Your ShelfYour Projects

WHO DENIED HIM?

33%

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 3.

Read the full edition

WHO DENIED HIM?

By Mrs. E. Risdon

"But ye denied the Holy One and the Just." Who is it speaking these words in Acts 3: 14? It is Peter—that same Peter who denied Jesus thrice in an hour. Well may we imagine these proud Pharisees whom he is now addressing, throwing back the taunt: "No, Peter, we never denied him; we never professed to love or to follow him, but you, you, Peter, denied him. It was you—one of his best friends; you who said you were willing to die for him, and would never deny him though all others did." Ah, how the words would have stung Peter's loving, impulsive heart even to the core! "Yes," says Peter, "I did; I did deny my blessed Lord. I did pierce afresh his bleeding side. He was wounded in the house of his friends. Yes, I was a poor, lost, undone, guilty sinner; but Jesus looked on me with that loving face so full of sorrow, and with that look came the memory of my sins, and I wept to think how cruel, how ungrateful, I had been, and I asked the dear Master to forgive me, and I was restored to fellowship and communion with him, and now I trust not in Peter for sustaining grace, but I trust in Him who said to me, 'When thou art converted [turned from self to Me], strengthen thy brethren;' and it is through Him that I have done this miracle, and not by any holiness in myself."
Ah, dear Christian readers, let us beware lest we, too, like Peter, give unbelievers occasion, by our unfaithfulness, to blaspheme the name of the Lord. Let us ever remember that forgiveness only heals the wound, but the scar still remains. True, we are complete in Jesus when accepted by him, but these backslidings, these denials, will do us lasting harm. They hurt our influence with the unsaved, and they at once say to us, "Physician, heal thyself." Let us look well to it how we walk. Let us ever bear in mind that the fire will try our works, and whatever we have done that has any of self in it all, shall be burned up.—Mrs. E. Risdon, in Gospel Banner.