most nicely adapted to their confirmation | Persevere then in every duty without and comfort: whereas, by shrinking regard to the discouragement: the next from Christ, they lost the disclosure, onward step may bring you into comand were punished by being left in dark-parative light; the least backward is ness and dismay. In religion, as in war, sure to land you in thicker darkness. there is nothing gained by cowardice : Ah, learn from the disciples: hastily forhe who turns his back upon the enemy, saking Christ, they fled to mourn over and flees from the fleld, may indeed disappointed hopes, over a leader in seem to have his life as his reward; but whom they could no longer trust, behe might perhaps have had both his life cause He was Himself the prey of the and his honor had he stood to his colors; wicked, "a very scorn and outcast : and, unable ever after to lift up his head, but, had they kept firmly for a few mohe had better have laid it at once amongst ments longer at his side, they might have the heaps of the slain. been confident, even whilst He hung on the cross, assured of finding his grave deserted, but with the linen cloth in it to prove that He was risen.

And in religion, if not in war, there is certainty, that if we persevere, we shall meet succors; if we retreat, retreat on worse dangers than we seek to avoid.

SERMON II.

THE FIRE ON THE SHORE.

"As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon and bread. saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.”—ST. JOHN, xxi. 9, 10.

Jesus

These words form part of the account of what St. John speaks of as Christ's third manifestation of Himself "to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead." The most careless reader, perhaps, can hardly peruse the words, without feeling that there is something strange and mysterious in what they state. How came this fire of coals on this lonely shore? Who kindled it? Who laid out the provision, the fish, and the bread? If, as we can scarcely doubt, there were something symbolical or significative, in what thus met the disciples' view so soon as they were come to land, what are the truths, what the lessons, that were figuratively conveyed?

We have a great and difficult subject of discourse before us. We must proceed with caution, we must proceed

with prayer: the inspired historian adds no explanation; he gives nothing but the facts; but the facts would not have been written, except for our admonition and instruction: we are, therefore, to study them with all care, but at the same time, in simple dependence on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, through which alone can the dark things of Scripture be made clear, and the intricate plain.

Let us begin with looking attentively at the foregoing parts of the narrative: these may greatly assist to a right understanding of the facts upon which we are specially to comment.

The chapter before us opens with the mention of the assembling of seven of our Lord's disciples on the coast of the Sea of Tiberias. The solemn interview which Christ had promised to grant to

his followers on the mountain in Galilee | hasten to the Master whom he had late appears not to have yet taken place; ly so fiercely denied, but to whom he we may suppose that the disciples were now longed to give proof of a devotedwaiting for the commission which they ness increased by the remembrance of were then to receive in the mean time his fall, and the graciousness of his forthey were at liberty, and, perhaps, even giveness. The other disciples, acting necessitated by want, to pursue their with less vehemence, but equally desiroriginal occupations. Under these cir- ing to be with their Lord, proceeded tocumstances, St. Peter tells the other dis- wards the land in their ship, dragging ciples of his intention of going a-fishing. with them the net and its ponderous enThey agree to accompany him: the se- closure. And then it was, on their all ven embark together, and spend the reaching the shore-perhaps much at night in fruitless toil, for they caught the same moment; for Peter, in his imnothing. But when the morning came, petuousness, may not have outstripped there stood on the shore, one, at least, his brethren who took a more ordinary whom the disciples did not recognize, way of approaching their Lord—then it though it was none other than the risen was that they found what is described Christ Himself. The boat being at no in the text, the fire of coals, and provigreat distance from the shore, Christ sion for a repast. could speak to the disciples; and He accordingly inquired of them whether they had any meat? On their answering, No, He directed them to cast the net on the right side of the ship, and assured them they should find.

The fire could hardly have been kindled by themselves over-night; they had been absent many hours, and what they had lighted would have been extinguish ed. They appear, moreover, to have gone a-fishing from being in want of provision; at all events, they would hardly have left fish behind them on the shore; or, if they had, the fish which now stood

Though the disciples did not recognize their Master, there must have been something in the air and appearance of the speaker, which commanded their at-ready for their meal could not have been tention, and, perhaps, caused them to suspect who it was; otherwise they would hardly have been prompt to obey a command which, after toiling all night in vain, they might have been disposed to consider as uttered either in ignorance or presumption. They however cast the net without hesitation, and immediately enclosed so great a multitude of fishes, that they were unable to draw it. This miracle-for they could scarcely fail at once to regard as miraculous, so sudden and large a draught of fishes, occurring at the moment when they were about to give up in despair-suggested that the stranger on the shore must be Jesus Himself; the miracle, independently of its wonderfulness, was so similar in its nature and circumstances to that which had preceded the calling of Peter, that the dullest must have entertained a suspicion, if not a conviction, of the presence of the Savior.

that which their own hands had placed on the coals; the supposition is preposterous, that they had lighted the fire before embarking, and laid fish upon it to cook whilst they were absent on the sea.

But it was the disciple whom Jesus loved-for affection is quicksightedwho first satisfied himself as to its being the Lord; and on his telling this to Peter, that impetuous, but ardent disciple threw himself into the sea, that he might

Besides, there is something peculiar in the way in which St. John mentions the fire and the provision. He is particular in noting that it was "as soon as they were come to land" that the disciples saw this fire of coals. It was the first object which met their eye on landing. There would have been nothing to mention, had this fire been only what they had themselves kindled over-night. And we may believe that the Evangelist is so careful in pointing out that the fire was seen at the instant of reaching the shore, on purpose to make us understand that the disciples did not light it after they landed, and that neither did they stir up the embers of the day before. You might have expected that the disciples would have been so engrossed with looking at their risen Master as to have had no eye for any other object. Neither would they have had, we may venture to believe, unless for something startling and mysterious. But that strange fire, kindled, as they may have

But we consider that Christ caused a miraculous draught of fishes, to remind Peter how He had called him original

recorded by the Evangelist, was occupied with matters personal to St. Peter, as though it had been on his account, or for his sake, that Christ showed Him-ly, and to produce in him a sorrowing self the third time to his disciples.

remembrance of his grievous apostasy. Christ will not solemnly reinvest Peter with the pastoral office, till He has made him again and deeply feel his heinous offence. And the miracle of the draught of fishes will have caused Peter much compunction and bitterness of soul-reminding him of what Christ had done for him, it must have remind

But how does the mode, or character of the manifestation agree with the supposition of its having been granted with an especial view to St. Peter, to his public reinvestment with the pastoral office? Most accurately; for when Simon Peter was first called by Christ, called that is, for there had been previous intercourse,-to forsake his world-ed him also, and that too like the pierc ly occupation, and devote himself to the preaching of the Gospel, Christ wrought, as you will remember, a miracle precisely similar, in its nature and circumstances, to that recorded in the narrative which we have under review. Simon Peter, and his partners, were then in a ship on the sea of Gennesareth. They had then toiled all night, and taken no fish. At the bidding of Christ, they then also let down the net; and the result then also was, that immediately "they en-place in the New Testament, as though closed a great multitude of fishes." And then it was that, Simon Peter being overcome by the miracle, Christ separated him for the office, to which he afterwards gave a more solemn appointment, saying, "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men."

So that there could not well be a more accurate correspondence than between the mode in which Christ prepared for Peter's first ordination, and that in which he made way for the reordaining him after his calamitous fall. It can hardly be imagined but that the similarity of the miracle must have painfully forced itself on the attention of St. Peter, bringing back to the mind of the penitent disciple the happy occasion on which he had forsaken all that he might follow our Lord, and perhaps suggesting how deplorably he had since altered his position, through overweening confidence in his own stedfastness and courage.

But whilst there was thus what we might call a repetition of the whole matter of Peter's ordination, what had "the fire of coals" to do with the transaction? It is this of which we chiefly seek the purport or design; and it does not appear how it served, or contributed, to the supposed object of this third manifestation of Christ.

ings of a sword, of his ingratitude and cowardice. But the sad facts of his denial of his Lord require to be yet more vividly brought back to his mind, that he may, through the painful recollections, be yet better fitted for reinstatement in his office. And might not "the fire of coals" help in a measure to recal the painful act of apostasy? Thus much is certain, that the expression, “a fire of coals," occurs only in one other

this were not the ordinary sort of fire, and the Evangelist wished especially to mark of what it was made. And it is the same Evangelist, St. John, who uses the word on the two occasions; St. John, whose great object in writing his Gospel appears to have been to supply the omissions of the preceding historians. But what is the other occasion on which St. John mentions "a fire of coals?" It is when he is relating what took place in the palace of the high priest, after Jesus had been apprehended, and brought before Caiaphas. "And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals (for it was cold); and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself."

It was, then, whilst he stood by this "fire of coals," that Peter denied his blessed Lord and Master. It was whilst he stood by this fire of coals that Christ threw on him that look which painting never caught, and which, following on the crowing of the cock, caused him to go forth and weep bitterly. Was not, then, “a fire of coals," found mysteriously kindled by unknown hands on the shores of the lake, likely to recall to Peter the circumstances of his apostasy? It were hard to believe, that, painfully affected as he must al

and the shrill crowing of the cock, and the piercing subduing look of his Lord, when, so soon as he was come to land, he "saw a fire of coals there," lighted he knew not how, but for what he could not doubt.

But whilst we think that such an explanation agrees admirably with many of the circumstances of the case, and is replete with interest and instruction, we cannot give it you as in every respect satisfactory. Indeed, it manifestly does not meet the whole of the facts. It gives no account of the preparations which had been made for a repast, nor of the reckoning up the fish, nor of the directing that certain of the fish just caught should be dressed in addition to those already prepared-a significant circumstance beyond doubt; for He who had miraculously provided a certain quantity, and laid it on the coals, as if to await the landing of the disciples, might undoubtedly have caused that this certain quantity should be enough, and that there should be no need for waiting till a portion of the fresh draught were dressed. We have still, then, to seek an explanation which shall satisfy all parts of the narrative: and this, we think, is to be found in the progress of the Gospel, and the connection between the old and new dispensations.

ready have been by the miracle of the fishes, he could have looked on that strange fire, produced to all appearance by another miracle of Christ, and not have had all the scene in the high priest's palace brought back upon him with a sort of crushing power. Again is he standing as he stood on that fatal night, and again he meets the look, which, more terrible in its meek reproachfulness than the fiercest glance of indignation and vengeance, convicted him of apostasy, and convulsed him with remorse. So that the "fire of coals," so pointedly mentioned by the Evanglist, who alone of the sacred historians, had recorded of what the fire was made in the high priest's hall, helps to complete the series of symbolical facts, if you suppose the manifestation of Christ, on the occasion before us, to have been granted with a view specially to the reordination of St. Peter. On this supposition, you are to consider that our blessed Redeemer, graciously designing, by a triple commission which should correspond to the triple denial, to restore His disciple to the pastoral office, so arranged the circumstances of His manifestation of Himself as to fix Peter's attention on the Apostleship with which he had been honored, and on the apostasy by which he had deserved to forfeit it altogether. Nothing could be better constructed to fix his attention on In one of our Lord's parables, the the apostleship than a miracle most ac- kingdom of heaven is likened unto a curately resembling that which had first net, which, being cast into the sea, moved him to forsake all and follow "gathered of every kind;" so that we Christ; and, accordingly, after another may be said to have Christ's own aunight of fruitless toil, the net is again thority for considering that the miracuordered to be cast into the sea, and lous draught of fishes represented the again incloses a huge multitude of fishes. bringing of multitudes into the Church But how, upon this wild sea-shore, is through the instrumentality of the he to be forcibly reminded of his apos- preachers of the Gospel. It is observatasy? What shall people that shore ble also that Simon Peter is said to have with recollections of the scene of dis- drawn the net to land: there may have aster and shame! Nay, if it was by been a reference here to the fact, that, "a tire of coals" that the recreant in reward of his noble confession of Apostle stood when he thrice denied Christ, Peter was entrusted with the his Lord, and if "a fire of coals opening the Church to the Gentiles: he were among the last things to be look- it was, who, instructed by a vision from ed for on the solitary coast, it might God, admitted by baptism Cornelius be hard to say what could have been and his friends to the privileges of better fitted than a "fire of coals" to Christianity. For there can be no fill Peter with a remembrance of his doubt, that in this second miraculous terrible fall. Oh it must have been to draught of fishes, there was a special him as though there thronged up from reference to the combining of all nathe past the taunting questions of the tions in the visible Church. The numservants, and his own fierce execrations, | ber of fishes is to be carefully noted;