The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 543

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STEADFAST UNTO THE END 537 ing to the wisdom given unto liim hath written unto you. ... Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'^ In the providence of God, Peter was permitted to close his ministry in Eome, where his imprisonment was ordered by the emperor Nero about the time of Paul's final arrest. Thus the two veteran apostles, who for many years had been widely separated in their labors, were to bear their last witness for Christ in the world's metropolis, and upon its soil to shed their blood as the seed of a vast harvest of saints and martyrs. Since his reinstatement after his denial of Christ, Peter had unflinchingly braved danger, and had shown a noble courage in preaching a crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour. As he lay in his cell, he called to mind the words that Christ had spoken to him: ''Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst: but when thou slialt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. ' ' ' Thus Jesus had made known to the dis- ♦ ciple the very manner of his death, and even foretold the stretching of his hands upon the cross. Peter, as a Jew and a foreigner, was condemned to be scourged and crucified. In prospect of this fearful death, the apostle remembered his great sin in denying Jesus in the hour of His trial. Once so unready to acknowledge the cross, he now counted 'John 21:18.