March 18

"Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." Acts 3:1.

THE associates here were Peter and John. We should not have noticed this particularly, had we not found them so frequently and constantly together in the Scripture. The instances will readily occur to all attentive readers of the New Testament. But the reasons of this peculiar intimacy are not mentioned. Each of the two had a brother among the apostles. But there is an amity superior to relationship; there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. It is commonly supposed, that those who attract each other and unite, very much resemble each other; whereas Peter and John seem to have been more dissimilar than any other two of the apostles that could have been selected. Yet may not the unlikeness be considered as one of the causes of this friendship? Peter knew the excellences of John were the opposites to his imperfections, and would tend to rectify them. Peter was eager and severe; John was more patient and affectionate. Peter was the hand, John the eye. But they were the more mutually necessary to each other.