From Bethsaida, accompanied by His Apostles, He now set out in a northerly direction, and travelling along the eastern banks of the Jordan and beyond the waters of Merom, reached the confines or _the villages_ (Mk. viii. 27) of Cæsarea Philippi[358]. In this neighbourhood, on one occasion, the Apostles found their Master engaged in solitary prayer (Lk. ix. 18), a solemn and significant action, the precursor of not a few important events[359], as now of a deeply momentous revelation. For as they resumed their journey, He addressed to them the formal enquiry, _Whom do men say that I am_? This was not an ordinary question. He was speaking to those who had now for some time been His constant companions, hearers of His words, and spectators of the signs which accompanied them. He seems to have wished to ascertain from their own lips the results of those labours, which now, in one sense, were drawing to a close, and thence to pass on to other and more painful truths, which He had to communicate to them[360]. To this enquiry, then, the Apostles replied in words that reflected the various opinions then held amongst the people; _Some say John the Baptist, others Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the prophets_ (Mtt. xvi. 14; Mk. viii. 28; Lk. ix. 19). _But_, continued the Holy One, _whom say ye that I am_? To this the Apostle Peter, speaking in the name of the rest, made the ever-memorable reply, _Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God_ (Mtt. xvi. 16). The object for which the question had been put was now partly achieved. By the mouth of one of their number the Apostles had expressed the conclusion, to which they had come after so long enjoying the society of their Master, that He was no other than the Messiah, the Son of God. This their testimony He accepted; acknowledged the truth of the Apostle’s confession; declared that it had not been revealed to him _by flesh and blood, but by His Father in heaven_; and bestowed upon him the promise of peculiar dignity in the Church He was about to establish (Mtt. xvi. 18, 19).