Christ's second coming. "This saying
therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not
die." John was unwilling to have this mistake concerning Christ's words
repeated over and over wherever he was known. So he determined to
correct the false report by adding what is the twenty-first chapter of
His Gospel, telling just what Christ did say, and the circumstances in
which He uttered the words to Peter concerning John. His testimony is
this:--"Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die; but, If I will that
he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me."

Peter became the suffering; John the waiting disciple, "tarrying" a long
time, even after his friend was crucified, and all his fellow-Apostles
had died, probably by martyrdom.

But after all that John wrote to correct the mistaken report concerning
His death, tradition would not let him die. It affirmed that although he
was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil at Rome, and though he was
compelled to drink hemlock, he was unharmed; and that though he was
buried, the earth above his grave heaved with his breathing, as if,
still living, he was tarrying until Christ should return.

"What shall this man"--John--"do?" asked Peter. He found partial answer
in what they did together for the early Christian Church, until John saw
"by what manner of death Peter should glorify God." And then that church
found yet fuller answer in John's labors for it while alone he "tarried"
long among them.

When John tells us that Peter turned and saw him following, we recall
the hour when Andrew and he timidly walked along the Jordan banks, and
"Jesus turned and saw them following," and welcomed their approach and
encouraged them in familiar conversation. How changed is all now! John
does not ask as before, "Where dwellest Thou?" Nor does Jesus bid him
"Come and see." He who has become the favored disciple is now better
prepared than then to serve his Master, following in the path they had
trod together, and having an abiding sense of the blessed though unseen
Presence, until his Lord shall bid him, "Come and see" My heavenly
abode, and evermore "be with Me where I am," and share at last, without
unholy ambition, the glory of My Throne."

_CHAPTER XXX_

_St. John a Pillar-Apostle in the Early Christian Church_

"James and Cephas and John, they who are reputed to be
pillars."--_Paul. Gal._ ii. 9.

"They went up into the upper chamber w