June 29
Companions of the Way (Morning)Thou art Peter. . . I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
THE keys—how strangely held! The keys of the kingdom hang at Peter's girdle, while in the Master's hand lie those others, keys of the terrible places, Death and Hades.
Yet not strange, to Peter was given to open the door into the holy life and fellowship, as when he saw the vision which told him of God's wide welcome to all in every nation that work righteousness. He was afterwards disobedient to the heavenly vision, and began that churlishness with the keys, which since then, through all the ages, has kept closed locks against some saints of God.
That Other holds the keys for opening all prison doors —the strongest, the cruelest. He opens, and no man shuts.
Ah, my Master, the binding and loosing may be with Simon Peter, and with those who hold their wardenry from him, but their bonds shall be but as the green withes upon Samson, if Thy strength be in Thy chosen. For the keys of Death and Hades are not in the hands of Cephas, but in Thine, who art alive for evermore.
Thoughts of a Tertiary
BINDING AND LOOSING