S. Luke xxii. 61,

then perhaps several cry out at once. The bewildered man tries to exculpate himself from the Babel of charges. He says anything and everything in the excitement of the moment, and at last, when matters become desperate, loses all control over his words.

66

This is almost exactly what happened in the last act of denial," in the courtyard of the High Priest's palace. S. Peter was driven to bay by a multitude of excited assailants, and perhaps hardly knowing, certainly not realising, what he said, he appealed to heaven and called down Divine vengeance upon his head if his denial were untrue. And at that moment, in the lull which such an awful adjuration must have produced, "the second time the cock crew." Simultaneously with the sound, which, coming when it did, must have brought a rush of tumultuous thoughts into his mind, the eyes of the Master, Whom he had so basely denied, were fixed upon him. He was being led out by an armed escort from the private Council-chamber towards the porch,s and "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter," and that look, "sharper than any two-edged sword," pierced him to the very heart, for "when he thought thereon "9 he went out and was overwhelmed with grief. There is a very touching tradition which,

whether true or not, is at least in perfect accord with the depth and reality of his penitence. It is said that for nearly forty years, till a martyr's death. sealed his repentance, the remembrance of that scene never left him, and that "morning by morn- Geikie, Life ing he rose at the hour when the look of his Master entered into his soul, to pray once more for pardon."

and Words,

ii. 329.

S. Matt. xiv. 29.

S. John

Two practical reflections arise out of this fateful episode of the Apostle's fall. It teaches us the peril of trusting too much to our feelings. There was no one in the Apostolic company who could compare for an instant for zeal and enthusiasm with the warm-hearted and impulsive Peter. It led him to cast himself into the sea when he saw the Master coming: it betrayed him into rebuking Jesus xxi. 7. for even hinting at His Passion: it impelled him xvi. 22. S. John also to draw his sword and attack the very foremost xviii. 10. in the fray, when they came to arrest the Lord in Gethsemane. And yet he has proved for our admonition that the most fervent zeal may evaporate and be wasted, unless it be chastened and safeguarded by constant watchfulness and prayer.

Again, we may learn from his example that warnings of danger are only disregarded at our peril. "Thou canst not follow Me now." That word, spoken by One Who had never deceived him,

S. Matt.

should have made him more wary. "Put up thy sword into the sheath;" it was meant to tell him that something over and above physical courage was needed in that hour. "The door of the palace closed in his face;" it ought to have kept him from treading on forbidden ground. Let the consequences of his self-confidence bring home the value Rom. xi. 20. of the Apostolic precept, "Be not high-minded, but fear."

NOTES.

1 This is mistranslated "palace" in the A.V.

2 "Beneath in the palace," or "below in the courtyard," as it should be rendered, need imply no more than this; not that the Council-chamber was on the upper story.

3 Cf. i. 62, 63.

4 The definite article is in the original, and points to the identity of this maid with the one who had charged him before.

5 It is supposed that their pronunciation of Hebrew had become affected by their intercourse with Gentiles. It was so thick and unintelligible that they were not allowed to read in the synagogues. Cf. Lange, iii. 247.

6 It is emphasised by the insertion of yw.

7 Dr. Westcott in his commentary on S. John has given a carefully prepared table of the three denials and helped to clear away some of the difficulties. In the first, all the Evangelists are practically agreed that the charge was brought by the portress; in the second the charge is made indirectly by the same and another maid, directly by "another man" and some undefined people spoken of as "they;" in the third indirectly by "another," and directly by

the kinsman of Malchus, and in a different form by the bystanders.

8 This was on His way to the Lischath Haggazith, if the Sanhedrim still held its sittings there. If not, perhaps they were going to one of the "Booths." In either case they must have left the palace.

¿Tiẞav has received a variety of interpretations. "Throwing his mantle over his head," "throwing himself into it," "thinking it over." exλalev, the imperfect tense, shows that it was not a mere outburst of grief, but long continued.

LXXI.

Before the Sanhedrim.

S. MARK XV. I.

1. And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the

whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate.

WHEN the irregular assembly in the house of Caiaphas broke up, our Lord was left to the tender mercies of the attendants and servants of the chief

priests. We know well how contagious cruelty is, especially amongst men of a coarse nature, and we are not surprised that the unjust treatment which the Prisoner had received at the hands of Caiaphas and the priests should have been followed up by worse indignities from the menials of the Court. They knew that they had nothing to fear, and began at once to give rein to their cruel passions, and subjected their unbefriended Victim to the most shameless violence. They spat upon His face, to mark the extremity of contempt. They blindfolded His eyes, and because He refused to guess who it