na. She probably
met him while tarrying in Constantinople, and could easily know of his
presence at the palace of her father, Alexius. From her we learn that he
had to flee before the Turks and Saracens, and her narration makes it
doubtful if he reached Jerusalem on his first attempt. By so much as he
was more enthusiastic than others by nature, by so much was he fired
with indignation, which to him was but the just expression of his zeal
and his piety.

[Sidenote: _Emotions in Jerusalem_]

He stood with agony on Calvary. He adored with tears the tomb of Christ.
Then he sought speech with the Patriarch of Jerusalem. His name was
Simeon, and like another, waited for "the salvation of God." Who is
responsible for the report of this interview we do not know, but one
more probable and pathetic is not on record outside the Bible.

[Sidenote: _Patriarch Simeon_]

[Sidenote: _Simeon's and Peter's Hope_]

Simeon had suffered much for his faith as well as for his leadership.
The impatient enthusiasm of Peter was moved to tears by the patient
enthusiasm of Simeon. "Is there no remedy?" cried Peter, weeping. And
Simeon answered: "Is it not evident that our sins have shut us away from
the mercy of the Lord? All Asia is in the power of the Mussulmans; all
the East is enslaved; no power on earth can help us." Peter asked, "May
not the warriors of the West come to your help?" "Yes," said Simeon,
"when our cup is full, God will soften the princes of the West, and will
send them to the help of the Holy City." This was Peter's thought, and,
weeping with joy over a great hope, the patriarch and the pilgrim
embraced. The patriarch pledged himself to appeal to Europe by letter
and Peter by word of mouth.

The plan of Peter was strengthened by his further devotions at the Holy
Sepulcher. There are two ways in which men of strong will become sure
that their will is the will of God.

[Sidenote: _Peter's Mental Constitution_]

One is to make a plan, and then submit it to God in prayer. The other,
and the truer, is to ask God's help in the making of the plan as in its
execution. The first, as was probable from Peter's intellectual and
moral constitution, seems to have been the way in which he came to
certainty as to his life mission. There is no reason to doubt that in
his exiled state, moved at once by piety and peril, he saw the vision,
though inwardly, which inspired his return. At the Sepulcher he thought
he heard the voice of Chri