People of the Holy Bible - 7. Peter's Three Calls

Extract

People of the Holy Bible
7. Peter’s Three Calls
C. H. Spurgeon

“And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus” John 1:37.
“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” Matthew 4:18, 19.

“And he called unto him his twelve disciples… the first, Simon, who is called Peter” Matthew 10:1, 2. Perhaps you are aware that there has always been a certain set of persons who have tried to disprove the gospel narrative by picking out what they suppose to be discrepancies, especially in the statements of Matthew and Luke. Four independent persons have each given us a separate story of the Life of Christ, each story being written with a distinct object. Of course, from the fact that each one was written with a distinct object, it was natural that one evangelist should give more attention to certain points in the history of Christ than the others, and it was natural for his eye to be fixed upon those things which most concerned the point which he had in hand, and for his ear to be most quick to catch those words which had a relation to the object he was driving at throughout the whole of his gospel. Now, these divergences and differences have been so many pegs upon which quibblers have hung their quibbles, and these men have constantly been saying, “How do you reconcile Matthew with John in a certain place, or how do you reconcile Mark, in such another place, with Luke?” Now, it is not always easy to harmonize the testimony of four perfectly honest witnesses upon the same subject. I will venture to say, that if there should be a simple accident upon the railway, and …