter saw the wavering of his mind, and seized his opportunity. A certain maid looked upon Peter and ex

claimed, "And thou, also, wast with Jesus of Nazareth'." In the hurry of his conflicting feelings, and in the fear that the same condemnation which awaited his Lord, would befal him, he forgot his promise, and said, "I know him not." Again the question was put to him, again he denied his Master. The third time he was assailed, with the observation that "his speech betrayed him," and the third time he asserted that he knew not what was meant. His anger was, by this time, roused; his repeated denials had raised his confidence, and now that his language was brought in evidence against him, he determined, by his language, to give a certain proof that he could not be a disciple of the meek and humble Jesus. "He began to curse and to swear2." Such conduct could not belong to a follower of him whose admonition was

66

Swear not at all, but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay 3." He thought

1 Mark xiv. 67.

3 Matt. v. 37.

2 Ibid. 71.

he could not give a more convincing proof of the incorrectness of those who accused him of being a disciple of Jesus, than by denying it with curses and imprecations. No doubt, these were loud and violent; and though he meant them only for those to whom he directed them, yet were they overheard by one whom he little wished should observe them. His Lord, his denied, rejected Lord, heard them as he stood before the judgmentseat. With an expressive, reproachful look, he turned upon Peter; that look called up at once all which the disciple had forgotten; it reminded him of his own boastful assertions; it reminded him of his Lord's prophecy; it told him how weak, how imperfect he himself was, and, as a proof of his blessed Master's divine knowledge, at that instant the cock crew. "And Peter remembered the word of the Lord how he said unto him, before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice; and Peter went out and wept bitterly."

His repentance was not in vain. His sin was not unpardoned; and this proof