Thomas G. Selby
Published: 2015-07-12
Total Pages: 102
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Excerpt from Present Day Preaching: Sermons It is interesting to observe the different, and in some cases apparently opposite, ways in which Christ deals with disciples of different tempers, histories, vocations. In this morning scene on the lake shore. He brings into view, by a prophetic word, the tragic martyrdom awaiting Peter, the chief of the Apostles, but not a single word will He breathe to suggest John's future career, be it of service or of pain. And this is not caprice. There are well-weighed reasons, some of them quite obvious, for the varying and apparently contradictory method of dealing with the two men. The forecast of Peter's future is vouchsafed unasked and for very important ends. The gift of prophecy must never be used to satisfy an idle curiosity, and the question about John had an element of that sort in it. At first sight it might not seem to be quite true to nature to represent Peter as the subject of this temper in a moment of such tragic interest, when his own pathetic future had just come flashing into view; but men and women, in extreme pain, often show a keen interest in the affairs of their friends. We have all met with sufferers of estimable character who have welcomed every little bit of romance from the countryside that could be taken to their bedsides. Perhaps the romance may have helped them to forget for the time their own terrible lot. By busying himself with the events in the unopened chapters of John's life, Peter may have been seeking relief from the strain to which his feelings must have been put at receiving this hint about the last dark scene of his own life. His curiosity was kindly and well meant, but curiosity implies a defect somewhere or other in the quality of our faith, and we always tempt the Lord when we indulge a spirit of restless inquisitiveness. It would, moreover, have brought the restored Peter into a new temptation to have answered the question he put. It must have tended to revive the old rivalry between himself and the favored son of Zebedee. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.