3. DUTY THE TEST OF LOVE.

If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in. My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love' (St. John xv. 10). This was the rule of love which Jesus had already given. Now He applies it to the case of the penitent Apostle.

Natural affection and zeal were still urging Peter to attempt things different from others, but Jesus bids him rest satisfied in the simple fulfilment of the duty belonging to his office.

The threefold charge which our Lord gave him is sometimes spoken of as if it were a restoration to the office from which he had fallen, but his fall had not involved the loss of his office. It is (as the Greek Fathers say) in a sort of way a restoration to his office, for it is an injunction to fulfil its duties, but the form of speech is imperative, not designative. No new power is implied in these words. They are not spoken in order to convey a trust, but by way of admonition they call the Apostle to the fulfilment of an obligation. They are a charge, but they are not a commission.

The penitent is apt to long for some fresh form of service. We may learn from these words of Christ to find abundant opportunity for the exercise of love in caring for what He has already given us to keep.

Feed My lambs.' The truest penitence will show itself first of all in the humblest acts of duty.

Tend My sheep.' That is to say, shrink not from any of the weary toil which belongs to the shepherd's office. The penitent must be prepared for the constant service night and day which in God's providence may come to him. The shepherd life has not the busy speculative excitement which belongs to the fisherman. The one knows not when the storm may come, nor when he may look for an abundant draught. The other knows his sheep and watches over them with constant solicitude, providing for their several necessities.

Yes! the sheep are to be tended, and yet not chiefly for their own sake. They are the flock of Jesus, and the love of Jesus is the secret of apostolic diligence.

So must the love of Jesus be the sustaining power strengthening the penitent with perseverance.

'Feed My sheep.' The shepherd's care involves much weariness and toil, and the necessity of feeding the flock abides. So must the penitent's love be continuous. It cannot be shown upon emergencies and sink into forgetfulness at other times. The dangers of the flock are uncertain. The needs of hunger never cease.

Such is the love wherein the penitent is perfected. We are not sanctified by acts which gratify ourselves, but by our watchfulness in performance of the duties which satisfy the hunger of Jesus while He longs for the fruit of our labour. The flocks are His flocks. In all the acts of daily duty one towards another, we are doing them to Him.

O Jesu, let me show my love to Thee in all the simple acts of my daily calling. Never let me forget that Thou requirest my service in these things. Never let me do anything without the remembrance of Thee.

My son, I have called thee out of the world that thou mayest live devoted to Me. Rejoice to be hidden, for I am watching thee. By night and by day be thou evermore occupied in the work of My love.

O Lord Jesu, I will not henceforth seek for myself any of the greatness of the world. Nothing that this world can give shall ever merit Thy reward. Those whom Thou hast called out of the world Thou givest to me that I may feed them. Thou who feedest Thy flock among the lilies of heavenly grace wilt never suffer me to want while I tend them amidst the dreary expanse of this world's wilderness. My joy shall ever be to be with Thee and care for what is Thine.

NOTE.

It may be well to exhibit the difference of words used by our Lord and St. Peter:

The word translated love' is rather of choice, judgment, approval. The other word, represented by love,' expresses more natural affection.

MEDITATION XLIX.

Following Jesus.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now this he spake, signifying by what manner of death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.-St. John xxi. 18, 19.

1. WEAKNESS.

ALREADY had Simon Peter avowed his desire to follow Jesus, even although that should require him to lay down his life for Jesus' sake (St. John xiii. 37). The desire had been accepted, although it was made with little consciousness of how much it really involved, little knowledge of the speaker's feebleness of will. His zeal, his animal strength, was full of vigour. He knew not as yet that something more was necessary in order to follow Jesus in truth.

Now Jesus calls Peter to follow Him. The lesson has been learnt. We may well understand that the threefold questioning has brought the Apostle now to that enlightenment which penitence alone can give. He knows himself as he never knew himself before. He knows and trusts his Lord.

Jesus points him onward to a time when nature shall be weak. Then shall grace be strong. That

weakness is no hindrance to the following of Jesus. That strength will be all-sufficient.

The time, however, is not yet. He shall be old. The words may have aroused his confidence when he slept between two soldiers in the prison. Herod could not take away his life until his time was come. As he lived year after year, battling with many a weary difficulty, he may perhaps have felt these words weighing upon his eager spirit with a sad imprisoning power. Life here on earth was a lingering discipline which he must work out to the end, and that end was still so far away! The end for him could not be yet. Nevertheless he was all the while learning to accept this discipline. As nature looked forward to the lingering trial he learnt to die to the world. As his righteous soul, vexed by the present sorrows, looked forward to the end which awaited him, he felt the energy of the Divine life taking possession of him, so that in due time he might go forth and follow Jesus, not in the letter only, but also in the truth of the Eternal Spirit.

To die by his own will had been no true martyrdom. The hero may choose some glorious environments of death wherein to make a plunge into the world beyond, having some purpose of political. triumph which he hopes to leave behind him as his memorial upon earth. The Christian martyr cannot die by his own choice, although in the strength of grace he may rejoice while others bind him for, his doom. There was only One who could rightly lay down His soul, for He alone had power to take it again, and even He died as it were by the compulsion of others, because He would have us learn in death to follow Him.