rebels; must we fetch you water
out of this rock?" (Num. xx. 10).

Elijah was remarkable for his boldness: and yet he went off a day's
journey into the wilderness like a coward and hid himself under a
juniper tree, requesting for himself that he might die, because of a
message he received from a woman. (1 Kings xix.) Let us be careful.
No matter who the man is--he may be in the pulpit--but if he gets
self-conceited he will be sure to fall. We who are followers of
Christ need constantly to pray to be made humble, and kept humble.
God made Moses' face so to shine that other men could see it; but
Moses himself wist not that his face shone, and the more holy in
heart a man is the more manifest to the outer world will be his daily
life and conversation. Some people talk of how humble they are; but
if they have true humility there will be no necessity for them to
publish it. It is not needful. A lighthouse does not have a drum
beaten or a trumpet-blown in order to proclaim the proximity of a
lighthouse: it is its own witness. And so if we have the true light
in us it will show itself. It is not those who make the most noise
who have the most piety. There is a brook, or a little "burn" as the
Scotch call it, not far from where I live; and after a heavy rain you
can hear the rush of its waters a long way off: but let there come a
few days of pleasant weather, and the brook becomes almost silent.
But there is a river near my house, the flow of which I never heard
in my life, as it pours on in its deep and majestic course the year
round. We should have so much of the love of God within us that its
presence shall be evident without our loud proclamation of the fact.

The first step in Peter's downfall was his self-confidence. The Lord
warned him. The Lord said: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for
thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke xxii. 31, 32). But Peter said:
"I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death." "Though
all shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended."
(Matt. xxvi. 23.) "James and John, and the others, may leave You; but
You can count on me!" But the Lord warned him: "I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny
that thou knowest Me." (Luke xxii. 24.)

Though the Lord rebuked him, Peter said he was ready to follow Him to
death. That boasting is too often a forerunne