VI.

The Creed of Faith.

THE experiences of Peter, during that night of storm and trial on the deep, were a greater revelation of himself to himself, and of his relations to Christ, than he had had before during his whole lifetime. Courage and fear, presumption and disappointment, self-confidence and ruin, faith and self-despair, and faith again growing out of that, succeeded each other as rapidly and violently in his soul as the mountain waves that threaten to engulf him. The first natural expression of the whole man breaks out in the cry, Lord, save me! He was afraid, and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me! A very different experience is here recorded from that in which Peter set out in this movement.

In the exercise of his faith in the first instance, when he began to walk on the water to go to Jesus, there may have been something mingled of vain

self-confidence ; and if so, that was enough speedily to finish his experiment. If so, it was not the winds and the waves that overwhelmed him, nor even his fear of them, but his own ignorant reliance on himself, and perhaps on his imagined great attainments in faith. A person may possibly have a misplaced confidence in his own faith, instead of Christ. But faith is good for nothing in itself, good for nothing, except as laying hold of Christ; and if faith instead of Christ is one's reliance for salvation, there will be a shipwreck.

Now in this second outcry of Peter there was real faith, unmingled with any self-confidence, whatever there may have been in his mind and heart when he set out from the ship. One can easily conceive that then there may have been, with all his confidence in Christ, a side glance at his fellow fishermen, and a willingness to be seen outdoing them in his intimacy with Christ and his devotedness to him. Whatever there was of that character, it went far to spoil his faith, and prepare him for sinking. Accordingly, in one or two steps his faith is all gone, at least that of which he would make a display, the faith of supererogation, in the possession of which a man might feel as if he had something to boast of, and he was reduced to common beggary. He sinks like a common, unbelieving man.

And now begins a real, unaffected, heartfelt, saving

faith; not the faith of miracles, but the faith of a sinful, dying soul, despairingly crying out for mercy. Lord, save me, I perish! Nothing affected in that, nothing of display, or pride, or self-confidence in that; but a genuine, submissive faith, wrought out from the anguish of a soul in self-despair, that, forgetting every thing else, relinquishing every thing else, falls helpless at the feet of Christ for mercy. It is not improbable that Christ permitted Peter to go so far, in order to show him what was in his heart; this was one of the many occasions of discipline and trial which Peter had to go through for the refining of his character. And it must have been followed with great searchings of heart on the part of Peter. He sat down in the ship that night and pondered much concerning the workings of his mind, and the nature of efficacious faith in Christ. And he began to see that faith was a greater, and yet a more simple thing than he had ever imagined. may have thought, at first, that he had great faith. And doubtless his fellow disciples thought so too, when they saw him getting over the side of the ship in that tempest, and beginning absolutely to walk on the water to go to Jesus. But he and they thought differently as soon as he began to sink; and Christ thought so very differently after the whole transaction, that he set him down at that period in his Christian life as Little-Faith.

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There is a great instruction to the Christian from this entire representation. It is not an unconverted man only, who is vexed and tempted and cast into prison of unbelief. The Christian is troubled daily, and sometimes grievously, almost to the destruction of his soul, with this distressing evil of our corrupt nature. He often says with Peter, Lord, if it be thou, when he should say, Lord, it is thou. It is perhaps only through experiences like this of Peter that any soul ever arrives at a firm, fixed, lasting faith in Christ, a faith which is the result of a practical knowledge both of our own weakness and of Christ's strength, our own guilt and Christ's mercy and grace; a faith like that of Paul's, When I am weak, then am I strong.

A man can walk through great trials calmly, if he only sees Christ, only feels that Christ is with him Great trials may be met with in the path of duty, and in great enterprises. The Christian is to count the cost, and throw himself on Christ. And in counting the cost, the Christian must put Christ and his promises at the foundation.

He and his family may be in a furnace like that of the three Hebrews under Nebuchadnezzar; but if they see a form like unto the Son of God walking with them, if they are blessed with the privilege of sweet uninterrupted communion with Christ, what is there that they cannot do, what is there that they will not cheerfully suffer? If in the midst of trials, a man

soul is absorbed in Christ, then he thinks comparatively little of the trials, but looks above them and away from them, and is only anxious that Christ's blessed will may be accomplished by the purifying of the soul through such affliction. If he be walking on the water to go to Jesus, the tempests that rise only hurry him the faster to Christ, provided it be Christ alone that his affections are fixed upon. But if his attention is drawn away from Christ, and fixed upon the dangers that are rising around him, then he easily becomes frightened. Nothing can terrify him while Christ fills the eye of his soul. He can overcome all enemies, can do all things through Christ strengthening him. He may conquer all his sins, if he looks to Christ; but if he look to his sins only, they will conquer and kill him, and he will sink in them.

So that this looking to Christ, direct to Christ, is the secret of safety amidst obstacles and dangers. Sleepwalkers will often perform the most amazing feats of dexterity, and walk safely where, if wide awake, they could not venture without destruction. It is because they do not see the dangers around them, but only their own step and purpose, and therefore go firmly without trembling, and so without evil. So it is with the soul looking only to Christ. It does not seem to regard dangers at all, at which other men are full of 4 rror. And this is true wisdom, being fixed upon