And as soon as he began to be afraid he began to sink; but he had,
notwithstanding his fear, just sense enough to do the one sensible thing;
he cried out, 'Lord, save me.' And Jesus put out his hand, and took hold of
him, and lifted him up out of the water, and said to him, 'O thou of little
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And then they got into the boat, and the
wind fell all at once, and altogether.
"Now, you will not think that Peter was a coward, will you? It wasn't that
he hadn't courage, but that he hadn't enough of it. And why was it that he
hadn't enough of it? Because he hadn't faith enough. Peter was always very
easily impressed with the look of things. It wasn't at all likely that
a man should be able to walk on the water; and yet Peter found himself
standing on the water: you would have thought that when once he found
himself standing on the water, he need not be afraid of the wind and the
waves that lay between him and Jesus. But they looked so ugly that the
fearfulness of them took hold of his heart, and his courage went. You would
have thought that the greatest trial of his courage was over when he got
out of the boat, and that there was comparatively little more ahead of him.
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