In a Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, there appeared the story of Dorcas, a woman of Joppa, who, as the Bible states, "was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did" (Acts 9: 36), but who became sick and died. Peter was at Lydda, not far away, and the disciples sent for him. Answering the call, Peter—that disciple whose impulsive, vacillating, undependable nature had in the past caused him many moments of grief and anguish as he tried to follow Jesus—calmly, confidently, and understanding prayed and raised Dorcas from the dead.
A student of Christian Science who was reading this Lesson-Sermon was filled with a deeply reverent sense of gratitude for the lesson contained in this incident. She went over in her thought the life of Simon Peter as told in the New Testament. She recalled his recognition of Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16), a recognition which won for him the new name of Peter, meaning "a rock." She remembered his impetuous attempt to walk on the water as his Master was doing; his thrice-expressed denial of Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest's palace; his eager joy at seeing Jesus on the shore of the Galilean Sea.
All these incidents came to the student's thought. And, thinking back over them, the incident of Peter's attempt to walk on the water seemed to stand out most clearly. The student realized that on the wonderful occasion when Jesus went to the disciples, walking on the water, Peter's understanding must have risen momentarily to the point where he could perceive that it was Jesus' reflection of the Christ-power, and not his human personality, which had enabled him to heal the sick and perform the so-called miracles. Apparently Peter saw in a degree that if this was so, then this power was for all to understand and use and was therefore for him. And, perhaps, the student thought, he was most ready to perceive it because he had been tripped so many times by his own impetuosity, the unreliability of his own personal judgment. That may have been why Peter, of all the disciples, said to Jesus, "Bid me come unto thee on the water" (Matt. 14:28).
