I am? And Peter answered and said, 'Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the Living God.'

This is what St. Peter had learnt; because he had kept his eyes and
his ears open, and his heart ready and teachable, that he might see
God's truth when it should please God to show it him; and God did
show it him: and taught him something which his own eyes and ears
could not teach him; which all his thinking could not have taught
him; which no _man_ could have taught him; flesh and blood could not
reveal to him that Jesus was the Son of God; flesh and blood could
not draw aside the veil of flesh and blood, and make him see in that
poor man of Nazareth, who was called the carpenter's son, the only-
begotten of the Father, God made man. No. God the Father only
could teach him that, by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit: but do
you think that God would have taught St. Peter that, or that St.
Peter could have learnt it, if his mind had been merely full of
thoughts about himself, and what honour he was to get for himself,
or what profit he was to get for himself, out of the Lord Jesus
Christ?

No: St. Peter loved the Lord Jesus; loved him with his whole heart.
When afterwards our Lord asked him, 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me?' He answered, 'Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' And
because he loved him, he saw how beautiful and glorious the Lord's
character was; and his eyes were opened to see that the Lord was too
beautiful, too glorious, to be merely a mortal man; and, at last, to
see that he was the brightness of God's glory, and the express image
of his Father's person.

But, as I said just now, St. Peter's great and excellent gifts might
have made him only the more dangerous man, if he used them ill. And
this seems to have been his danger. He was plainly a very bold and
determined man, who knew his own power, and was ready to use it
fearlessly: and what would he be tempted to do! To fancy that his
power belonged to him, and not to Christ; that his wisdom belonged
to himself; that his faith belonged to himself; his authority
belonged to himself; and that, therefore, he could use his excellent
gifts as he liked, and not merely as Christ liked. He was liable,
as we say in homely English, to 'have his head turned' by his honour
and his power.

For instance, immediately after our Lord had put this great honour
on him, 'I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,' we
find Peter mistaking his power, and, t