west that I love Thee." We could not say
that our old associations are easily broken, that it costs us nothing to
hang up the nets with which so skilfully we have gathered in the world's
substance to us, or to take a last look of the boat which has so
faithfully and merrily carried us over many a threatening wave and made
our hearts glad within us. But our hearts are not set on these things;
they do not command us as Thou dost; and we can abandon whatever hinders
us from following and serving Thee. Happy the man who with Peter feels
that the question is an easily answered one, who can say, "I may often
have blundered, I may often have shown myself greedy of gain and glory,
but Thou knowest that I love Thee."

In this restoration of Peter our Lord, then, tests not the conduct, but
the heart. He recognises that while the conduct is the legitimate and
normal test of a man's feeling, yet there are times at which it is fair
and useful to examine the heart itself apart from present manifestations
of its condition; and that the solace which a poor soul gets after great
sin, in refusing to attempt to show the consistency of his conduct with
love to Christ, and in clinging simply to the consciousness that with
all his sin there is most certainly a surviving love to Christ, is a
solace sanctioned by Christ, and which He would have it enjoy. This is
encouraging, because a Christian is often conscious that, if he is to be
judged solely by his conduct, he must be condemned. He is conscious of
blemishes in his life that seem quite to contradict the idea that he is
animated by a regard for Christ. He knows that men who see his
infirmities and outbreaks may be justified in supposing him a
self-deceived or pretentious hypocrite, and yet in his own soul he is
conscious of love to Christ. He can as little doubt this as he can doubt
that he has shamefully denied this in his conduct. He would rather be
judged by omniscience than by a judgment that can scrutinise only his
outward conduct. He appeals in his own heart from those who know in part
to Him who knows all things. He knows perfectly well that if men are to
be expected to believe that he is a Christian he must prove this by his
conduct; nay, he understands that love must find for itself a constant
and consistent expression in conduct; but it remains an indubitable
satisfaction to be conscious that, despite all his conduct has said to
the contrary, he does in his soul love the Lord.