Many a 'saint' of later day would, I fear, have thrust Peter away from all fellowship with himself. But not so John. At once, before the Resurrection, before the hope of it, while there was yet no joy in his own heart, John has joined himself to Peter...
If for us, in our day, the sense of our Redeemer's love, our rest upon the bosom of His forgiving friendship, does anything, it will make us condemn and renounce the spiritual self-righteousness which shuts up sympathy. It will make us feel how wonderfully welcome to the Lord is 'whosoever cometh', even if he comes fresh from some grievous fall, some denial of the Blessed name. It will make us so far like Him who loved us, that while we shall see and feel sin, as sin, more and more keenly and painfully (and not least, the sin of not loving the Lord Christ, and submitting the whole being to him), we shall more and yet more truly love, and seek to help, others for whom our aid may avail, however strange the case, however great the fall.
Jesus and the Resurrection, p.18f, Seeley & Co, 1898
