The oarsman was silent, the other man gave a sort of grunt that
betokened interest.

"What shines had this feller been cuttin' up?"

"Why!" said Mr. Linden, starting up and taking his stand by the mast,
as the little boat curtseyed softly over the waves, "if you tell one of
your boys always to walk in one particular road, and you find him
always walking in another--I don't think it matters much what he's
doing there, to him or to you."

"Wall?"--said the man, with a face of curiosity for what was to come
next, mingled with a certain degree of intelligence that would not
confess itself.

"Well--Peter knew he was not in the way wherein the Lord commands us
all to walk."

"I guess every feller's got to pick out his own road for himself!" said
the fisher, pulling up a foot or two of his net carelessly.

"That's what Peter had thought,--and so he had lived, just as he chose.
But when he saw more of the glory of God, then he was afraid and
confessed his sin. And what do you suppose the Lord said to him then?"

"What did Peter own up to?"

"The account gives only the general confession--that he was a sinful
man, not worthy to have the Lord look upon him except in anger. You see
he falls down at his feet and prays him to depart--he could not believe
that the Lord would stay there to speak good to him."

"Well--what _did_ he say to him?"

"'He said unto him, Fear not'. And no one need fear, who humbly
confesses his sins at the feet of Jesus, 'for if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.' Then the Lord bade Simon and all his companions
to follow him--and they obeyed. And now I want to tell you what this
following means."

He put one arm round the mast, half leaning against it, and gave them
what Faith would have called a 'ladder'--passing from the 'Follow me,'
spoken to Peter,--to the young man who being bid to follow, 'went away
sorrowful',--to the description of the way given in the tenth chapter
of John,--to the place whither the flock follow Christ--

"'And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an
hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in
their foreheads.' 'These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth.'"--

The men listened, open-mouthed and with intent eyes;--partly to the
speaker, it was evident, and partly to what the speaker said. And that
his words took hold, it