SERMON II.

THE TEMPTATION OF ST. PETER.

ST. LUKE Xxii. 53.

"But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."

It is somewhat surprising, when we think of it, to remember what the hour was of which our Lord said, that it was the hour in which the power of malice and the evil spirits had their principal strength; the time given up, as it were, to them, in which they might work the utmost of their evil will upon the Apostles and their sacred Master: for it was, to all appearance, the most holy and sacred time which was ever spent upon the earth.

It was the evening on which our blessed Lord had instituted the holy sacrament of His body and blood. Within the last few hours He had held a long and most solemn discourse with His

Apostles. In that discourse He had announced his approaching separation from them, and had told them what they were to expect when He was gone away. He told them that tribulation and persecution awaited them, but that He Himself, by going away, would in some manner return to them in the presence of another Comforter. All this conversation we may well suppose to have been most profoundly interesting and awful to the Apostles. We can easily conceive their sorrow at hearing that their Master was about to leave them; their indignation at being told that He was to be betrayed by one of themselves; their subdued and awful consolation at the prospect of the other Comforter, in whose presence and inspiration they were to "be of good cheer" in the midst of all kinds of worldly persecution and suffering. After this discourse came the Holy Communion itself; the sacred and mysterious participation of His body and blood, who was still present, in the truth of His natural body, before them; in which they were surely fed and strengthened in their union with Him, and received much accession of spiritual grace and life. Then followed the mysterious and awful agony, of which three Apostles were near witnesses, while the other eight were not far off: and then, immediately after these scenes

of overpowering solemnity and awe, came the hour of the power of darkness: not the hour of opposition only, and resistance on the part of the evil spirits, but the hour of danger, of falling away, of narrow escaping, of scattering; the hour in which one was finally lost, some hardly saved, and the blessed Redeemer Himself, according to the earliest of prophecies, bruised in the heel.

I say, it is a striking thing, then, to observe, without going further, what hour this was; and we may remember, to our own good, that even the most sacred times may thus be times of unspeakable danger. We are apt to rouse ourselves for great occasions, and to wind our feelings up (I do not mean intentionally and affectedly, but naturally and imperceptibly) to a height at any peculiarly sacred season or celebration. And then they as naturally flag, and sink down, and leave us in a self-complacent state, in which we are exposed to considerable and, perhaps, aggravated risk. We may remark, too, that our Lord's own two great temptations (and He was tempted like as we are) took place, the one immediately after His baptism, and the other as soon as He had risen from the great communion. We shall do well, then, to remember, when we are invited to partake in such holy celebrations, that the danger is not over when

the Sacrament is received, but that we may in some sort "gather up the fragments which remain" after the feast is done, by keeping up our watchfulness and prayer, when the immediate excitement and feeling are gone by.

We may trace the agency of the evil spirits in this their own hour, either in the case of Judas, who was lost, or of St. Peter, who fell, but afterwards repented, and was converted. For the present it may be well to confine ourselves to consider the case of St. Peter, from which I apprehend there is much to be gathered in the way of caution and warning.

In the first place, then, I would observe, that St. Peter had received in the course of that evening repeated warnings of the sin which he was about to commit in denying his Lord. As far as we can discover, from comparing the gospels together, he was warned three times. The first warning is recorded by St. Luke. It took place while they were all at supper, and before Judas had left the company. They had been disputing about precedency. "There had been a strife among them which should be accounted the greatest;" and then, after rebuking them for their ambition, the Lord said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have

prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren '." On this St. Peter replied, that he was ready to go with Christ to prison or to death, and received his first warning. "I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me." The second warning is mentioned by St. John. Judas had just left the table, when Jesus, speaking more unreservedly and affectionately as soon as the traitor was gone, declared that He was just going to leave them. "Little children, yet a little while I am with you." Peter asked, "Whither goest Thou?" and then declared his readiness to lay down his life for His sake. On this he received his second warning. The third warning is mentioned by St. Matthew and St. Mark *. It took place after they had sung a hymn, and gone to the mount of Olives. The Lord foretold the scattering of all their company; but St. Peter confidently promised, that though all should be offended, yet would he never be offended. Then he received his third and last warning; yet even then he had the boldness to reply, "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee."

3

1 St. Luke xxii. 31.

2 St. John xiii. 38.

3 St. Matt. xxvi. 30.

4 St. Mark xiv. 27.