TELL his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee." Was there ever a more winning message to a faithless follower than this, given on the morning of the resurrection? "And Peter." Why should Peter have been specially named by the angel visitant to the women at the sepulcher? They had come to seek the Lord; they were told that he was not there. He had demonstrated that death had no power to hold God's spiritual idea, and had gone to show himself again to his sorrowing followers. In view of Peter's recreant denials after the arrest of his Master, his final severance from the little band who bore allegiance to Jesus might have been expected. What had become of all his vehement declarations of loyalty and obedience? Probably there never was a more troublesome follower. Headstrong, impetuous, thoughtless, permitting mortal mind to be dominant at most critical times, declarations of fidelity alternating with deeds that showed how crude was his spiritual perception,—such was Peter, the disciple whom Jesus found to be at times so untractable.
In the years that were to come the Master's teaching was of priceless value to him who became one of the most valiant of the early Christians; but as a student during the three years of the ministry of Jesus he was frequently rebuked and admonished. This failure often arose from overconfidence. He had all the dogmatic certitude so characteristic of young students. How easy it seems to the Christian neophyte, flushed with the new conception of divine realities and all aglow with clearer spiritual apprehension, to demonstrate the power of Truth and win victories over the error of mortal sense. Thus it seemed to Peter in his intense eagerness to follow Jesus, one of the most notable instances being when his impetuous desire for emulation led him to try to walk on the water. But it was necessary that he should be taught lesson after lesson, until in the spirit of true humility he found his real selfhood. He had not yet grasped even the rudiments of that spiritual law which enabled Christ Jesus to rise above the claims of material law, and when he became faint-hearted and fearful, his cry for help evoked that rebuke which is of universal application, and which comes home to each one today as it must have done to this impulsive disciple, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" There is no record that the disciple made any reply, but his life-history would justify the assumption that he mentally resolved then that he would seek to learn more of that faith which is essential to perfect demonstration.
We hear of "slow learners." Was there ever a slower learner than Peter? What opportunities he had for growing in spiritual knowledge! he had seen all the wonderful works of the Master—the proofs, impossible to deny, of his divine mission. He was present at the transfiguration, when there came to the small company assembled that spiritual vision which revealed the Master's sonship—a vision akin to that which comes to every lowly follower of Christ, Truth, as in prayer, watchfulness, and obedience he waits and rests in the divine Principle of all being. lie was a witness to the scene in the garden of Gethsemane, yet he failed even to fulfil the Master's desire that he should watch but one hour. He had repudiated with scorn the warning that he would prove a recreant, although Jesus had told him that the "evil one" had desired to have him. Jesus foresaw the test to which his impetuous follower was about to be put. and he came to his help so far as to tell him that he had prayed for him that his faith fail not.
We may well be astonished that, after all the benign instruction that Peter had received, after all that he had witnessed of the power of divine Love in the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead, after all the warnings that were given him, he should at last find his moral courage fail. What did it mean? Very largely that he was relying on personality rather than on Principle. He was looking to Jesus the man, and not to Christ the eternal Son of the Father, and the sense of personality had to yield to the consciousness of the spiritual idea ere a healing and redemptive knowledge of Truth could be gained. In loyalty, in fidelity, in obedience, in uncompromising adherence to the Master's teachings and example, Peter was afterward preeminent. He had learned his lessons well. "Divine Mind," Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 183), "rightly demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty." And in words that outline the experience of every true Christian Scientist, she adds, "Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power."
The lapses of young students are the result not of lack of earnest desire to know the truth, but of that wisdom which waits patiently and prays for guidance, seeking to know God aright; being willing, at the same time, to surrender any and every belief which cramps the enlarging thought and hinders a true apprehension of the spiritual in relation both to Principle and the real man. Peter erred because he was for so long blind to the higher significance of the beneficent works of which he was a daily witness. To him and his colleagues these were evidences not of that divine Love which heals and blesses mankind, but of a power which would be exerted for the acquisition and maintenance of an earthly kingdom. Hence their wholesale desertion of the Master after his arrest. There, came a time before long when the scales fell from their eyes and they saw spiritually,—knew the Christ who had ascended as the Saviour of mankind. To Peter this vision began to appear immediately after his last deplorable recreancy, his thrice denial of him with whom, only a short time before, he had offered to die.
The incident embodies the most profound significance for sinning, suffering humanity. On the one hand mortal mind, —fickle, treacherous, cowardly,—temporarily dominating an earnest, truth-seeking, loving student until lie fell before the taunts and sneers of a band of idle gossipers. On the other hand, he who was in the agony of his humiliation, facing brutal hatred and malice, with that perfect spiritual insight which enabled him to see beneath the outward and visible into the heart of man, "turned, and looked upon Peter." The simplicity and terseness of these Gospel narratives is one of their charms—there is never any superfluous description. Without being told, we know that that look, while deeply reproachful, carried with it a sense of tender love.
The effect was marvelous. The culprit was stricken with poignant regret and, as some one has well said, "rushed into the night, not like Judas, into the unsunned outer darkness of miserable self-condemnation, not into the midnight of remorse and despair: into the night, but it was to meet the morning dawning." For the grace of repentance had come, that "stricken state of human consciousness, wherein mortals gain sincere views of themselves; a state of mind which rends the veil that hides mental deformity" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 20). Afterward came the baptism of the Holy Ghost, cleansing from all sin; and he whose mental condition had settled into faith in God rather than in human wisdom, amazed the crowds by his boldness in proclaiming that the crucified one was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and in declaring that the promised redemption was unto them and their children, "and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
The contrast between Peter's repeated failures on the one hand and his consistent determination to be faithful on the other, should be studied in conjunction with the inspiring words which toward the close of his career he wrote to "God's own people, scattered over the earth." We know how, amid fiery trials and persecution, he grew in the grace of humility and love. All the weakness and reckless impetuosity of early days yielded to a clear apprehension of Truth, to the possession of "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled"—a spiritual sense of being— and to a tender solicitude for the redemption of fallen humanity. Thus he had fulfilled the promise of the Master, who had foreseen the transformation that would take place in the heart and thought and purpose of his follower.
Jesus had said to him, in words which cannot be limited in their application, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren;" and the great "apostle to the Jews" faithfully obeyed his instructions. Therein lay one of the sources of his strength. Of what use is faith without works? "Deeds let escape are never to be done." The follower of Christ, Truth, Mrs. Eddy tells us, "has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death" (Science and Health, p. 45); and if he recognizes the call to duty that is thus made, and apprehends even faintly the true source of all real strength, he will find no lack of opportunity to be faithful, while the joy that attends all selfless Christian work becomes a present possession. After a life of heroic labor, Peter was able to testify to God's loving care for His children, to affirm that no harm befalls any who are "followers of that which is good;" that they are happy, even if they suffer for righteousness' sake; and that every man should be ready to give an answer when asked a reason for the hope that is in him. He outlined in a few words in his epistles what the spiritually regenerated man who has seen the Christ by faith and is consecrated in life and purpose may accept as his daily guide.
How far are we as Christian Scientists, as those who have taken upon ourselves vows of fidelity to our new and higher conception of the Christ-life, reflecting Life, Truth, and Love in our daily walk and conversation? In the hourly task which comes to us of solving our own problems, is there a desire to transfer this duty to others? This, like idleness, is fatal to progress. In so far as we bring our thoughts and aims into harmony with Principle, in so far as, recognizing our spiritual sonship and our privileges as "joint heirs with Christ," we know that we are escaping the "corruption that is in the world through lust," so will our growth be. How to present the truth to the anxious inquirer will then become one of our most gracious tasks. Day by day the manna of the Holy Spirit's teaching will fall to us, and we shall become strong as the perfection of all that is real and eternal dawns upon the vision, so that we shall "neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
