But when he saw the wind boistrous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, Lord save me. Matt. xiv. 30.
WHEN we consider that these words were uttered by Peter at a time when they would imply doubt, how can we expect to find perfection in human belief? Uttered by a man who had been with Jesus, and seen so many of his miracles; who had but a few hours before seen our Saviour feed more than five thousand people from five loaves and two fishes; who but a few hours before had heard him explain the parable of the sower and the seed, it seems almost impossible that he should have had so much doubt. When called from his net, he responded with the greatest promptness. Had he so soon forgotten that his Master had gone to the mountain to pray, and that the prayer he there uttered was for mankind? Had he forgotten that Jesus had constrained his disciples to go before him, to the other side, while he went alone to the mountain to pray? He is on the Mount, they on the sea. Yet while he was on the Mount praying, and lifting up his voice to the Father, he fails not to see his disciples, tossed on the waves. At once he sees the highest heavens, and the midst of the sea; the glory of the Father and the fear of the disciples.
Now that he has come to them, "they are troubled;" not with his presence, but with fear. And why are they troubled? "They had thought they had seen a spirit." But if they had been thus deluded, why need they fear? Could their eyes have been opened, they would, as did Elijah's servant, have seen more with them than against them. It was now time for the Saviour to speak, for with the tempest, and the supposed apparition, the disciples were almost undone with fear. But when they heard him say, "Be of good cheer, it is I," their drooping hearts are filled with joy.
