Peter followed him afar off. — We find from St. John’s narrative, here much the fullest, that it was through him that Peter found admission. He sat in the “court” “with the servants” (better, officers, as in John 18:18) and the slaves, who, in the chill of the early dawn, had lighted a charcoal fire. Female slaves who acted as gate-keepers were passing to and fro. The cold night air had told on the disciple, and he too, weary and chilled, drew near the fire and warmed himself.
To see the end. — There is something singularly suggestive in this account of Peter’s motive. It was, we may believe, more than a vague curiosity. There was something of sorrowful anxiety, of reverential sorrow, but there was no fervent devotion, no prayer for himself or his Master, only the fevered restlessness of uncertain expectation, and so all the natural instability of his character had free play, with nothing to control it.