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THE KING’S BUSINESS
a wild thing, an utter absurdity to a •low tone of faith? God speed you. On you g o ! I should like to see it done. I do 'not know that I would do it myself. It is safer, and keeps your clothes dryer, to sit in the boat; but if you think you can go out, mind you, I would like to see it done. I believe I should cheer you on. “Well done, Peter!” I would like to see some reckless thing done, for we have all got too much flattened and battened down. In such a time as that, Peter’s faith, just for a brief moment, stretched up to the true height that faith ought always to be at. When you see Peter climbing down out of that boat, as one has said, with the storm-light on his face and the spray in his hair, you get just one glimpse of what Peter, by the grace o f God, was always meant to be-—and what you and I, by the grace of God, were always meant to be—a people filled with such a vision of the eternal Christ of God, that all things seen and temporal fall away from us and utterly lose their power to ham per or discourage us; a people in whom faith is sublimed to its high est reach and its loftiest and most noble exercise. Walking on the water was impossi ble; but Peter did it so far. “When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” He did it; that is the puzzle of the commentators. It was not a commentator he was going to, or he would have said, “ Stay where you are, you fanatic! stay where you are.” No, he was going to Jesus, and Jesus said, “ Come! come! come!” He is always glad to see faith come and lay hold of Him. Why Peter Failed “When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to
go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and began to sink, and cried, “ Lord, save me!” What marred this beautiful story was that the commentators' spirit got into the poor fellow. After beginning so well, he began to get cautious. After beginning at such a sublime height of faith, he feared, and came down to the poor, pitiful level of a Kantian philosopher, sub ject to the categories of space and time. He began in the 'spirit, and he ended in the flesh. He became carnal, and walked as a man, or, rather, he sank as a man. “When he saw the wind boister ous.” It is a pity that we should ever get so keen-sighted as to see the wind. That is getting far too sharp on the temporal side of things. We out to be blind to the wind. W e ought to be deaf to its noise, and deaf to the roaring of the wave. I f we would glorify God, and if we would show what faith is in its es sence, and substance, and outcomes, we must go on as we began, “ look ing into Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” But when he saw the winds, he gave up faith. As some body says, he began to be sensible that it was after three o’clock in the morning, and a rather wild morning at that; and down he went, quicker than I can take time to explain it. You have to forget all about' what o’clock it is. You have to forget all about this twentieth century. You have to forget all about your sur roundings, if you would know God, and do His work, and serve the hour. There has to be splendid inconsider ateness. We are paralyzed by thinking, and considering, and calculating. We say that we are walking by faith, and it is almost an infinite lie. We are walking by sight. We are walking by committee-men. We are walking
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