Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/347

 say ye that I am!" Simon replied—"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" To which Jesus replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona! for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou art Petros, and upon this rock (petra) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The name Cephas, then, was the surname of Simon, and is rendered Petros, Peter, the rock. This name was given, because it is fully expressive of Simon's acknowledgment of the Lord, "Thou art the Christ!" This is a full declaration that Jesus is the Messiah—the King of Israel—the Redeemer and Saviour. It expresses the eternal Godhead and supreme divinity of the Lord Jesus, since the prophecies declare that Jehovah is the King of Israel and the Saviour of the world. Upon this acknowledgment—upon this Cephas, Petros, or Rock of Truth, the Lord will build, and is now building, his everlasting church. The doctrine involved in the words, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," could not be revealed by flesh and blood. It is a pure revelation of the Divine Love, or Father, by means of Divine Wisdom, the Son, manifested in the Person of the Lord Jesus, who is at once the true God and Eternal Life. This is the foundation—the Rock on which the Christian Church will for ever stand.

The name, given to James and John, is a Hebrew word, signifying sons of thunder, a word expressing, in reference to the two brothers, energetic powers of mind and extraordinary brilliancy of intellect. In the figurative language of the Hebrews, sons of thunder are the bright vivid flashes of light accom-