XV.

THE FRIENDSHIP OF PETER AND JOHN.

"Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me."-JOHN xxi. 20–22.

PART SECOND.

It is no ordinary friendship we are tracing-no common-place acquaintanceship or familiarity—when we make a study of the intimacy between Peter and John. How the friendship first arose-whether from contiguity and neighbourhood of residence, or similarity of occupation, or community of taste, or, as we might say, mere accident and casual circumstancesit would be idle to conjecture, and not very profitable, even if it were possible, to discover; nor need we regret much our inability to determine the probable nature and degree of their fellowship, before they met with Jesus and became his followers. Afterwards, as we have seen, they had enough of experience in common to knit them together in the closest and

most confidential union. Their common alacrity in consenting to forsake all for Christ and wait upon his ministry, their common sight of his glory on the mount, and their common participation in his agony in the garden; these formed bonds of mutual sympathy as strong as they were strange. And a certain subdued congeniality of temper, amid great diversities, calling forth the same kind of rebukes on the part of their Master, as well as the same kind of lessons and encouragements-was fitted to make them intimately and thoroughly one.

The real value of this unity may be seen most evidently, as it appears to us,-First, In what passed between them as their Master's life on earth drew towards its close; and, Secondly, In the brief but emphatic notice of the separation awaiting the two friends, with which, after his resurrection, the Lord wound up his conversation with Peter concerning John.

I. The close of their Master's life brought Peter and John very much together. As Jesus drew near to the city to eat his last Passover, these were the two disciples whom he sent on before him to make the needful preparation ;-" And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat" (Luke xxii. 8). At the Paschal supper itself, when Jesus, troubled in spirit, made the melancholy announcement that one of the twelve should betray him-amid the blank astonishment and dismay that sat on every face, as, looking one to another, they doubted of whom he spake-we find Peter beckoning, or making a signal, to the disciple whom Jesus loved, that he should ask the Lord, on whose bosom he was

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leaning;-Lord, who is it?-A trifling incident in itself, but characteristic, on the one hand, of Peter's readiness of resource-for it was quite like him to suggest the expedient that might end the terrible suspense—and, on the other hand, indicating the footing on which the two apostles were, and the sort of telegraphic and electric understanding that subsisted between them. "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon" (John xiii. 23-26).

Let us imagine such a sympathy as this would imply, between Peter and John. Let us conceive of the beloved disciple-himself reposing on the bosom of his Master, and drinking in his looks of infinite love -as he catches the eye of his anxious and excited friend. A momentary suspicion flashes through his mind, as he detects some trembling-perhaps some vacillation in the eager look. Instantly he is aroused; and taking advantage of his position, and of his Master's acknowledged partiality, he hastens to set a bursting heart at rest, and to relieve Peter of his fears. From the supper there is an adjournment to the garden, where together they are found yielding to And immediately

the oppressive sorrow of the scene.

thereafter, there follow in quick succession, like the incidents in a dream, the arrest of Jesus, his trial, his crucifixion, and his burial.

And all throughout this tragedy, Peter and John are together.

If John be indeed the young man of whom Mark speaks, who fled, leaving his upper garment, as he was laid hold of in following Jesus, he soon repented and returned. For there is little doubt that he was the individual who introduced Peter into the palace of the High Priest. We gather this from the style and manner of the description, compared with this Evangelist's usual way of indicating himself. What interest or influence he had with the High Priest's officers, or how he was known to the High Priest himself, does not appear. It is supposed by some, that Zebedee, his father, was a man of wealth and consideration, and that, personally, John held a somewhat distinguished rank. But be that as it may, he has evidently the means of entering himself into the hall, where his Master is to be tried, and of procuring admission for his companion and friend (John xviii. 15, 16).

Ah! little did John think, when he executed for Peter this commission of common civility, that the issue was to be so disastrous and deplorable. But the trial goes on. Peter is betrayed into the cowardly sin of denying his Master; and John, who was instrumental unadvisedly in introducing him to the scene of temptation, has the deep mortification of witnessing his friend's disgrace. But he catches a glimpse of what is in the eye of the Lord, as he turns and looks upon Peter. And he sees, also, the tears already gushing, as he goes out, from the smitten penitent's eye.

Shall we say that he makes haste to follow him? Or rather as we shortly after find John at the foot of the cross, receiving the charge which, in the midst

of all his own agony, the son of Mary committed to him, "Mother, behold thy son; Son, behold thy mother," shall we say, that after leading that mother to his own house, and soothing her poignant grief as best he might, he bethought himself of his fallen friend, and went in search of Peter, whom he had seen, under the piercing yet melting glance of their common Master's eye, going out to weep bitterly? Certain it is, that we find Peter and John together on the morning of the resurrection (John xx. 1). And they are together, not casually or suddenly, but by design and on set purpose. Have they been together all the time, since their Lord was laid in his silent tomb? And how have they been spending that dismal interval?

O Christian friendship! how precious art thou! When the Saviour is in the grave, and Peter, disconsolate and despairing, is brooding over his base treachery and that last look of the Holy One, which, beaming with kindness, all the more on that account cut him to the heart,-thou, O Divine Consolation! -thou bringest to him one dearer than a brother ; younger in years, but how tender in sympathy! It is John;—who amid the overwhelming sorrow of that hour -with the grief of witnessing the cruel torture of him who loved him full in his bosom-and upon his hands the care of her who was now to be his mother, as she had been the mother of his Lord-has yet leisure to remember the claims of friendly affection, and to seek out and console his fellow-disciple Peter.

We might here give imagination the reins; but we forbear. The sacred history has wrapt in deepest and most unbroken gloom the period that intervened between the burial and the resurrection of the Lord;