ess for an imperial crown; but he was not quite at ease. His
uneasiness betrayed itself in his plunge into the water to swim to
Christ's feet, and in his rush to drag the net to the shore. He wished
to be restored to the position in the Apostolate which his sin had
forfeited; not because of the honor which it would bring, but because
nothing less would assure him of the undiminished confidence and the
entire affection of Jesus.

The Lord read his heart; and when the morning meal was done, He singled
him out from the rest of His disciples, and asked him three times if he
loved Him, and then thrice gave him the injunction to feed His flock.
In addressing him our Lord calls him by his old name, Simon Bar Jonas,
not by his new name, Peter; as if to remind him that he had been living
the life of nature rather than of grace.

In considering this subject, it will be convenient to speak of the
question, the answer; the command.

I. OUR LORD'S SEARCHING QUESTION--"Lovest thou Me?"

_It is a very remarkable question._--We should have expected the
inquiry, Dost thou believe Me? Wilt thou obey Me? Art thou prepared
to carry out My plans? But lo! the risen Lord seems not anxious about
aught of these, and only asks for love, and this from the rugged,
manly, headstrong Peter. Yet as we hear the question asked, we realize
it is the true one. He who has asked it has struck the right method of
dealing with men; and if He only get the love, He will get easily
enough the faith and the obedience as well.

In this startling question you have unbared to you the distinctive
feature which makes Christianity what it is, and which makes it
different from all other religions which have flung their clouds or
their rainbows over human spirits. It is the religion of love: and a
man may speak with a seraph's burning tongue to defend Christianity; he
may give his goods to feed the poor in obedience to the precepts of
Christianity; he may even burn at the stake rather than renounce
Christianity as his intellectual creed; but if he does not love, he is
no Christian. If a man love not the Lord Jesus, he is anathema.

But if only there be love--love to God, love to man--then though there
may be many deficiencies in head and heart, there is the one prime
evidence of Christianship. It was on such grounds that the Rev. Adam
Gibb of Edinburgh once acted. He had once or twice dissuaded a young
woman from joining the church, deeming her ill-in