said to the servants who stood by, 'This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth;' but Peter solemnly declared with an oath that he did not even know the man.

An hour passed away, and Peter had now probably begun to suppose himself safe, and to think that every one would be too much occupied with his Master's trial, which was going forward, to pay any further attention to him.

But the danger was by no means over, as he imagined; for a man suddenly accosted him, and declared in the most positive manner, that he was certain that Peter was one of the followers of Jesus of Galilee, for his speech proved him to be a Galilean. Upon which, another, a relation of the man whom Peter had wounded in the garden, exclaimed, 'Did not I see you with Him in the garden?'

Peter was now alarmed in the greatest degree at the danger to which he would be exposed, if he should be discovered to be the person who had made the attack on the high priest's servant, and he began to curse and swear; and again he protested, 'I know not the man.' But ere yet he had finished speaking the dreadful words, the cock crew, and the Lord Jesus, who had now been brought back into the hall, and who had overheard Peter's cowardly and ungrateful denial, turned round, and gave him a look which went to his heart.

The remembrance of his Master's warning, and of his own repeated protestations, all now flashed upon his mind, and with almost a breaking heart he left the hall, and went out to some retired place, where he wept bitterly.

While you read this story, my dear children, you, perhaps, wonder at Peter's conduct, and think if you had been in his place, you could never have been guilty of such ingratitude to so kind, so merciful a Master. But do not be too sure; Peter was as confident a few hours before, that he could never be prevailed on to commit such a baseness as you can be, and yet he fell in the hour of trial.

If Peter, our Savior's own faithful, zealous disciple, did not stand in that hour, how can we be sure of ourselves? But while we learn from Peter's fall, to put no trust in ourselves, let us also learn from Peter to return in deep repentance to God, whenever we have been led to grieve Him by our sins.

You see, too, how we are led on from one sin to another. Peter began by an equivocation, and ended with a lie, accompanied by oaths and curses, and if we foolishly and sinfully give way to temptation at first, thinking that it is not very wrong, and that we will repent of it afterwards, we may be hurried on till we have committed sins, which before would have filled us with horror even to have thought of.

We should all take warning from Peter to distrust ourselves.

and to rely alone on the help of God; for our own strength, and our own resolutions, will never save us in the hour of danger.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

In the last story, I mentioned that our Lord had been taken to the high priest for the purpose of being tried you will wonder what accusation they could bring against one whose life had been so spotless; and indeed they were quite unable to find any. Some witnesses indeed rose up against Him, but they had little to say, and that little was, on examination, proved to be totally false.

During their infamous accusations, our Lord preserved a meek and unbroken silence; but at last the high priest rose up, and solemnly adjured Him to answer for Himself, and to declare whether He was really the Son of God.

Upon this solemn appeal, our Savior answered him with divine majesty and dignity, and said, 'I AM! and hereafter ye shall see me sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven!'

When the high priest heard these words, he turned to those who were assembled there, and said, 'He has spoken. blasphemy, we need no further witness; you have all heard

how He calls Himself the Son of God

what do you

think He deserves?" Upon which, they all agreed that he ought to be condemned to death, and they began to heap every insult upon Him that they could think of-mocking, striking Him, and even spitting on him.

Now, although they had decided on His death, they could not carry the sentence into execution without a warrant from the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate; and accordingly, when morning came, they conducted Him to the judgment-hall to be further examined, and finally condemned, by Pilate. Here He underwent the mockery of a second trial; after which Pilate who, being a Roman, took no part in the prejudices and passions of the Jews was forced by the power of truth to declare that he could find no fault in Him, and that he would therefore release Him: but the chief priests vehemently protested against this, and used many arguments to induce Pilate to pass sentence of death on Him.

But Pilate seemed to have had some suspicion that Jesus was a greater person than He appeared, and he was afraid of incurring the guilt of condemning not only an innocent, but, perhaps, even a divine person; so he proposed to the chief priests that, according to the usual custom of releasing a prisoner at the time of the passover, he should now release Jesus.

But they would not hear of it, and told Pilate that, if he