surance of his love Christ gave him a new commission, "Feed My
lambs." This was a humble work,--not so exalted as it is now--a test of
Peter's fitness for Apostleship. He was ready to accept it; and thus he
showed his fitness for the enlarged commission, "Feed My sheep."

With what intense interest John must have listened to the conversation
between his friend and their Lord. Was he not as ready as Peter to say,
"Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee"? In the
end John fulfilled the commission, "Feed My lambs," better than either
Peter or any of the other Apostles. Of them all he had the most of the
child-like spirit. He may fittingly be called the Apostle of Childhood.

Peter was told by the Lord something about his own future,--how in
faithful service for his Master he would be persecuted, and "by what
manner of death he should glorify God." By this his crucifixion is
apparently meant. As John listened, perhaps he wondered what his own
future would be. He was ready to share in service with Peter. Was he not
also ready to share in his fate, whatever it might be?

"Follow Me," said Jesus to Peter. They seem to have started together
away from the group. John felt that he must not be thus separated from
his friend and his Lord. Though he had not been invited to join them, he
started to do so, as if the command to Peter had been also for himself.
"Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following;
which also leaned back on His breast at the supper, and said, Lord, who
is he that betrayeth Thee?" As Peter at the supper beckoned unto John to
ask that question concerning Judas, is it not possible that John now
beckoned to Peter to ask Christ concerning himself? However this may be,
"Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do?" or,
as it is interpreted, "Lord--and this man, what?" It is as if he had
said, "Will John also die a martyr's death, as you have said I shall
die?" It is not strange that he wanted to know the future of his friend.
But he did not receive the answer he sought, for "Jesus saith unto him,
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"

These words may mean that John would live to old age and escape
martyrdom, which became true. But this was not the meaning which
Christians of his day put into them. They had the mistaken idea that
Christ, having ascended to Heaven, would soon come again. They also
believed that John would live until