follow to the palace, his besetting self-confidence returned and led him
into circumstances for which he was too weak. He was equal to the test
of his courage which he was expecting, but when another kind of test was
applied in circumstances and from a quarter he had not anticipated his
courage failed him utterly.

Peter probably thought he might be brought bound with his Master before
the high priest, and had he been so he would probably have stood
faithful. But the devil who was sifting him had a much finer sieve than
that to run him through. He brought him to no formal trial, where he
could gird himself for a special effort, but to an unobserved, casual
questioning by a slave-girl. The whole trial was over before he knew he
was being tried. So do our most real trials come; in a business
transaction that turns up with others in the day's work, in the few
minutes' talk or the evening's intercourse with friends, it is
discovered whether we are so truly Christ's friends that we cannot
forget Him or disguise that we are His. A word or two with a person he
never saw before and would never see again brought the great trial of
Peter's life; and as unexpectedly shall we be tried. In these battles we
must all encounter, we receive no formal challenge that gives us time to
choose our ground and our weapons; but a sudden blow is dealt us, from
which we can be saved only by habitually wearing a shirt of mail
sufficient to turn it, and which we can carry into all companies.

Had Peter distrusted himself and seriously accepted his Lord's warning,
he would have gone with the rest; but ever thinking of himself as able
to do more than other men, faithful where others were faithless,
convinced where others hesitated, daring where others shrank, he once
again thrust himself forward, and so fell. For this self-confidence,
which might to a careless observer seem to underprop Peter's courage,
was to the eye of the Lord undermining it. And if Peter's true bravery
and promptitude were to serve the Church in days when fearless
steadfastness would be above all other qualities needed, his courage
must be sifted and the chaff of self-confidence thoroughly separated
from it. In place of a courage which was sadly tainted with vanity and
impulsiveness Peter must acquire a courage based upon recognition of his
own weakness and his Lord's strength. And it was this event which
wrought this change in Peter's character.

Frequently we learn by a ver