ad: "Going
away! Lord, whither goest Thou?" To that question our Lord might have
given a direct answer: "Heaven! The Father's bosom! The New
Jerusalem! The City of God!" Any of these would have been sufficient;
but instead He says in effect: "It is a matter of comparative
indifference whither I go; I have no wish to feed curiosity with
descriptions of things in the heavens, which you could not understand."
The main point for you, in this brief life, is so to become assimilated
to Me in humility, devotion, likeness, and character, that you may be
able to be My companion and friend in those new paths on which I am
entering, as you have been in those which I am now leaving. "Whither I
go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward."

The words staggered Peter; he could not understand what Christ meant;
he could not see how much had to be done before he could share in
Christ's coming glory. He made the same mistake as James and John had
done before, and wanted the throne, without perceiving that it was
conditioned on fellowship in the cup and the baptism into death. With
deep emotion he persisted in his inquiries: "Why cannot I follow Thee
now? There is no place on earth to which I would not go with Thee.
Have I not already left all to follow Thee? Have I not been with Thee
on the Transfiguration Mount, as well as in Thy journeyings? There is
but one experience through which I have not passed with Thee, and that
is death; but if that stands next in Thy life-plan, I will lay down my
life for Thy sake. Anything to be with Thee."

How little Peter knew himself! How much better did Christ know him.
"What! dost thou profess thyself willing to die with Me? Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt deny Me thrice, between now and
cock-crow to-morrow morning." These words silenced Peter for all the
evening afterward. He does not appear to have made another remark, but
was absorbed in heart-breaking grief: though all the while there rang
in his heart those blessed words of hope: "Whither I go, thou canst not
follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward"--words which our
Lord caught up and expanded for the comfort of them all, who now with
Peter for the first time realized that they were about to be parted
from Jesus, and were almost beside themselves with grief: "Let not your
heart be troubled. . . ."

I. THE DESIRE TO BE WITH CHRIST.--This was paramount. These simple men
had littl