was come, and they went off at once to tell their brothers. Andrew found his first:
"We have found the Messiah!" he exclaimed joyfully. And he brought him to Jesus.
St. John seems to have been present at the interview, for he tells us very carefully what happened. Jesus, looking upon the newcomer, said:
"Thou art Simon, the son of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas" (which is, interpreted, Peter).
Well might our Lord look earnestly upon that weather-beaten, eager face, all aglow with expectation. Here was His first Vicar upon earth, the Rock on which He was to build His Church. He looked, and thought of all He was to be to Peter and Peter to Him, of the long line of successors this Galilean fisherman was to have, of all they would gather into their net and land safely on the eternal Shore.
Those who heard these words of our Lord must have been startled. A Jewish name was not given lightly as ours often are, for the sake of the sound, or because one of the family has borne it before. It was intended to show the character or the calling of the person who bore it. To change a name was to show a change of position or of office. It was an important act, and allowed only to the rulers among the Jews.
Now here was One who, on seeing this fisherman for the first time, not only told him his name and his father's, but changed his name from Simon, which means "Son of a dove," to Peter, which means "a Rock." Andrew and John looked at one another in astonishment. What such a change meant they could not tell, but they did not forget it. New disciples as they came in were told about it, and Peter at once came to be looked upon as the first and chief among
