Peter kept them for
ever. That, we read, was St. Peter's conversion; that worked the
thorough and complete change in his character, and made him a new
man from that day forth. And then, after that terrible and fiery
trial, St. Peter was ready to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,
which gave him courage with fervent zeal to preach the gospel of his
Crucified Lord, and at last to be crucified himself for that Lord's
sake; and so fulfil the Lord's words to him. 'When thou wast young,
thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when
thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' By that
our Lord seems to have meant, 'You were strong and proud and self-
willed enough in your youth. The day will come when you will be
tamed down, ready and willing to suffer patiently, even agony from
which your flesh and blood may shrink;' and the Lord's words came
true. For, say the old stories, when St. Peter was led to be
crucified, he refused to be crucified upright, as the Lord Jesus had
been, saying, 'That it was too great an honour for him, who had once
denied his Lord, to die the same death as his Lord died.' So he was
crucified, they say, with his head downward; and ended a glorious
life in a humble martyrdom.
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