XI.

PETER THE TRIAL, INFIRMITY, AND TRIUMPH OF HIS FAITH.

"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?"-MATT. xiv. 28-31.

THE incident recorded in this passage of Scripture not only illustrates generally the character of the Apostle Peter, but affords a particular example of his faith—its power, and its weakness too-such as may be usefully studied. The whole of this midnight scene, indeed, is full of instruction to the believer, especially in seasons of darkness and doubt. The disciples are sent to sea alone; their Master constrains them to get into a ship and go before him to the other side of the lake, while he remains behind, first to dismiss the multitude whom he has miraculously fed in the desert, and then to go up into a mountain apart to pray. At first, in the calm evening and on the smooth waters, fresh as they were from the wondrous feast, the disciples might think little of their temporary separation from their Lord, as they cheerfully launched forth their little bark, in anticipation of a short and easy voyage, and a happy meeting on the other side. Suddenly the sky is overcast, the wind is contrary, and, midway across the sea, the ship is tossed with waves. And where at this critical moment is Jesus? Why is he not with them, to say to the stormy billows-"Peace, be still?" Has he forgotten them? "This is their in

firmity." Did they not "remember the works of the Lord and his wonders"-not in their case" of old?" (Ps. lxxvii. 10, 11.) Alas! they feel desolate and forlorn. And, lo! to trouble them still more, here is a vision, an apparition of a shadowy, spectral form, in the dark mist the spirit of the tempest, as it might seem, mocking their helplessness as he makes them "reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man!" Truly "they are at their wits' end;" when a blessed voice out of the gloom reassures them, and the well-known accents fall upon their ears" Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."

What a lesson to a doubting soul! What a rebuke of unbelief! "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known" (Ps. lxxvii. 16, 19).

Rushing, with his usual impetuosity, from one extreme to another, Peter not only recovers his self-possession, but rises as by a rebound to the highest pitch of boldness. We may be sure he had been at least as much depressed as his fellow-disciples-as ready to despair of help while Jesus was absent-as apt to mistake his abrupt approach in an unexpected way as if it were a vision of judgment, and not a visit of love. But what a start he makes, on the instant, out of the lowest depth of trouble and terror, to what might seem the very romance of confidence and daring, rather than the chastened and sober reality of humble faith! And that there is something of the spirit of romance here, we are far from denying; nay, it is this very feature in the incident before us that gives it, in our

view, at once its charm and its value;-its charm, as a picture of most attractive interest; and its value, as a lesson of the utmost practical worth. Certainly, the alternations of a mind like Peter's-even when it seems to be capriciously tossed to and fro between what looks too like despair and what savours too much of fool-hardiness— are preferable to the monotony of an ever placid and unbroken calm. The living enthusiasm of faith, with all the irregular fluctuations of its beating pulse and throbbing heart, is better far than the uniformity of a dead sleep, or sloth. It is not always the most unwholesome weather when the glass shows rapid variations between the points of storm and fair; nor is it a bad sign of the glass itself, that its index sometimes makes sudden enough leaps upon the dial-plate, in obedience to these atmospheric changes.

There is life, then, in Peter's faith-life, and not a little health too; otherwise it would have nothing in it either to attract or to edify. But the incident which we are now to consider is both attractive and edifying; affording us an insight into the workings of a lively faith in a lively soul, and bringing out, in the liveliest manner, its genuine sincerity, its imperfection, and its ultimate prevalence and triumph.

That Peter's faith in Jesus was at all events and upon the whole sincere, is manifest from these tw) circumstances in his behaviour:-that at the first, in dependence upon Jesus, he left the vessel; and, again, when sinking, called upon him for aid. He must have believed that it was no

incorporeal spirit, but his own beloved Master, whom he saw, and whose voice of encouragement he heard; and he must have been thoroughly convinced that he was both able and willing to sustain his footsteps on the treacherous path which he invited him to tread: otherwise his conduct, in attempting to walk on the water, was utter madness; and his cry when sinking, "Lord, save me!" was the mere raving of delirious terror. His faith, then, might be weak, and liable to the interruption of doubt; but still it was genuine and hearty.

And the very words of our Saviour's reproof manifestly imply that it was so: "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Peter is not charged with the sin of having no faith at all, though he is reproved for having little faith. Nay, at the very instant of his culpable doubting, his faith was in active exercise; for in faith he had been willing to comply with his Master's call, and in faith he was making his earnest prayer to him for help. He had faith, therefore, and that sincere faith, though he had not much faith, or strong faith. He had such a faith as made him hazard his life on the truth believed, and told him where in danger to seek for safety.

By the example, therefore, of Peter's faith, we are taught that uneasy thoughts and anxious fears, however inconsistent they may be with the abundance and the strength of energetic faith, are not always or necessarily inconsistent with its genuine reality. He who doubts in the time of trial is evidently a man of comparatively little faith, and, as such, may be reproved; for his doubt intimates some remains of unreasonable and unworthy dis

But still he may

trust: "Wherefore dost thou doubt?"

be a man of true and sincere faith. Nay, his very doubt and disquietude may arise from an experience which, while it proves the weakness of his faith, must be regarded, at the same time, as proving anything rather than his total want of faith;-as from a deep conviction of his own sinfulness and helplessness, which is rarely found unconnected with some measure of a believing knowledge of Christ, his holiness, his grace, his power; or from a keen sense of those very difficulties and temptations to which the warmth, the zeal, and the devotedness of his believing love to Christ may have mainly contributed to expose him.

Yes, there are difficulties, there are dangers and disasters, in the true believer's course, of which your smooth formalist and mere worldly professor of Christianity can know nothing. There are terrors in sin which the unawakened conscience never feels; trials in a holy walk which the "contented dweller in decencies" never has to face; vicissitudes in the inward conflict with corruption, and the inward fellowship of the soul with its God, of which they who pace the dull routine of outward ordinances, and call such bodily exercise religion, cannot even imagine the possibility. Ah! it is easy for those who have never learned to be tremblingly alive to the realities of God's wrath on the one hand, and his blessed favour on the other; who have never looked hell in the face, and never basked in the sunshine of God's reconciled countenance as a prelude of heaven itself; who have never felt what it is to cast a trembling glance on the Lamb of