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THE TWELVE APC^¥^S, 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 
 
 A LIFE OF 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST, 
 
 F. W. P. GREENWOOD. 
 
 [Republished from the Third Edition by request of the " Ladies* Commission 
 on Sunday-School Books."] 
 
 BOSTON: 
 AMEPJCAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 1 8 74. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the 
 AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 
 
 University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
 Cambridge. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The present edition of the " Lives of the 
 Twelve Apostles " will, it is hoped, be found an 
 improvement on the first. The work has been 
 considerably enlarged, and its form has, in some 
 respects, been changed. A Life of John the 
 Baptist is now prefixed to the other lives, and a 
 Life of the Apostle Matthias is added at the 
 close. The Notes, which, in the first edition, 
 were printed at the end of the volume, have 
 either been incorporated with the text, or printed 
 in their several places as foot-notes. Authorities 
 have been reconsulted, and critical conclusions 
 reconsidered. 
 
 It has been suggested to the author, from more 
 than one respected source, that lives of Saint 
 Paul, and of the Evangelists Mark and Luke, 
 would be a desirable addition to the biographies 
 
iv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of the Apostolic Twelve. But ho has been fear 
 ful of ii)juring thereby the unity of his group, — ■ 
 that group which immediately surrounded our 
 Lord, and whose lives are connected with his 
 in the Gospel accounts ; and he has therefore 
 thought it more advisable to limit himself to the 
 insertion of a life of the great Forerunner, which 
 properly precedes the other histories. 
 
 In the Notes to the first edition, the author 
 had named the days on which the Apostles are 
 severally commemorated in the Western Church, 
 and had also given the Collects, or short, com- 
 prehensive prayers, which are appropriated to 
 those days in the Liturgy of the Church of 
 England. To those Collects he has now sub- 
 joined some pieces of selected poetry, chiefly 
 from late works of Bishop Mant and of Keble, 
 with a view of increasing the religious impression 
 of the volume, and adding somewhat of a devo- 
 tional to its scriptural and biographical character. 
 They who do not attach any peculiar sacredness 
 to the days which are set apart to the Apostles 
 and Saints by some churches may yet have their 
 affections profitably engaged, at any convenient 
 periods, by a devotional application of those lives 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 V 
 
 and examples which have been bequeathed to 
 the Church universal. 
 
 The same sentiments of affection, respect, and 
 duty which prompted the author to dedicate the 
 first edition of these ''Lives" to ''The Mem- 
 bers OF THE Society worshipping at King's 
 Chapel " induce him to inscribe the volume in 
 its present form to the same friends, with the 
 hope that it may prove more deserving than be- 
 fore of their acceptance and approbation. 
 
 Francis W. P. Greenwood. 
 
 October 4, 1835. 
 
# 
 
 1 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PA6B 
 
 Life of John the Baptist 1 
 
 Lives of the Apostles. — The Twelve . . . - . 27 
 
 Simon Peter 39 
 
 Andrew 73 
 
 James the Grp:ater 79 
 
 John 91 
 
 Philip 109 
 
 Bartholomew 114 
 
 Thomas . 120 
 
 Matthew 135 
 
 James the Less 146 
 
 JUDE 158 
 
 Simon Zelotes 163 
 
 Judas Iscariot 165 
 
 Matthias 184 
 
 Concluding Remarks 188 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 The order of names which follows differs from that of the above list, and is the 
 order in which the days occur in the calendar. 
 
 Saint Andrew's day, November 30 
 Saint Thomas's day, December 21 
 
 203 
 205 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 Saint John the Evangelist's clay, December 27 . . . . 207 
 
 Saint Matthias's day, February 24 '210 
 
 Saint Philip and Saint James's day, May 1 .... 212 
 
 Saint John the Baptist's Day, June 24 214 
 
 Saint Peter's day, June 29 216 
 
 Saint James's day, July 26 221 
 
 Saint Bartholomew's day, August 24 223 
 
 Saint Matthew's day, September 21 225 
 
 Saint Simon and Saint Jude's day, October 28 . • • • 230 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 As John the Baptist presented himself to his 
 countrymen as the herald and precursor of Jesus, 
 and was acknowledged by Jesus to be so, and 
 as his history is remarkably connected with the 
 early part of the history of our Lord, the notices 
 which are given of him in the Scriptures possess 
 unusual interest. It is my purpose to examine 
 these notices in their order, so as to present, as 
 far as the materials will permit, a continuous 
 view of his life. This life will naturally precede 
 the lives of those who were afterwards sent by the 
 Messiah to publish his laws and doctrines, as John 
 was sent from above to be his harbinger. 
 
 In the first chapter of Luke's Gospel, we have 
 an account of the particulars attending the birth 
 of the Baptist. His father was a priest by the 
 name of Zacharias ; and his mother, whose name 
 was Elizabeth, " was of the daughters of Aaron " ; 
 so that he was by birth of the order of priesthood, 
 and on the side of both father and mother, of 
 
 1 A 
 
2 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 sacerdotal descent. He was the child of tlieir 
 old age. His father Zacharias was, as is said 
 by the Evangelist, " of the course of Abia." To 
 iiuderstand this expression, we must recur to the 
 fact, stated in the First Booli of Chronicles, that 
 David divided the descendants of Aaron into 
 twenty-four orders, named after the chief men 
 among them, who should attend to the service of 
 the temple in rotation. The eighth of these 
 orders, or courses, was that of Abijah, or Abia, 
 and the one to which Zacharias belonged. 
 
 What was more honorable to the parents of 
 John than their official and hereditary sanctity, 
 they were really holy and virtuous people. " They 
 were both righteous before God, walking in all 
 the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, 
 blameless." No parentage could be more fit for 
 the forerunner of the holy Jesus. 
 
 As Zacharias was officiating in the temple in 
 his turn, or " in the order of his course," an 
 angel appeared to him, predicted the birth of his 
 son, and declared that his name should be John, 
 which means, in the Hebrew language, the gift 
 or grace of God. He added that his birth would 
 be the cause of rejoicing to many ; that he would 
 be " great in the sight of the Lord " ; that he 
 would be singularly abstemious, and " filled with 
 the Holy Spirit" ; and that he should go before 
 the Lord " in the spirit and power of Elias." It 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 8 
 
 was a general expectation among the Jews, that 
 the prophet Elias, or Elijah, was to reappear on 
 earth in person, to announce the arrival of the 
 Messiah ; and this expectation was founded on 
 one or two passages of the Book of Malachi, such 
 as, " Behold I will send my messenger, and he 
 shall prepare the way before me " ; and still more 
 explicitly, " Behold I will send you Elijah the 
 prophet before the coming of the great and dread- 
 ful day of the Lord." The words of the angel 
 evidently refer to this prophecy, and at the same 
 time imply that the messenger of the Lord, who 
 was to precede and announce the Messiah, was 
 not to be Elijah himself, according to common 
 expectation, but one who should " go before him 
 in the spirit and power of Elijah," — one who, like 
 Elijah, should be endowed with a perception of 
 God's purposes towards mankind, and with power 
 to operate on their minds, to persuade them to 
 repentance, and thus " to make ready a people 
 prepared for the Lord." 
 
 Li due time John was born ; and his birth took 
 place six months before that 'of Jesus, whose 
 mother Mary was the cousin of his mother Eliz- 
 abeth. As the former event may be considered 
 the dawn which betokened the rising of the Sun 
 of Righteousness, we perceive the propriety of its 
 being recorded by Luke in the beginning of his 
 Gospel. The circumcision of John took place, 
 
4 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 as was customary among the Jews, on the eighth 
 day after his birth; and on this day his father 
 Zacharias recovered the use of his speech, of 
 which he had been deprived, as a sign of the 
 truth of what the angel had told him. " He 
 spake, and praised God " ; and his joy burst forth 
 in the words of that sublime and holy song, be- 
 ginning, " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for 
 he hath visited and redeemed his people." We 
 are then told that " the child grew, and waxed 
 strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the 
 day of his showing unto Israel." The meaning 
 of this last clause is not that John, in his early 
 childhood, lived alone in a wilderness, but that 
 he passed his days, till he was called to the exer- 
 cise of his mission, in the privacy of his parents' 
 abode, which was in the deserts or hill-country of 
 Judaea, as we are informed in the former part of 
 the same chapter. As Hebron was the capital of 
 this hill-country, and was, moreover, one of the 
 cities appointed for the residence of the priests, 
 it was probably the place where John passed his 
 childhood with his parents, as Jesus did with his. 
 Its distance south of Jerusalem was between 
 twenty and thirty, and in the same direction from 
 Nazareth about seventy miles. 
 
 Nothing more is related of John, till we hear 
 of his call to commence his great work. The 
 period of his entrance on his ministry is marked 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 5 
 
 with great precision. " Now in the fifteenth year 
 of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate 
 being governor of Judsea, and Herod being te- 
 trarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch 
 of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, and 
 Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and 
 Caiaphas being the high-priests, the word of 
 God came unto John the son of Zacharias, in the 
 wilderness. And he came into all the country 
 about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repent- 
 ance for the remission of sins." The call came 
 to him in the wilderness, or thinly peopled hill- 
 country, where his family resided ; and beginning 
 there,. he advanced towards Jerusalem, confining 
 himself to the same retired portions of Judaea, 
 and preaching to those who resorted to him in 
 increasing numbers, till he reached Bethabara 
 beyond Jordan, a few miles from the holy city, 
 where he held his principal station. All this dis- 
 trict of country bordered upon the sacred river 
 Jordan, in which he baptized those who were 
 affected by his preaching, and enlisted themselves 
 among his disciples. Bethabara was probably 
 near a fordable part of the river, as the meaning 
 of the word is the house of the passage." It 
 was therefore a convenient place of resort for 
 his hearers. 
 
 The great doctrine which the Baptist preached, 
 as preparatory to the Redeemer's kingdom, was 
 
6 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 repentance. " In those days," says the account 
 of Matthew, came John the Baptist, preaching 
 in the wilderness of Judasa, and saying, Repent 
 ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For 
 this is he that was spoken of by the prophet 
 Esaias, saying. The voice of one crying in the 
 wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
 his path straight." His custom, which was not a 
 new one among the Jews, was to baptize those 
 who believed his warnings, and joined themselves 
 to him as converts or disciples, that he might sig- 
 nify the cleansing and renewing of mind which 
 was necessary for the reception of the new state 
 of things which was approaching, as well as es- 
 sential to the repentance w^iich he himself so 
 earnestly insisted on. And the same meaning of 
 moral preparation is to be attributed to the pro- 
 phetic metaphors of filling the valleys and bring- 
 ing low the mountains and hills, making the 
 crooked ways straight, and the rough smooth, 
 which were duties belonging to the herald and 
 forerunner of the anointed Prince of peace. 
 
 The appearance and habits of living which were 
 assumed and practised by John, while he was 
 preaching and baptizing, and to which he had no 
 doubt accustomed himself from tender age, were 
 consistent with his character as the representative 
 of Elijah. His clothing was coarse, and his food 
 such as the deserts yielded. And the same 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 7 
 
 John had his rahxient of camel's hair, and a leath- 
 ern girdle about his loins ; and his meat was lo- 
 custs and wild honey." * Compare this account 
 of Matthew with the description given in the Sec- 
 ond Book of Kings of Elijah. " What manner 
 of man/' inquired Ahaziah of his messengers, 
 " was he who came up to meet you, and told you 
 these words ? And they answered him, He was 
 an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather 
 about his loins. And he said, It is Ehjah the 
 Tishbite." f This was probably a usual kind of 
 dress with the ancient prophets, especially in 
 times of distress or great excitement. The insect 
 called the locust was allowed as food by the Le- 
 vitical law, J and travellers assure us that it is 
 eaten in Eastern countries at the present day, and 
 that the bees of Palestine still deposit their stores in 
 the holes of the rocks in such abundance that the 
 honey is sometimes seen flowing down the surface. 
 
 Living in this severe manner, and proclaiming 
 on the wild banks of the Jordan the approach of 
 the Messiah's reign and Israel's redemption, John 
 drew universal regard, and the desert became 
 populous around him. " Then went out to him 
 Jerusalem and all Judasa, and all the region 
 round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in 
 Jordan, confessing their sins." § I have already 
 
 * Matt. iii. 4. 
 t 2 Kings i. 8. 
 
 I Lev. xi. 22. 
 § Matt. iii. 5. 
 
8 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 said that the ceremony of baptism, or washing 
 with water, was not new among the Jews, as sig- 
 nificant of change and renewal, on the reception 
 of converts or disciples to proposed forms of faith 
 or discipline. It may be added, that it was a 
 current opinion among the Jews, founded as 
 usual on prophecy, that the forerunner of the 
 Messiah, or Messiah himself, or both, would use 
 the form of baptism, when the time of Israel's 
 redemption should come. A passage in Zeclia- 
 riah which was thought to warrant this opinion 
 is at least poetically descriptive of the office of 
 John at his station of Bethabara beyond Jordan. 
 " In that day there shall be a fountain opened to 
 the house of David and to the inhabitants of Je- 
 rusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." * 
 
 The character of John's preaching and instruc- 
 tions is set forth with a great degree of particu- 
 larity in the account which is given by Luke of 
 his exhortations and advice to various classes of 
 persons, from which it plainly appears that his 
 doctrine was of a direct and practical kind, and 
 that the preparation which he inculcated was of 
 a moral nature entirely. He warned the people 
 not to rely with their wonted pride on their being 
 the children of Abraham, but to bring forth 
 fruits worthy of repentance." He was surprised 
 to see- the Pharisees and Sadducees resorting to 
 
 * Zech. xiii. 1. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 9 
 
 him ; because they were so filled with this pride, 
 and so confident in the merit of their ceremonial 
 righteousness. He was surprised that they should 
 come to his baptism, which was one of real and 
 practical, not formal or mystical repentance. " 0 
 generation of vipers ! " he exclaimed, " children 
 of deceit and hypocrisy ! who hath warned you to 
 flee from the wrath to come ? " 
 
 When the people asked him, saying, What 
 shall we do then ? " he indicated by his answer 
 what was the nature of those fruits which were 
 worthy of repentance, those deeds which proved 
 a true change of heart and mind ; — he said unto 
 them, " He that hath two coats, let him impart to 
 him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let 
 him do likewise." The great duty of benevolence 
 is here enforced, and illustrated by one of its sim- 
 ple modes, and exalted in clear sviperiority above 
 the works of the law. 
 
 And when the publicans, or tax-gatherers, came 
 to be baptized, " and said unto him. Master, what 
 shall we do ? he said unto them. Exact no more 
 than that which is appointed you." He knew 
 their peculiar temptations, and their besetting sin, 
 arising from the circumstances of their situation, 
 and he therefore warned them against the spirit 
 of extortion, and exhorted them to honesty, mod- 
 eration, and mercy. 
 
 " And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, 
 1* 
 
10 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 saying, And what shall we do ? And he said 
 unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse 
 any falsely ; and be content with your wages." 
 
 This is all quite practical and plain, and shows 
 that the eremitical Baptist, severe as lie was in 
 his manners, solitary in his haunts, and striking 
 in his whole appearance and deportment, was yet 
 simple and direct in his teaching, and did not 
 affect to move in a cload of mysticism. It de- 
 notes also, that though he may have had, on some 
 points, mistaken views of the Messiah's kingdom, 
 and did not embrace the whole extent of its spir- 
 ituality, yet he was well aware that it was to be a 
 moral reformation, without which there could be 
 no national deliverance, and that all who would 
 be its subjects and partake of its blessings could 
 secure their place only by repentance and right- 
 eousness of life. This was one proof of the truth 
 and divinity of his mission. Excited as the peo- 
 ple were by the mere proclamation of the coming 
 deliverer, he made no further use of the excite- 
 ment than to direct it to moral ends. He knew 
 that this was the limit of his commission. He 
 said and did nothing to rouse the minds of his 
 hearers to any hostile manifestations ; but whether 
 they were Pharisees, Sadducees, publicans, or sol- 
 diers, he only exhorted them to true repentance 
 and the performance of the charitable and peace- 
 ful duties. Here also we may observe a remark- 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 11 
 
 able, and I may say a miraculous, conformity 
 between the spirit of the Baptist's preaching and 
 the spirit of the Messiah's religion as it was after- 
 wards developed. There is no appearance of any 
 intimacy or collusion between them. They lived 
 seventy miles apart from each other, — the one in 
 Nazareth of Galilee, and the other in Hebron of 
 Judaea, — and therefore, though related to each 
 other, had probably met but seldom, up to the 
 time of the public appearance of John as a 
 preacher and prophet. There is evidently an un- 
 prepared and undesigned agreement between the 
 introduction and the perfection of the new dispen- 
 sation ; a spiritual agreement which could not 
 have existed between two uninspired Jews, nur- 
 tured in the prejudices and traditions of their 
 nation. The true light was preceded by the true 
 witness. The dawning was a pure and correct, 
 though faint, likeness of the day. 
 
 Distinguished, however, as John the Baptist 
 had become by his austere mode of life, by his 
 prophetic dress and bearing, by his bold, ear- 
 nest, and authoritative teaching, by the crowds 
 who appeared as his baptized disciples, and by 
 his annunciation of the ardently longed-for Mes- 
 siah, the people began to suppose that he might 
 be the Messiah himself. If John had been only 
 playing a part, and been under the influence of 
 a worldly ambition, he might easily have turned 
 
12 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 this idea to his own advantage and personal exal- 
 tation. But he maintained his own proper place 
 and duty, humbly and strictly. " And as the 
 people were in expectation, and all men mused in 
 their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ 
 or not, John answered, saying unto them all, I 
 indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier 
 than I Cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am 
 not worthy to unloose ; he shall baptize you with 
 the Holy Ghost and with fire.'' * John allowed 
 that he performed the office of baptism as a 
 teacher and reformer, but declared that it was 
 only introductory and emblematic, only a baptism 
 with water ; while he who was soon to be mani- 
 fested, the real Christ, to be whose servant he was 
 himself unworthy, would baptize with a far more 
 thorough, searching, and efficacious baptism, with 
 a spiritual and purifying baptism, with the Holy 
 Ghost and with fire. In using this latter expres- 
 sion, he perhaps had in his mind the passage of 
 Malachi, which says, " And he shall sit as a re- 
 finer and purifier of silver; and he shall purify 
 the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and sil- 
 ver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering 
 in righteousness." John, however, changes the 
 metaphor, and represents the Messiah as a hus- 
 bandman, with his winnowing fan in his hand, 
 thoroughly separating the wheat on his floor from 
 
 * Luke iii. 15. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 13 
 
 the chaff, gathering the former into his granary, 
 and burning the latter with fire. 
 
 And now the time arrives when he who was 
 to come appears. "Then cometh Jesus from 
 Galilee to Jordan, unto John, to be baptized of 
 him." From the retirement of distant Galilee, 
 where he had passed his jouth in study and labor, 
 and in docile subservience to his parents, Jesus, 
 having entered upon his thirtieth year, which 
 was the age of induction into the priestly office 
 among the Jews,* travelled to Bethabara, and 
 presented himself to his relative to be baptized. 
 How eventful was this meeting between the son 
 of Elizabeth and the son of Mary ! They whose 
 births had been announced by the angel Gabriel, 
 and who had since lived apart in holy seclusion 
 and quiet duty for thirty years, were now brought 
 together by the call of God in the presence of 
 assembled multitudes, and this was the first pub- 
 lic interview between the commissioned herald 
 and the anointed prince, between the messenger 
 and the Redeemer. When John heard the re- 
 quest of Jesus to be baptized, he at first forbade, 
 or refused him ; for though he was not yet cer- 
 tified of his being the Christ, yet he was proba- 
 bly acquainted with the wonders attending his 
 birth, and with his life of entire purity and holi- 
 ness. Therefore he meekly remonstrated, " I 
 
 * Numbers iv. 
 
14 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 have need to be baptized of thee, and comest 
 thou to me ? " But Jesus, who would commence 
 his ministry with a pubKc and solemn ordinance, 
 and regardful, perhaps, of the usage by which 
 the sons of Aaron were washed with water be- 
 fore they commenced the functions of the priest- 
 hood,* answered, ''Suffer it to be so now; for 
 thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." 
 Thus urged, or, it may be, commanded, John 
 could no longer hesitate, and the two moved 
 down through the silent crowd into the expectant 
 stream, and its waters, more consecrated than 
 consecrating, were poured on the Saviour's head. 
 
 " Old Jordan smiled, receiving such high pay 
 For those small pains obedient he had spent. 
 Making his waters guard the dried way- 
 Through wonders when to Canaan Israel went ; 
 Nor does he envy now Pactolus' streams, 
 Or Eastern floods, whose paths are paved with gems/'f 
 
 As Jesus came up from the river, the heavens 
 were opened to declare his mission to the earth, 
 the spirit of God descended with a dove-like 
 motion upon him, and a voice was heard pro- 
 nouncing. This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
 am well pleased." Prom this moment the min- 
 istry of Jesus commenced, and, " being full of 
 the Holy Ghost, he returned from Jordan, and 
 was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,":]: 
 where he fasted and was tempted. 
 
 * Exodus xxix. 4. t Joseph Beaumont. % Luke iv. 1. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 15 
 
 As we know that Jesus was thirty years of age 
 when he began his ministry, and that this was 
 the age prescribed by the Jewish law as the 
 proper time for the commencement of sacred 
 functions, it is probable that John began his 
 ministry at the same age, and, being six months 
 older than Jesus, we may draw the conclusion 
 that he had been six months preaching and 
 baptizing, when that manifestation of the Messiah 
 took place which was the great end of his bap- 
 tism. 
 
 At the expiration of our Saviour's sojourn in 
 the wilderness, he returned to Bethabara, and 
 took up his abode in that neighborhood. About 
 the same time, the great council of the Jews, 
 moved by the celebrity of John, and the surmises 
 of the people concerning him, and being yet 
 ignorant of the appearance and claims of Jesus, 
 sent a formal deputation to the Baptist, to ascer- 
 tain what he was, or assumed to be. " And 
 this," says the Evangelist John,* " is the record," 
 or rather the testimony, or free profession, " of 
 John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites 
 from Jerusalem to ask him. Who art thou ? And 
 he confessed, and denied not ; but confessed, I 
 am not the Christ." With decided and earnest 
 reiteration he refused the kingly title. ''And 
 they asked him, What tlien ? Art thou Elias ? 
 
 * John i. 1 9. 
 
16 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 And he saith, I am not." Tliough he did come 
 in the spirit and power of Elijah, yet as he was 
 aware that they intended to inquire whether he 
 was Elijah himself, according to their notions, 
 restored to earth to precede the Messiah, he was 
 too honest to reply except in the negative. They 
 pursued their interrogatories. " Art thou that 
 prophet ? " They asked him, in the pertinacity 
 of their opinion that some one or another of 
 the ancient prophets was to reappear in person, 
 whether he was such a prophet. And he still 
 answered, " No." Then, having exhausted their 
 suppositions, and unwilling to go back to Jerusa- 
 lem without some satisfactory answer, they said 
 unto him, " Who art thou ? that we may give an 
 answer to them that sent us. What say est thou 
 of thyself?" The look of the Baptist, the hum- 
 ble and yet rapt and holy expression of his coun- 
 tenance, may be imagined, but not described, 
 with which he said, in the sublime words of 
 Isaiah, and standing in that forest by the flowing 
 waters of Jordan, "I am the voice of one crying 
 in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the 
 Lord." It was immaterial what he was in per- 
 son, or in name ; he was only a voice, — a voice 
 in the wilderness, — but yet a voice proclaiming 
 to the world, and proclaiming truly and solemnly, 
 
 Make straight the way of the Lord." 
 
 As John had denied being either of the per- 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 17 
 
 sons suggested, the deputation asked, in surprise, 
 and j)erhaps with anger, why then he undertook 
 to perform the important office of baptism. In 
 answer, John declared, as he had before, that 
 his baptism was but outward and introductory, 
 whereas his successor and superior would baptize 
 with a holier and mightier baptism. He inti- 
 mated, moreover, that this exalted personage, 
 though they knew him not, was even then among 
 them. And thus he publicly declared to this 
 official deputation the actual arrival of the Mes- 
 siah. 
 
 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward 
 himj and made him known to the people who 
 w^ere then assembled, by that memorable excla- 
 mation, " Behold the T^amb of God, which taketh 
 away the sin of the world ! " ^ He then went 
 on to say, that this was he who, coming after 
 him, was yet before him ; that he did not at first 
 know that he was the expected Redeemer, but 
 that it was to make him manifest to Israel that 
 he himself had come baptizing with water ; and 
 that on the day when he baptized him, he saw 
 and heard those heavenly signs which convinced 
 him that he was the Christ, for they were signs 
 which he had been taught to look for. " He that 
 sent me to baptize with water," said he, " the 
 same said unto me. Upon whom thou shalt see 
 
 * John i. 29. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the 
 same is he who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." * 
 He then adds, " And I saw, and bare record, 
 that this is the Son of God." 
 
 Again the next day after, as he was standing 
 with two of his disciples, lie looked on Jesus as 
 he walked by, and said, " Behold the Lamb of 
 God ! " One of these disciples was Andrew, and 
 the other probably was John the Evangelist ; f 
 and these two disciples of the forerunner of 
 Christ were among the first disciples of Christ 
 himself. 
 
 As Jesus was now manifested to Israel, and 
 had begun his work, the ministry of John may 
 be said to have closed. Still, however, he co- 
 operated as he was able with his Master, and 
 continued to baptize. Jesus also, or rather his 
 disciples, began to baptize in Judaea; and tliis 
 seems to have excited the jealousy of the dis- 
 ciples of John, who came and reported it to him. J 
 The Baptist at this time had moved higher up 
 the river, and "was baptizing in Enon, near to 
 Salim, because there was much water there." 
 His reply to his disciples hushed their murniur- 
 ings, and was another humble, affectionate, and 
 
 * John i. 33. 
 
 t When John speaks of a disciple, without mentioning his 
 name, he is supposed to intend himself. 
 I John iii. 22 ; iv. 2. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 19 
 
 manly testimony to the superior dignity of Jesus, 
 He told them, that they themselves would bear 
 him witness, that he said he was not the Christ, 
 but was sent before him. He declared that as 
 the friend of the bridegroom rejoiced to hear the 
 bridegroom's voice, so his joy was fulfilled. He 
 added those affecting and prophetic words, He 
 must increase, but I must decrease." He then 
 spoke at large of the divine truth and glory of 
 the mission of Christ, concluding, " He that be- 
 lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he 
 that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but 
 the wrath of God abi.deth on him." 
 
 " He must increase, but I must decrease." 
 Perhaps John did not himself know how soon 
 and how fearfully those words were to be ful- 
 filled. He could not have known it ; because, 
 though content to occupy an inferior station, he 
 yet looked for some signal and outward display 
 of the Messiah's kingdom, to be manifested, 
 however, with accompanying holiness, in which 
 he might participate, or at least rejoice. But 
 this was not to be granted him. His work and 
 his life were soon to be ended. 
 
 The popularity of John had attracted the no- 
 tice of Herod the tetrarch, surnamed Antipas, 
 who was the son of that Herod who had thirty 
 years ago commanded the slaughter of the in- 
 fants of Bethlehem. He had sent for the Baptist, 
 
20 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 and conversed with him ; not that he was desirous 
 of hearing truth, but he was anxious to see so 
 celebrated a person ; and celebrity was, in his 
 eyes, as it is in the eyes of many, the great thing, 
 whether it appertain to a buffoon or a saint. But 
 John reproved him for his marriage with Hero- 
 dias, his brother Philip's wife, which 'so incensed 
 that bad woman, that she caused her infatuated 
 husband to throw him into prison ; which prison, 
 according to the historian Josephus, was the for- 
 tress of Machserus, on the northern border of the 
 Dead Sea. Here John was doomed to lie inac- 
 tive, — another proof of the proverbial fickleness 
 of the favor of great men and princes, — but still 
 retaining the respect of Herod on account of his 
 integrity and wisdom, and causing him to fear on 
 account of his favor with the people. Herodias 
 would have* killed him at first ; " but she could 
 not ; for Herod feared John, knowing that he was 
 a just man and an holy, and observed him." But 
 she was revengeful as she was licentious, and she 
 did not forget the Baptist's offence, nor her own 
 deadly purpose. 
 
 While John was lying thus in prison, in the 
 power of a weak prince, who was under the influ- 
 ence of a wicked and dangerous woman, he heard 
 of the works of Christ, but heard nothing which 
 promised deliverance. Either suffering himself 
 to become impatient, at which we need not won- 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 21 
 
 der, or desiring to obtain the most definite infor- 
 mation regarding the proceedings and designs of 
 Jesus, he sent unto him two of his disciples, who 
 adhered to him in all his troubles, to inquire of 
 him, " Art thou he that should come, or do we 
 look for another ? " The answer which Jesus re- 
 turned, while it reminded him of the continued 
 testimonials of the Spirit to his mission by mira- 
 cles, directed him to the spiritual nature of his 
 kingdom, which was evinced by his preaching its 
 glad tidings to the poor. And this answer proba- 
 bly calmed the troubled though strong mind of 
 John, and satisfied him that he must now look 
 for deliverance to that kingdom alone, " where 
 the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary 
 are at rest." 
 
 As the messengers of John departed, Jesus be- 
 gan to speak concerning him to the surrounding 
 multitude,- and rendered a testimony to his pro- 
 phetic mission, which proves his own unshaken 
 confidence in the Baptist's integrity. What, he 
 asked them, did they go out into the deserts of 
 Judaea to see ? Not surely the wind-shaken reeds 
 on the banks of the Jordan ; not a man clothed 
 in fine and costly raiment, for men thus clotlied 
 were to be found in palaces, not deserts ; but they 
 went for the purpose of seeing a prophet. And 
 he was indeed more than a common prophet. 
 He had more than a common mission, and he had 
 
22 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 faithfully discharged it. He was sent to prepare 
 the way of the Messiah, and he had prepared it. 
 Of those who had hitherto been raised up for im- 
 portant purposes by the Almighty, none had been 
 greater than John the Baptist ; and yet even he 
 entertained so inadequate notions of the entire 
 spirituality of the Messiah's kingdom, that the 
 least among those "who should truly receive it, in 
 its pure separateness from the world, would be 
 greater than he. 
 
 After bearing this open testimony to the truth 
 of John's divine mission, and the reality of his 
 prophetic character, — a truth and reality which 
 were not impaired by the imperfection of his 
 views, — Jesus closes the discourse by some re- 
 marks on the eifect of his ministry in connection 
 with his own. He speaks of the small number 
 of those who had been moved to repentance by 
 John the Baptist or by himself, and rebukes the 
 people of that age for their perversity in rejecting 
 both, although they were so different from each 
 other in character and habits. John, being of an 
 austere and retired deportment, was charged with 
 being melancholy or crazed; — they said, ''He 
 hath a devil." He himself, mingling more freely 
 with men of all ranks, and partaking of their en- 
 tertainments, was rudely accused of being " a 
 ghittonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of 
 publicans and sinners." Such a stubborn and 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 23 
 
 petulant generation might be fitly likened to chil- 
 dren in the streets, who would refuse to join witli 
 their companions in any games, and would nei- 
 ther dance to their festive piping, nor lament with 
 them when they imitated the funeral wail. 
 
 It was probably about three months after this 
 occurrence that the revengeful Herodias found 
 an opportunity of accomplishing the destruction 
 of the Baptist. As Herod was keeping his birth- 
 day, by a magnificent supper which he gave to 
 his lords and captains, she sent her daughter by 
 her former husband * into the hall, to dance be- 
 fore him and his guests. The exhibition pleased • 
 the tetrarch to such a degree, that he promised 
 with an oath to grant the daughter whatsoever • 
 she should ask, even to the half of his kingdom. 
 The young dancer went out, and reported this to 
 her mother, and consulted her with regard to the 
 request which she should prefer. Herodias, with- 
 out hesitation, and feeling that the dark game 
 was now in her own cruel hands, told her daugh- 
 ter to ask for the head of John the Baptist ; and, 
 in order to make sure of her prey, and guard 
 against any humane deception, she added the con- 
 dition, that the liead should be brought to her on 
 a " charger," or large dish. For such a terrible 
 request the sobered king was wholly unprepared, 
 
 * She had a daughter, as Josephus tells us, by the name of 
 Salome, 
 
24 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 and he was " exceeding sorry." Nevertheless, he 
 conceived himself bound by his oath, — as if an 
 oath could bind the soul to crime, — and sent an 
 executioner to the prison to do the wicked deed. 
 
 It was the holy purpose of God," says Bishop 
 Hall, " that he who had baptized with water 
 should now be baptized with blood." The blame- 
 less John, — the preacher of repentance and right- 
 eousness, — the holy reprover of vice, whether a 
 publican's or a king's, — was beheaded in the 
 prison. " For one minute's pain, he is possessed 
 of endless joy ; and as he came before his Saviour 
 into the world, so is he gone before him into 
 heaven." His faithful disciples forsook him not, 
 though dead, but came, and " took up the body 
 and buried it " ; and then went and informed 
 Jesus of what had taken place. 
 
 The uneasy conscience of Herod Antipas would 
 not suffer him to forget the image of his victim. 
 When he afterwards heard of the fame of Jesus, 
 he expressed his belief that it was John the 
 Baptist, whom he had beheaded, risen from the 
 dead. 
 
 It is not told us in the Gospels where the Bap- 
 tist was buried by his disciples. Less authentic 
 accounts state, that "in the time of Julian the 
 apostate, his tomb was shown at Samaria, where 
 the inhabitants opened it, and burnt part of his 
 bones ; while the rest were saved by some Chris- 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 25 
 
 tians, who carried them to an abbot of Jerusalem, 
 named Philip." * 
 
 The Roman Church celebrates the martyrdom 
 of John the Baptist on the 29th of August. But 
 the day on which he is especially commemorated 
 is the 24th of June, which is kept as the day of 
 ))is nativity ; it being the only nativity, besides 
 that of our Saviour, which that church observes. 
 The Apostles and other saints bore witness to the 
 truth more especially by their deaths, but John 
 more especially by his birth, with its concomitants. 
 A kind of perpetual commentary is thus afforded 
 on the declaration of the angel, that " many shall 
 rejoice in his birth." And as our Lord's nativity 
 is observed on the 25th of December, and he was 
 about six months younger than John, the 24th of 
 June is properly selected as the birthday of the 
 latter. Here again a comment of the same poet- 
 ical character, on another text, has sometimes 
 been noticed. The days, which begin to lengthen 
 at the first of those dates, and to grow shorter at 
 the last, point to that saying of the Baptist already 
 quoted, " He must increase, but I must de- 
 crease." 
 
 But leaving these somewhat fanciful allusions, 
 we cannot fail to observe that the life of the Bap- 
 tist, setting forth so clearly and prominently the 
 gravity, disinterestedness, courage, and purity of 
 
 * Calraet. 
 
 2 
 
26 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 his character, is a worthy introduction to the Lives 
 of that " gloriovis company of the Apostles," who 
 praised God as he did in life and death, who sur- 
 round the Lamb in heaven as they did on earth, 
 and whose example enforces that of the forerun- 
 ner, which so earnestly exhorts us to " constantly 
 speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently 
 suffer for the truth's sake." 0 for more of that 
 primitive faith and virtue ! for more witnesses, 
 more disciples ! 
 
 " Where is the lore the Baptist taught, 
 
 The soul unswerving, and the fearless tongue ? 
 The much-enduring wisdom, sought 
 By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among 1 
 Who counts it gain 
 His light should wane, 
 So the whole world to Jesus throng? ** 
 
LIVES 
 
 OP 
 
 THE APOSTLES. 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Teacher sent 
 from God, soon after he commenced his min- 
 istry, selected twelve men to be his immediate 
 followers and confidential disciples. " Now the 
 names of the twelve Apostles are these : the first, 
 Simon who is called Peter^ and Andrew his 
 brother ; James the son of Zebedee, and John his 
 brother ; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and 
 Matthew the publican; James the son of Al- 
 pheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thad- 
 DEUS ; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, 
 who also betrayed him." This list of the Apostles 
 is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, who was 
 himself one of them. We are also presented 
 with a similar catalogue in the Gospels of Mark 
 and Luke, and in the Book of Acts.* 
 
 * Matthew's list is from chap. x. 2, 3, 4. For facility of refer- 
 ence, the three remaining lists of the twelve are here subjoined. 
 " And Simon he surnamed Peter ; and James the son of Zebe- 
 
28 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 Why the exact number of twelve was appoint- 
 ed, it is more difficult than important to deter- 
 mine. Perhaps it was done in compliance with 
 the attachment of the Jews to that number. Per- 
 haps it was with a more particular reference to 
 the number of the sons of Jacob, and the tribes 
 of which they were the progenitors and founders ; 
 "Ye also," says Jesus, "shall sit upon twelve 
 thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
 Under the new dispensation, ye twelve, whom 
 I have chosen, shall exercise the same spiritual 
 authority and rule as did the twelve patriarchs 
 under the old dispensation. Ye shall be regarded 
 with the same religious respect. Ye shall give 
 laws and ordinances to my people. 
 
 The motives which induced the Master to call 
 to himself a select company of disciples seem to 
 
 dee; and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them 
 Boanerges, which is, The Sons of Thunder; and Andrew; and 
 Philip; and Bartholomew; and Matthew; and Thomas; and 
 James the son of Alpheus ; and Thaddeus ; and Simon the Ca- 
 naanite ; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him." Mark id. 
 16, 17, 18, 19. 
 
 " Simon, whom he also named Peter; and Andrew his brother; 
 James and John ; Philip and Bartholomew ; Matthew and Thom- 
 as ; James the son of Alpheus, and Simon called Zelotes ; and 
 J udas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also was the 
 traitor." Luke yI 14, 15, 16. 
 
 "Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thom- 
 as, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and 
 Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James." Acts i. 13. 
 
THE TWELVE. 
 
 29 
 
 be more obvious. It was proper and even neces- 
 sary that he should have some followers in whom 
 he might particularly confide, and who should be 
 always near him and about him. 
 
 It was needful, in the first place, that he should 
 be thus attended, in order that the wonders 
 which he worked in confirmation of the divinity 
 of his mission should be nearly inspected and 
 credibly attested. I deem it one of the strongest 
 evidences of the truth of our Saviour's miracles, 
 that they were performed, not only in sight of 
 the multitude, but of a select company, who were 
 too familiar with him to be deceived themselves, 
 and too honest to join with him in deceiving oth- 
 ers. Being brought into the midst of his opera- 
 tions, they were qualified to judge of their reality 
 and integrity, and therefore qualified to report 
 them to the world with all the warmth of convic- 
 tion, and all the directness, particularity, and 
 authority of constant experience and repeated 
 vision. A changing crowd, never composed per- 
 haps on any two occasions of the same materials, 
 might have been mistaken ; but a band of twelve 
 companions could not have been. They were 
 fitted, as in no other way they could have been 
 so well, for the purpose of declaring to men the 
 power from above with which their Master was 
 invested ; and that they might be thus prepared 
 was one of his designs in choosing them. " Ye 
 
30 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 are witnesses of these things," said he to the 
 eleven, after his resurrection from the dead. He 
 evinced a consciousness of innocence and sincer- 
 ity by admitting so many partakers of his secret 
 counsels and his daily deeds ; and he manifested 
 his wisdom by securing such an irrefragable tes- 
 timony to the reality of those signs from Heaven 
 which pointed him out as truly the Son of God. 
 
 The apostles were selected, in the second place, 
 in order that, by reiterated instruction, they 
 might become well acquainted with the religion 
 which their Master was about to establish on the 
 earth. " It is given unto you to know the mys- 
 teries of the kingdom of heaven." Jesus ad- 
 dressed himself to all who had ears to hear, but 
 more particularly to those twelve who were to 
 preach in his name when he should be lifted up ; 
 because, through them, mankind were to receive 
 the tidings of his salvation. He chose them, that 
 he might teach them, so that they in turn might 
 teach. His doctrine was so new, so different from 
 what men had been used to dignify with the title 
 of religion, that occasional lessons to the multi- 
 tude, uttered in a confined sphere and by a single 
 individual, would hardly have served the purpose 
 of rendering it familiar and making it well un- 
 derstood. On this account it was more minutely, 
 clearly, and repeatedly explained to a select class 
 of pupils, who were thus prepared to become in- 
 
THE TWELVE. 
 
 31 
 
 structors themselves, and, by penetrating into 
 different and distant countries, to disseminate 
 among the nations of the earth a religious system 
 which was at first promulgated to the Jewish peo- 
 ple, and limited to their small inheritance alone. 
 They were called apostles^ because they were sent 
 out into the world.* Before they were sent, they 
 were instructed in the purposes and powers of 
 their mission. And how slow they were to com- 
 prehend, after all the pains which had been be- 
 stowed on them, the true nature of the Messiah's 
 kingdom and laws, may be read in their own con- 
 fessions of ignorance. It was late, and not till 
 after supernatural illumination, that they were 
 thoroughly initiated in the true meaning of the 
 religion whicli they were commissioned to preach 
 and to spread. This is a fact which forcibly at- 
 tests, not the dulness of the disciples, for their 
 natural perceptions were as quick as those of 
 other men, but the need there was of their being 
 well grounded in the doctrines of Christ, and the 
 opposition which existed between the entire sim- 
 plicity and spirituality of those doctrines and the 
 grossness of their own expectations and of the 
 common opinions of the world. 
 
 It may be well to add to the above reasons for 
 the separation of the twelve, that they were brought 
 into a close personal intimacy with the Saviour, in 
 
 * From the Greek aTrooreXXo) {apostello), " I send.^' 
 
32 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 order that they might study his example, borrow 
 his spirit, and so receive the image of his life that 
 they might reflect it in their own. They were 
 both the witnesses and the objects and recipients 
 of that divine gentleness, compassion, and benevo- 
 lence, which from that fountain flowed out all 
 abroad on everything. They could not be so much 
 in his society without being affected by the bland 
 influences of his manners and character. It was 
 very probably intended that they should be thus 
 affected ; that they should behold the temper of 
 Christianity in a living form ; its doctrines set 
 forth in conduct ; its precepts illustrated by a 
 perpetually corresponding practice ; and that, be- 
 holding this, they should be touched by its beauty, 
 and conformed in some measure to its likeness, 
 and enabled to hold up, not only the description, 
 but the copy of it, before the sight of men. It was 
 almost an inevitable result of their situation, that 
 they should imbibe a portion of the divine life of 
 Christianity from their strict fellowship with its 
 founder. Like those flowers which are known to 
 drink in the light of the sun while he remains 
 above the horizon, and then to give it out in mild 
 flashes when the evening shades come on, so the 
 disciples, while their Master sojourned with them, 
 while the Sun of Righteousness shone upon them, 
 absorbed the beaming excellence of his character, 
 and then, when he left the earth, emitted it par- 
 
THE TWELVE. 
 
 33 
 
 tially again amidst the moral darkness which sur- 
 rounded them. 
 
 One other purpose, which the connection of the 
 twelve disciples with our Saviour was fitted to an- 
 swer, was, the qualification which it conferred on 
 them for recording his deeds and words, and pre- 
 serving to posterity the invaluable memorial. 1 
 know not how we, of this age, could have trusted 
 implicitly to accounts of the origin and true prin- 
 ciples of the Christian religion, which tradition 
 alone might have brought down to us ; nor is it 
 easily conceivable how any persons could have 
 been better prepared to render an authentic, trust- 
 worthy, and interesting history of our faith, than 
 were those who accompanied Jesus through the 
 several scenes of his ministry, and immediately 
 succeeded him in publishing the Gospel. Accord- 
 ingly, we find that two out of the four relations 
 of our Saviour's life and death were written by 
 two of the twelve disciples ; and that the greater 
 part of the remaining books of the New Testament 
 were likewise composed by the original apostles, 
 and by that distinguished individual whose apos- 
 tleship was bestowed on him directly and miracu- 
 lously from Heaven. It is true, that we are obliged 
 to learn from tradition who the writers were of 
 several of the sacred books ; but a few facts of 
 this simple nature might securely be trusted to its 
 keeping, though at the same time it would be an 
 
 2* C 
 
34 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 improper depositary and an unsafe vehicle for the 
 numerous occurrences, sentiments, and precepts 
 which constitute the Christian system. It is a 
 self-evident proposition, that the chosen compan- 
 ions of Jesus, having witnessed his miracles, 
 having been instructed in his religion, and made 
 intimately acquainted with his character, were 
 qualified in the best manner to convert their expe- 
 rience into history, and to transmit to the latest 
 ages an indubitable standard of Christian truth. 
 
 Such appear to be our Saviour's motives, as far 
 as we are authorized to judge of them, in nomi- 
 nating his twelve disciples. It becomes a matter 
 of no inconsiderable interest to us to know some- 
 thing of the history, to ascertain something of the 
 character, of those who were so peculiarly and so 
 highly distinguished. 
 
 Who w^ere those, in the first place, whom the 
 Saviour of men, the Prince of Peace, the Son of 
 God, chose out of the whole world, to be his com- 
 panions, his friends, his pupils, his witnesses, his 
 historians, his apostles ? What were their quali- 
 ties ? How were they recommended to the notice 
 of Jesus? What were their occupations, tlieir 
 condition, education, principles ? It was a re- 
 markable station which they were called upon to 
 hold, — so near the person, so high in the con- 
 fidence, of the most exalted being who ever 
 appeared on our earth. As disciples ourselves, 
 
THE TWELVE. 
 
 85 
 
 though it may be unworthy of the name, and as 
 distant from tliem in merit as we are in time, yet 
 as professed disciples of that heavenly Master, we 
 are naturally curious to learn more than simply 
 the names of our favored predecessors. We would 
 make ourselves acquainted with those men who 
 saw, and heard, and touched, and lived and con- 
 versed with, that holy prophet of God, for whom 
 we feel a reverence only inferior to that which we 
 entertain toward Him who sent him. 
 
 And who were those, we would ask, in the sec- 
 ond place, who were appointed by Jesus Christ to 
 publish his religion, and enabled by the assistance 
 of the Holy Spirit of God to publish it successful- 
 ly? Who were those, who, in obedience to their 
 Master, went out into all nations, teaching, con- 
 verting, and baptizing, and planting the parent 
 churches of our faith in learned Greece, and lord- 
 ly Eome, and benighted Africa, and among those 
 rude people of the North from whom we ourselves 
 are descended ? It was no mean work in which 
 they were employed. No revolution of recorded 
 time can equal it in glory ; for thrones were sub- 
 jected to its power, and the poor and humble of 
 the earth were raised by it to an elevation far 
 higher than thrones. They, like their Lord, were 
 invested with a control over the operations of na- 
 ture ; and, more than that, they, like him, and by 
 his authority, and with his instruction, founded 
 
86 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 an empire, the most broad and lasting which has 
 ever existed, over the human mind. Who were 
 they ? As Christians, as subjects of that empire, 
 as men amazed, at the same time that we are re- 
 joiced, at what we have heard and what we be- 
 hold, we are impelled to inquire who they were 
 who established a dominion which has already 
 covered the civilized world, and is apparently 
 going on, with ever-encroaching steps, to spread 
 itself over the whole earth. If the lives of any 
 men are interesting, theirs must be peculiarly so. 
 They are the great reformers, the great con- 
 querors, whose empire has been continually in- 
 creasing and strengthening, while the houses and 
 dynasties of heroes and kings have risen, and 
 flourished, and passed away into forgetfulness and 
 ruin ; the only empire which has grown more 
 vigorous and more hopeful with age, because the 
 mind and the heart and the destiny of man, and 
 the good providence of God, are joined to sup- 
 port and perpetuate it. Who were these men ? 
 
 No elaborate biography, no studied panegyric, 
 has portrayed to us the lives and characters of the 
 apostles of Christ. In their own condensed and 
 simple writings, and in the quite as simple book 
 of their Acts, composed by one of their associates, 
 we must glean such sketches of them as are to be 
 found in connection with the accounts of their 
 Master and the history of their religion ; for of 
 
THE TWELVE. 
 
 87 
 
 themselves, as individuals, they seldom think of 
 speaking ; absorbed in their duty and devoted to 
 their great work, the idea of self-importance or 
 personal fame never seems to have entered their 
 minds. We shall not, however, esteem them the 
 less because they were faithful to their calling, 
 and sought not the praise and honor of men, and 
 postponed their own glory to the glory of God. 
 And although our just curiosity may not be grat- 
 ified by a full and detailed portraiture of these 
 eminent men, who remembered their work, and 
 forgot themselves, yet we shall meet with notices 
 enough in the Scriptures of the New Testament 
 to enable us to form for ourselves an outline at 
 least of some of their lives and characters. Of 
 some of them we shall find more abundant ac- 
 counts than of others ; for among them, as well 
 as among mankind in general, there was undoubt- 
 edly a diversity of power, which caused some of 
 them to stand out in the foreground of action, 
 and others to remain comparatively in shade ; 
 though all of them might have been zealous, use- 
 ful, and efficient, and most probably were so. 
 
 Though the sacred writings themselves are the 
 only sources of knowledge on this subject to 
 which we may give implicit credence, yet from 
 otlier early documents we may obtain some nar- 
 ratives of the latter days of the apostles which 
 are worthy of a good degree of faith. Making 
 
38 
 
 THE TWELVE. 
 
 use, therefore, of such authorities as are within 
 my reach, I shall proceed to give sorae account 
 of the twelve disciples of our Lord ; pursuing the 
 order in which they are arranged by Matthew, 
 only because his catalogue is the first which oc- 
 curs in the common collocation of the Gospel 
 histories. 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 Simon, who also received from our Lord the ap- 
 pellation of Peter, is invariably the first named on 
 all the four lists of the apostles, and was, on sev- 
 eral accounts, the chief of their company. He 
 was one of the first who was called to be a disci- 
 ple; though not the very first, for Andrew his 
 brother appears to have been called before him, 
 or at least at the same time with him. He was 
 distinguished above the rest by the solemn predic- 
 tions and trusts of his Master, by his uncommon 
 zeal, and by his strong natural talents. He is 
 altogether not only a conspicuous disciple, but 
 a remarkable man. The sacred historians give 
 us more copious accounts of him than of the 
 other apostles, and a distinct conception of his 
 character may be gained from what they re- 
 late. 
 
 He was, as is stated two or three times in the 
 Gospels, the son of John or Jona, who was proba- 
 bly, like his children, a fisherman. The family 
 had lived in the town of Bethsaida, on the north- 
 western side of the lake of Genesareth, otherwise 
 
40 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 called the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Galilee,* 
 where Peter was born ; but they afterwards seem 
 to have removed to the neighboring city of Caper- 
 naum, and then consisted, as far as we can ascer- 
 tain, of Simon himself, his brother, and his father, 
 his wife, and her mother. When Galilee was the 
 scene of our Saviour's ministry, Capernaum was 
 the place of his most constant abode ; and it is 
 probable that his resort to it was determined in 
 some measure by its being the residence of Peter, 
 in whose house he is thought to have lodged. 
 
 As we learn from the Evangelist John, Simon 
 was acquainted with Jesus, and had heard him 
 attentively, before he became one of the selected 
 disciples. His brother Andrew was already one 
 of the disciples of John the Baptist, and was 
 standing with a fellow-disciple in company with 
 their master, at a time when Jesus was passing 
 by. Looking upon him as he walked, John, by 
 whom he had recently been baptized, exclaimed. 
 
 Behold the Lamb of God ! " Upon this, the two 
 followed him, and, on the invitation of Jesus, went 
 with him to his dwelling-place, and abode with 
 him that day. Convinced of the justice of his 
 claims, Andrew sought for his brother Simon, and 
 
 * This lake took its name of Galilee from the province in which 
 it was situated, and Genesarelh and Tiberias from towns on its 
 coast. It was more anciently called the sea of Chinnereth. Numb, 
 xxxiv. 11 ; Josh. xiii. 27. 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 41 
 
 saying to him, We have found the Messias, or 
 Christ," he brought him to Jesus. And when 
 Jesus beheld them, he said, " Thou art Simon, 
 the son of Jona ; thou shalt be called Cephas," 
 which is by interpretation into the Greek, Petra, 
 and into English, a Rock. By this manner of 
 receiving Simon, Jesus manifested that he was 
 acquainted with him, and had formed an estimate 
 of his character ; that he had marked him as one 
 who was fitted by his energy and activity to estab- 
 lish his religion on durable foundations ; that even 
 now he intended him for a great work. The 
 brothers may at this early period be considered as 
 disciples or pupils of Jesus, though not yet chos- 
 en, according to the language of St. Mark, to be 
 with him always"; for they still continued fish- 
 ermen. It is pleasant to know that the two who 
 were first called to be disciples were united 
 together by the tie of natural brotherhood ; that 
 the one brother led the other to the Saviour ; that 
 they pursued their simple occupation together ; 
 and that together they were called from that sim- 
 ple occupation to become fishers of men. 
 
 That event took place a short time after, in the 
 following manner. As Jesus stood by the lake, 
 surrounded by a crowd who were pressing upon 
 him to hear the word of God, he saw Simon and 
 Andrew, in the practice of their usual occupation, 
 and washing their nets on the shore. He entered 
 
42 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 their vessel, and prayed them to thrust out a little 
 from the land, that he might the more convenient- 
 ly teach the people. Then, having finished his 
 discourse, he bade them launch out into the deep, 
 and let down their net for a draught of fishes. It 
 is now that we begin to perceive the ardent, affec- 
 tionate, and confiding character of Peter. Though 
 he and his companions had been toiling through 
 the night without the least success, yet he at once 
 consented to make another effort, in obedience to 
 the wishes of Jesus. " Nevertheless, at thy word,'^ 
 he says, " I will let down the net." This was no 
 sooner done than such a multitude of fishes were 
 enclosed, that the net began to break, and they 
 were obliged to call their partners, who were in 
 another ship, to assist them, and both ships were 
 so filled with what they drew in as to be near 
 sinking. On beholding this, Simon Peter, ever a 
 man of impulses, " fell down at Jesus' knees, say- 
 ing, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 
 Lord." In a transport of fearful humility he be- 
 seeches Jesus to leave him, and not to stay w^ith 
 one so unworthy of his holy and wonderful pres- 
 ence. But Jesus, instead of leaving him, now 
 gives him the call to his apostleship, saying to 
 him, " Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch 
 men " ; or, as the other evangelists write, applying 
 the words to both the brethren, " I will make you 
 fishers of men." Readily accepting the invitation 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 43 
 
 to become the constant companions of the Mes- 
 siah, and perhaps secretly expecting worldly ad- 
 vantage from their connection with so great a 
 personage, they straightway left all, their proper- 
 ty, their home, and their former friends, and fol- 
 lowed him. 
 
 Peter's character now rapidly unfolds itself; a 
 character of strong and contrasted features ; bold, 
 honest, and vehement, and yet wavering and in- 
 constant ; now forward and daring before all his 
 companions, and now more timid than any of 
 them. Wherever we meet with him, it is the same 
 Simon that we see ; distinguished alike for high 
 and generous virtues, and for faults inconsistent 
 with those virtues, and altogether unworthy of 
 them. Strength and weakness, courage and ir- 
 resolution, impetuosity and indecision, are mixed 
 up in his temperament in a striking and yet per- 
 fectly natural combination ; and at the bottom of 
 the whole there is a purity of feeling, and an 
 integrity of purpose, which endear him to his 
 Master, and fit him at last for his important 
 destination and office. 
 
 One of the occasions which may be noticed as 
 developing these characteristics is that of his at- 
 tempt to walk on the sea to meet Jesus. We are 
 informed that after the miracle of the loaves and 
 fishes, which took place on one side of the lake, 
 Jesus commanded his disciples to pass over to the 
 
44 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 other in a vessel, while he remained to send the 
 multitude away. A storm overtook the ship when 
 she was in the midst of the sea, and, while she 
 was tossing on the waves, Jesus came to them in 
 the fourth watch of the night, or towards morn- 
 ing, walking on the sea, as on dry land. At this 
 extraordinary sight the disciples were troubled, 
 saying, It is a spirit " ; and to such a height 
 was their terror excited, that they cried out for 
 fear. But Jesus immediately spoke to them, and 
 bade them not to be afraid, for it was himself. 
 No sooner does Peter hear his voice, than he not 
 only dismisses his fear, but gives loose to his en- 
 thusiasm, and unwilling to wait till his Master 
 reaches the vessel, and perhaps, too, tempted a lit- 
 tle to display his faith, and do some great thing, 
 he exclaims, before the others have recovered the 
 use of their speech, " Lord, if it be thou, bid me 
 come unto thee on the water." And Jesus, know- 
 ing him perfectly, and willing at once to gratify, 
 to test, and to instruct him, said, " Come." Pe- 
 ter descends from the ship, and walks towards his 
 Master. But the storm was stronger than his 
 trust ; and when he felt himself out, so strangely 
 and awfully, amidst the dashing foam and the 
 boisterous wind, he was afraid, and he forgot his 
 confidence ; and his faith, which hitherto had 
 borne him up, grew faint and unable to hold him, 
 and, beginning to sink, he cried again, and with 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 45 
 
 the voice of despair, to Jesus, " Lord, save me ! 
 " And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand 
 and caught him, and said unto him, 0 thou of 
 little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? " That 
 was all the Saviour said ; that mild rebuke, so 
 unlike the denunciations which his professed fol- 
 lowers in other ages have launched at what they 
 have been pleased to call, but could not with cer- 
 tainty know to be, deficiencies of faith ; that mild 
 rebuke from him who did know all things was 
 the only punishment for the failing faith of 
 the disciple, — Wherefore didst thou doubt ? " 
 Wherefore, after seeing what thou hast seen, and 
 hearing what thou hast heard, couldst thou 
 doubt? And he raised the self-convicted man, 
 and brought him into the ship, and " the wind 
 ceased." 
 
 Notwithstanding Simon's occasional misgivings 
 and temporary weaknesses, his fidelity was in the 
 main firm and certain, because it was founded on 
 the real goodness and tenderness of his nature. 
 There was a time, when, as related in the sixth 
 chapter of the Gospel of John, many of the fol- 
 lowers of Jesus " went back, and walked no more 
 with him," because he spoke to them obscurely 
 and figuratively of his office and kingdom, and 
 because, from what they did understand, they 
 began to suspect that there was something much 
 more spiritual and much less lucrative and splen- 
 
46 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 did in his proposed dominion than suited with 
 their earthly conceptions. They went back, 
 therefore, and walked no more with him. Then 
 said Jesns unto the twelve, his chosen twelve, 
 " Will ye also go away ? " To whose heart, of 
 those twelve hearts, does the affecting appeal first 
 find its way ? Who answers it first ? The same 
 man who but just now was afraid of the wind. 
 " Then Simon Peter answered him. Lord, to whom 
 shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life. 
 And we believe and are sure that thou art that 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." Generous, 
 full-hearted, though too inconstant disciple ! 
 Though others desert that good and gentle Mas- 
 ter, thou wilt not leave him. In this time of 
 trial thy heart has kept thee right. Thou art 
 like some tall and comely tree, whose pliant trunk 
 is swayed hither and thither by the passing storm, 
 but whose tenacious root spreads wide abroad, 
 and pierces deep beneath, and still reclaims the 
 waving plant, and binds it firmly to the soil it 
 loves. 
 
 At yet another time also, Peter made the same 
 open and bold confession. It was. when Jesus,* 
 having asked his disciples whom men said that he 
 was, and having received their answer, put the 
 question to them, saying, " But whom say ye that 
 I am? " Again it is the ardent Simon who ad- 
 vances before the rest, and answers unhesitatingly, 
 
SIMON PETER. 47 
 
 " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the livmg God." 
 This renewed proof of his attachment and faith 
 draws forth the marked approbation of his Master, 
 who answered him and said, " Blessed art thou, 
 Simon, son of Jona ; for flesh and blood hath 
 not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is 
 in heaven. The Spirit of God, himself, hath en- 
 lightened thee. And I say also unto thee, that 
 thou art Peter. I have already called thee a 
 rock, and upon this rock will I build my church, 
 and the gates of the place of death shall not pre- 
 vail against it. Upon thy exertions shall the 
 foundations of my church be laid, and laid so 
 strongly that they shall never be overturned nor 
 destroyed. And I will give unto thee the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou 
 shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven." 
 
 That by these words of Jesus a certain degree 
 of apostolic pre-eminence was conferred on Peter, 
 I think is too plain to be disputed ; though some 
 over-zealous Protestants have denied the fact. 
 But why they should wish to deny it, I cannot 
 see ; for I cannot see how the primacy which his 
 Lord chose to confer on him should disturb them ; 
 nor can I see, on the other hand, how that pri- 
 macy, being fully admitted, can be an argument 
 for the papal supremacy. If Peter was tliought 
 
48 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 by his Master worthy of standing first among liis 
 disciples, who shall say that he did not deserve 
 the dignity ? But what was the nature of that 
 dignity ? On this rock will I build my church," 
 said Jesus. The Christian Church was not built 
 on Peter alone, nor by him alone ; for all the 
 apostles contributed to the edifice ; but to Peter 
 was commissioned the duty of first declaring the 
 Gospel to the Jews, and indeed, by a special vision, 
 to the Gentiles also ; and the centurion and his 
 family, converted and baptized by him, were the 
 first fruits of Christianity out of the Jewish pale. 
 He was, therefore, the foundation of the Church, — 
 the rock on which its beginnings were laid. But 
 there is nothing transferable in this part of his 
 dignity, at least. The foundations of the Church 
 are not to be laid twice and thrice, and over and 
 over again, because a series of n^en calling them- 
 selves popes claim to be his successors. Neither 
 is there any promise of transmitting the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven, which signify only that 
 authority which Peter, as an accredited apostle of 
 Christ, was to have in his ministry. He was em- 
 powered to act in general as an ambassador from 
 Heaven ; to enact regulations, to establish and to 
 break down, to do and to undo, with the concur- 
 rence and power of the Head of the Church him 
 self. And this authority, let it be remembered, 
 was committed to all the rest of the apostles in 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 49 
 
 precisely the same words ; for they also were to 
 preach their Master's doctrine to the world, and 
 needed his delegated power in things pertaining 
 to his kingdom. To them also did he say, there- 
 fore, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
 bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose 
 on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The pre- 
 eminence of Peter, then, appears to be simply a 
 precedence among his brethren and equals, which 
 was conceded to his abilities and energy ; and a 
 preference which was bestowed on him as a teach- 
 er of the religion of Christ. But there is no 
 promise, no intimation, in the Scriptures, that 
 even this pre-eminence was to descend on other 
 men ; nor does the similarity between the popes 
 of Rome and Simon Peter of Bethsaida — between 
 the triple-crowned sovereigns of Christendom, who 
 once set their feet on kings' necks, and the plain 
 fisherman of the sea of Galilee — seem to be, in 
 any point of view, very close or striking. 
 
 Whatever elation of heart may have been pro- 
 duced in Peter by the praise of a beloved Master, 
 it was almost immediately doomed to be checked 
 and mortified by the same impartial voice ; for in 
 the very chapter which records this last occur- 
 rence, we are told that the disciple drew upon him- 
 self one of the severest rebukes which Jesus ever 
 uttered. "From that time forth," says the Evan- 
 gelist, " began Jesus to show unto his disciples, 
 
 3 D 
 
50 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer 
 many things of the elders and chief priests and 
 scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the 
 third day." Intimations of this kind were always 
 peculiarly unwelcome and enigmatical to the dis- 
 ciples ; and on this occasion Peter came forward 
 as usual, and with even more than his usual 
 warmth took up his Master, and began to rebuke 
 him, saying, Be it far from thee. Lord ; this 
 shall not be unto thee." Though he had so lately 
 acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, and had 
 adhered to him in his humble and unkingly con- 
 dition, yet even he had not wholly disjoined the 
 ideas of worldly power and dignity from the per- 
 son and office of the expected Saviour ; and the 
 thought of his violent and shameful death was 
 altogether shocking to him. But Jesus was par- 
 ticularly anxious to crush these misapprehensions, 
 and to familiarize his followers to his real situa- 
 tion and his approaching and inevitable fate. He 
 therefore thought proper before them all to ex- 
 press, iu a manner which might make them feel, 
 how earnest his disapprobation was of their tem- 
 poral expectations and fancies. He turned, and 
 said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan 
 [tempter, adversary] ; thou art an offence unto 
 me ; for thou savox^est not the things that be of 
 God, but those that be of meUt" The disciples 
 had yet to learn, Simon Peter had yet to leq-ni^ 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 51 
 
 how pure, unearthly, and immortal that religion 
 was which they were appointed one day to pro- 
 mulgate ; how it associated itself more with human 
 suffering than with human glory and pride ; more 
 with the secret sympathies and internal affections, 
 much more than with the outward adornments 
 of our nature ; and the early death of their Mas- 
 ter — an event which they could not bear to 
 think, and could hardly conceive of, but which he, 
 the Divine Master, saw with a clear and steady 
 vision — was yet to teach them that the infant 
 doctrine which was to go through the world, con- 
 soling the sorrows of the mourner, and pouring 
 balm into wounded bosoms, v/as itself first to be 
 nurtured with tears and baptized in blood. 
 
 There is no doubt that Peter received his Mas- 
 ter's rebuke properly, for we find that he was still 
 distinguished and confided in by him. He, to- 
 gether with James and John, was selected to wit- 
 ness the transfiguration on the mount ; and in 
 the same company he had also witnessed the 
 resurrection of the daughter of Jairus. It ap- 
 pears, moreover, that about this time he and his 
 Lord dwelt together at Capernaum, in the same 
 house ; for when the gatherers of the annual 
 tribute came to Peter, he went into the house, 
 and was there told by Jesus how he was to obtain 
 a piece of money which would pay for them both. 
 It would appear, therefore, that they lived to- 
 
62 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 gether, and, if so, that the disciple was high in 
 the favor and confidence of his Master. He seems 
 also to have exercised a sort of conceded pre- 
 eminence among the twelve, as we often find him 
 speaking in their name and behalf, both in asking 
 and in answering questions. His rank is now 
 evidently fixed. He is honored by his Master, 
 notwithstanding his imperfections, and he is the 
 head of the apostles, both from appointment and 
 cliaracter. 
 
 But his fault of impetuosity is not yet mended. 
 It is one of the last faults, perhaps, which ever 
 is mended, because it is constitutional. On that 
 most solemn night of the last supper, Jesus, in 
 order that he might at once, testify his affection 
 for his disciples, whom he loved unto the end, 
 and show them also an example of practical 
 humility, began to wash their feet, as if he had 
 been their servant. When he came to Peter, 
 that disciple, hurt and grieved that his Master 
 should undertake so menial an office, gives way 
 to his feelings, again presumes to dictate to that 
 very Master, and exclaims, " Lord, dost thou wash 
 my feet?" Jesus condescends to expostulate 
 with him, and to assure him that he would soon 
 explain to him the act which now appeared so 
 strange. " What I do, thou knowest not now, 
 but thou slialt know hereafter." But Peter will 
 not yield, nor listen, but answers, ''Thou shalt 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 53 
 
 never wash my feet." To which Jesus replies, 
 If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 
 That is, " If you will not receive this symbolical 
 lesson of humility ; if you cannot cease your dis- 
 putes about who shall be greatest in my king- 
 dom ; if you will not divest yourselves of your 
 notfons of place and dignity, and become lowly, 
 meek, and mutually kind, as my disciples ought 
 to be, and must be, if they desire my approba- 
 tion, then I must discard you from my service, 
 and deprive you of my friendship." Peter, sub- 
 dued at the bare intimation of forfeiting his Mas- 
 ter's esteem, and again driven beyond the just 
 limits of duty by the sudden revulsion of his un- 
 governed feelings, cries out, " Lord, not my feet 
 only, but my hands and my head. Wash me 
 all over, if it be thy will, only take not from me 
 thy love." How perfectly natural is the whole 
 of this scene ; how consistent with the previous 
 character of Peter ; how just to the character of 
 his Lord ! 
 
 And now the time draws near when the first 
 of the apostles is to be tried more severely and 
 to fall more sadly than ever. Soon after Jesus 
 had washed his disciples' feet, he began to talk 
 to them, in a most affecting strain, of his speedy 
 death and his return to his Father. Peter's feel- 
 ings are again alarmed, and he declares that, 
 wherever his Master may go, he will follow him, 
 
54 
 
 SIMON PEIER. 
 
 and go with him, even into prison and to death, 
 " Though all men shall be offended because of 
 thee, yet I will never be offended ; I will lay 
 down my life for thy sake." Jesus, better aware 
 of his disciple's weakness, and knowing that it 
 would not be equal to the approaching trial, 
 mournfully answered, " Wilt thou lay down tliy 
 life for my sake ? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
 the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me 
 thrice." And yet the ardent disciple spoke the 
 more vehemently, and said, " Though 1 should 
 die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." 
 
 Let us mark the result. After discoursino; to 
 his disciples, in those beautiful words w^iich are 
 to be found in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- 
 teenth chapters of the Gospel of John, Jesus went 
 out with them, and, coming to a place which was 
 named Gethsemane, left them there, and, taking 
 with him Peter, James, and John, to watch with 
 him, withdrew apart to pray to his Father. When 
 he returned to these favored three, he found 
 them, not watching, but asleep. It was towards 
 morning ; and with frames oppressed with fatigue, 
 and minds made heavy with sorrow, they had not 
 been able to watch with their suffering and agon- 
 ized Lord during his short absence, but had sunk 
 down in a leaden slumber. More in pity than in 
 wrath, the Saviour, addressing himself particular- 
 ly to Peter, as the individual who had boasted 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 55 
 
 the loudest, and had the most need of warning, 
 said to him, What ! could ye not watch with 
 me one hour ? After all your professions, can 
 you not banish sleep, alid prove your attachment, 
 by a vigil, for my sake, of one short hour? 
 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into tempta- 
 tion ; the spirit indeed is full of courage, but the 
 flesh is weak." Again and again he returns to 
 them, and still finds them sleeping. Then comes 
 the traitor Judas, with his band, and they are 
 roused effectually; and Peter^ who could not 
 watch for his Master at his earnest request, under- 
 takes, without his authority, to fight for him; 
 and he drew his sword, and smote a servant of 
 the high priest, and cut off his ear. So much 
 easier is it to fight than to be dutiful ; and so 
 much the more readily could Peter obey the 
 impulses of his passions than the behest of his 
 Lord. Jesus calmly reproves the offender, and 
 then all his disciples forsook him and fled. 
 
 There were two, however, who did not wholly 
 forsake him ; but still, though at a distance, fol- 
 lowed him. One of these two was Peter ; he sin- 
 cerely loved his Master, and, though just rebuked 
 by him, he resolves not to lose sight of him, but 
 follows him afar off, even into the court of the 
 high priest's house. There, trembling, anxious, 
 and vibrating between fear and affection, he takes 
 his seat with the servants at the fire. He does 
 
56 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 not remain there long nnsnspected, but is charged 
 with being one of the followers of Jesus. His 
 fear preponderates ; his bold resolution, so lately 
 formed, gave way ; he denies all knowledge of his 
 Master. Yes, Simon Peter, the leader of the 
 twelve, the rock of the Church, the confidant of 
 Jesus, who walked on the sea, who held the spir- 
 itual keys, who saw the dead raised up, who wit- 
 nessed the glorious transfiguration, who declared 
 himself but just now ready to be bound, and led 
 to death for his Master, now sits among menials, 
 denying him to menials ! with the mingled flush 
 of dread and shame upon his cheek, denying, to a 
 set of scoffing hirelings of a corrupt palace, that 
 he ever knew that kind and trusting Master whom 
 he had so lately acknowledged to be the princely 
 Messiah, the Son of the King of Heaven ! By and 
 by, and from another quarter, he is again attacked 
 with the same charge, — Thou also wast with 
 Jesus of Nazareth." Having committed himself 
 once, and not having recovered from his confusion 
 and fear, detected, and yet obstinate, struggling 
 between contrition and wrath, a deep sense of hu- 
 miliation and a strong dread of exposure, he again 
 " denied before them all, saying, I know not what 
 thou sayest." 
 
 There are some apparent discrepancies in the 
 several accounts given by tlie evangelists of Pe- 
 ter's denial of his Master. But they are only 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 67 
 
 apparent ; and indeed the veracity of the sacred 
 writers is rather confirmed by these slight differ- 
 ences, which ought to be expected in separate 
 narratives of what must necessarily have been a 
 confused and hurried scene. John, for instance, 
 says that Peter stood with the officers at the fire, 
 and Matthew and Mark say that he sat. Doubt- 
 less he sat at one time and stood at another, in 
 the .agitation he was in, and therefore both rela- 
 tions are not only true, but more strikingly au- 
 thentic from their very appearance of discrepancy. 
 Again, there is a difference with regard to the 
 persons who are represented as having at several 
 times accused Peter. Now, it is highly probable 
 that though the apostle made but three distinct 
 denials, he was yet accused by many, who in a 
 tumultuous manner may have raised their voices 
 against him, and thus rendered it doubtful who 
 was the prominent assailant among a number of 
 clamorous witnesses. In short, the accounts of 
 the evangelists are evidently but sketches of a 
 scene in which many things occurred which are 
 not related by either, and some things which are 
 recorded by one, though omitted by another. The 
 main facts, however, agree in all ; and this being 
 the case, the variations accord so well with the 
 character of the scene described, and the agitation 
 which all parties must have been in, that they 
 only add truth to truth. 
 
 3* 
 
58 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 Only imagine the scene! Jesus, standing 
 bound, as if he had been a criminal, surrounded 
 by soldiers and exulting enemies, and questioned 
 like an apprehended culprit by the high priest, 
 but dignified, collected, and prepared for the 
 worst ; while just below is his chief disciple, in 
 the midst of a servile crowd, agonized with terror, 
 and endeavoring with all his native vehemence, 
 and with a native accent too, which of itself, con- 
 tradicts him, to clear himself before his contempti- 
 ble accusers from the imputation of having any- 
 thing to do with one whom he had been following 
 daily and hourly for months, and whom, but a few 
 moments ago, he had promised to follow to prison 
 and to death ! But the measure of his degrada- 
 tion is not yet full ; for again, tlie third time, is 
 the charge repeated ; Surely, thou also art one 
 of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee." And 
 then, as others are apt to do, who become more 
 boisterous the more they are in the wrong and the 
 nearer they are to detection, and who call the God 
 of truth to witness their transgressions of truth, 
 the unhappy man " began to curse and to swear, 
 saying, I know not the man. And immediately 
 the cock crew.'' How dark is the account now 
 of disgrace and crime against the fallen disciple ! 
 Ingratitude, cowardice, falsehood, profanity ! It 
 was the lowest fall ; and, happily, it was the last. 
 " The Lord turned, and looked upon Peter." 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 59 
 
 What a volume of pathos and eloquence is con- 
 tained in those few simple words ! His Lord 
 looked upon him, " and with that gracious and 
 chiding look called him back to himself and him." 
 He remembered all, — remembered his Master's 
 love, remembered his Master's warning, remem- 
 bered his own duty. Conviction falls upon him, 
 repentance overwhelms him, and he went out and 
 wept bitterly. 
 
 " What language in that look ! Swifter than thought 
 The apostle's eye it caught, 
 And sank into his very soul ! 
 Through every vein a thrilling tremor crept ; 
 Away he stole, 
 
 And wept ; 
 Bitterly he wept ! " 
 
 From this time till after the crucifixion of Jesus, 
 we hear no more of Peter. He probably passed 
 this distressing interval in remorse and tears; and 
 there is no doubt that his repentance was entire 
 and sincere, and that his character was much im- 
 proved and purified by the late fiery trial through 
 which it had been led ; for we find that Jesus, on 
 the morning of his resurrection, after he had 
 shown himself to Mary Magdalene, appeared also 
 to Peter, according to an especial message which 
 he had sent to him by an angel, in testimony of 
 his continued confidence in him.* That Peter 
 
 * The message Avas delivered by the angel to the Marys, who 
 reported it to Peter. " The angel, or young man clothed in white, 
 
60 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 had returned to his allegiance is manifest from 
 the fact that he was the first of the male disciples 
 who descended into the tomb wherein the Saviour 
 had been laid. 
 
 Some days afterwards, as several of the disciples 
 were fishing together in a vessel, on the sea of 
 Tiberias, Jesus appeared to them on the shore. 
 On this occasion we may again observe a symp- 
 tom of Peter's characteristic ardor. No sooner* 
 had he understood from John that it was the Lord 
 who stood on the shore, and had been speaking 
 with them, than he girt his fisher's coat about 
 him, cast himself into the sea, and in this manner 
 gained the land, while the rest came after him in 
 the vessel. When they had all dined on the fish 
 which had been taken, Jesus required of Peter 
 that thrice-repeated assurance of his love in which 
 a fanciful interpreter would discover a direct allu- 
 sion to the late thrice-repeated denial. On receiv- 
 ing each assurance, his Lord gives him an especial 
 charge to feed his sheep. He then signified to 
 
 says to the women, " Tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth 
 before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him, as he said unto 
 } ou." What a touching pledge of forgiveness and reconciliation ! 
 The moral to be derived from the history of Peter's fall is thus 
 well and concisely brought home to us in the following verse by 
 Cowper : — 
 
 Beware of Peter's word, 
 
 Nor confidently say 
 * I never will deny thee, Lord,' 
 
 But, ' Grant I never may ! 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 61 
 
 him, though darkly, by what death he should glo- 
 rify God ; but refused to gratify his curiosity 
 respecting the fate of his fellow-disciple John. 
 
 In the Gospels we have no further information 
 respecting this apostle. On turning to the Book 
 of Acts, however, he is immediately presented to 
 us in his former rank and station, as chief of the 
 apostles, speaking in their name, and presiding at 
 their meetings. It is he who proposes that the 
 vacated place of Judas Iscariot should be supplied 
 by lot. When some of those who were present at 
 the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of 
 tongues, mocked at the disciples, and said that 
 they were full of new wine, it was Peter who in a 
 most spirited manner refuted the slander, and 
 spoke so powerfully of his Master's claims, that 
 on the same day there were added to the number 
 of Christian believers about three thousand souls. 
 It was Peter who healed the lame man at the 
 Beautiful Gate of the temple ; who addressed the 
 people on that occasion ; who, when arraigned be- 
 fore the chief priests, declared so boldly to them 
 that salvation was alone by Jesus Christ ; and 
 who, when he and his companion John were com- 
 manded not to speak at all nor teach in that name, 
 returned, jointly with the beloved disciple, that 
 heroic answer, Whether it be right in the sight 
 of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, 
 judge ye." It was Peter who exposed the decep- 
 
62 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 tioii of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, and at 
 whose feet they both fell down dead. And it was 
 Peter, who, by his shadow alone, healed many 
 who were laid in his way.* 
 
 After Samaria had, through the instrumentality 
 of Philip, received the word of God, Peter and 
 John were sent there by the apostles, in order 
 that they might lay their hands on the converts, 
 and cause them to receive the Holy Spirit.f And 
 then it was that Peter so indignantly rebuked 
 Simon the sorcerer, who thought that the gift of 
 
 * It is not expressly asserted in Acts v. 15, that those persons 
 were healed by Peter's shadow, and therefore some commentators 
 have taken it for granted that they were not, and have even gone 
 so far as to assert, that the apostle's neglect of them was a pun- 
 ishment for their superstition. So says Rosen miiller. But in the 
 next verse we are told that great numbers of sick persons were 
 also brought to him from the cities round about, and "were healed 
 every one." Now there seems to be no good reason why these 
 should be healed, and those who belonged to the city should be 
 neglected. Their being placed in Peter's way, so that even his 
 shadow might pass over them, shows more the affectionate and 
 confident faith of them and their friends than it does their super- 
 stition. If Peter was empowered from on high to heal diseases, 
 he could do so by his shadow, as well as by a touch or a few words. 
 His will was the agent ; the signs of its exertion were of no im- 
 portance in themselves. As we are not informed that Peter re- 
 buked those who laid the sick under his shadow, the most reason- 
 able and compassionate inference is, that these, as well as the 
 others, were healed. 
 
 t The fact that the apostles sent Peter on this mission is proot 
 sufficient that his precedence among them was far from being of 
 the papal character. 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 63 
 
 God might be purchased with money. " Thy 
 money perish with thee," said he ; thou hast 
 neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is 
 not right in the sight of God." 
 
 We now find him very actively engaged in the 
 duties of his apostleship, " passing throughout 
 all quarters," performing miracles, preaching the 
 word, and feeding the sheep of the great Shep- 
 herd. At Lydda he healed a certain man, named 
 ^neas, who had been sick with the palsy eight 
 years ; and at the neighboring town of Joppa he 
 raised to life a pious female disciple by the name 
 of Tabitha, or Dorcas.* 
 
 At Joppa he abode many days with one Simon, 
 a tanner. It was while he was living here that 
 he was called to instruct and baptize Cornelius, 
 the centurion, who dwelt in Caesarea ; to prepare 
 him for which duty, he was taught in a remarka- 
 ble vision, not to call any creature of God com- 
 mon or unclean, and that God is no respecter of 
 persons, but in every nation he that feareth him 
 and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. 
 With these convictions on his mind, he obeys the 
 call of Cornelius to come to him, and, while he is 
 addressing him, witnesses the descent of the Spirit 
 on him and his family, and orders them to be 
 baptized in the name of the Lord. Thus he fulfilled 
 
 * Tabitha bein<r the Syriac name, and Dorcas its translation 
 into Greek. The words mean a doe or kid. 
 
64 SIMON PETER. 
 
 to the utmost the prediction with which his name 
 of Peter was conferred on him, and founded the 
 Christian Church in both the Jewish and the Gen- 
 tile world. It was an event of which we at this 
 period can hardly estimate the importance. De- 
 void of Jewish prejudices and antipathies, we can 
 hardly conceive with what consternation the Jew- 
 ish converts, who, as Jews, had always cherished 
 the belief that religion and truth and God's pecu- 
 liar favor always had been, and always were to be, 
 confined to them, must have listened to the intel- 
 ligence that the chief of the apostles had been 
 breaking down the wall and drawing up the veil 
 which were interposed between the faithful people 
 and the rest of the world, and that henceforth 
 there was to be no spiritual distinction between 
 Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile. Some con- 
 ception of this indignant surprise of theirs may 
 be formed from the recorded circumstance, that 
 when Peter had returned to Jerusalem, "they 
 that were of the circumcision," including his 
 fellow-apostles, and indeed the whole Christian 
 Church, " contended with him, saying, thou went- 
 est in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with 
 them." It was enough to provoke their amaze- 
 ment, that he simply eat with them. But Peter 
 had the steadfastness to defend himself, and ex- 
 pound the whole matter to them from the begin- 
 ning ; and so much were they impressed by the 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 65 
 
 force and reason of his words, that they, acqui- 
 esced in peace, " and glorified God, saying. Then 
 hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance 
 unto life." 
 
 Not long after this, Peter was put into prison 
 by Herod, but was set free by an angel, who came 
 to him while he " was sleeping between two sol- 
 diers, bound with two chains." That he was sleep- 
 ing in such a situation is an incidental and beau- 
 tiful proof of his tranquillity in extreme danger. 
 He then went down from Judaea to C^sarea, and 
 there abode ; very probably in the house or un- 
 der the pt'otection of Cornelius, his distinguished 
 convert. 
 
 The next time that we hear of him is at the 
 meeting of apostles and elders, which is generally 
 called the Council of Jerusalem, and which was 
 convened to settle the long and vehemently agi- 
 tated question, again brought up by some of the 
 believing Pharisees, whether it was needful to cir- 
 cumcise all converts, and command them to keep 
 the law of Moses. When there had been much 
 disputing, Peter rose up, and gave his decided 
 opinion against the necessity of circumcising the 
 Gentiles, or bringing them under the ceremonial 
 law. And with this opinion the Council at last 
 coincided. 
 
 With the history of this Council, the notices of 
 Peter's life in the Acts of the Apostles come to an 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 end. He is named a few times in the epistles of 
 Paul, and once with reprehension. That apostle 
 tells us in his Epistle to the Galatians, that, when 
 Peter was come to Antioch,* he withstood him to 
 the face because he was to be blamed ; for that 
 although he had already eaten with Gentiles, ac- 
 cording to his own new principles so openly pro- 
 fessed, yet when some of the circumcision came to 
 Antioch, he withdrew from the Gentiles, from fear 
 of the circumcised. This was an inconsistency, 
 certainly, and shows that some remains of weak- 
 ness still lingered about the character of Peter ; 
 but it is the only inconsistency which is laid to 
 his charge from the time of his Master's resurrec- 
 tion ; and he can easily be forgiven, when we con- 
 sider how much he had done and suffered, ever 
 since that event, in his Master's name and for his 
 Master's cause. 
 
 All that remains to be said of this remarkable 
 man is to be gathered, not from the Scriptures, 
 but from other early accounts, the authority of 
 
 * Ecclesiastical historians say that Peter founded the Church at 
 Antioch, and some add, that he was its first bishop. Chrysostom 
 writes: "This is one prerogative of our city (Antioch), that we 
 had at the beginning the chief of the apostles for our master. For 
 it was fit that the place which was first honored with the name 
 of Christians should have the chief of the apostles for its pastor. 
 But though we had him for a master awhile, we did not detain 
 him, but resigned him to the royal city, Kome. Or, rather, we 
 have him still. For thougli we have not his body, we have his 
 faith." — Chrysostom, as adduced by Lardner. 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 67 
 
 which, though not to be compared with that of 
 the Scriptures, should be held in a due degree of 
 respect. We are informed by Eusebius, that Ori- 
 gen wrote of him, that " he was supposed to have 
 preached to the Jews of the dispersion in Pontus, 
 Galatia, Bithynia, Oappadocia, and Asia. And at 
 length coming to Rome, was crucified with his 
 head downwards." This kind of death he was 
 said to have requested, out of a feeling of humble 
 respect to his Master. If so, it is an affecting 
 conclusion of his eventful life, and another strik- 
 ing exhibition of the ardent character which ad- 
 hered to him to the last. He conceived it too 
 great an honor that such an one as he should meet 
 his death erect, and looking upwards, like his be- 
 loved and venerated Lord ; and so, with his head 
 in the dust, he closed his labors, his failings, his 
 victories, his sufferings, and his life. 
 
 There are Roman Catholic writers who main- 
 tain that Peter was bishop of Rome during a pe- 
 riod of twenty-five years before his martyrdom 
 there. But this assertion, though supported by 
 such high authority as that of Jerome, has been 
 shown by Cave and others to be wholly unfound- 
 ed. The most authentic account is, that Peter, 
 after having been in Antioch for a season, came 
 to Rome about the year 63 or 64, and suffered 
 martyrdom in the manner above stated, a year or 
 two after, during the persecution of the Christians 
 
68 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 by the tyrant Nero, and that St. Paul was mar 
 tyred there at the same time. It also seems prob- 
 able that he was crucified and buried on the 
 Vatican Hill, whence his remains were afterwards 
 removed to the Catacombs in the neighborhood of 
 the city. Caias, a writer quoted by Eusebius, 
 states that in his time, about the year 200, the 
 tombs of Peter and Paul were to be seen at Rome, 
 which is very likely to be true. It is the belief 
 of the Catholics, that the body of Peter now re- 
 poses under the splendid church which is called 
 by his name : — 
 
 Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb ! " 
 
 Cave inclines to the opinion that neither Peter 
 nor Paul was, properly speaking, bishop of the 
 Roman Church. He supposes that by their united 
 exertions they planted it, and that its first bishop 
 was Linus, who by the Catholics is placed next 
 to St. Peter in the episcopal see. Irenaeus, about 
 178, speaks of the Church of Rome as " founded 
 and established by the two great apostles, Peter 
 and Paul." But Epiphanius calls them the first 
 apostles and bishops of Rome ; after whom, he 
 says, were Linus, Cletus, Clement. 
 
 The following description of the person of St. 
 Peter, by Nicephorus, an ecclesiastical historian 
 of the early part of the fourteenth century, is 
 entitled to very little credence. But it may be 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 69 
 
 regarded as a curiosity, if not a true portrait. 
 " His body was somewhat slender, of a middle 
 size, but rather inclining to tallness ; his complex- 
 ion very pale and almost white ; the hair of his 
 head and beard curled and thick, but withal 
 short; though St. Jerome tells us that he was 
 bald, which probably might be in his declining 
 age ; his eyes black, but specked with red ; his 
 eyebrows thin, or none at all ; his nose long, but 
 rather broad and flat than sharp." 
 
 It is certain that he was a married man, and 
 probable that his wife accompanied him in his 
 journeys. St. Paul is thought to intimate as 
 much, when he says, in his First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians (ix. 5.) : " Have we not power to 
 lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apos- 
 tles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Ce- 
 phas ? " 
 
 That he was married when he was called to be 
 an apostle is certain, as the Scriptures mention 
 his ''wife's mother." But stanch Catholics, with 
 Jerome at their head, will have it that he left his 
 wife when he left all to follow Jesus. This, how- 
 ever, does not well agree with the testimony of 
 Paul. Clemens Alexandrinus relates, that Peter, 
 seeing his wife going to be martyred, exceedingly 
 rejoiced that she was elected to so great an honor, 
 and that she was now returning home ; and, calling 
 her by her name, encouraged and exhorted her, 
 
70 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 bidding her to be mindful of our Lord. The 
 apostle is also said to have had a daughter by 
 the name of Petronilla. 
 
 Two epistles of Peter are received into the 
 Canon of the New Testament. The authenticity 
 of the first is well established and generally al- 
 lowed. It is addressed " to the strangers scat- 
 tered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
 Asia, and Bithynia." By these " strangers " is 
 most probably meant the Jewish Christians who 
 sojourned in those regions ; though some com- 
 mentators would have the term to apply both to 
 Jewish and Gentile converts. The epistle was 
 written from Rome, which is figuratively denom- 
 inated Babylon, in the concluding salutation. Its 
 purpose was to strengthen and comfort those to 
 whom it was addressed, who were suffering under 
 the persecutions which had begun to be fiercely 
 waged against them by the heathens. The topics 
 urged in it are equal to its design, and are 
 highly consolatory and animating. Of the whole 
 epistle, Erasmus says : " It is worthy of the Prince 
 of the apostles, and full of apostolical dignity 
 and authority. It is sparing in words, but full 
 of sense." 
 
 The genuineness of the second epistle has been 
 called in question from early times. It never 
 was fully disproved, however ; and there was good 
 reason for numbering it at last among the sacred 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 71 
 
 books. The testimony of Eusebius concerning it 
 is as follows : " One epistle of Peter, called his 
 first, is acknowledged. This the 'presbyters of 
 ancient times have quoted in their writings as 
 undoubtedly genuine. But that called his second, 
 we have been informed by tradition, has not been 
 received as a part of the New Testament. Never- 
 theless, appearing to many to be useful, it hath 
 been carefully studied with the other Scriptures." 
 Origen, who flourished in the third century, says 
 of the two epistles : " Peter, on whom the Church 
 is built, hath left an epistle universally acknowl- 
 edged. Let it be granted that he has also writ- 
 ten a second ; for it is doubted." That it was 
 doubted is no proof of anything more than that 
 the evidence in its favor was not so complete as 
 that which could be produced for other sacred 
 books. And it may be said, both of this epistle 
 and the few other writings of the canon which 
 were not fully received, that they manifest in 
 their history how careful the first Christians 
 were in examining the claims of alleged apostoli- 
 cal compositions, and adopting them as of author- 
 ity in the Church. The learned and candid Lard- 
 ner observes, that so well founded was the judg- 
 ment of those early Christians concerning the 
 books of the New Testament, that no writing 
 wliich was by them pronounced genuine has, 
 since their time, been found spurious ; neither 
 
72 
 
 SIMON PETER. 
 
 have we, at this day, the least reason to think 
 any book genuine which they rejected. 
 
 We may be authorized, therefore, in accepting 
 the second epistle of Peter as his true work, not- 
 withstanding the rather doubtful character of its 
 evidence. If it was written by him, it was prob- 
 ably written to the same persons, and from the 
 same place, with the first. It was written, also, 
 not long after the first, and not long before the 
 death of the apostle. 
 
 The day consecrated to St. Peter as that of his 
 martyrdom, in the Roman Calendar, to which the 
 Calendar of the English Church corresponds, is 
 June 29. 
 
ANDREW. 
 
 Op Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, we 
 are told but little in the sacred writings ; not 
 enough, indeed, to enable us to form any estimate 
 of his character. We may be permitted to con- 
 jecture, however, from the circumstance of his 
 having been a disciple of John the Baptist, and 
 also from his having gone voluntarily to hear the 
 instructions of Jesus, and thus made himself his 
 first disciple among those who were afterwards 
 his apostles, — we may conjecture, I say, from 
 these circumstances, which have already been 
 stated in the life of Peter, that the temperament 
 of Andrew was sober and religious, and that his 
 mind was remarkably open to the reception of 
 truth. So far as we can argue at all, we may 
 argue the existence of everything that is good, 
 from such commendable appearances. We can 
 easily believe that he was a serious, candid, 
 steadfast man ; very probably without the shining 
 talents and the burning zeal of his brother, and 
 quite as probably without his brother's prominent 
 faults. That not much is recorded of him is a 
 
 4 
 
74 
 
 ANDREW. 
 
 proof that he was not very forward or active 
 among the twelve ; but it is by no means a 
 proof that he wanted good sense, discretion, or 
 stability. 
 
 We may also confidently deduce the affection- 
 ateness of this apostle's character from the cir- 
 cumstance of his seeking his brother, first of all, 
 with that eager exclamation, " We have found the 
 Messiah ! " This fact alone would be enough to 
 interest us in him, did we know nothing of him 
 beside. After spending part of a day with Jesus 
 in his place of abode, and being satisfied that he 
 was the long-looked-for Redeemer, he does not 
 shut up this knowledge in his own breast, and 
 feed upon the honor alone ; neither does he go 
 and make himself of consequence by blazoning 
 the matter abroad ; but he hastens to share the 
 pleasure and the confidence with his brother. 
 " first findeth his own brother Sii^on, and saith 
 unto him, We have found the Messiah. And 
 he brought him to Jesus." His joy was increased 
 by his thus imparting it ; and so will our piety be 
 strengthened by communication. Who, that has 
 truly found Jesus, will not desire, after the exam- 
 ple of Andrew, to lead a brother to his blessed 
 abode ? And who that succeeds in leading a 
 brother there will not feel that he crosses the 
 sacred threshold with more delight and confi- 
 dence than before ? 
 
ANDREW. 
 
 75 
 
 Andrew is generally styled by the ancient writ- 
 ers of the Church Protocletos^ or the first called. 
 The following encomium on him is by Hesychius, 
 Presbyter of Jerusalem : St Andrew was the 
 first-born of the Apostolic Choir ; the prime pillar 
 of the Church ; a rock before the rock ; the foun- 
 dation of that foundation ; the first fruits of the 
 beginning ; a caller of others before he was called 
 liimself. He preached that Gospel which was not 
 yet believed or entertained ; revealed and made 
 known that life to his brother which he had not 
 yet perfectly learned himself. So great treasures 
 did that one question bring him, ' Master, where 
 dwellest thou?' which he soon perceived by the 
 answer given him, and which he deeply pondered 
 m his mind, ' Come and see.'" 
 
 We find, further, concerning him, that he was 
 the disciple who, just before the miracle of feed- 
 ing the five thousand, informed Jesus that there 
 was a lad present who had five barley loaves and 
 two small fishes, and then added the question, 
 " But what are they among so many ? " This 
 question, on the first view of it, seems to denote 
 that Andrew had no idea that it was practicable 
 to feed the multitude, and merely mentioned the 
 small quantity of provisions in despair, and as an 
 aggravation of their condition ; but it is possible, 
 too, that he may have entertained a secret hope 
 that it was in his Master's power to relieve their 
 
76 
 
 ANDREW. 
 
 wants even with the five loaves and two fishes, 
 and that he propounded the question in a hesitating 
 manner, that he might draw forth his Master's in- 
 tentions. If this last is the fact, it shows that he 
 possessed more faith than was often manifested by 
 the other disciples, though not such an enthusias- 
 tic faith as was sometimes displayed by his more 
 ardent brother. 
 
 We read also of Andrew, that when certain 
 Greeks, who had come up to Jerusalem to wor- 
 ship at the feast of the Passover, expressed to 
 Philip their desire to see Jesus, Philip mentioned 
 the request to Andrew, and then they went both 
 together to impart it to Jesus. These Greeks 
 were no doubt what were called Proselytes of the 
 Gate, or Greeks who had been converted to the 
 acknowledgment and worship of the true God ; 
 but who, on account of their Gentile extraction, 
 were not entitled to all the religious privileges 
 and distinctions of native" Jews. They had heard 
 of the fame of Jesus, and desired to be introduced 
 to his presence, not only to gratify their curiosity, 
 but, if we may judge from the succeeding dis- 
 course of our Saviour, to inquire concerning his 
 kingdom. The precaution which was used by 
 Philip in preferring their request is a sign, in 
 the first place, that he was doubtful whether a 
 Gentile ought to be brought into the company of 
 the Messiah ; and, secondly, that Andrew was, in 
 
ANDREW. 
 
 77 
 
 his opinion, a person with whom he might profit- 
 ably consult, in an affair which appeared to him 
 to be of some moment and delicacy. 
 
 It was a few days after this that Andrew, to- 
 gether with Peter, James, and John, asked Jesus, 
 privately, what the sign should be, when all the 
 things which he had just been telling them re- 
 specting the destruction of the temple should be 
 fulfilled. This is all which is related of this 
 apostle in the Gospels. In no other part of the 
 writings of the New Testament is he ever men- 
 tioned, excepting as he is included in the mention 
 of the apostles as a body. 
 
 Other ancient accounts inform us that he 
 preached the Gospel in Scythia, Byzantium or 
 Constantinople, various provinces of Greece, and 
 other countries and cities. At Sinope, on the 
 Euxine Sea, he is said to have met with his 
 brother Peter. At last, coming to Patrae in 
 Achaia, now Patras, an archiepiscopal see, he 
 was crucified there, by order of Agaeus, procon- 
 sul of that province. On approaching the cross 
 to which he was condemned to be bound with 
 cords, that his death might be more lingering, he 
 is said, by one of the ancients, to have apos- 
 trophized it in the following ardent manner : 
 " Hail, precious cross, which has been conse- 
 crated by the body of my Lord ! how ardently 
 have I loved thee ! how long have I sought thee ! 
 
78 
 
 ANDREW. 
 
 at length I have found thee, now waiting to re- 
 ceive my longing soul. Take and snatch me from 
 among mortals, and present me to my Master, that 
 he who redeemed me on thee may receive me at 
 thy hands." 
 
 The instrument of his martyrdom is commonly 
 affirmed to have been what is called a cross decus- 
 sate^ made by two pieces of timber crossing each 
 other in the middle, in the form of the letter X, 
 and hence known by the name of St. Andrew's 
 Cross. 
 
 His body was afterwards removed to Constanti- 
 nople, and he is considered by the modern Greeks 
 as founder of the Byzantine or Constantinopolitan 
 Church. 
 
 Andrew is also the patron saint of Scotland ; 
 and the Scotch had a tradition that his remains 
 were brought to their country, and entombed at 
 St. Andrew's, in the fourth century. The day re- 
 served to him in the Calendar is November 30. 
 This day leads the season of Advent; and the 
 honor of thus announcing the time of the Lord's 
 coming is said to be assigned to him, on ac- 
 count of his having been the first who came to 
 Christ. 
 
JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 James, the son of Zebedee, and the brother of 
 John, is the third named on Matthew's list of the 
 apostles. Of his father we are told nothing ; but 
 his mother, as appears by a comparison of parallel 
 passages, was Salome, who emulated her children 
 in attachment to the Saviour, and is spoken of as 
 one of those women who followed and occasionally 
 served him, who accompanied him to the cross, 
 and were the first who were permitted to see him 
 after his resurrection. This James has received 
 the surname of the Greater, or Elder, to distin- 
 guish him from the other apostle, James the Less, 
 of whom I shall speak hereafter. 
 
 He, with his brother John, pursued the same 
 occupation with their townsmen Peter and An- 
 drew, and were partners with them. They were 
 also washing their nets on the shore, when Jesus 
 entered the vessel of their partners. They beheld 
 the miraculous draught of fishes ; they assisted to 
 secure it; they were astonished at it, and when 
 Jesus, after calling Peter and Andrew, called 
 them also, they immediately left the ship and 
 their father, and followed him." 
 
80 
 
 JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 Here I cannot help requesting my readers to 
 pause a moment, and consider the fortunes, the 
 singular, and, if the word were holy enough, I 
 would say romantic, fortunes of these four men. 
 Simon and Andrew, James and John, brethren of 
 two different families, dwell together with their 
 parents in a village at the northern extremity of 
 a lake or small sea, in the district of Galilee, and 
 on the confines of the land of Judaea. The sea 
 is a large sea to them, and to them the towns 
 which here and there dot its coast, and the light 
 barks which, for the purposes of amusement, or 
 traffic, or their own calling, skim along its pleas- 
 ant waters, are the world. They are fishermen. 
 Day by day do they rise up to the contented exer- 
 cise of their toil, to throw their nets, to spread 
 their sails, to ply their oars, and, when successful 
 in pursuit, to dispose of their freight in their 
 native village or the neighboring towns, for the 
 support of themselves and their families. They 
 are friends, partners ; they have joined themselves 
 to each other in their humble profession, and 
 agreed to share profit and loss, storm and calm, 
 together. Their low-roofed dwellings look out on 
 each other and on their native lake, and within 
 these dwellings are bosoms which throb anxiously 
 at their protracted absence, and beat gladly at 
 their return. Their boats contain all their wealth, 
 and their cottages all that they love. Their fa- 
 
JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 81 
 
 thers, perhaps their ancestors, were fishers before 
 them. They themselves have no idea of a differ- 
 ent lot. The only changes on vrhich they calcu- 
 late are the changes of the weather and the vicis- 
 situdes of their calling ; and the only great inter- 
 ruptions of the even courses of their lives, to 
 which they look forward, are the annual journeys 
 which they take, at the periods of solemn festival, 
 to the great city of Jerusalem. Thus they live, 
 and thus they expect to live, till they lie down to 
 sleep with their fathers, as calmly, as unknowing, 
 and as unknown as they. 
 
 Look at them, on the shore of their lake. 
 Think not of them as apostles, as holy men ; but 
 look at them as they actually were on the morn- 
 ing when you first hear of them from the histo- 
 rian. They have been toiling through a weary 
 night, and have caught nothing ; and now, some- 
 what disheartened at their ill success, they are 
 engaged in spreading their nets, washing them, 
 and preparing them, as they hope, for a more for- 
 tunate expedition. Presently surrounded by an 
 eager crowd, that teacher approaches whom they 
 have before seen, and whose instructions some of 
 them have already listened to. With his demean- 
 or of quiet but irresistible dignity, he draws to- 
 ward the spot where they are employed ; he enters 
 Simon's vessel, and prays him to thrust out a lit- 
 tle distance from the land ; then he speaks to that 
 
82 
 
 JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 assembled multitude as never man spake ; then 
 he bids Simon launch out farther, and cast his 
 net in the deep ; then follows the overwhelming 
 draught of fishes ; and then those four partners, 
 filled with wonder and awe, are called to quit 
 their boats, and throw by their nets, and become 
 fishers of men. 
 
 And now what a change, like the change of a 
 dream or of enchantment, has passed over their 
 lives, dividing what was from what was to be ! 
 It was long before they themselves were aware 
 how entire and how stupendous it was. In a 
 few years they are to be the principal actors in 
 the most extraordinary events of recorded time. 
 Home, kindred, country, are to be forsaken for- 
 ever. Their nets may hang and bleach in the 
 sun ; their boats may rot piecemeal on the shore ; 
 for the owners of them are far away, sailing over 
 seas to which that of Genesareth is a pond ; 
 exciting whole cities and countries to wonder 
 and tumult ; answering before kings ; imprisoned, 
 persecuted, tortured ; their whole existence a 
 storm, and a greater one than ever swept over 
 their lake. On the peaceful shore of that lake 
 even their bones may not rest. Their ashes are 
 to be separated from the ashes of their kindred. 
 Their blood is to be sprinkled on foreign soils : 
 the headsman and executioner are to preside 
 over their untimely obsequies. A few years 
 
JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 83 
 
 more, and the fame and the doctrine of these 
 fishermen have gone out into all lands. Magnifi- 
 cent churches are called by their names. King- 
 doms adopt them for their tutelar saints ; and the 
 men who claim to succeed to the office of one of 
 them rule for centuries over all civilize^ king- 
 doms with a despotic and overshadowing sway, 
 and by virtue of that claim give away a conti- 
 nent, a world, which, when their predecessor 
 lived, was entirely unknown. History tells us of 
 a fisherman of Sicily who was raised to that 
 island's throne ; but who will compare that or 
 any earthly throne to the twelve thrones which 
 were set up over the twelve tribes of Israel? 
 What is a king of Sicily to an apostle of Christ? 
 A wonderful man has risen up in our own, as we 
 call it, wonderful time, — risen up from a moder- 
 ate station to the empire of Europe ; and yet 
 the eight volumes which another wonderful man 
 has written of that emperor's deeds and fortunes 
 have not preserved, and cannot preserve, such a 
 name for his hero as is secured by hardly more 
 than eight lines, which tell us of those men 
 who first fished for their living on the sea of 
 Galilee, and then were called to be apostles of 
 Christ. 
 
 My digression has led me far away, over dis- 
 tant countries and through many years. Let us 
 return to the land of Jud^a, and the history of 
 
84 
 
 JAMES THE GEEATER. 
 
 James. We ascertain that, among the twelve, 
 he was one of those who were the most honored 
 by the confidence of Jesus. With his former 
 partner Simon, and his brother John, he was se- 
 lected, as we have already seen, to accompany 
 his Lord on several very important occasions ; 
 such as that of the resurrection of Jairus's daugh- 
 ter, the transfiguration, and the agony in the 
 garden. It was perhaps on the strength of this 
 manifest confidence, and of her own services, 
 that Salome, the mother of James and John, 
 made that ambitious and truly maternal request 
 to Jesus, that her sons might sit on his right 
 and left hand in his kingdom ; that is, enjoy the 
 two highest dignities next to his own, when he, as 
 the Messiah, should mount the throne of Israel. 
 
 This is another instance of the universal mis- 
 apprehension which then prevailed, and from 
 which the disciples of Jesus were not free, con- 
 cerning the office of the expected Messiah. It 
 was with a complete understanding of this mis- 
 apprehension, that Jesus now answered the de- 
 ceived and partial mother: "Ye know not what 
 ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I 
 shall drink of, and to be baptized with the bap- 
 tism that I am baptized with ? Will you partake 
 wholly of my lot ? will you be able to adhere to 
 me through every adversity, and share all my 
 toils and dangers with me ? " The brothers, 
 
JAMES THE GHEATER. 
 
 85 
 
 whom in reality* Jesus addressed, and through 
 whose instigation it was that their mother had 
 spoken to him, now answered him, under the 
 persuasion that they could readily undergo a few 
 trials in his service, in order to be at length 
 advanced to great dignity under him, " We are 
 able." How full of melancholy meaning is the 
 reply of our Saviour ! " Ye shall drink indeed 
 of my cup, ye shall drain its full measure of 
 sufferings to the dregs ; and be baptized with the 
 baptism that I am baptized with, even the waters 
 of violent death ; but to sit on my right hand 
 and on my left, to prescribe your rank and de- 
 gree in this world or the next, is not mine to 
 give ; it shall be given to those for whom it is 
 prepared of my Father." As soon as the other 
 disciples heard of the ambitious application of the 
 sons of Zebedee, they were moved with indig- 
 nation against them ; but their Master, to quell 
 their rising jealousy and ill-will, told them that 
 the princes of the Gentiles, merely temporal gov- 
 ernors, did indeed exercise that authority which 
 they were so anxious to possess ; but that it 
 should not be so among them, but that they who 
 would be great, truly great, among them, should 
 minister the most kindly to each other's wishes 
 and necessities ; for in his kingdom that man 
 would be chief in estimation and place, who was 
 chief in benevolence, usefuhiess, and virtue. 
 
86 
 
 JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 The brothers are again exhibited to us in no 
 very amiable light. We read in the ninth chap- 
 ter of the Gospel of Luke, that, when the time 
 approached in which Jesus was to finish his mis- 
 sion on earth, he set out to go from Galilee to 
 Jerusalem; and as his way led through Samaria, 
 he sent messengers before him to a Samaritan 
 village, to prepare for his hospitable reception. 
 The Samaritans, knowing that he was going up 
 to the feast of the Passover, and piqued that he 
 should pass by their own temple, which was the 
 rival of that of Jerusalem, would not receive him. 
 The anger of James and John was kindled by 
 this rudeness, and they said to Jesus, " Lord, wilt 
 thou that we command fire to come down from 
 heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did ? 
 But he turned and rebuked them, and said. Ye 
 know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For 
 the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, 
 but to save them." The evangelist adds, in words 
 simply descriptive of our Saviour's gentleness and 
 forbearance, " And they went to another village." 
 
 We may collect, from these notices, that James 
 was disposed to be ambitious and passionate ; 
 somewhat resembling Peter in these respects, as 
 also in his real attachment to his Master. We 
 can with difficulty suppose that his brother John 
 heartily joined him on the above-mentioned occa- 
 sions, because his character, as we shall see here- 
 
JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 8T 
 
 after, was of a very gentle order ; and therefore 
 it is probable that he was prevailed upon by the 
 more vehement and energetic James to concur 
 in his sentiments and projects at those times. It 
 can hardly be regretted, however, that these ex- 
 posures of human infirmity took place, when we 
 advert to the excellent precepts on the subjects 
 of ambition and revenge which they drew from 
 the Saviour. And it is likewise to be observed, 
 that, with all his gentleness, John had a great 
 deal of zeal, and, before that zeal was chastened 
 by the influence and example of his Master, 
 might have often displayed it without knowledge. 
 Beside which, we not unfrequently see that the 
 gentlest and most amiable have the keenest sense 
 of injustice, and that, when they are roused to 
 indignation, they are greatly roused. It may 
 have been so with John. At any rate, he shared 
 with his brother in the appellation of Boanerges, 
 or Sons of Thunder, which Mark, in his catalogue 
 of the twelve, informs us was the surname be- 
 stowed on them by Jesus, and which seems to 
 have reference to the heat of their temper ; 
 though by some interpreters it is supposed to 
 signify their powers of eloquence. 
 
 In the Book of Acts we hear of James but 
 once, after his name is given in the enumeration 
 of the eleven apostles ; and then it is to hear of 
 his death. " Herod the king stretched forth his 
 
88 
 
 JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 hand to vex certain of the Church ; and he killed 
 James, the brother of John, with the sword." 
 This Herod was Herod Agrippa, the grandson 
 of Herod the Great, in whose reign Christ was 
 born. He was a distinguished favorite of the 
 Roman emperors, Caligula and his successor 
 Claudius, though a strict and zealous observer 
 of the Jewish law. On entering upon his gov- 
 ernment, he was desirous of doing something to 
 please the Jewish populace, and for that end 
 began to persecute the infant Christian Church, 
 selecting for a principal victim James, the brother 
 of John. We are informed by Clemens Alex« 
 andrinus, that, as the apostle was led forth to the 
 place of execution, the person who had accused 
 him was so touched with the courage and con- 
 stancy which he displayed, that he repented of 
 what he had" done, came and fell down at his 
 feet, and earnestly begged pardon for what he 
 had said against him. St. James tenderly raised 
 him up, kissed him, and said to him, " Peace be 
 to thee, my son, and the pardon of thy faults." 
 At this, his former accviser publicly professed 
 himself a Christian, and so both were beheaded 
 at the same time. Not long after this martyr- 
 dom, Herod suffered a miserable death, as is re- 
 lated in Acts xii. 23, and more at large by Jose- 
 phus in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities.* 
 
 * The three Herods are connected in an unenviable manner 
 
JAMES THE GREATEE. 89 
 
 Though not the first Christian martyr, James 
 was the first of the apostles wlio suffered martyr- 
 dom ; the first among the twelve, who, in fulfil- 
 ment of that solemn prediction, was called to 
 drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism 
 of their Master ; the first who manifested to the 
 world that it was beyond the power of death itself 
 to shake their fidelity to him.* If he was not 
 spared to labor much for the Church, he was 
 soon permitted to edify it by his sufferings, and 
 was called kindly and early to his reward in 
 heaven. 
 
 He is the James who is called by the Span- 
 iards St. James of Compostella, and honored as 
 their patron saint. They receive with general 
 faith a wild and singular legend, which gives 
 an account of the manner in which they became 
 possessed of his remains. According to this story, 
 the apostles at Jerusalem sent the body in a ves- 
 
 with the early history of Christianity, each as a shedder of inno- 
 cent blood. The first, Herod the Great, murdered the Innocents 
 of Bethlehem ; the second, Herod Antipas, beheaded John the 
 Baptist ; and the third slew James, and intended .to have slain 
 Peter. These circumstances are commemorated in the following 
 Latin couplet : — 
 
 " Herodes Magnus pueros, Antipa Joannem, 
 Teque, Jacobe, Agrippa necat, Petrum et capit idem/* 
 
 ^ He is therefore called the Apostolic Protomartyr ; Stephen 
 being the Protomartyr^ or first martyr, of the whole Christian 
 Church. 
 
90 
 
 JAMES THE GREATER. 
 
 sel with Ctesiphon, whom they ordained bishop 
 of Spain. The vessel went directly to a port in 
 that kingdom, without the assistance of oars or 
 pilot, guided only by its holy, though lifeless bur- 
 den, which, on its arrival, was miraculously 
 taken away and buried, and after a great many 
 wonders, was at last translated to Compostella,* 
 where it still abides, the object of constant pil- 
 grimage, and the worker of countless miracles. 
 Cave, after giving this legend rather more at 
 length, observes : " This is the sum of the ac- 
 count, call it romance or history, which I do not 
 desire to impose any further upon the reader's 
 faith than he shall find himself disposed to believe 
 it." It is a pity that such stories as this should 
 be connected with the names of the holy apostles. 
 It would be more a pity, however, if it were more 
 difficult to separate legends from history, and 
 falsehood from truth. 
 
 Ferdinand II. of Spain instituted a military 
 order in honor of this apostle. His festival is on 
 the 26th of July. 
 
 * It is said by some, that this place was first called Ad Jaco- 
 bum Apostolum ; then Giacomo Postolo ; then, by contraction, 
 Compostella. 
 
JOHN. 
 
 We now come to John, the brother of James 
 the elder, and the last named, though certainly 
 not the last in merit, of those four friends and 
 partners, the fishermen of Bethsaida. The par- 
 ticulars of his call to be an apostle of Christ 
 have already been related, together with some 
 other circumstances respecting him, in the lives 
 of Peter and James. We have seen that he 
 ardently loved his Master ; that he was distin- 
 guished by that Master's peculiar regard; and 
 that, although he was sometimes betrayed into 
 unworthy expressions of ambition and anger, for 
 which he was justly reprimanded, his disposition 
 was remarkably amiable, gentle, and affection- 
 ate. 
 
 There is not much told of him, individually, 
 until towards the closing scenes of our Saviour's 
 ministry and life. At the last supper, which he 
 and Peter had been sent to prepare, we are told 
 that " there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of 
 his disciples whom Jesus loved." This disciple 
 was John himself; who was so fond of the dis- 
 
92 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 tiiiction which his Master's attachment conferred 
 on him, or, to speak more properly, was so grate- 
 fully sensible of the value of the attachment it- 
 self, that he continually speaks of himself, in his 
 history, as the disciple whom Jesus loved, — a title 
 which he surely would not have assumed unless 
 it had been really conferred on him. His place 
 at the supper is an evidence that he was high in 
 the favor of Jesus. He was leaning or lying on 
 his bosom ; that is, he was the next below him, 
 and, as it was the custom of the ancients to re- 
 cline at their meals, his head was brought in con- 
 tact with his Master's breast, — a situation which 
 used always to be reserved by the host at an en- 
 tertainment for the person whom he most hon- 
 ored or esteemed. It was while he was thvis lean- 
 ing, that Simon Peter beckoned to him that he 
 should ask of Jesus who it was who should 
 betray him. John did as he was requested, and 
 Jesus showed him who the traitor was by giving 
 Judas a sop. All this seems to have been done 
 in private, and apart from the knowledge of the 
 other disciples, and proves the great measure 
 of condescension and confidence which was ex- 
 ercised by the Master toward this his favorite 
 follower. 
 
 After Jesus was betrayed and seized, John is 
 supposed to have been that other disciple who 
 went with Peter to the palace of the high priest, 
 
JOHN, i V 93 
 
 and gained him admittance there by means of 
 his acquaintance with that dignitary.* However 
 this may be, he was the only one of the twelve 
 who had the fortitude to attend his beloved Mas- 
 ter to the cross. How touchingly is it manifested 
 on this awful occasion, that the softest natures 
 are often the noblest and most fearless too ; and 
 that those which are apparently the most daring 
 and masculine may yet shrink away in the time 
 of peril and distress ! Who, in that hour of 
 darkness, — darkness in the heavens and in the 
 hearts of men, — who, in that hour of abandon- 
 ment, when even the Son of God cried out that 
 he was forsaken, — who, of all his followers, were 
 with him then, to support him by their sympathy, 
 
 *"That disciple was known unto the high priest." John 
 xviii. 15. The early writers husy themselves to find out in what 
 manner John became acquainted with Caiaphas. Jerome says, 
 that he belonged to some order of nobility; which, however, 
 seems to be very inconsistent with the occupation of his father. 
 Nicephorus relates, that he sold his paternal estate in Galilee to 
 the high priest, and with the money purchased a fair house in 
 Jerusalem, and so became intimate with him. These stories 
 seem to me, like many other similar ones, to prove two things : 
 one, that the early Christian writers were exceedingly anxious to 
 explain the slightest hints in the Gospel histories ; the other, that 
 they were much too apt to write down the first report which came 
 to their ears, glad to catch something, and not careful to sift the 
 truth, or, rather, too ready to sacrifice truth to the gratification 
 of a minute and inordinate, though not perhaps absolutely idle, 
 curiosity. Hence the contradictory statements with which their 
 works are full. 
 
94 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 and prove to him their love? In the midst of 
 scoffing soldiers and brutal executioners, under 
 the lowering sky, and just below the frightful 
 cross, we behold four weeping females,* and one 
 disciple, the youngest and the gentlest of the 
 twelve, braving the horrors of this place of blood, 
 braving the anger of those in authority and the 
 insults of those who do their bidding, determined 
 to be near their friend and Master in his agonies, 
 and ready, on the spot and at the moment, to 
 share them. And what is it that braces up the 
 nerves of this feeble company to such a singular 
 pitch of fortitude and daring ? The simple but 
 unconquerable strength of affection ; the generous 
 omnipotence of their attachment and gratitude. 
 In the might of their love they ascend the hill of 
 Calvary, and take their station beneath the cross ; 
 hearing nothing amidst all that tumult but the 
 promptings of their devoted hearts ; seeing noth- 
 ing but their dying Lord ; remembering nothing 
 but that he was dear to them, and that he was in 
 misery. 0, how loftily does courage like this 
 rise above that ruder and earthly courage which 
 rushes to the battle-field, and is crowned with 
 
 * They were Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary 
 the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome the mother 
 of James the Greater and of John. There were other women in 
 company with them, but these four probably stood nearer the 
 cross than the rest. 
 
JOHN. 
 
 95 
 
 the applauses of the world ! It calls for none of 
 those excitements and stimulants from without 
 which goad rough spirits into madness, but relies 
 on those resources that are within, those precious 
 stores and holy powers which are the strength of 
 a single and faithful breast. That is the courage 
 of the animal, tkis is of the soul. It is pure, it 
 is divine. To say all in one word, it was such 
 as moved the complacent regard of the Saviour 
 
 .^^imself, even in the height of his sufferings. 
 
 '-^^Hanging on the cross, bleeding and exhausted, 
 yet when he saw his mother, and the disciple 
 standing by whom he loved, he was touched by 
 their constancy ; his thoughts were recalled to 
 earth ; the domestic affections rushed into his 
 bosom ; and with a tender care which provided at 
 once a protection for his parent and a reward for 
 his friend, he saith unto his mother. Woman, 
 behold thy son ! Then saith he to the disciple, 
 Behold thy mother ! " Where was there ever so 
 affecting a bequest as that which was then made, 
 when love and filial piety triumphed over suffer- 
 ing ? Where was there ever so affecting an 
 adoption as that which then took place, when 
 attachment and fidelity triumphed over fear ? 
 The last earthly care of Jesus was accomplished. 
 His mother was confided to the disciple whom 
 he best loved. The favorite disciple eagerly ac- 
 cepted tiie honorable mi precious charge ; for, 
 
96 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 " from that hour," as we are told by himself, he 
 
 took her unto his own home." 
 
 The whole scene is one of unrivalled pathos. 
 Had it taken place in a quiet chamber, and by 
 the side of a peaceful death-bed, it, would have 
 moved us ; but how singularly and solemnly does 
 it come in, a sweet and melting, interlude, in the 
 midst of that wild and appalling conflict, under 
 the open and frowning heaven! It is like one 
 of those hushed pauses between the fits of a 
 midnight storm, when the elements wait, and 
 pity seems pleading with wrath, ere the war and 
 the turmoil begin again. 
 
 It would appear that the enemies of our Lord 
 were satisfied, for that time, with his destruction ; 
 for we do not read that John, or the females who 
 were with him, suffered any harm on account of 
 their fearless exposure. It is probable also that 
 the prodigies which succeeded the death of Jesus 
 deterred his executioners from pursuing any fur- 
 ther their work of blood. 
 
 On the morning of the resurrection, Mary 
 Magdalene having gone to the sepulchre early, 
 and observed that the stone was taken away from 
 its mouth, announced this fact to Simon Peter 
 and to John, who both ran toward the spot. John 
 outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre, 
 and, stooping down, saw the linen clothes in which 
 his Master had been buried ; but he went not in. 
 
JOHN. 
 
 97 
 
 Then Peter came up, and went in, and then 
 John followed him. Why the latter did not go 
 in immediately does not appear from the history ; 
 nor is it easy to form a conjecture ; for he was 
 certainly equal to Peter, both in courage and 
 attachment to his Master. Perhaps in the mere 
 agitation of his feelings he delayed till Peter 
 arrived; who no sooner came up, than, with his 
 characteristic promptness, he descended into the 
 sepulchre where his crucified Lord had been 
 depiosited, in order, it may be, that he might ask 
 forgiveness, even of his remains, for having so 
 shamefully denied him. 
 
 A passage in John's own account of this visit 
 to the tomb of Jesus renders it probable that he 
 was the first person who believed in the resurrec- 
 tion of his Lord. Then went in also that other 
 disciple, who came first to the sepulchre, and he 
 saw, and believed" ; that is, believed that Jesus 
 had arisen from the dead. Nor is this obvious 
 interpretation contradicted by the succeeding 
 verse : " For as yet they knew not the Scripture, 
 that he must rise again from the dead." By the 
 word " they" is not meant Peter and John par 
 ticularly, but all the disciples. The belief was 
 not yet received among them, that their Master 
 was to rise from the dead ; and therefore it was 
 a remarkable circumstance, and one worthy of 
 being recorded, that John was the first who re- 
 
 5 G 
 
98 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 membered the predictions of Jesus, and acknowl- 
 edged their fulfihnent. So unprepared were the 
 disciples for his resurrection, that Peter, who 
 first saw that the tomb was empty, did not think 
 of ascribing the fact to its true cause. It was 
 into the mind of the beloved disciple that the 
 light first broke. He first believed the glorious 
 truth, that death was vanquished by the Son of 
 God, and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Prince 
 of Life. 
 
 When Jesus appeared to his disciples for the 
 third time after his resurrection, and at the close 
 of his solemn address to Peter intimated to him 
 that he should die a violent death, that disciple, 
 seeing John just behind, desired to know what 
 his lot was to be. The answer of Jesus was, 
 "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 
 to thee ? " This answer caused a saying to go 
 abroad that John should not die ; but we shall 
 presently see what was the probable meaning of 
 our Saviour's prophetic words. 
 
 In the Book of Acts we again meet with John 
 in company with Peter, when the lame man was 
 healed at the Beautiful Gate. This act of mercy 
 and divine power occasioned their imprisonment. 
 They were brought together before the council 
 of priests and scribes ; they were both charged 
 to teach no more in the name of Jesus ; they 
 both nobly refused to obey ; and they were both 
 
JOHN. 
 
 99 
 
 dismissed by the council, who were afraid at that 
 time to punish them. It is pleasing to see those 
 who had formerly been partners in a lowly but 
 honest calling, thus continuing to toil hand in 
 hand, in their more exalted profession of fishers 
 of men. It is an exhibition of Christian friend- 
 ship which should not pass unnoticed. On one 
 other occasion they were united in their holy 
 labors, when they were sent by the apostles on 
 the mission to Samaria ; after which we hear no 
 more of John in the historical portion of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 All early testimonies agree, however, that heo 
 was spared to a great age, and outlived all the 
 apostles ; earnestly occupied, while his strength 
 remained, in the service of his Master and the 
 promotion of his religion. It is said by some 
 writers that he preached to the Parthians ; and 
 it is certain that he dwelt for some time at Ephe- 
 sus, where Mary, his adopted mother, whom he 
 had constantly taken care of, according to the 
 solemn testament of her own son, is supposed by 
 some to have ended her days. It is more proba- 
 ble, however, as expressly stated by Eusebius, 
 that she died before John left Judaea, about fifteen 
 years after the Ascension of Jesus. 
 
 In the year of our Lord 70, and when John 
 was about seventy years of age, the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, by Titus, took place. It is under- 
 
100 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 stood by commentators generally, that it was this 
 event to which Jesus referred, when he intimated 
 that John should tarry till his coming. If so, 
 the prediction was remarkably fulfilled ; for this 
 disciple was the only one of the twelve who lived 
 to see that once proud city utterly overthrown, 
 her glorious temple destroyed, and the very 
 ground on which it stood ploughed up by the 
 hands of heathen. 
 
 Between the years 90 and 100, and in the 
 reign- of the Emperor Domitian, he was banished 
 to the Isle of Patmos, in tlie ^ge^n Sea. Here 
 he wrote the Book of the Revelation ; and here 
 he remained till the death of Domitian, whose 
 successor, Nerva, recalled those who had been 
 banished for their faith in the preceding reign. 
 He then returned to Ephesus, where he is said 
 to have written his Gospel, and where he died a 
 natural and peaceful death, at the extreme old 
 age of one hundred years. According to Epi- 
 phanius, he died at the age of ninety-four, in the 
 one hundredth year of the Christian era ; a cal- 
 culation which makes him six years younger than 
 our Lord. But others say that he lived to the 
 age which was first mentioned ; and others again 
 assert that his life was protracted beyond that 
 term. All agree, however, that he was more 
 than ninety at his death. He was spared to bear 
 the longest, as his brother James was called to 
 
JOHN. 
 
 101 
 
 beai' the earliest witness, of all the apostles, to 
 the truth of Christ.* 
 
 He left several writings behind him, which 
 have been preserved in the Church from age to 
 age, and which of themselves bear witness to 
 the affectionate mildness of his character. His 
 Gospel was written after the three others ; which 
 accounts for its omitting many things which they 
 relate, and relating many things which they omit. 
 It is John alone who tells us of the resurrection 
 of Lazarus ; of Christ's washing his disciples' 
 feet ; and especially of those divine discourses 
 which he held with them just before he was be- 
 trayed, and which were treasured up in the faith- 
 ful memory and kindred heart of the beloved 
 disciple, with a minuteness which proves how 
 deeply he had been impressed by them. 
 
 The Book of the Revelation, which antiquity 
 also ascribes to John, though not with an entirely 
 unanimous voice, has both exercised and baffled 
 as much critical ingenuity and research as ever 
 were bestowed on any wri4^ing in the world. The 
 majority of its interpreters have regarded it as a 
 series of particular prophecies ; and these sup- 
 
 * So respectable a writer as Chrysostom asserts, in one of his 
 sermons, that John -was an hundred years old when he wrote his 
 Gospel, and that he lived twenty years afterwards. But this is 
 worthy of but little credit. Again, many of the ancients enter- 
 tained the notion that this apostle never died, but was translated, 
 like Enoch and Elias. 
 
102 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 posed prophecies have been applied to so many 
 events, past and to come, that the reader is at 
 last convinced that the truth does not even lie 
 between the differing hypotheses. It may be 
 that its splendid visions are really of a prophetic 
 nature, and that they are not yet accomplished. 
 But perhaps the most rational theory is that 
 which several learned men have adopted, and 
 which supposes that the whole Book of the Reve- 
 lation is a general prediction, in the form of a 
 religious drama, of the glorious success of Chris- 
 tianity in the world, and its triumph over its 
 numerous foes, without any reference to the 
 political condition of certain states and empires, 
 or to the downfall of particular hierarchies or 
 heresies." This opinion has been explained and 
 supported by the German professor, Eichorn, in 
 a commentary on the Revelation ; and in earlier 
 times had been maintained by able expositors, 
 and espoused by no less a man than the poet 
 Milton, who thus speaks in his Reason of Church 
 Government urged agaiy^st Prelaty, " And the 
 Apocalypse of *St. John is the majestic image 
 of a high and stately tragedy, shutting up and 
 intermingling her solemn scenes and acts with a 
 sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping sym- 
 phonies ; and this my opinion, the grave authority 
 of Parens, commenting that book, is sufficient to 
 confirm." But whatever difference there may be 
 
JOHN. 
 
 103 
 
 concerning the intention of this book, there can 
 be none with regard to its composition. It is 
 undoubtedly a magnificent specimen of holy poet- 
 ry ; and reminds us more constantly and strongly 
 of the sublimest of the Jewish prophecies than 
 any other book in the canon of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 Beside the two works already named, we have 
 three epistles appearing in the Christian Scrip- 
 tures as the productions of the Apostle John. 
 That he wrote the one which is called the first, 
 there has never been any dispute ; it is univer- 
 sally and by the best authorities ascribed to him. 
 But the genuineness of the two others was ques- 
 tioned at a very early period ; though the balance 
 in their favor appeared so great, that they were 
 admitted into our present collection of sacred 
 books. The controversy need not trouble us, 
 however, as the two latter epistles, beside being 
 very short, contain nothing of consequence wjiich 
 is not likewise contained in substance, and almost 
 precisely in expression, in the first. This first 
 epistle exhibits in a more striking light than do 
 the rest of his writings his great amiableness of 
 disposition. It is throughout an exhortation — an 
 exhortation from the heart and soul and mind and 
 strength of the writer — to pure, exalted, Christian 
 benevolence ; and its whole drift and spirit may 
 be expressed in this single passage from the fourth 
 
104 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 chapter : God is love ; and he that dwelleth in 
 love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 
 
 His merits as a writer are sententiously ex- 
 pressed in a passage from Jerome, who says, 
 that " he was at once Apostle, Evangelist, and 
 Prophet; — Apostle, in that he wrote letters to 
 the Churches, as a master ; Evangelist, as he 
 wrote a book of the Gospel which no other of the 
 twelve apostles did, except St. Matthew ; Prophet, 
 as he saw the revelation in the island of Patmos, 
 where he was banished by Domitian. His Gos- 
 pel, too, differs from the rest. Like an eagle he 
 ascends to the very throne of God, and says. In 
 the beginning was the Word." 
 
 To John, as well as to most of the apostles of 
 Christ, are attributed by antiquity both writings 
 and actions which are probably apocryphal and 
 fabulous. It would be useless for me even to 
 give the titles of the former. Of the traditions 
 of his actions and miracles, one of the most gen- 
 erally known and quoted is the story that, during 
 the persecution under Domitian, and just before 
 the exile of John to Patmos, he was brought to 
 Rome, and there thrown in a caldron of boiling 
 oil, from which he came out altogether unhurt. 
 In the pictures of him by the old painters, he is 
 often represented as holding a cup or goblet, 
 from which a serpent is rearing its head. This 
 accompaniment refers to another legend respect- 
 
JOHN. 
 
 105 
 
 ing him, by one Procliorus, who tells us that, 
 some heretics having presented the apostle with 
 a cup of poisoned liquor, he made the sign of the 
 cross over it, and all the venom was immediately 
 expelled from the vessel, embodied in the visible 
 form of a serpent.* 
 
 Stories of this kind would naturally be multi- 
 plied in that, or indeed in any age, concerning 
 persons whose lives were singularly out of the 
 common course, and who were in reality gifted 
 with the power of working miracles. The ancient 
 writers and fathers were too apt to promulgate 
 such legends, without distinguishing them, as care- 
 fully as they ought to have done, from accounts 
 which were worthy of credit ; and the Church, 
 finding how ready and even eager the multitude 
 were to receive every tale of wonder, made it a 
 part of its policy to cherish their credulity and 
 strengthen their delusion. But we, who are of 
 a more simple taste, require no such means to 
 interest us in the history of a person in every 
 way so interesting as the disciple whom Jesus 
 loved." 
 
 One of the best authenticated stories of his 
 
 * There is also generally introduced in the pictures of this 
 saint the figure of an eagle. This is because he is supposed 
 to be mentioned in the Book of the Revelation as the last of 
 the "four beasts" near the throne, who was "like a flying 
 eagle." We have seen abov^e, also, that Jerome compares him 
 to an eagle. 
 
106 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 latter days, which is further recommended by 
 its conformity with the known gentleness and 
 amiableness of his character, cannot but please 
 all readers, and I will therefore insert it. It is 
 said that when the infirmities of age so grew 
 upon him at Ephesus, that he was no longer able 
 to preach to his converts, he used, at every pi\blic 
 meeting, to be led to the church, and say no 
 more to them than these words, " Little children, 
 love one another." And when his auditors, 
 wearied with the constant repetition of the same 
 thing, asked him why he always said this and 
 nothing more to them, he answered : " Because it 
 was the command of our Lord ; and that if they 
 did nothing else, this alone was enough." \ 
 
 " Such," says Dr. Watts, in one of his sermons, — ^ 
 "such was John the beloved disciple. You may 
 read the temper of his soul in his epistles. What 
 a spirit of love breathes in every line ! What 
 compassion and tenderness to the babes in Christ! 
 What condescending affection to the young men, 
 and hearty good- will to the fathers, who were then 
 his equals in age ! With what obliging language 
 does he treat the beloved Gains, in his third let- 
 ter ; and with how much civility and hearty 
 kindness does he address the elect lady and her 
 children, in the second ! In his younger years, 
 indeed, he seems to have had something more of 
 fire and vehemence, for which he was surnamed 
 
JOHN. 
 
 107 
 
 A son of thunder. But our Lord saw so much 
 good temper in him, mixed with that sprightliness 
 and zeal, that he expressed much pleasure in 
 his company, and favored him with peculiar hon- 
 ors and endearments above the rest. This is 
 the disciple who was taken into the holy mount 
 with James and Peter, and saw our Lord glorified 
 before the time. This is the disciple who leaned 
 on his bosom at the holy supper, and was in- 
 dulged in the utmost freedom of conversation 
 with his Lord. This is the man who obtained 
 this glorious title, ' The disciple whom Jesus 
 loved ' ; that is, with a distinguishing and par- 
 ticular love. As a Saviour he loved them all 
 like saints, but as a man he loved St. John like 
 a friend ; and when hanging upon the cross, and 
 just expiring, he committed his mother to his 
 care, — a most precious and convincing pledge of 
 special friendship. 
 
 " 0 how happy are the persons who most 
 nearly resemble this apostle, who are thus privi- 
 leged, thus divinely blessed ! How infinitely are 
 ye indebted to God, your benefactor and your 
 Father, who has endowed you with so many 
 valuable accomplishments on earth, and assures 
 you of the happiness of heaven ! It is he who 
 has made you fair or wise ; it is he who has 
 given you ingenuity, or riches, or perhaps has 
 favored you with all these ; and yet has weaned 
 
108 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 your hearts from the love of this world, and led 
 you to the pursuit of eternal life. It is he that 
 has cast you in so refined a mould, and given you 
 so sweet a disposition ; that has inclined you 
 to sobriety and every virtue, has raised you to 
 honor and esteem, has made you possessor of all 
 that is desirable in this life, and appointed you 
 a nobler inheritance in that which is to come. 
 What thankfulness does every power of your na- 
 tures owe to your God ! that Heaven looks down 
 upon you and loves you, and the world around 
 you fix their eyes upon yovi and love you ; that 
 God has formed you in so bright a resemblance 
 of his own Son, his first-beloved, and has ordained 
 you joint heirs of heaven with him." 
 
 Besides the affectionate title which so peculiarly 
 connects this disciple with his Master, he is styled 
 by ancient writers, "John the Divine," on ac- 
 count of the sublimity and spirituality of his writ- 
 ings. 
 
 His day is December 27 in the Roman Cal- 
 endar ; but the Greeks keep it on the 26th of 
 September. And it may here be observed, that 
 the Roman and Greek Calendars differ from each 
 other in their dates throughout the ecclesiastical 
 year. 
 
PHILIP. 
 
 The fifth named on Matthew's catalogue of 
 the apostles is Philip. He was a native of Beth- 
 saida, and consequently a townsman of the four 
 partners whose liistories I have already told. 
 " Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of An- 
 drew and Peter." We have no certain intelli- 
 gence of his parentage or condition, though he 
 was probably in the same rank of life with Peter 
 and Andrew, James and John, and perhaps of the 
 same profession. 
 
 The day after Peter and Andrew had become 
 disciples of Christ, we read that " Jesus would go 
 forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith 
 unto him. Follow me." Though Peter and An- 
 drew were the first who appear to have attended 
 on the instructions of Jesus, and to have been 
 particularly noticed by him, and are therefore 
 termed his first disciples, — and though Andrew 
 is styled Protocletos^ as having been the first, 
 whose name we know, who was invited to visit 
 him and converse with him, — it is certain that 
 the distinction belongs to Philip of having been 
 
110 
 
 PHILIP. 
 
 the first who received that express and authorita- 
 tive call to the apostleship, " Follow me." We 
 find this account in the latter portion of the first 
 chapter of John's Gospel. And we then read, 
 further, that " Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith 
 unto him. We have found him of whom Moses in 
 the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Naz- 
 areth, the son of Joseph." His conduct in this 
 instance is like that of Andrew, as he manifested 
 the same readiness to acknowledge Jesus as the 
 Messiah, and the same zeal to make known his 
 discovery to others. 
 
 This faith and zeal, however, do not continue 
 to be, if we may judge from what little the Gos- 
 pels relate of Philip, so firm and ardent afterwards 
 as they seem to have been at first. When Jesus, 
 in order to prove him, asked him where bread 
 enough could be bought to feed the five thousand 
 who were gathered together on the mountain, 
 Philip, either not remembering the miraculous 
 power of his Master, or not yet fully convinced 
 of its reality, entered into a calculation, and re- 
 turned, for answer, that two hundred pennyworth 
 of bread would not be sufficient to supply every 
 one with a little. And at the last supper, when 
 our Lord was discoursing so divinely to his disci- 
 ples, and had said to them, that, if they had known 
 him properly, they would have known his Father, 
 whom very soon they would both know and see, 
 
PHILIP. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Philip was so entirely unconscious of his mean- 
 ing, and so blind, notwithstanding his long inti- 
 macy with Jesus, — so blind to the presence and 
 agency of God in this, his beloved Son, — as to say 
 to his Master, " Lord, show us the Father, and 
 it sufficeth us." Grieved at his diilness and in- 
 sensibility, Jesus returns that sadly reproachful 
 answer, " Have I been so long time with you, 
 and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He 
 that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and 
 how sayest thou then. Show us the Father ? 
 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and 
 the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto 
 you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that 
 dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." As if he 
 had said. Is it not evident to you that the power 
 which you have seen me exert is more than hu- 
 man power? that the wisdom which you have so 
 long been hearing from my lips is more than 
 human wisdom ? that the Father must have been 
 with me, and in me, all this time, or I could not 
 have thus acted and spoken ? How can you then, 
 who have been one of my constant companions, 
 how can you say. Show us the Father? As a 
 Jew, you certainly do not expect to see God in 
 person ; and how can you behold a brighter 
 manifestation of his image and attributes than 
 that which you have so long beheld in me ? You 
 do not know me, Philip, neither me nor my 
 Father. 
 
112 
 
 PHILIP. 
 
 This instance of the apostle's incredulity and 
 slowness of apprehension does not prove that he 
 was more incredulous and dull than his brethren ; 
 it only shows how small the impression was which 
 the extraordinary instructions and actions of 
 Jesus had as yet produced on the whole twelve. 
 They entered into his service with the Jewish 
 ideas of a Messiah ; and now, when he was just 
 about to leave them, they were almost as ignorant 
 of the spirituality of his kingdom as when they 
 first joined themselves to him. 
 
 Nothing further is said in the sacred histories to 
 assist us in elucidating Philip's character. The 
 Book of Acts relates nothing concerning him ; 
 for we must not confound Philip the Apostle 
 with Philip the Deacon or Philip the Evangelist, 
 both of whom are there mentioned. The best 
 ancient testimony specifies Scythia as the principal 
 scene of his apostolical labors ; from which coun- 
 try he came at last into Phrygia, and dwelt in 
 Hierapolis, the chief city in the western part of 
 that province.* There he preached the Gospel 
 of his Master, and planted the seeds of faith in 
 the midst of idolatry ; and it is said by some, that 
 it was by effecting the destruction of an object of 
 superstitious worship that he incurred the hatred 
 
 * This city is mentioned by Paul, in his Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians iv. 13. It was near to Colosse and Laodicea, and had prob- 
 ably been visited by Paul. 
 
PHILIP. 
 
 113 
 
 and persecution of a part of the inhabitants, 
 who caused him to be imprisoned and severely 
 scourged, and then hung by the neck to a pillar. 
 By others, however, he is said to have died a nat- 
 ural death. 
 
 By a concurrence of authorities, Philip is stated 
 to have been a married man, and to have had 
 several daughters. 
 
 The festival of this apostle, according to the 
 Calendar of the Western Church, is on the 1st of • 
 May. 
 
 B 
 
BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 The next in order of the twelve is Bartholo- 
 mew. Respecting him there is a still greater 
 dearth of information than there is respecting 
 Philip ; for there is absolutely nothing told of him 
 in the New Testament, unless we resort to the 
 supposition, which many scholars have adopted, 
 that he is the same person with Nathanael. In 
 favor of this svipposition there are several argu- 
 ments, which foroi together a body of strong pre- 
 sumptive evidence. 
 
 It is observed, in the first place, that the Evan- 
 gelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who all place 
 Bartholomew on tlieir catalogues of the apostles, 
 never mention Nathanael ; and that John, who 
 gives the particulars of Nathanael's conversation 
 with our Lord, never mentions Bartholomew. 
 Secondly, as John acquaints us with the fact that 
 Philip led Nathanael to Jesus, so, in the lists of 
 the apostles by the other evangelists, Philip and 
 Bartholomew are constantly joined together as 
 companions. " As they were jointly called to the 
 discipleship," says Cave, " so they are jointly re- 
 
BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 115 
 
 ferred to in the Apostolic Catalogue, as afterwards 
 we find them joint companions in the writings of 
 the Church." Thirdly, it is remarked that Na- 
 thanael is introduced, in the company of several 
 apostles, in the twenty-first chapter of John's Gos- 
 pel, in such a manner as to lead us to suppose 
 that he likewise might be one. The passage is 
 that which relates to the appearance of Jesus, 
 after his resurrection, at the sea of Tiberias ; on 
 which occasion Peter swam to him from the ves- 
 sel in which he and the rest were fishing. The 
 disciples, who were present, are thus named: 
 " There were together Simon Peter, and Thom- 
 as called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in 
 Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other 
 of his disciples." Fourthly, the difference in the 
 two names, which may at first appear to be an 
 argument against this supposition, is rather in its 
 favor. Bartholomew signifies the son of Tolmai, 
 just as Bartimeus, the blind man whom Jesus re- 
 stored to sight, signifies the son of Timeus ; lar 
 being the Hebrew word for son. Nathanael, 
 therefore, might have also been called Bartholo- 
 mew, after his father, just as Simon was called 
 Barjonas after his father. Bartholomew could 
 hardly have been the only name of the apostle, 
 because it is a patronymic ; and when circum- 
 stances agree so well, why might not his first 
 name have been Nathanael? That John never 
 
116 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 calls Natlianael by tlie other name of Bartholo- 
 mew is no proof that he had no other name ; for 
 Matthew, though his other name was Levi, never 
 calls himself by that name, throughout the whole 
 of his own Gospel. And finally, we are led natu- 
 rally to the presumption that Natlianael must have 
 been an apostle, not only by the circumstance of 
 his being named in the midst of four apostles, but 
 by the tenor of the conversation which Jesus held 
 with him, and the probability that he was one of 
 the very earliest disciples. 
 
 If we are convinced by these considerations 
 that Bartholomew was the same person with Na- 
 tlianael, we of course know something of his 
 character and history. We view him as an in- 
 habitant of Cana, in Galilee, where was per- 
 formed the first miracle of his Lord, soon after 
 his interview with him ; as probably called to be 
 an apostle on the same day with Philip, by whom 
 he was introduced to Jesus ; and as one who was 
 characterized by the Saviour, and therefore de- 
 servedly, as an " Israelite indeed, in whom there 
 was no guile." 
 
 The guilelessness, candor, and honesty of Na- 
 tlianael, or Bartholomew, were indeed strikingly 
 exhibited in all the circumstances of that inter- 
 view. Impressed with the idea of his countrymen, 
 that Nazareth could not furnish any celebrated 
 prophet, and surely not the Messiah, as soon as 
 
BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 117 
 
 Philip uttered the words, " Jesus of Nazareth, 
 the son of Joseph," he exclaimed, Can there 
 any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " But 
 when Philip, very wisely, instead of arguing the 
 point, simply said, " Come and see," he went at 
 once, clearly perceiving the justice of the appeal, 
 and determined to put his prejudice, or his opin- 
 ion, to the only proper test of experiment. And 
 when he had received a small, though to his 
 mind sufficient, proof of the superior knowledge 
 of Jesus, he gave in his adhesion on the spot, 
 saying, " Rabbi, thou art tlie Son of God ; thou 
 art the king of Israel." Pleased with this readi- 
 ness of conviction, the Saviour seems to have 
 taken him from this moment into his confidence ; 
 for he promised him that he should " see greater 
 things than these " ; stronger proofs than the one 
 just given of the divinity of his mission ; wonders 
 and testimonies so mighty and divine, that heaven 
 would appear, as it were, " open, and the angels 
 of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
 of man." 
 
 Let our prepossessions and prejudices vanish 
 as did those of Nathanael, as soon as they are 
 touched by the beams of truth. Let us be sin- 
 cere, simple, open-hearted, free from guile, as he 
 was ; " without partiality and without hypocrisy." 
 To such a character belongs by inheritance the 
 promise given to Nathanael. He who possesses 
 
118 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 it will see greater things day by day ; he will be 
 continually receiving brighter manifestations of 
 truth and heaven. 
 
 The child like faith that asks not sight. 
 Waits not for wonder or for sign, 
 
 Believes, because it loves, aright, 
 
 Shall see things greater, things divine. 
 
 " Heaven on that gaze shall open wide, 
 And brightest angels to and fro 
 On messages of love shall glide 
 'Twixt God above and Christ below." 
 
 Nothing is particularly related concerning this 
 apostle, by the sacred writers, beside what has 
 been already adduced. By early ecclesiastical 
 historians, he is said to have carried the Gospel 
 as far as India, by which must be meant, as Cave 
 thinks, the hither India, which was the country 
 bordering upon the Asian Ethiopia, or Chaldea. 
 Pantaenus, a Christian philosopher of the latter 
 part of the second century, and preceptor of Cle- 
 mens of Alexandria, having travelled into Ethio- 
 pia, found there, as Eusebius relates, a copy of 
 Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew, which had been 
 left there by Bartholomew. Phrygia was also 
 for a time , the field of the apostle's labors, where 
 he met with his former companion, Philip, and at 
 the period of his martyrdom narrowly escaped 
 crucifixion himself. Lastly, he came to Alba- 
 nopolis in the greater Armenia, where he was 
 
BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 119 
 
 persecuted, and finally crucified, on account of 
 his efforts to overthrow the idolatry of the place. 
 Some accounts speak of his having been flayed 
 alive, previous to his crucifixion. 
 
 Legends and martyrologies affirm, what we 
 need not believe, that his body removed from 
 place to place, till it came at last to Rome, where 
 it rested, and where it is now deposited, as Ro- 
 man Catholics suppose, in a porphyry monument, 
 under the Church of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 August the 24th is consecrated to him by the 
 Western Church. 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 The seventh of the twelve is Thomas. In the 
 Gospel of John he is styled " Thomas called 
 Didymus," but everywhere else simply Thomas. 
 It is probable that Didymus is merely an interpre- 
 tation into Greek of the Hebrew word "Thomas," 
 as they both mean a twin. And it may be that 
 he really was what his name designates him to 
 have been.* But we have no certain accounts 
 whatever of his early life, nor of the early period 
 of his apostleship. 
 
 The first mention which is made of him is on 
 a most interesting occasion, and when he appears 
 in a most interesting light. Shortly after our 
 
 * ''It was customary," says Cave, "with the Jews, when 
 travelling into foreign countries, or familiarly conversing with 
 the Greeks and Romans, to assume to themselves a Greek 
 or a Latin name, of great affinity, and sometimes of the very 
 same signification, with that of their own country. Thus our 
 Lord was called Christy answering to his Hebrew title Mas- 
 hiach, or the Anointed ; Simon styled Peter, according to that of 
 Cephas, which our Lord put upon him ; Tabitha called Dorcas, 
 both signifying a goat. Thus our St. Thomas, according to tho 
 Syriac importance of his name, had the title of Didymus^ which 
 signifies a twin ; Thomas, which is called Didymus" 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 \ 
 
 Lord had escaped from the hands of the Jews, 
 who were about to stone him, and had gone away 
 beyond Jordan, the sisters of Lazarus, his friend, 
 sent to him, informing him that their brother was 
 sick. Jesus remained two days, after hearing 
 this intelligence, in the place where he was ; for 
 it was his intention, not to rescue, but to restore 
 Lazarus from death, that God might be the more 
 glorified; and then he said to his disciples, "Let 
 us go into Judaea again." His disciples earnestly 
 sought to dissuade him from this, as they thought 
 it, rash determination, and said unto him, " Mas- 
 ter, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and 
 goest thou thither again?" In answer to this 
 expostulation, Jesus tells them, in figurative 
 speech, that what he had to do must be done in 
 its due season, and before the appropriate time 
 was past; and then he adds, ''Our friend Laz- 
 arus sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him 
 out of sleep." The disciples, understanding him 
 literally, answer, that if Lazarus was sleeping, 
 he would recover, and therefore it was unneces- 
 sary to incur danger, merely for the sake of see- 
 ing him. " Then said Jesus unto them, plainly, 
 Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes 
 that I was not there, to the intent ye may be- 
 lieve; nevertheless, let us go unto him." It is 
 at this crisis, when the apostles seem to be hes- 
 itating between tlie sense of imminent danger 
 
 6 
 
122 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 and the feeling of duty to their Master, the one 
 holding them back, and the other urging them 
 forward, that Thomas advances, faithful, bold, 
 and with a mind made up to abide by Jesus at 
 all hazards, and says unto his fellow-disciples, 
 ''Let us also go, that we may die with him." 
 His intrepidity in this case had its effect, no 
 doubt, on his brethren ; for they all went to 
 Bethany, the village of Lazarus, which was only 
 about two miles from Jerusalem ; and the result 
 was one of the most remarkable and important 
 miracles of our Lord ; which was soon followed 
 indeed, as the disciples had feared, and as he 
 had foreseen, by his own violent death. 
 
 Thomas is again introduced as one of the speak- 
 ers on the night of the last supper. As Jesus 
 was discoursing to his disciples, endeavoring to 
 prepare them for his approaching departure, and 
 to lead them to the sublime and consoling truths 
 of immortality, he said to them, " Whither I go 
 ye know, and the way ye know." Thomas, who 
 no more than the rest could believe that the 
 Messiah was to die, and to be taken from the 
 world, before he had achieved his expected glo- 
 ries and the deliverance of Israel, said to him, 
 '' Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and 
 how can we know the way ? " His thoughts had 
 not accompanied his Master's thoughts ; they 
 were yet on the earth, groping about there after 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 123 
 
 a destination and a path, though Jesus was point- 
 ing so. plainly to the mansions of another world, 
 and the true and spiritual way which led to them. 
 And it was immediately afterwards that Philip, 
 too, uttered those words of ignorance which we 
 have just now considered, and which show how 
 much that light was needed which was soon to 
 break in upon them all. 
 
 Once more we hear of Thomas, in a manner 
 which marks his character with some strong lines, 
 and particularly distinguishes his life. On the 
 evening of the resurrection, our Saviour came 
 and stood in the midst of the disciples, and showed 
 them the wounds in his hands and side, and satis- 
 fied them that he was indeed risen from the dead. 
 But Thomas was not then with them, and when 
 they told him that they had seen the Lord, he 
 replied, that unless he not only should see those 
 wounds, but be allowed also to touch them and 
 put his hand in them, he would not believe. 
 
 There is a boldness and even obstinacy in this 
 resolution, which at first is apt to offend us ; but 
 on reflection we may find that it was neither 
 harsh nor unreasonable. He could not have 
 refused his belief as he did, through a want of 
 respect or affection for his Master; because he 
 had but a short time before expressed his readi- 
 ness to die with him. Neither did he hold in too 
 slight regard the testimony of his brethren, con- 
 
124 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 sidering the circumstances ; for it was no com- 
 mon matter to which they testified ; in almost 
 any other case he would have believed their re- 
 port, or the report of a single one of their num- 
 ber, but now the event which they related was 
 too marvellous m itself, one too momentous in 
 its consequences, to be received on the witness 
 of men who might not wish to deceive, but who 
 nevertheless might themselves be deceived or 
 mistaken ; and he would trust to nothing but his 
 own senses to bring him decisive evidence of an 
 occurrence on which the direction of his whole 
 future life depended. 
 
 He thought too, no doubt, that he ought to be 
 &atisfied of this wonderful fact as well as the rest 
 of the disciples, and in the same way ; and he 
 was unquestionably right in so thinking. If he 
 was hereafter to journey through the world, 
 teaching and asserting, with all his powers, and 
 in the face of every peril, the resurrection of 
 Jesus the Christ, it was needful that he should 
 possess a deep conviction of the reality of that 
 event, — such a conviction as, in the capacity of a 
 companion, friend, pupil, and apostle of Jesus, 
 he ought to have, and such a conviction as the 
 world would surely require of him. The miracle 
 had just occurred, as his brethren told him ; if 
 so, why should not he, standing in the same 
 situation as they did, and to whom its truth was 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 125 
 
 as important as to them, — why should not he have 
 the same evidence as they did ; nay, why should 
 he not have more ? Why should he not, not 
 only on his own account, but as their represent- 
 ative, demand the opportunity of clearing away 
 every shadow of doubt which might rest on so 
 splendid a truth, both by seeing his risen Lord 
 as they had, and touching him with his hands as 
 they had not ? 
 
 If we regard the incredulity of Thomas in this 
 light, we shall see nothing improper in it, and 
 shall bo disposed to grant that it was no greater 
 than, in his situation, was natural and justifiable. 
 In this conclusion we are countenanced by the 
 conduct of our Saviour himself, who neither re- 
 fuses to show himself to his doubting disciple, 
 nor manifests any displeasure at his freedom or 
 his unbelief; for the narration of the occurrence 
 is thus continued by St. John : " And after eight 
 days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas 
 with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being 
 shut, and stood in the midst, and said. Peace be 
 unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach 
 hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and 
 reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; 
 and be not faithless but believing." Startled, 
 doubtless, by the sudden appearance of his Mas- 
 ter, and affected too by the kind and assuring 
 manner in which he is bid to satisfy his doubts 
 
126 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 completely, Thomas broke out into the exclama- 
 tion of wonder and acknowledgment, " My Lord 
 and my God ! " His doubts were entirely over- 
 come, his faith was now as ardent and lively 
 as before his distrust had been cold ; and his 
 testimony to the reality of the resurrection is 
 perhaps more valuable than any other single tes- 
 timony, because it was rendered under such pe- 
 culiar circumstances, and by one so honest and so 
 sturdy in avowing his scruples, and so candid 
 in resigning them. " By touching, in Christ," 
 says one of the Fathers, " the wounds of the 
 flesh, he has healed, in us, the wounds of unbe- 
 lief." 
 
 The exclamation of Thomas, quoted above, has 
 held so conspicuous a place, and been so often 
 brought forward in theological controversy, that 
 I must necessarily dwell for a moment on the 
 consideration of its import. By many, though 
 by no means by all of those who hold the doc- 
 trine of the perfect equality of the Son with the 
 Father, it has been adduced as a Scripture proof 
 of that equality ; as an acknowledgment by the 
 apostle of the Godhead and supreme divinity of 
 Jesus Christ. To this interpretation of the pas- 
 sage, there seem to me to be insurmountable ob- 
 jections. In the first place, the question of the 
 Deity of Christ has no concern with the event. It 
 was not to be satisfied of the Deity, but of the 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 127 
 
 resurrection of his Master, that Thomas required 
 his appearance ; and it was to convince him of 
 that resurrection that his Master condescended 
 to appear to him. " Except I shall see in his 
 hands the print of the nails, and put my finger 
 into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
 into his side, I will not believe." Believe what? 
 What the disciples had just told him, certainly, 
 that they had seen the Lord, that he was truly 
 alive, not that he was truly God. Secondly, it is 
 difficult to conceive how the appearance of Jesus 
 in a human form, just as he had always appeared 
 before, and with bodily wounds, just as he had 
 been taken from the cross, that is, as a man in all 
 respects, could have convinced his disciple, and 
 that disciple a Jew, that he was the eternal God. 
 The miracle of the resurrection itself could not 
 have had this effect, because Thomas had often 
 witnessed the miracles of his Master, without once 
 confessing that he was God ; and no other evi- 
 dence was at this time offered. Thirdly, if Jesus 
 was on this occasion acknowledged to be God, it 
 might be expected that the writer of the narrative 
 should take some notice of the circumstance ; but 
 what are his words, immediately after relating 
 this event ? " These are written, that ye migh^ 
 believe that Jesus is the Christy the Son of Cfod^^ ; 
 not God himself. Fourthly, the exclamation 
 itself is abrupt, and without any connection to de- 
 
128 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 termine precisely its meaning. It might not have 
 been addressed to Jesus at all, but to God alone ; 
 or the first appellation might have been addressed 
 to him, and the second to Heaven ; it was an 
 exclamation, in short, of wonder, of ecstatic won- 
 der, of ecstatic gratitude, and just such a one as 
 any of us would be likely to utter on witnessing 
 a similar marvel ; such, for instance, as the resur- 
 rection of a dear friend from the grave. Fifthly, 
 if the whole exclamation was really addressed to 
 Jesus, the term God might well have been ap- 
 plied, according to known Jewish usage, and in 
 its lower sense, to one who now had manifested 
 undeniably that he was the Messiah, the Prince 
 of Peace, the Son of God, and the King of Israel. 
 Lastly, the answer of Jesus himself excludes the 
 supposition that he was addressed as the Supreme 
 God. For he said unto his disciple, " Thomas, 
 because thou hast seen me thou hast believed ; 
 blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
 believed." Now this must mean, " Because thou 
 hast seen me here alive, after my crucifixion and 
 burial, thou hast believed that I am raised from 
 the dead ; and it is well ; but blessed are they 
 who cannot have such evidence of the senses, 
 and yet shall believe in tlie glorious truth, from 
 your evidence, and that of your brethren." He 
 could not have meant that they were blessed, 
 who, though they had not seen him, yet had be- 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 129 
 
 lieved that he was God ; because there is no con- 
 nection between the propositions ; because the 
 fact of the resurrection of Jesus cannot, to the 
 mind of any one, be of itself a proof of his Deity ; 
 and because no one thinks of requiring to see 
 God, in order to believe that he exists. In con- 
 clusion, it must be remembered, that these con- 
 siderations are so obvious that they have been 
 fully adopted by some of those who still have 
 professed their belief, founded on other evidence, 
 of the Deity of Christ. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that the decided and 
 resolute character of Thomas fitted him emi- 
 nently for his apostolic duties. But the accounts 
 which we have of his life and works after the 
 ascension of his Master, though sufficiently co- 
 pious, are too contradictory to claim our entire 
 confidence. Some general facts, however, seem 
 to be well established, and they are of an exceed- 
 ingly interesting character. There is no good 
 reason to doubt that this apostle penetrated as 
 far into the East with his heavenly mission as to 
 the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts of Indostan, 
 and even to Taprobane, or Ceylon, visiting and 
 preaching in other countries by the way. On 
 those coasts he made a great number of converts, 
 the descendants of whom, still professing Chris- 
 tianity, exist in that part of India at the present 
 day, and are called the aS^^. Thomas Christians^ 
 
 6* I 
 
130 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 according to the testimony of Dr. Buchanan, 
 Bishop Heber, and other enlightened travellers. 
 This is a remarkable confirmation of the general 
 statements of early ecclesiastical writers ; and is 
 a proof that we may receive many of their princi- 
 pal facts, without relying on their minute details 
 or marvellous legends. These Christians of St. 
 Thomas were known to the Western world in 
 early times, but appear to have been lost sight 
 of afterwards, till they were again discovered by 
 navigators at the commencement of the sixteenth 
 century. The see of Eome endeavored to bring 
 them under its subjection, but with only partial 
 success. A part of them are now Roman Cath- 
 olics, but the majority form a church entirely 
 independent of the Church of Rome. Thpy 
 possess the New Testament in the Syriac lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The martyrdom of Thomas is stated to have 
 taken place at Malipur or Meliapor, on the Coro- 
 mandel coast, nor far from the present city of 
 Madras, where he had converted the king of the 
 country and many of his subjects, and had built 
 a church. The Brahmins were enraged at his 
 success, and by one of them he was run through 
 the body with a lance, while he was kneeling at 
 his devotions before a tomb. He was buried in 
 the church which he had built ; but his bones are 
 said to have been afterwards translated to Edessa 
 in Mesopotamia. 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 131 
 
 •The following narrative by Bishop Heber, 
 touching these events in the life of St. Thomas, 
 is taken from his Journal in India, Vol. III. pages 
 212-214: — 
 
 " We went in a carriage to the military station 
 of St. Thomas's Mount, eight miles from Madras, 
 intending, in our way, to visit the spot marked 
 out by tradition as the place where the Apostle 
 St. Thomas was martyred. Unfortunately the 
 ^Little Mount,' as this is called (being a small 
 rocky knoll with a Roman Catholic church on 
 it, close to Marmalong Bridge in the suburb of 
 Meilapoor), is so insignificant, and so much nearer 
 Madras than we had been given to understand, 
 that it did not attract our attention until too late. 
 That it really is the place, I see no good reason 
 for doubting ; there is as fair historical evidence 
 as the case requires, that St. Thomas preached 
 the Gospel in India, and was martyred at a place 
 named Milliapoor or Meilapoor. The Eastern 
 Christians, whom the Portuguese found in India, 
 all agreed in marking out this as the spot, and in 
 saying that the bones, originally buried here, had 
 been carried away as relics to Syria. They and 
 even the surrounding heathen appear to have 
 always venerated the spot, as these last still do, 
 and to have offered gifts here on the supposed 
 anniversary of his martyrdom. And as the story 
 contains nothing improbable from beginning to 
 
132 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 end (except a trumpery fabrication of some relics 
 found here by the Portuguese monks about a 
 century and a half ago), so it is not easy to ac- 
 count for the origin of such a story among men 
 of different religions, unless there were some 
 foundation for it. 
 
 ^' I know it has been sometimes fancied that 
 the person who planted Cliristianity in India was a 
 Nestorian Bishop named Thomas, not St. Thomas 
 the Apostle ; but this rests, absolutely, on no 
 foundation but a supposition, equally gratuitous 
 and contrary to all early ecclesiastical history, 
 that none of the apostles except St. Paul went 
 far from Judaea. To this it is enough to answer, 
 that we have no reason why they should not have 
 done so ; or why, while St. Paul went, or intended 
 to go, to the shores of the further West, St. 
 Thomas should not have been equally laborious 
 and enterprising in an opposite direction. But 
 that all the apostles, except the two St. Jameses, 
 did really go forth to preach the Gospel in differ- 
 ent parts of the world, as it was, a priori j to be 
 expected, — that they did so we have the author- 
 ity of Eusebius and the old Martyrologies, which 
 is at least as good as the doubts of a later age, 
 and which would be reckoned conclusive, if the 
 question related to any point of civil history. 
 Nor must it be forgotten that there were Jews 
 settled in India at a very early period, to convert 
 
THOMAS. 
 
 133 
 
 whom would naturally induce an apostle to think 
 of coming hither ; that the passage either from 
 the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea is neither long 
 nor difficult, and was then extremely common; 
 and that it may be, therefore, as readily believed 
 that St. Thomas was slain at Meilapoor, as that 
 St. Paul was beheaded at Rome, or that Leonidas 
 fell at Thermopylae. Under these feelings, I left 
 the spot behind with regret, and shall visit it, if I 
 return to Madras, with a reverent, though, I hope, 
 not a superstitious interest and curiosity. 
 
 " The Larger Mount, as it is called, of St. 
 Thomas, is a much more striking spot, being an 
 insulated cliff of granite, with an old church on 
 the summit, the property of those Armenians who 
 are united to the Church of Rome. It is also 
 dedicated to St. Thomas, but (what greatly proves 
 tlie authenticity of its rival) none of the sects of 
 Christians or Hindoos consider it as having been 
 in any remarkable manner graced by his presence 
 or burial. It is a picturesque little building, and 
 commands a fine view." 
 
 A legend is quoted by Cave, from Gregory of 
 Tours, concerning the tomb of this apostle at 
 Malipur, which, though deserving of no more 
 credit than other legends of the same class, is 
 pleasing to the imagination. A lamp, says the 
 legend, hangs before his tomb, which burns 
 perpetually, needing no oil, and undisturbed by 
 
134 
 
 THOMAS. 
 
 the wind or any accident whatever. Possibly a 
 gaseous fountain might once have existed there, 
 which would be a sufficient origin for the story ; 
 or some deception may have been practised by 
 the priests. 
 
 The 21st of December is St. Thomas's day in 
 the Western Calendar. 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 Matthew places himself the eighth on his list, 
 and styles himself " the Publican." This avowal 
 of his profession is at once a proof of his humility 
 and his good sense. He had the meekness to set 
 himself down exactly what he was, notwithstand- 
 ing the contempt which the confession might 
 bring upon him ; and he had the wisdom to per- 
 ceive that there was no rank or occupation in 
 life, however low, which could change the nature 
 of true worth, or really disgrace an honest and 
 virtuous man. 
 
 To the Jews, above all other people, publican 
 was an odious name. There is a use of this 
 word among us, a low and improper use, which 
 has nothing to do with its true signification and 
 its Scripture sense ; for a publican does not mean, 
 in the Gospels, an innkeeper, but a tax-gatherer, or 
 a receiver of the tribute imposed by government. 
 The Romans employed these receivers of tribute, 
 or publicans, in all their provinces, and, among 
 the rest, in Judaea. Now, to pay tribute was not 
 only a constant acknowledgment and badge of 
 
136 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 subjection and servitude, but to the Jews it was 
 something more galling still, because it wounded 
 their religious as well as their political pride. It 
 was a thought of pure, unmitigated bitterness, 
 that the people of God should thus pass periodi- 
 cally under the hated yoke of idolaters, and, as 
 they would call them in their haughty exclusive- 
 ness, barbarians. The office itself being thus 
 detestable, it may be conceived how those per- 
 sons must have been looked upon who held and 
 exercised it. 
 
 There were two orders, however, among the 
 publicans, — the receivers general, who had depu- 
 ties under them, and these deputies themselves. 
 The former were usually selected from the best 
 classes of society ; but the latter were reckoned 
 ignoble and contemptible, even by the Gentiles, 
 and were, as a body, vulgar, rapacious, and un- 
 merciful. Some one asked Theocritus which was 
 the most cruel of all beasts ; and he answered. 
 
 Among the beasts of the wilderness, the bear 
 and the lion ; among the beasts of the city, the 
 publican and the parasite." Of the higher order 
 of publicans at Jerusalem one is probably men- 
 tioned in the Gospel of Luke, by the name of 
 Zacchaeus, who is there said to be " the chief 
 among the publicans," and a rich man. Of the 
 lower order were those who are so frequently 
 classed in the Scriptures with sinners ; and of 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 137 
 
 this order was Matthew. They were all, high 
 and low, for the reasons just given, regarded with 
 abhorrence by the Jews, and treated as a profane 
 and outcast set of people. ''Let him. be unto 
 thee as a heathen man and a publican " is a 
 phrase which expresses strongly the universal 
 ban which was suspended over them. We are 
 told that, though a publican might be a Jew, he 
 was hardly recognized as such by his country- 
 men ; that he was not allowed to enter the tem- 
 ple, nor give testimony in courts of justice ; that 
 the gifts, even, which his devotion might prompt 
 him to offer, were rejected from the altar of Je- 
 hovah, as unclean and abominable. 
 
 Bearing these things in mind, we can now es- 
 timate the self-denial of the apostle, who, with a 
 firm pen, could write himself down, " Matthew, 
 the Publican, 
 
 In the second chapter of Mark, he is said to be 
 the son of Alpheus ; but whether this Alpheus is 
 the same with the father of James the Less, or 
 another individual, is uncertain. His place of 
 residence was in Capernaum, or somewhere near 
 it, on the sea of Tiberias. Though he constantly 
 calls himself Matthew, he is called Levi by the 
 other evangelists ; and it is for this reason that 
 Levi and Matthew have been supposed by some 
 celebrated scholars to be two different persons. 
 But the circumstances of Matthew's call to be a 
 
138 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 disciple, as related in his own Gospel, are so pre- 
 cisely similar to those which attend the call of 
 Levi, as related in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, 
 that the predominant opinion has always been, 
 that Matthew and Levi were only two names for 
 one and the same person. 
 
 Though a publican, of an inferior rank, be- 
 longing to a class of men who were considered 
 vile, and who generally deserved their reputation, 
 Matthew was an upright and religious man ; and 
 there was one of his countrymen, if there were 
 no more, who could separate the man from the 
 profession, and fearlessly engage him for his 
 companion and friend. It was he who saw him 
 sitting in his place of business, or at the receipt 
 of custom, as it is called, and said unto him, 
 "Follow me."* These were words, which, from 
 those lips, could not be uttered in vain ; and the 
 humble publican, who probably had before heard 
 the discourses of Jesus, and heard them with 
 admiration, and seen also some of the wonders 
 which he had done, immediately arose and fol- 
 lowed him. 
 
 * It appears from the relation of Mark, in the second chapter 
 of his Gospel, that Matthew's official station was at the seaside, 
 where he was sitting when Jesus called him. Commentators say- 
 that the particular duty of Matthew as a publican was to gather 
 the customs of commodities which came by the sea of Galilee, and 
 the tribute which passengers were to pay who went by water 
 According to this statement, he was a toll-gatherer. 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 139 
 
 Our Saviour, after having called Mattlievr, 
 went to his house ; and there his new disciple 
 prepared a supper for him ; and many publicans 
 and sinners, the former associates of Matthew, 
 came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 
 When some Pharisees, who were present, saw 
 this, they said to the disciples, " Why eateth your 
 Master with publicans and sinners? But when 
 Jesus heard that, he said unto them. They who 
 are whole need not a physician, but they who are 
 sick. But go ye, and learn what that meaneth, 
 I will have mercy, and not sacrifice ; for I am not 
 come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
 ance." 
 
 In both of these incidents, the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity and the character of its founder are con- 
 spicuous. The call of a publican to be a follower 
 of Christ and a herald of his religion was a sign 
 of the sublime superiority of the new faith, in its 
 impartiality and mercy, over the bigotries of the 
 old ; and evinces the discernment and the inde- 
 pendence of Jesus in selecting a worthy disciple 
 from an order of men among whom common 
 opinion had pronounced that there was no worth 
 to be found. And in sitting down to eat — that 
 greatest token of familiarity — in the house of this 
 publican, and with a mixed company of reputed 
 sinners, Jesus again manifests the universal be- 
 nevolence of his temper and his doctrine. To 
 
140 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 the hypocritical Pharisees, it was indeed a strange 
 and scandalous thing, that one who set up as the 
 Messiah of Israel, and the purifier of its ordi- 
 nances, should take a publican to be a pupil, and 
 break bread with other publicans and notorious 
 sinners ; but how well are their narrow preju- 
 dices and their supercilious and uncharitable self- 
 righteousness rebuked by the steadfast reply of 
 the Saviour ! The religion which I would in- 
 culcate," as the reply may be paraphrased, " em- 
 braces in its pure mercy the whole family of 
 man ; it draws no impassable line between the 
 privileged and the profane ; it leaves none to de- 
 spair of Heaven's favor and acceptance. If ye 
 are perfect, if ye are whole, my errand is not to 
 you ; go ; go to your temple tmd perform your 
 rites ; but when there, study the meaning of that 
 scripture, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. 
 As for these, they are sick ; they need a phy- 
 sician, and I must heal them ; ye yourselves say 
 that they are sinners, and why shall I not call 
 them to repentance, and save them ? " 
 
 With what has been now told from the Gospels 
 concerning Matthew, we must rest contented ; 
 but even from these slight memorials we shall 
 gain a highly favorable impression of his charac- 
 ter. In his depressed condition as a publican, 
 he seems to have learned the valuable lesson of 
 humility ; and thus to have become " almost a 
 
MA-TTHEW. 
 
 141 
 
 Christian," before he was a follower of Christ. 
 Among his vile companions, whom public oblo- 
 quy had made yet more vile than their habits 
 and their occupation would have made them, he 
 was upright, honest, merciful, uncontaminated. 
 His integrity appears doubly bright by contrast, 
 amidst the dark examples and fearful tempta- 
 tions which were all around it like clouds ; and 
 his virtue, reared among quicksands and waves, 
 proved, simply by its being and standing there, 
 how very deeply and strongly its foundations 
 were laid. It is further to be remarked, that 
 though he was the writer of one of the Gospel 
 histories, he says nothing more of himself than 
 that he was called to follow Jesus, while he was 
 sitting in his office, and that he afterwards enter- 
 tained his Master at his house ; and this latter 
 circumstance he only mentions in order that he 
 may introduce the answer of Jesus to the Phari- 
 sees. We could have no better evidence than 
 this of his disinterestedness and modesty. 
 
 His Gospel is everywhere distinguished by 
 plain good sense and manly simplicity. It was 
 written, as some of the ancients say, fifteen years 
 after the ascension of our Saviour, or, as otherej 
 affirm, yet seven years earlier, or, according to 
 yet others, at a considerably later period than the 
 latest of these two dates, tliat is, about the year 
 60, or between 60 and 70 of our era, while Peter 
 
142 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 and Paul were preaching at Rome. Althougli 
 some critics have advanced the opinion that 
 Luke's Gospel was the first which was written, 
 the general voice of antiquity is against them, 
 and a majority also, I believe, of the moderns. 
 So that the Gospel of Matthew really stands, in 
 all probability, where a place is given to it in our 
 Bibles, — the first in order of the four evangelical 
 histories. 
 
 Another circumstance respecting this Gospel, 
 which the earliest ecclesiastical authors record, 
 and which, though it has been controverted, is 
 most probably a fact, is, that we do not possess 
 it in the language in which it was originally com- 
 posed. It was written by Matthew, according 
 to the best testimony, at Jerusalem, on purpose 
 for the Jewish converts, and in that modern dia- 
 lect or species of Hebrew which was the common 
 language, at that time, of Palestine. The Gospel 
 in that language has been lost, it is supposed, 
 irretrievably. That which we have is a transla- 
 tion of it into Greek, made very soon after the 
 original was composed. There is no reason to 
 challenge its exact faithfulness to the original ; 
 and some have even supposed that Matthew him- 
 self was the author of this Greek rendering of his 
 own Hebrew Gospel. The predominant opinion 
 is, however, tliat the name of the translator, and 
 the Gospel which he translated, are alike unknown 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 143 
 
 and undiscoverable. Thougli we may be allowed 
 to regret that we cannot look on the very words 
 which this excellent apostle used in narrating, 
 for our exceeding benefit, the life and actions of 
 his Master, yet our faith ought not to be in the 
 least disturbed by the loss, while there remains 
 to us a translation of his history, so manifestly 
 ancient, complete, and true. 
 
 I am well aware that there are great names to 
 be brought against the commonly received opin- 
 ions of the priority of Matthew's Gospel, and its 
 having been originally written in Hebrew. There 
 are also great names in favor of those opinions. 
 And I confess I am somewhat surprised that the 
 name of Lardner stands in the former class. 
 Irenaeus, on whose authority, as being the most 
 ancient, he justly relies, expressly says that the 
 Gospel was written in Hebrew ; and though he 
 seems to assign the latest of the three dates to 
 its composition, he evidently means to leave tlie 
 impression that it was written before the other 
 Gospels. I will now give the passage from Ire- 
 naeus — who wrote about the year 178 — pre- 
 cisely as it is given in Lardner's own immortal 
 work. 
 
 " Matthew then among the Jews wrote a gospel 
 in their own language, while Peter and Paul were 
 preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding [or 
 establishing] the church there. And after their 
 
144 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 exit [that is, death, or departure] Mark also, the 
 disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us, 
 in writing, the things that had been preached by 
 Peter. And Luke, the companion of Paul, put 
 down in a book the gospel preached by him. 
 Afterwards John the disciple of the Lord, who 
 leaned upon his breast, likewise published a gos- 
 pel, whilst he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia." 
 
 And the next authority cited by Lardner is 
 that of Origen, who says, about the year 230, 
 " that according to the tradition received by him, 
 the first gospel was written by Matthew, once a 
 publican, afterwards a disciple of Jesus Christ; 
 who delivered it to the Jewish believers, com- 
 posed in the Hebrew language." To the same 
 purpose is the testimony of Eusebius, the third 
 cited authority. 
 
 Although Dr. Lardner's arguments against the 
 Hebrew original of Matthew's Gospel are learned 
 and ingenious, they cannot convince me in oppo- 
 sition to such authorities. And let it be observed, 
 that the date assigned by Irenaeus to its compo- 
 sition is not a fixed and certain date, because 
 the period of the preaching of Peter and Paul at 
 Rome is not a fixed or certain year. But the 
 priority of the Gospel is a fixed and certain fact, 
 according to that Father, and so is the language 
 in which it was written. 
 
 Matthew is said to have carried the religion 
 
MATTHEW. 
 
 145 
 
 of Jesus into Partliia and Ethiopia, and to have 
 suffered martyrdom at Naddaber, in the latter 
 country, but by what death is uncertain. We 
 are told also that his remains were brought to 
 Bithynia, and from thence to Salernum, in the 
 kingdom of Naples, where they were discovered 
 in the year 1080, and where a church was built 
 for them by Duke Robert, in the pontificate of 
 Gregory VII. We can readily believe that relics 
 were thus found and honored, which were de 
 clared, and by many supposed, to be the body of 
 the apostle ; but that they really were so, we are 
 at perfect liberty to question and to deny. 
 
 Matthew's festival is on the 21st of September. 
 
 7 
 
 J 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 Next to his own name, Matthew writes that 
 of " James, the son of Alpheus " ; who is also 
 called, in the Gospel of Mark, James the Less," 
 or the younger, to distinguish him from the other 
 apostle of the same name, James the brother of 
 John, who was older than he ; or it may be that 
 he was of small stature, and therefore named 
 " the less." 
 
 His mother's name was Mary. She was one 
 of the Marys who were present at the crucifixion 
 of our Saviour; and appears to have been the 
 sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. In the Gos- 
 pel of Mark she is called " Mary, the mother of 
 James the Less, and of Joses." In a parallel 
 passage of John's Gospel, she is mentioned as 
 follows : There stood by the cross of Jesus, 
 his mother, and his mother^s sister, Mary the 
 wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." From 
 these passages the inference is justly drawn, that 
 James the Less was the first cousin of Jesus. 
 He is expressly called the son of Alpheus and of 
 Mary ; and as Mary, who was the wife of Alpheus, 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 which is only the Greek pronunciation of the 
 Hebrew name Cleophas, is also termed in the 
 same passage the sister of our Lord's mother, he 
 is consequently our Lord's cousin. 
 
 He is the same person who is mentioned by 
 Paul, when he says, in his Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians, " But other of the apostles saw I none, 
 save James, the Lord's brother." To account for 
 this appellation, it must be observed that the Jews 
 were accustomed to include all near relations 
 under the general name of brethren. And we 
 may also remark, that, though it appears strange 
 that Mary should be the sister of Mary, it was 
 not uncommon among the Jews, that two sisters 
 of the same family should bear the same name. 
 James is likewise enumerated among the Lord's 
 brethren by the Jews, when they asked in aston- 
 ishment, " Is not this the carpenter's son ? is 
 not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren, 
 James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" Of 
 these four sons, three were apostles of Jesus ; and 
 the other one, Joses, or Joseph, was probably a 
 disciple ; as was Cleophas too, or Alpheus, the 
 father of this Christian family. 
 
 The exact relationship to Jesus of James the' 
 Less, and others who are called his brethren, 
 was a matter of controversy in very early times. 
 Respectable names appear on each side ; and 
 Cave says that a majority of the ancients were of 
 
148 
 
 JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 opinion that these " brethren " were actually the 
 sons of Joseph by a former wife. It has appeared 
 to me that the other opinion is the most likely 
 to be the true one, and I have therefore called 
 James the cousin of Jesus. One of the strongest 
 arguments for this view of the relationship is, 
 that the father of James is called Alpheus, and 
 not Joseph, and that Mary the wife of Cleophas 
 is mentioned in the Gospel of John as a person 
 entirely distinct from the mother of Jesus, and 
 further appears to be the same who is called by 
 Mark the mother of James the Less and of Joses. 
 Now Alpheus and Cleophas being the same 
 name, the chain of testimony is complete, — so 
 complete, that I wonder any question should ever 
 have been raised on the subject. It may be 
 added, that Lardner inclines to the opinion that 
 James was cousin to our Lord. 
 
 No particulars are related of James in the 
 Gospels ; but honorable mention is made of him 
 in the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul. 
 Perhaps his youth and his modesty, together with 
 his near relationship to Jesus, operated upon him 
 to be silent and inactive during the life of the 
 Saviour, though afterwards his talents and worth 
 made him conspicuous. He appears to have re- 
 sided constantly at Jerusalem, and to have been 
 president or bishop of the church there. All an- 
 tiquity affirms this, and Scripture gives it good 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 149 
 
 coantenance. Thus we are told in the twelfth 
 cliapter of Acts, that when Peter had been mi- 
 raculously delivered from the prison into which 
 he had been thrown by Herod, who had just slain 
 the other James, he went to the house of a believ 
 ing family, and said to those who were there, 
 Go, show these things unto James, and the 
 brethren." James is evidently spoken of here 
 as having a precedence among the brethren. 
 Again, in the fifteenth chapter of the same book, 
 he appears to have been the presiding member of 
 the Council of Jerusalem, of which I have before 
 had occasion to speak, and which decided that 
 the Gentiles were to be received, on their con- 
 version, into the full privileges of the Christian 
 Church, without being obliged to undergo the 
 ceremony of circumcision. It has been observed, 
 that, though Peter spoke first on this occasion, 
 James spoke last, and gave his opinion or " sen- 
 tence " with regard to the most proper course to 
 be pursued, and that the letter or result of the 
 council was chiefly modelled upon his words. 
 From these circumstances it has. been concluded 
 that he was the moderator or president of this 
 first Christian council, and that this rank was 
 probably conceded to him on account of his being 
 the presiding apostle oi bishop of Jerusalem, in 
 which place the council was convened. Peter, 
 as it may be remembered, agreed with James 
 
150 
 
 JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 entirely in this case ; but, though in some sense 
 chief of the apostles, it is evident that when the 
 Church came to be enlarged and settled, he did 
 not possess any general supreme authority, but, 
 as in the present council, was regarded, and re- 
 garded himself, as in subordination to the local 
 authorities. Tlie speech of James is replete with 
 good sense, dignity, and a spirit of charity and 
 forbearance, and sufficiently indicates the wisdom 
 of his brethren in making him bishop or overseer 
 of the Christian Church at Jerusalem. 
 
 In the twenty-first chapter of Acts there is also 
 a particular mention of James, which corroborates 
 the preceding proofs of his consequence in the 
 Church. In an account there given of the journey 
 of Paul and his company to Jerusalem, with the 
 collections for the saints in Judsea, the writer says: 
 ''And when we were come to Jerusalem, the 
 brethren received us gladly. And the day fol- 
 lowing, Paul went in with us unto James ; and 
 all the elders were present." James could hardly 
 have been singled out by name in this passage, 
 for any other reason than because he was the 
 chief person at this convocation of the elders. 
 
 To all this evidence of the standing of James 
 and the high consideration in which he was held, 
 the testimony of Paul himself is to be added. 
 One passage has already been adduced from the 
 first chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians. In 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 151 
 
 the second chapter, Paul says: And when James, 
 Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, per- 
 ceived the grace that was given unto me, they 
 gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fel- 
 lowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and 
 they unto the circumcision." Here it is to be 
 noted that James is not only called one of the 
 pillars of the Church, but is placed at the head of 
 the three ; even before Cephas, or Peter. At the 
 same time we ought to observe that ecclesiastical 
 rank was by no means, in those primitive times, 
 that thing of name and pomp and prerogative that 
 it has since been made in most of the churches 
 of Christendom ; for if James had been the bishop 
 of Jerusalem in the same sense in which the 
 title is now applied, Paul would never have said 
 of him and the others, that they " seemed to be 
 pillars," — an expression which plainly signifies, 
 that they appeared, as far as he could judge, to 
 be the first men in the Church. In truth, a bishop 
 in those days was only a moderator among breth- 
 ren and equals, appointed to the office by them, 
 and appointed to it for his superior gifts and at- 
 tainments. 
 
 Once more, and in this same chapter, is James 
 mentioned. Paul, in relating the vacillating con- 
 duct of Peter, with regard to eating with the 
 Gentiles, says, in the words which I have already 
 quoted in Peter's life : " Before that certain came 
 
152 
 
 JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 from James, he did eat with the Gentiles ; but 
 when they were come, he withdrew and sepa- 
 rated himself." Here again is James spoken of 
 as a person of consideration and authority. 
 
 Thus far do the Scriptures inform us of the 
 life and character of James the Less. Ancient 
 ecclesiastical writers have much to say of his 
 virtues and wisdom, and of the respect which 
 they procured for him, both among the faithful 
 and the unbelieving. The Jews, we are told, 
 were unbounded in their admiration of him ; in- 
 somuch that, as Jerome affirms, they used to 
 strive to touch the hem of his garment. On ac- 
 count of his remarkable integrity, he obtained 
 another surname beside that which is given to 
 him in the Scriptures, and was called James the 
 Just. Some go so far as to say, that he was al- 
 lowed to enter into the Holy of Holies of the Jew- 
 ish temple ; but this must be a fiction. It is a 
 fiction, however, which, together with other sim- 
 ilar ones, shows that there must have been a 
 foundation for them in the high character and 
 reputation of this apostle. 
 
 The circumstances of his. death are differently 
 stated. Josephus, the Jewish historian, is sup- 
 posed to relate it in the following passage from 
 the twentieth book of his Antiquities, which I give 
 in the translation of L'Estrange. " The Ananus 
 we are now speaking of [who had recently been 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 153 
 
 raised to the high-priesthood by Agrippa] was 
 naturally fierce and hardy ; by sect a Sadducee, 
 the most censorious and uncharitable sort of peo- 
 ple upon the face of the earth. This being his 
 way and opinion, he took his opportunity, in the 
 interval betwixt the death of Festus and the arri- 
 val of his successor Albinus, who was as yet but 
 upon the way, to call a council together, with the 
 assistance of the judges, and to cite James, the 
 brother of Jesus, which was called Christ, with 
 some others, to appear before them, and answer 
 to a charge of blasphemy, and breach of the law ; 
 whereupon they were condemned, and delivered 
 up to be stoned.'' The account proceeds to say 
 that all the sober and conscientious part of the 
 city were so much offended with this high-handed 
 way of acting, that they sent a representation of 
 it, with a remonstrance, both to King Agrippa 
 and to Albinus ; the consequence of which was, 
 that Ananus was deposed by Agrippa from the 
 pontificate. This passage would be decisive, 
 were it not that several learned men question the 
 genuineness of the words, " the brother of Jesus 
 which was called Christ." Lardner thinks that 
 they are an interpolation, and inclines to the ac- 
 count given by Eusebius, in the second book of 
 his Ecclesiastical History ; who says, When 
 Paul had appealed to Caesar, and had been sent 
 to Rome by Festus, the Jews, who had aimed at 
 
 7* 
 
154 
 
 JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 his death, being disappointed in that design, 
 turned their rage against James, the Lord's broth- 
 er, who had been appointed by the apostles bishop 
 of Jerusalem" ; and then he goes on to state that 
 James was killed in a popular tumult. If this 
 narrative is the true one, it makes the death of 
 the apostle a year or two earlier than it is dated 
 by Josephus ; but at any rate we may safely fix 
 it somewhere about the year 60, and eight or ten 
 years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He 
 was buried, according to Gregory, bishop of 
 Tours, on Mount Olivet, in a tomb which he had 
 built for himself. 
 
 So great was the reputation of James for sanc- 
 tity, that his death was supposed by the Jews 
 themselves to have hastened the destruction of 
 their city. Some of the Fathers tell us that this 
 was asserted by Josephus ; but the passage is 
 not now to be found in his works. Both the ac- 
 counts of James's death agree that he was stoned. 
 It is added in the relation of Hegesippus, as pre- 
 served by Eusebius, that he was finally de- 
 spatched by the blow of a fuller's club. 
 
 The following excellent summary of the main 
 facts in the life of James is from the close of 
 Lardner's account of that apostle. 
 
 " James, sometimes called the Less, the son of 
 Alpheus, and called the Lord's brother, either as 
 being the son of Joseph by a former wife, or a 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 155 
 
 relation of his mother Mary, was one of Christ's 
 apostles. We have no account of the time when 
 he was called to the apostleship. Nor is there 
 anything said of him particularly in the history 
 of our Saviour which is in the Gospels. But 
 from the Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles, we can 
 perceive that after our Lord's ascension he was 
 of note among the apostles. Soon after St. Ste- 
 phen's death in the year 36, or thereabout, he 
 seems to have been appointed president or su- 
 perintendent in the church of Jerusalem, where, 
 and in Judaea, he resided the remaining part of 
 his life. Accordingly, he presided in the Council 
 of Jerusalem, held there in the year 49 or 50. 
 He was in great repute among the Jewish people, 
 both believers and unbelievers, and was surnamed 
 the Just. Notwithstanding which, he suffered 
 martyrdom in a tumult at the temple ; and prob- 
 ably in the former part of the year 62." 
 
 There is one epistle, among the canonical 
 books of the New Testament, which is very gen- 
 erally ascribed to James the Less, the brother or 
 cousin of Jesus, though some doubt has been en- 
 tertained of its authenticity and apostolic author- 
 ity, and no distinct reference to it is to be found 
 in the writings of the earliest Fathers. In the 
 time of Eusebius, however, it was universally 
 received and read in the churches. It is a noblo 
 exhortation, full of good sense and spirit, digni- 
 
156 
 
 JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 fied, independent, and explicit. Its value is of 
 the highest description, both as it is an unreserved 
 declaration of the intrinsic merit and importance 
 of good works or virtue, and as it contains a most 
 fearless, indignant, and forcible denunciation of 
 the reigning vices and follies of the generation 
 to whom the apostle wrote. A common opinion 
 among the ancient writers of the Church is, that 
 the first part of it was composed expressly to ex- 
 plain those passages of Paul's epistles which seem 
 to slight good works, and make everything of 
 faith, or mere belief; and that the severe rebukes 
 and warnings which are contained in the latter 
 portion of it were the chief occasion of the writ- 
 er's being stoned to death by the Jewish popu- 
 lace ; as that event is supposed to have taken 
 place a short time after the publication of the 
 epistle. 
 
 That the encomium of James on good works 
 was intended to explain some of those things in 
 Paul's writings which were hard to be under- 
 stood is not improbable; but that it is in direct 
 opposition to them, as some have thought, is not 
 only improbable, but impossible. For it is im- 
 possible to read Paul's description of charity, in 
 which he declares that it is greater than both 
 faith and hope, and still to believe that he would 
 so directly contradict himself as to reverse this 
 order, and exalt faith above charity ; or that he 
 
JAMES THE LESS. 
 
 15T 
 
 intended by what he calls works, and the works 
 of the law, what we mean by good works and 
 Christian morality or virtue. The world have 
 been too long, and much too vehemently disput- 
 ing about the relative superiority of faith and 
 works, and arraying James against Paul, and 
 Paul against himself. It was, perhaps, a strong 
 bias toward one side of this controversy, or rather 
 a bigoted and dogmatical attachment to it, quite 
 as much as any doubts of the genuineness and 
 antiquity of James's epistle, which induced Luther 
 to call it, in contempt, " an epistle of straw." * 
 Despite, however, of this coarse epithet of the 
 Reformer, it has maintained its authority in the 
 Christian Church, — an authority which, if intrin- 
 sic excellence and internal evidence have any 
 weight, it amply deserves. 
 
 His day in the Calendar is May 1st, which is 
 also dedicated to the Apostle Philip. 
 
 * "Epistola straminea/' a strawy epistle, is the phrase ap- 
 plied by Luther to the epistle of James. The boldness, and 
 perhaps even the rudeness, of the great Reformer qualified 
 him to carry .through his enterprise as he did, under circum- 
 stances and in an age which demanded not only decision, 
 but a rough, uncompromising, unfeeling decision. Granting 
 this to be the case, still he is not to be regarded as a pattern 
 of Christian meekness, forbearance, or charity, — qualities which 
 neither he, nor his contemporary Calvin, in any great degree 
 possessed. Luther was more wild in his doctrine of faith than 
 even Calvin; and he vented his spleen against good works on 
 the excellent epistle of James, in an expression of contempt 
 which would not be tolerated at the present day. 
 
JUDE. 
 
 The apostle who stands the tenth on Matthew's 
 list, and is there called " Lebbeus whose surname 
 was Thaddeus," is called in Mark's catalogue 
 " Thaddeus," and in Luke's, " Judas the brother 
 of James." We cannot fail to remark how care- 
 fully he is always distinguished from the other 
 Judas. Matthew and Mark avoid naming him 
 'by the name which he held in common with the 
 traitor ; and Luke takes care to distinguish him 
 by adding to that ill-omened appellation that he 
 was the brother of James. 
 
 Jude, Judas, and Judah are one and the same 
 name. Jude is merely an English abbreviation 
 of Judas, and Judas is only a Greek pronuncia- 
 tion of the old Hebrew name of Judah. It means 
 the praise of the Lord, Thaddeus is derived 
 from the same root, and has a similar significa- 
 tion. Lebbeus appears to mean a man of hearty 
 or courage^ being derived from a word signifying 
 the heart. These two last names were probably 
 adopted to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. 
 
 All that is said of him in the sacred histories 
 
JUDE. 
 
 159 
 
 is, that at the last supper he asked tlesus why he 
 was to manifest himself to his disciples, and not 
 to the world. He was moved to put this question 
 by the views which, in common with the other 
 disciples, he entertained of the coming of the 
 Messiah ; who, as he thought, was to declare 
 himself at last, with great pomp and external 
 power. It was a mystery to him, therefore, how 
 this victorious display was to be made to the 
 small number of his disciples alone, and not to 
 the whole admiring world. The answer of Jesus 
 was not then, in all probability, understood. 
 The meaning and substance of it was, that he 
 and his Father would manifest themselves to 
 those alone, and dwell in those alone, who loved 
 him with that holy love, the fruits of which were 
 righteousness and peace. This strong and beau- 
 tiful declaration of the spirituality of the Mes- 
 siah's kingdom is to be added to those which I 
 have already noticed. The circumstance is re- 
 lated by John in the fourteenth chapter of his 
 Gospel, who designates the apostle as " Judas, 
 not Iscariot." No light is anywhere thrown 
 upon his character ; and all that we know of his 
 condition is, that he was the brother of James 
 the Less, and consequently a cousin of our 
 Lord. 
 
 Other accounts of this apostle are so various 
 and contradictory, that it would be wasting time 
 
160 
 
 JUDE. 
 
 to quote any of them. It is not known with cer- 
 tainty where he preached, or where he died, or 
 whether he died a natural death, or suffered 
 martyrdom. Most of the Latin writers say, that 
 he travelled into Persia, where his labors were 
 very successful ; but where, having irritated the 
 Magi by reproving them for their superstitious 
 practices, he was put to a violent death. Some 
 of the Greeks affirm that he died quietly at Be- 
 rytus ; and the Armenians contend that in their 
 country he was martyred.* 
 
 There is a passage from the ancient writer 
 Hegesippus, as quoted by Eusebius, from which 
 it appears that Jude was perhaps an husbandman 
 before he was an apostle, and that he had de- 
 scendants. The passage is thus given by Lard- 
 ner : — 
 
 When Domitian made inquiries after the 
 posterity of David, some grandsons of Jude, 
 
 * It is in vain to endeavor to learn anything of this apostle 
 from the writings of the Fathers, who, as is very evident from 
 their contradictory stories, knew nothing about him. They gen- 
 erally preferred, however, to record the most groundless legend, 
 rather than to confess their ignorance. The men themselves," 
 says Dr. Jortin, speaking of the Fathers, in his Remarks on Ec- 
 clesiastical History, " usually deserve much respect, and their 
 writings are highly useful on several accounts ; but it is better 
 to defer too little than too much to their decisions, and to the au- 
 thority of antiquity, that handmaid to Scripture^ as she is called. 
 She is like Briareus, and has a hundred hands, and these hands 
 often clash, and beat one another."' 
 
JUDE. 
 
 161 
 
 called the Lord's brother, were brought before 
 him. Being asked concerning their possessions 
 and substance, they assured him that they had 
 only so many acres of land, out of the improve- 
 ment of which they both paid him tribute, and 
 maintained themselves with their own hard labor. 
 The truth of what they said was confirmed by 
 the callousness of their hands. Being asked 
 concerning Christ, and his kingdom, of what 
 kind it was, and when it would appear, they 
 answered, that it was not worldly and earthly, 
 but heavenly and angelical ; that it would be 
 manifested at the end of the world, when, coming 
 in great glory, he would judge the living and the 
 dead, and render to every man according to his 
 works. The men being mean, and their princi- 
 ples harmless, they were dismissed." 
 
 If the above passage be taken in connection 
 with another from the old but doubtful book of 
 the Apostolical Constitutions, in which the apos- 
 tles are made to say, " Some of us are fishermen, 
 others tent-makers, others husbandmen," the 
 probability that Jude was a tiller of the soil is 
 strengthened. At any rate, if the account of 
 Hegesippus is to be relied on, he was married, 
 and had descendants. 
 
 One epistle has been so generally ascribed to 
 Judas, or Jude, that it has been admitted into 
 the canon of the New Testament. There is 
 
 K 
 
162 
 
 JUDE. 
 
 hardly another book, however, in that canon, 
 which has been so much disputed. And yet 
 there is no solid reason for rejecting the early 
 tradition which gives it to this apostle. It was 
 known in the first century, and there is no inter- 
 nal evidence against its apostolic origin. It was 
 expressly quoted by Clement of Alexandria, who 
 flourished about the year 194, and, after him, by 
 succeeding Fathers. Lardner supposes it to have 
 been written at some time between the years 64 
 and 66, that is, a few years before the destruction 
 of Jerusalem. 
 
 October 28th is sacred, in the Western Calen- 
 dar, to the memory of the Apostle J ude. 
 
SIMON ZELOTES. 
 
 The next apostle in order is another Simon, 
 who, in the catalogues of Matthew and Mark, is 
 surnamed " the Canaanite," and in that of Luke's 
 Gospel, and the Book of Acts, " Zelotes." Some 
 have thought that the surname, Canaanite, de- 
 noted the birthplace of the apostle ; but others, 
 with more probability, suppose that Canaanite is 
 merely a Hebrew word, having the same signifi- 
 cation with Zelotes, the Greek word used by 
 Luke, and which means a zealot, or one who is 
 extremely zealous. Simon may have received 
 this appellation on account of his having once 
 belonged to a sect or faction among the Jews 
 who were called Zealots, or only on account of 
 the warmth of his disposition, or the ardor with 
 which he espoused and maintained the cause of 
 Jesus.* 
 
 * *' This word," says Cave, " has no relation to his country, or 
 the place from whence he borrowed his original, as plainly de- 
 scending from a Hebrew word which signifies zeal, and denotes a 
 hot and sprightly temper. Therefore, what some of the Evange- 
 lists call Canaamte, others, rendering the Hebrew by the Greek 
 word, style Simon Zelotes, or the Zelot.'' 
 
164 
 
 SIMON ZELOTES. 
 
 It is probable, though not certain, that he is 
 the same Simon who is mentioned as one of the 
 brethren or cousins of our Lord. Of the history 
 of his life nothing whatever i^ known ; although 
 the later writers and martyrologists of the Church 
 pretend, as usual, to be intimately acquainted 
 with it, and give us our choice of a sufficient 
 number of contradictory legends. By some of 
 them he is said to have labored in Egypt and 
 Persia, and to have been martyred in the last- 
 named country. By others, he is made to pene- 
 trate as far as Britain, and there to be crucified. 
 " Nor could the coldness of the climate benumb 
 his zeal," exclaims the honest Cave, '^or hinder 
 him from shipping himself and the Christian 
 doctrine over to the western islands, yea, even 
 to Britain itself. Here he preached, and wrought 
 many miracles, and, after infinite troubles and 
 difficulties which he underwent, suffered martyr- 
 dom for the faith of Christ, as is not only af- 
 firmed by Nicephorus and Dorotheus, but ex- 
 pressly owned in the Greek Menologies, where we 
 are told that he went at last into Britain, and, 
 having enlightened the minds of many with the 
 doctrine of the Gospel, was crucified by the infi- 
 dels, and buried there." 
 
 The two apostles, Simon and Jude, are com- 
 memorated on the same day, October 28th. 
 
JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 
 
 The last, always the last, on the lists of the 
 apostles, is Judas Iscariot. He is always brand- 
 ed, too, by those fearful and thrilling words, 
 " who also betrayed him." And it is sad that 
 we must close the roll which we have been ex- 
 amining of this glorious apostolic company with 
 the name of a traitor. 
 
 His surname of Iscariot probably designates 
 his birthplace ; as it signifies " the man of Carlo th 
 or Kerioth," which was a town in the tribe of 
 Judah. But this is hardly more than conjecture. 
 There is a solemn obscurity hanging over the 
 life of this man, shrouding everything in silent 
 and immovable shadow, except one deed of gi- 
 gantic enormity, which raises its high and desert 
 head, and frowns in gloomy solitude over the 
 surrounding waste of darkness and clouds. He 
 is called the son of Simon. Who is Simon ? 
 Search the Scriptures for him. The search will 
 be vain. He is only known, as has been forcibly 
 ssiid^ — only known by the misfortune of having 
 such a son. 
 
166 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 The early dispositions of Judas must have been 
 bad, or he would not have proved himself the 
 wretch that he did, so soon after joining himself 
 to such a Master ; and a circumstance recorded 
 in the Gospel of John plainly intimates to us 
 what the chief vice of his character was. We 
 are informed that on a visit which Jesus made 
 to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom a little 
 while before he had raised from the dead, a sup- 
 per was made for him there ; that Lazarus, with 
 not one trace of death on his countenance, though 
 but just now brought up from the grave, sat at 
 table ; and that Martha, with her usual assiduity, 
 served. " Then took Mary a pound of ointment 
 of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet 
 of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair ; and 
 the house was filled with the odor of the oint- 
 ment." This offering, though it may not have 
 been useful, was certainly grateful and generous, 
 and was beside in conformity with the custom 
 of the country, and deserved, therefore, an ap- 
 proving comment from the friends and followers 
 of Jesus. But what was the sequel ? Then 
 saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's 
 son, who was to betray him, Why was not this 
 ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given 
 to the poor ? " From an honest and really char- 
 itable man this remark would have been but 
 a cold one, at such a season ; but Judas was 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 167 
 
 neither ; and he said this, proceeds the histo- 
 rian, " not that he cared for the poor, but be- 
 cause he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare 
 off what was put therein."* Thus it appears 
 that the root of all this traitor's wickedness was 
 avarice, and that it had already borne the deadly 
 fruits of fraud and theft. He had the bag. He 
 had been the treasurer of the fraternity ; and so 
 strong was his odious passion, and so weak was 
 his principle, that he was unable to resist the 
 temptation, which the trust afforded liim, of pur- 
 loining whatever he could from the common 
 stock, which of necessity must have been a scanty 
 one ; and on this occasion he was grievously dis- 
 appointed that he could not have the handling of 
 the large sum of three hundred Roman denarii, 
 under the pretence of distributing it to the poor. 
 It is to be presumed that his peculiarities were 
 not known to the apostles at that time, but that 
 they came to light afterwards. If they had then 
 been aware of his conduct, they would doubtless 
 have spurned and avoided him. 
 
 Their Master, however, was acquainted both 
 with what he did and with what he was ; for it 
 was on an occasion previous to this, that, in re- 
 minding the disciples of his own strong claims 
 
 * In our English Bible it is, " and bare what was put therein/' 
 — a translation which does not seem to give the true meaning of 
 the passage, though the Greek verb admits of both senses. 
 
168 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 on their attachment, he said, " Have not I chosen 
 you twelve ? and one of you is a devil ! " Here, 
 too, as we are informed, he spake of Judas 
 Iscariot, the son of Simon." And let it be ob- 
 served that neither the apostleship of Judas, nor 
 his being the treasurer of the apostles, were 
 causes of his avarice and treachery, and that 
 therefore the knowledge which his -Master pos- 
 sessed of his unsoundness is no excuse for it. 
 If he had been a man of common goodness only, 
 the trust which was reposed in him would have 
 prompted him to a worthy exercise of it. Con- 
 sequently it did not occasion, it only was the 
 means of drawing forth and exposing, his base- 
 ness. Why our Saviour, acquainted as he was 
 with the character of Judas, permitted him to 
 hold the office of purse-bearer, or why he ever 
 called him to be an apostle, are questions of a 
 different import. Before we attempt to assign 
 any reason or motive for the course of Jesus in 
 this respect, let us attend for a moment to its 
 consequences, and its bearing on the credibility 
 of his Gospel. 
 
 I have already stated, in my introductory re- 
 marks, that, among the reasons which existed in 
 the mind of our Lord for calling to himself a 
 company of apostles, one probably was, that his 
 conduct and instructions, being scrutinized by a 
 number of individuals, and continually spread 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 169 
 
 open to their observation, might be sufficiently 
 attested and vindicated, at first to them, and 
 afterwards to the world. This test was made 
 more perfect by the introduction of one among 
 his attendants whose heart was corrupt, and who 
 would probably turn to as bad account as possible 
 the confidence reposed in him. Thus we see 
 that the inquisition to which the author of our 
 religion was exposed w^as a complete one. The 
 honest disciples would have published anything 
 which they might have seen inconsistent with 
 rectitude ; and the traitor, the unprincipled dis- 
 ciple, would have magnified any fault or miscon- 
 duct in his Master, if he could have found any 
 there, as an excuse for his treachery. We ought 
 not to be too hasty in ascribing motives to our 
 Saviour in so grave a concern as this ; but with 
 th.e facts before us we cannot but feel satisfied 
 that his character rests on a firmer basis, from 
 having been thus laid open to the search of a 
 wicked spy, and that his religion derives advan- 
 tage from the scrutiny. And it is to be repeated, 
 that the apostolic call did not make Judas a thief 
 and a traitor ; it found him one already ; and if 
 ever any man had the opportunity of reformation 
 ofi'ered him, it certainly was he, who daily heard 
 the instructions of Heaven, and beheld the exam- 
 ple of perfection. We may conclude, therefore, 
 that it was for the satisfaction of all future ages, 
 8 
 
170 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 for our conviction of the faultlessness of Jesus 
 Christ, that Judas was made an apostle. 
 
 Commentators and harmonists disagree upon 
 the question, whether the supper at Bethany was 
 the same as that mentioned by Matthew as hav- 
 ing been given in the house of Simon the leper. 
 There are some circumstances common to both, 
 and some peculiar to each. Macknight is confi- 
 dent that they were two distinct occurrences. A 
 few of these arguments I will here repeat, which 
 may lead the reader to further investigations. 
 
 "Although this supper (John xii. 2) is sup- 
 posed by many to have been the same with that 
 mentioned in Matt. xxvi. 6, upon examination 
 they will appear to have been different. This 
 happened in the house of Lazarus ; that, in the 
 house of Simon the leper. At this, Mary, the 
 sister of Lazarus, anointed our Lord's feet, and 
 wiped them with her hair ; at that, a woman, not 
 named, poured the ointment on his head. Here 
 Judas only found fault with the action ; there he 
 was seconded by some of the rest. It seems' all 
 the disciples but Judas had let his first anointing 
 pass without censure. But when tliey saw so 
 expensive a compliment repeated, and that within 
 a few days the one of the other, they joined with 
 him in blaming the woman, and might think 
 themselves warranted to do so, as they knew that 
 their Master was not delighted with .luxuries of 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 171 
 
 any kind." Again he says : The anointing 
 after which Judas bargained with the priests 
 happened only two days before the Passover, and 
 consequently was different from that mentioned 
 by John, which was six days before that solem- 
 nity." 
 
 Thus it evidently appears," he proceeds, 
 "that our Lord was anointed with spikenard three 
 different times during the course of his ministry ; 
 once in the house of Simon the Pharisee, once 
 in the house of Lazarus, and once in the house 
 of Simon the leper. That this honor should 
 have been done him so often needs not be thought 
 strange ; for in those countries it was common 
 at entertainments to pour fragrant oils on the 
 heads of such guests as they designed to distin- 
 guish with marks of extraordinary respect. The 
 custom is alluded to, Psal. xlv. 7, ' God hath 
 anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 
 fellows.' Where this piece of civility was showed, 
 it was an expression of the highest complacency, 
 and produced great gladness in the person who 
 was the object of it." 
 
 The answer of our Lord to the covetous remark 
 of his disciple is narrated as follows : " Then 
 said Jesus, Let her alone ; against the day of 
 my burial hath she kept this. For the poor 
 always ye have with you ; but me ye have not 
 always." That is, " Suffer this woman to per- 
 
172 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 form her pious work, and molest her not. She 
 is anointing me for my burial ; for I know that 
 my hour is at hand, and that the grave is ready 
 for me. Let her alone ; it is the last testimony 
 of her gratitude ; it is the last mark of affection 
 and reverence which I shall receive on earth ; 
 why then should it be called too costly ? The 
 claims of the poor are just and strong ; I, surely, 
 have never taught you to slight them ; but the 
 poor remain with you, and you will have abun- 
 dant opportunity to relieve them ; I am about to 
 depart from you, and go to my Father." 
 
 This rebuke was a mild and touching one; 
 but it affected not the stubborn heart of Judas ; 
 it even incited him, perhaps, to execute imme- 
 diately his before-conceived purpose of betraying 
 his Master into the hands of his enemies ; for, 
 very soon after it had been uttered, he went unto 
 the chief priests, and bargained with them to 
 deliver up Jesus into their power for thirty pieces 
 of silver, — a sum not more than about a third of 
 what the ointment had cost ; and from that time 
 he sought opportunity to betray him. 
 
 The value of the ointment was three hundred 
 pence ; the wages of treachery were thirty pieces 
 of silver. The pence are supposed to be the Ro- 
 man denarii, and a denarius is estimated at seven 
 pence half-penny, English money ; at which rate 
 the whole cost of the ointment would be over 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 173 
 
 nine pounds sterling. The pieces of silver were 
 probably the Jewish shekels, each of which was 
 of a weight equivalent to about two shillings and 
 three pence ; amounting in all to between three 
 and four pounds. A different reckoning, how- 
 ever, has been adopted by some, as appears from 
 the following passage from Jeremy Taylor's Life 
 of Christ, which I quote at length, as containing 
 other opinions on this subject. It will be per- 
 ceived that the bishop takes it for granted that 
 Mary Magdalen was the woman who anointed 
 our Lord. 
 
 "It is not intimated, in this history of the life 
 of Jesus, that Judas had any malice against the 
 person of Christ ; for when afterward he saw the 
 matter was to end in the death of his Lord, he 
 repented ; but a base and unworthy spirit of 
 covetousness possessed him; and the relics of 
 indignation for missing the price of the ointment 
 which the holy Magdalen had poured upon his 
 feet burnt in his bowels with a secret, dark, 
 melancholic fire, and made an eruption into an 
 act which all the ages of the world could never 
 parallel. They appointed him for hire thirty 
 pieces ; and some say that every piece did in 
 value equal ten ordinary current deniers ; and so 
 Judas was satisfied by receiving the worth of the 
 three hundred pence at which he valued the 
 nard pistic. But hereafter let no Christian be 
 
174 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 ashamed to be despised and undervalued ; for he 
 will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have 
 so disproportioned a price set upon his life as was 
 upon the holy Jesus. St. Mary Magdalen thought 
 it not good enough to aneal his sacred feet ; Ju- 
 das thought it a sufficient price for his head ; for 
 covetousness aims at base and low purchases, 
 whilst holy love is great and comprehensive as 
 the bosom of Heaven, and aims at nothing that 
 is less than infinite." 
 
 It has been a subject of surprise with many 
 commentators, that so small a bribe should have 
 tempted Judas to commit so great a crime ; and 
 it does seem as if some other motive must have 
 co-operated with the love of money, in bringing 
 his mind to its dreadful determination. Among 
 the solutions which have been proposed of this 
 apparent enigma is the one which supposes that 
 Judas was impatient of the delay of his Master 
 to assume the state and magnificence of his Mes- 
 sialiship, and that his intention was to compel 
 him to do so, by bringing him into such imminent 
 peril, that he would be obliged to call his follow- 
 ers round him, work some signal miracle to free 
 himself, and then mount the throne of David and 
 of Israel. In this event, he of course calculated 
 that he should come in for his share of those 
 offices and rewards which he had been long 
 pining for, and pining for in vain. Here, also, 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 176 
 
 avarice is the governing motive ; only on a much 
 larger scale than in the action as it is simply 
 narrated in the Scriptures. 
 
 There is something to say in favor of this ex- 
 planation, and something too may be said against 
 it. It is safest and easiest to take the bare Gospel 
 statement, which merely informs us, that, for the 
 consideration of thirty shekels of silver, Judas 
 covenanted to betray his Master. No motive is 
 expressly assigned for the act ; but as he is rep- 
 resented as selfish and avaricious, we must pre- 
 sume that selfishness and avarice moved him to 
 this last and most awful crime. With regard 
 to the price of his treachery, a survey of human 
 nature and human passions will not authorize us 
 to say that any sum is too small to tempt habitual 
 and absorbing avarice to any act or degree of 
 wickedness. Earthly, sensual, and contemptible, 
 there is no knowing how low this passion will 
 creep, nor how high it will strike ; how meanly 
 it may dig for its dirty food, nor how daringly it 
 may direct its poison. 
 
 Having concluded his bargain with the priests, 
 and, as he thought, secretly, Judas resumed his 
 place among the twelve, and the next that we 
 hear of him is at the last supper.* As they were 
 
 * That is, the supper of the Passover. It has been disputed, 
 whether J udas was or was not present when Jesus instituted his 
 own supper, at the time of this feast ; and it is a difficult point to 
 
176 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 eating, Jesus said, " Verily I say unto you, that 
 one of you shall betray me." At this intimation, 
 the disciples, innocent as they all but one felt 
 themselves to be, were exceedingly distressed, 
 and they began each one to say unto him, Lord, 
 is it I ? " Jesus, who had just before discovered 
 the traitor, by a sign, to Simon Peter and John, 
 answered, and said, " He that dippeth his hand 
 with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 
 The Son of Man goeth, as it is written of liim ; 
 but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man 
 is betrayed ! it had been good for that man if he 
 had not been born." Judas, who, in all proba- 
 bility, saw that his Master's hand and his own 
 were together in the dish, and that he was con- 
 sequently accused of the treason, but still, per- 
 haps, relying on the secrecy with which he had 
 made his bargain, thought that he now was 
 obliged to say something ; and pretending the 
 same innocence as the rest, he asked the same 
 question, " Lord, is it I ? " And Jesus, using no 
 more signs, but directly accusing the miserable 
 culprit, answered, Thou hast said." He then 
 added, ''That which thou doest, do quickly." 
 Judas, finding that no disguise or equivocation 
 would now serve him, went immediately out. 
 
 determine. " However it was," observes the author from whom 
 I quoted last, " Christ, who was Lord of the sacraments, might 
 dispense it as he pleased." 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 177 
 
 " And it was night," adds the historian. Night, 
 indeed ! How dark, how sad, how portentous ! 
 There never was another such since the world 
 first woke from chaos. We seem to see it fall 
 and settle like an outstretched pall, and embrace 
 the whole of that devoted region with its mourn- 
 ing folds. Under its covering the wretched 
 apostate — apostle no longer — stole forth to exe- 
 cute his purpose. What a night there must have 
 been in his bosom and in his mind ! And what a 
 night, of doubt and fear and mournfulness, did he 
 leave in the hearts of the eleven, who now lis- 
 tened sadly to their Master, as he pursued his 
 melting, though calm, sustained, and heavenly 
 discourse, and gave them his farewell exhorta- 
 tions and his farewell blessing ! 
 
 It was yet night when the small company, 
 now made smaller by desertion, having finished 
 their supper and sung a hymn" together, went 
 out, as was the frequent custom of Jesus, to the 
 Mount of Olives. Here he suffered his dreadful 
 agony ; and here Judas soon appeared, with an 
 armed band, which he had received from the 
 priests and Pharisees ; for he knew that he should 
 probably find his Master in this place of his usual 
 resort. In order that his attendants might be 
 sure of their victim, in this season of confusion 
 and darkness, the traitor gave them a sign, telling 
 them that whomsoever he should kiss, the same 
 
 8* L 
 
178 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 was he. Then going up to Jesus, as if he had 
 been a friend, and intended to offer the common 
 salutation of friendship and intimacy, he said, 
 ^'Hail, Master!" and kissed him. Reproach- 
 fully Jesus said unto him, "Judas, betrayest 
 thou the Son of Man with a kiss ? " " Is it with 
 a hypocritical kiss of affection and peace that 
 you perform this deed of atrocious ingratitude ? " 
 Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and cap- 
 tains of the temple, and the elders, who were 
 come to him, ''Be ye come out, as against a 
 thief, with swords and staves ! When I was daily 
 with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no 
 hands against me ; but this is your hour, and the 
 power of darkness." Then they took him, and 
 brought him to the high-priest's house. 
 
 And now that Judas has accomplished his de- 
 sign, is he gratified ? At first perhaps he was. 
 But it was a momentary satisfaction. Reflection 
 succeeded passion, and grief and remorse fol- 
 lowed hard upon the footsteps of reflection. He 
 could think now ; and he could feel. He could 
 think how good his Master had always been to 
 him ; how perfectly free from guilt or stain, and 
 yet how condescending and pitiful to human 
 error. He felt the baseness of his own conduct ; 
 he was appalled at the sight of his own enormous 
 ingratitude ; he began to hate himself, and to 
 fear the light of morning, and to dread the as- 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 179 
 
 pect of that mild face, which, however mildly it 
 might regard him, could speak nothing to his 
 heart but judgment and agony. Morning came. 
 The relentless and exulting enemies of Jesus 
 met to adopt measures for securing their prey. 
 As the fate of his Master approached nearer to 
 its bloody catastrophe, the anguish of Judas be- 
 came more intense, and his crime showed itself 
 in all its horrors. Perhaps he did not apprehend 
 that the priests would have pushed their malignity 
 to the extreme of death. At any rate, his own 
 malice and cupidity were wholly terrified away, 
 and he resolved to make one wild effort to save 
 the victim. He rushed to the conclave, with the 
 now hateful silver grasped convulsively in his 
 hand, and, reaching it out to his employers, he 
 exclaimed, " I have sinned, in that I have be- 
 trayed innocent blood." Deluded man ! Innocent 
 or guilty, it was the same to them, so long as they 
 could shed it. " And they said. What is that to 
 us ? See thou to that ! " Stung to the quick by 
 this cold and insulting reply, and feeling himself 
 cast away like a tool w^hich has been broken in 
 the using, and having now no refuge from the 
 fiends that were pursuing him, existence became 
 a burden too heavy for him to bear ; and he 
 threw the pieces of silver on the pavement of the 
 temple, " and departed, and went and hanged 
 himself." 
 
180 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 I know not how others may feel on perusing 
 the history of this wretched man, but for my own 
 part, I confess that my indignation is plentifully 
 mingled with pity. How dark was the close 
 of his short career ! How terrible was the pun- 
 ishment of his guilt, — death by his own hands ! 
 The price of blood lies scattered at the feet of 
 the priests ; the betrayer has come to his end, 
 even before the betrayed ; his apostleship is end- 
 ed ; no softened multitude will listen to the tidings 
 of salvation from his lips ; no converts to a pure 
 and purifying faith will bow to receive the waters 
 of baptism from his hands ; no countries will 
 contend for the honor of his grave ; no churclies 
 will call themselves by his name ; no careful dis- 
 ciples compose his limbs ; no enthusiastic devo- 
 tees gather up his bones ; his dust is scattered 
 to the winds ; his name is only preserved by its 
 eternal ignominy. He was a martyr, — the first 
 martyr, — but it was to avarice. He has had his 
 followers too; but they have been only those, 
 who, as wicked and as wretched as himself, 
 have, from that day to this, and in the countless 
 forms of selfishness, sold, for a few pieces of sil- 
 ver, their consciences, their Saviour, and their 
 ssouls.* 
 
 * In the life of Thomas Firmin, that wealthy and eminently 
 liberal and pious citizen and merchant of London in the seven- 
 teenth century, a curious legend is related from memory, respect* 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 181 
 
 By an observable coincidence, it so happened 
 that the money which Judas had received and 
 
 ing the punishment of Judas in another state, which shows how 
 the feelings of men relent, even towards the greatest transgressors. 
 The legend is cited by the author, to illustrate the value of char- 
 itable deeds. As, notwithstanding its wildness, it is conceived 
 and told in a truly poetical manner, and has, if I may judge, a 
 favorable influence on the affections, I shall offer no apology for 
 repeating it. 
 
 I have read somewhere (but so long since, that I forget the 
 author's name, and the subject of his book) that the punishment 
 of Judas, who betrayed our Saviour, is, that he stands on the 
 surface of a swelling, dreadful sea, with his feet somewhat below 
 the water, as if he were about to sink. The writer saith, besides 
 his continual horror and fear of going to the bottom, a most ter- 
 rible tempest of hail and wind always beats on the traitor's naked 
 body and head ; he suffers as much by cold, and the smart of the 
 impetuous hail, as it is possible to imagine he could suffer by the 
 fire of purgatory, or of hell. But, saith my author further, in 
 this so great distress Judas has one great comfort and relief; for, 
 whereas the tempest would be insupportable if it beat always 
 upon him from all sides, at a little distance from him and some- 
 what above him there is stretched out a sheet of strong, coarse 
 linen cloth ; which sheet intercepts a great part of the tempest. 
 Judas regales himself by turning sometimes one side, sometimes 
 another side, of his head and body to the shelter of this sheet. In 
 short, the sheet is such a protection to him, that it defends him 
 from the one half of his punishment. But by what meritorious 
 action or actions did Judas deserve so great a favor ? Our au- 
 thor answers, he gave just the same quantity of linen cloth to a 
 certain poor family for shirting. It had been impossible that this 
 gentleman should hit on such a conceit as this, but from our nat- 
 ural opinion of the value and merit of charity ; it seems to us a 
 virtue so excellent, that it may exclude even Judas from some 
 part of his punishment. I can hardly afford to ask the reader's 
 pardon for this tale ; I incline to think, that divers others may be 
 
182 
 
 JUDAS ISCAPJOT. 
 
 returned became desecrated by his touch. There 
 was a Jewish law which forbade that the price 
 of blood should be put into the treasury. The 
 priests, therefore, though they gathered up the 
 pieces which the traitor had thrown down before 
 them, were unable to appropriate them to the 
 uses of the temple, and, after consulting together, 
 agreed to purchase with them a field in the vicin- 
 ity of Jerusalem, called the Potter's Field, to 
 bury strangers in. The piece of ground thus 
 purchased acquired the significant and fearful 
 name of The Field of Blood, 
 
 When the tragedy of the crucifixion was over, 
 and the eleven, comforted and reassured by the 
 appearance of their risen Lord, had assembled 
 together in Jerusalem, with the other disciples, 
 to the number of about an hundred and twenty, 
 Peter proposed to the company that a disciple 
 should be chosen by lot to take the ministry and 
 apostleship, from which Judas, by transgression, 
 fell." In the address which he made on this 
 occasion, he gives an account of the death of 
 Judas, which differs somewhat from the rela- 
 tion of Matthew. Now this man," he says, 
 
 purchased a field with the reward of iniquity ; 
 and, falling headlong, he burst asunder in the 
 
 as well pleased with the wit of it, and the moral implied in it, as 
 I have been, who remember it above forty years' reading, without 
 remembering either the author or argument of the book." 
 
JUDAS ISCARIOT. 
 
 183 
 
 midst, and all his bowels gushed out." Several 
 explanations have been given to reconcile this 
 discrepancy, either of which is sufficiently proba- 
 ble to answer the purpose. The most common 
 one is, that Judas hung himself, as Matthew 
 relates, and afterwards, by some accident, fell 
 from the place where he was suspended, and was 
 mangled in the shocking manner described by 
 Peter. 
 
 According to the apostle's recommendation, 
 his brethren proceeded to fill the traitor's for- 
 feited place ; and the lot fell upon Matthias, who 
 had long been a disciple of Jesus, and is conjec- 
 tured to have been one of the seventy. Thus 
 was the miserable Judas, the apostate, the suicide, 
 rejected from the apostolic company, even after 
 his death, and his name and his memory blotted 
 out, as entirely as was possible, from the records 
 of the faithful. With the passages of the Scripture 
 which were applied on this occasion by Peter, 
 we will conclude his mournful biography. " For 
 it is written in the Book of Psalms, Let his habi- 
 tation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein ; 
 and, His bishopric let another take." 
 
MATTHIAS. 
 
 For all the holy and spiritual purposes of 
 apostleship, and for all the purposes of honorable 
 remembrance in the Christian Church, the place 
 of Judas Iscariot is vacated, as we have seen, 
 and must be supplied by another, in order that 
 the apostolic number may be complete. The 
 name of Matthias must be joined to the foregoing 
 list, though his name is not once mentioned in 
 the Gospels. We shall then have thirteen names, 
 but only twelve apostles still ; twelve authorized 
 founders of the Christian Church ; twelve com- 
 missioned teachers of Christianity to the world ; 
 twelve judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 The early determination of the eleven apostles 
 to fill the spiritual throne from which Judas had 
 fallen is proof of one or two interesting points. 
 It proves, that, having recovered from their tem- 
 porary panic, they were fully resolved to set about 
 the work of their Master, and had no other idea 
 but that of proclaiming his name, and planting 
 his religion, according to his behest, and with 
 the holy certainty of Divine assistance and pro- 
 
MATTHIAS. 
 
 185 
 
 tection, and of final success. It proves that 
 their zeal and confidence were not confined within 
 the limits of their own number, but were shared 
 by many others, who stood ready to fill the vacant 
 post of honor and danger, and to join in the cares 
 and perils of the new and marvellous enterprise. 
 It proves, moreover, the regard of the apostles 
 for the integrity of the original number of their 
 company ; the number which the appointment of 
 their Master had established and sanctified ; the 
 patriarchal number of twelve. Though two indi- 
 viduals were judged worthy of the forfeited sta- 
 tion, only one could be received to it. 
 
 It was necessary that the candidates for the 
 apostleship should be personally acquainted with 
 the main events of the life of Jesus, in order 
 that they might bear direct witness thereto. 
 " Wherefore of these men," said Peter, in the 
 assembly of one hundred and twenty disciples, 
 " who have companied with us all the time that 
 the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, be- 
 ginning from the baptism of John, unto that same 
 day that he was taken up from us, must one be 
 ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrec- 
 tion." From this whole number, including very 
 likely the seventy who are mentioned in the Gos- 
 pels, two were selected as candidates, — Joseph 
 called Barnabas, whose surname was Justus, and 
 Matthias " ; and after prayer to God for the 
 
186 
 
 MATTHIAS. 
 
 disposal of the lots, they were cast, and the lot 
 fell upon Matthias ; and he was numbered with 
 the eleven apostles." 
 
 All that we know of the apostle who thus 
 closed up and made whole the sacred ring which 
 had been so violently broken is related in the 
 above account. We may say of Matthias, tliat 
 he was one of those who had been interested 
 from the beginning in the person and claims of 
 Jesus, and had travelled from place to place with 
 him and with his first twelve apostles, hearing 
 his instructions, beholding his miracles, witness- 
 ing his holy life during his ministry on earth, and 
 convinced by ocular demonstration of his resur- 
 rection from the dead. We may also be permit- 
 ted to infer, from the selection which was made 
 of him, that he was distinguished among the com- 
 panions of the apostles and followers of Jesus for 
 his mental and moral qualities, for his wisdom 
 and his virtue. 
 
 Ecclesiastical history furnishes us with but 
 poor and uncertain minutes of the apostolical 
 labors of Matthias. An author of no great 
 credit or antiquity asserts, " that he preached 
 the Gospel in Macedonia ; where the Gentiles, 
 to make an experiment of his faith and integ- 
 rity, gave him a poisonous and intoxicating po- 
 tion, which he cheerfully drank off, in the name 
 of Christ, without the least prejudice to him- 
 
MATTHIAS. 
 
 187 
 
 self; and, that when the same potion had de- 
 prived about two hundred and fifty of their 
 sight, he, laying his hands upon them, restored 
 them to their sight, — with a great deal more 
 of the same stamp," says Cave, " which I have 
 neither , faith enough to believe, nor leisure 
 enough to relate." Cave goes on to observe, 
 that the more probable account of the apostle 
 is, that from Judaea, where he first labored, he 
 travelled eastward and preached in Cappadocia, 
 where he at last received the crown of martyrdom 
 on the cross. 
 
 Even the probability of this latter account is, 
 however, but slight. Let it suffice, that he was 
 a follower of our Lord from the first ; that he 
 was a companion of the apostles before he was 
 chosen to be one of them ; that he was considered 
 worthy to be joined to their band ; and that he 
 must have labored for Christ and the Church in a 
 manner conformable to the trust which was re- 
 posed in him, and the station which he was divine- 
 ly allotted to fill. 
 
 The Greeks commemorate Matthias on the 9th 
 of August, but the Western Churches on the 24f.h 
 of February. 
 
CONCLUDING REMAEKS. 
 
 The lives and characters of the twelve apostles 
 of Christ have now been separately considered ; 
 but there are some general reflections upon them, 
 regarded collectively, which naturally suggested 
 themselves during the course that we have been 
 through, and which may not prove uninteresting 
 or uninstructive to those who have accompanied 
 me in the way. 
 
 We find, with respect to the circumstances of 
 their external condition, — their country, their 
 fortunes, their education, — that they were such 
 as most readily presented themselves to the search 
 of Jesus, and yet not such, by any means, as we 
 should suppose would have been effective in the 
 accomplishment of his designs. 
 
 In the first place, the apostles were all Gali- 
 leans , — natives or inhabitants of the district of 
 Galilee. Seven of them, Peter and Andrew, 
 James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, and Mat- 
 thew, are expressly stated in the Gospels to have 
 belonged to the district of Galilee. The same is 
 in the highest degree probable of all the rest, 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 189 
 
 with the exception, perhaps, of Judas Iscariot. 
 We fiad that the eleven, after Jesus had ascended 
 into heaven before their sight, were thus spoken 
 to by the two angels : Ye men of Galilee, why- 
 stand ye gazing up into heaven?" And at the 
 day of Pentecost, when they received the gift of 
 tongues, the people who were present exclaimed, 
 ''Behold, are not all these who speak Galileans?" 
 Indeed, so many of the first disciples of Christ 
 were from Galilee, that they were all called Gali- 
 leans at first, as we learn from contemporary his- 
 torians. 
 
 This country constituted the northern portion 
 of Palestine ; and its people, though hardy and 
 brave, were not much respected by the Jews of 
 Jerusalem, who regarded them as illiterate and 
 unpolished, and unworthy of producing a prophet. 
 The Pharisees, reproving Nicodemus for the in- 
 terest which he expressed in Jesus, said to him: 
 " Art thou also of Galilee ? Search, and look ; 
 for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." The very 
 speech of the Galileans was a provincial dialect, 
 and betrayed their remoteness from the capital ; 
 as we have seen was the case with Peter in the 
 palace of Caiaphas. In short they were looked 
 down upon by the more cultivated, and, if I may 
 use the epithet, Attic part of the nation, as a 
 rude, unenlightened, Boeotian branch of the com- 
 mon Jewish family. Jesus, though born in Betlv 
 
190 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 lehem, was brought up in Nazareth, which was 
 the most despised town in this most despised 
 province ; and therefore, in selecting Galileans to 
 be his apostles, he selected those who were near- 
 est to him, and with whom he was most familiar. 
 And yet what materials were they for construct- 
 ing and building up a new religion, which was 
 to be the wonder, the beauty and glory, of the 
 earth ! How little adapted they seem to be for 
 their lofty destination ! They are the last men, 
 these poor Galileans, the very last men, as we 
 should suppose, to confound the learned, to resist 
 the mighty, to convert the world. They do not 
 seem to be made for such a work. There is no 
 fitness in them to be instructors and reformers. 
 Their very birthplace forbids it. The choice of 
 them, therefore, to be the intimate disciples of 
 Christ, and the founders of a new religious sys- 
 tem, appears to me to be a mark of the Divine 
 mission of Christ, and the Divine character and 
 origin of Christianity. To my ear the language 
 of it is this : The person who, undertaking to 
 introduce a peculiar and original faith to the 
 world, selected, or, as it would rather appear, 
 took almost carelessly up, his associates and 
 confidential coadjutors, from his own neighbor- 
 hood, from his own kindred, from the shores 
 of a lake, from the streets of a village, from be- 
 fore his own door-stone, histead of seeking out 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 191 
 
 the learned and the powerful from among the 
 Pharisees and chief men of the nation, must have 
 set out in his work with the assurance that there 
 was a Power and a Wisdom above, which could 
 and would supply every deficiency among his 
 followers ; and the event proved that the defi- 
 ciency was supplied from a Divine, all-sufficient, 
 and only sufficient Source. 
 
 These Galileans were also poor. Pour of them 
 were certainly fishermen ; and others of their 
 number were probably of the same profession. 
 One was a publican, and of the inferior order of 
 publicans.* They not only belonged to an un- 
 dervalued province, but they were destitute of 
 one of those" means by which great ends are 
 usually produced in the world. They were not, 
 indeed, wretchedly destitute. They were above 
 actual want, though they worked for their living ; 
 and their dwellings, though humble, appear to 
 have been comfortable. But they were far from 
 being rich ; far from possessing any of that in- 
 
 * It is a habit among many of the Fathers and other writers 
 on these subjects, to assert that Matthew was rich, in order to 
 magnify the sacrifice which he made in leaving all to follow 
 Jesus. But there is not the least ground in Scripture for sup- 
 posing that he formed an exception to the general poverty, or at 
 any rate very moderate circumstances, of the other apostles. He 
 was able, to be sure, to give a supper, at which some Pharisees 
 were present, who were not likely to honor with their presence 
 the house of a poor man ; but he might have done this and yet 
 not have been very rich. 
 
192 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 fluence and consequence which wealth so univer- 
 sally commands. And yet, without wealth, they 
 effected what no wealth could have brought to 
 pass, and became of more consequence than ever 
 invests princes. 
 
 Besides these disadvantages, they were also un- 
 learned. I do not mean that they were rudely 
 ignorant, or that they were unacquainted with 
 the sacred literature of their nation ; but they 
 were neither deeply versed in lore nor elegantly 
 accomplished. They could not take a place 
 among the well-educated portion of their coun- 
 trymen. Their manner of expressing themselves 
 at once betrayed this kind and degree of igno- 
 rance to those who were more polished and better 
 instructed. Thus the council of elders and rulers 
 before which Peter and John were arraigned 
 perceived that those apostles were " unlearned 
 and ignorant men." And yet they were not so 
 unlearned and ignorant that they did not, both 
 of them, give to the Church and to the world 
 writings in the Greek language, which, though 
 not exactly classical, were by no means despica- 
 ble, even in their style. But their speech, pro- 
 vincial and uncultivated as it was, sent conviction 
 to the hearts of multitudes ; and their writings, 
 simple and unpolished as they were, threw a new 
 and heavenly radiance over that dark world, have 
 instructed ages and generations, and impart more 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 193 
 
 real knowledge on the highest objects of thought 
 than the greatest philosophers of antiquity had 
 ever been able to impart. To my mind this is a 
 remarkable fact, and one which does not easily 
 admit of but one explanation. 
 
 We may sum up the circumstances of the ex- 
 ternal condition of the apostles, by saying, that 
 they were what would now be called plain, sub- 
 stantial men, in the lower walks of life. They 
 were in a situation, not exceedingly depressed, 
 and yet more remarkable for its humility than 
 .otherwise. Their education was only such a one 
 as was usually bestowed on the common people 
 of their nation, and in all probability consisted 
 chiefly in a knowledge of the Scriptures of the 
 Old Testament, which Scriptures they interpreted 
 according to the instructions of the Rabbis, and 
 the general expectations, opinions, and prejudices 
 of their countrymen. 
 
 With regard to their natural dispositions, tal- 
 ents, and endowments of mind, there was among 
 them the same assortment and variety of genius 
 and character as would generally be found in the 
 same number of men called together in a similar 
 manner. Peter was irascible, impetuous, fervent, 
 generous. John was amiable, affectionate, stead- 
 fast. Thomas was honest and scrutinizing. 
 Matthew was modest and sensible. James the 
 Greater was active and aspiring. James tlie Less 
 
 9 M 
 
194 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 was dignified in his sentiments and deportment. 
 Some were forward, and some were retired. 
 Some were eloquent, and others were silent. 
 All but one appear to have been virtuous ; and 
 even that one was not without his use. They 
 all, with that single exception., combined harmo- 
 niously in attachment to their Master and devo- 
 tion to his cause. We may see in this fact, that 
 Christianity was adapted to different dispositions, 
 and received by different minds ; that it was not 
 merely the enthusiastic who accepted and sup- 
 ported it ; that it was judged by different tests ; 
 that it was regarded through various optics ; that 
 zeal embraced it ; that cool sense approved it ; 
 that candor and honesty were convinced by it ; 
 that even disappointed avarice could report noth- 
 ing against it. We see too in this fact an in- 
 stance of the truth, which is at once so obvious 
 and so little regarded, that a variety of genius and 
 disposition is in accordance with the designs of 
 Providence . in its most important operations with 
 human instruments, as well as in the daily and 
 social business of the world ; and that a character 
 is by no means to be despised because its qualities 
 are not shining and striking. There are different 
 parts to be performed, requiring different powers 
 and capacities ; and he who achieves his part, 
 though it be a silent and undistinguished one, is 
 a good servant. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 195 
 
 We are told much, in the writings of the New 
 Testament, of the words and actions of Simon 
 Peter ; but little or nothing of those of Simon 
 Zelotes and Bartholomew ; and yet these latter 
 may have accomplished tasks which were neces- 
 sary to the progress of the great work, but which 
 would not have suited the peculiar capacity of 
 Peter. They may have reached minds which he 
 could not touch ; they may have performed duties, 
 subordinate indeed, but still necessary, such as 
 he was not gifted to perform. Each apostle takes 
 his own place, and stands easily and naturally in 
 it ; neither stretching after what was above, nor 
 contemning what was below him. In this in- 
 stance, as well as in others, we may derive a 
 lesson from them. 
 
 In another point of view, the company of the 
 apostles presents us with a spectacle which, 
 though it may not be a very instructive, is cer- 
 tainly a pleasing one. Within their cgmmon fra- 
 ternity there were no less than three distinct bands 
 of natural brethren. Peter and Andrew were 
 brothers ; John and James the Greater were 
 brothers; and so also were James the Less, Jude 
 or Thaddeus, and Simon Zelotes. With the ties 
 of a common faith, of a common toil, and a com- 
 mon danger, were thus beautifully blended the 
 • ties of consanguinity and domestic affection ; and 
 a texture of harmonious coloring was completed 
 
196 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 in this companionsllip, such as is seldom woven 
 on earth. The three brethren last named were 
 also near relations of Jesus himself. The reflec- 
 tions which are readily suggested by this cir- 
 cumstance are, that our Saviour was beloved at 
 home as well as abroad ; and that the familiarity 
 of relationship did not impair the respect in which 
 he was held as a master and teacher. We see 
 also in this fact another cause of his love for 
 his disciples, and of their love for him, — a cause 
 which is far from diminishing our reverence for 
 him, or our interest in them. They were not 
 strangers to each other ; they were not brought 
 together merely by the attractions of sympathy, 
 or the demands of a great work. They were not 
 countrymen only ; they were neighbors, part- 
 ners, early acquaintances ; they were more, for 
 they were kinsmen, with the mutual attachments 
 of kindred ; and they go about on their labors 
 before us, a more social, united, confidential, 
 and interesting group, than if there had been 
 no family bonds to strengthen and adorn their 
 union. 
 
 Let us next view the apostles as authors, and 
 as subjects of history. I should wonder at the 
 state of that man's affections who could read the 
 Gospels, two of which were written by apostles, 
 without being struck by the exceeding modesty • 
 and self-forgetfulness of the disciples, and their 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 197 
 
 absorbing attention to one individual, their ven- 
 erated and beloved Master. There are no vaunts 
 in those sacred histories ; no instances of open 
 or disguised egotism. When the writer speaks 
 of his fellow-disciples, he relates with the utmost 
 simplicity their faults, and prejudices, and want 
 of faith, as well as the better parts of their char- 
 acters. And he speaks of his Master, too, with 
 equal simplicity, but with how much greater fre- 
 quency and devotion ! He brings every other 
 person, every other thing, he brings himself, under 
 perfect subordination to this main subject of his 
 narrative. He does this, not artfully and inten- 
 tionally, but unavoidably ; from feeling, from 
 impulse, from the conviction that there is but one 
 individual of whom he is giving an account ; and 
 if others are mentioned, they are mentioned be- 
 cause they are in some manner connected with 
 that person. If Jesus had occasion to praise one 
 of his disciples, the evangelist records the fact 
 without envy ; if that disciple, or any other one 
 is rebuked, he relates it without evasion or excuse. 
 He keeps himself to the sayings and actions of 
 his Master, as to his chief concern. He indulges 
 in no inferences, no moral reflections, no expres- 
 sion of his own views or feelings ; he writes pure 
 history, simple narrative ; and on all occasions 
 he tells, without reserve and without suspicion, 
 the plain truth ; we see and feel that he does ; 
 
198 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 there is an honesty about every relation which 
 cannot be mistaken or suspected. And we see 
 and feel, too, that the chief personage of the 
 history is not brought out into such entire relief, 
 into such a concentration of light, by any effort 
 or design on the part of the writer, but only and 
 wholly on account of the unapproached sub- 
 limity and intrinsic superiority of the character 
 itself. 
 
 There is one other circumstance in the lives 
 of the apostles which I am bound to notice for 
 the sake of its singularity and importance ; and 
 then I will leave them to the meditations and 
 further inquiries of my readers. I liave several 
 times had occasion to speak of the national pre- 
 judices of these men, and the difficulty which 
 they had to comprehend the entire spirituality 
 of their Master's system and kingdom, and to 
 admit into their associations with the Jewish 
 Messiah and Saviour the ideas of poverty, lowli- 
 ness, suffering, and death. Attached as they were 
 to him by all the ties which we have enumer- 
 ated, we see that when he was actually appre- 
 hended by his enemies, they all forsook him and 
 fled; that they did not return to him; and that 
 on the mount where he was crucified there was 
 but one of them who appeared to witness the 
 death of their Master and kinsman, and the ex- 
 tinction of all their hopes. The event was one 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 199 
 
 for which they were wholly unprepared. It con- 
 founded them. Their preconceived opinions were 
 so strong, that when Jesus had before spoken to 
 them of his death, they shut up their ears and 
 their eyes, they would not understand him. We 
 do not find a single hint in the Gospels that they 
 ever did understand him. The event itself was 
 a blow which at once enlightened and convinced 
 them, and scattered them abroad also, like sheep 
 without a shepherd. This is one scene. 
 
 And now let us behold another, which imme- 
 diately succeeds it. Not a great many days 
 elapse when we find these very men, disheart- 
 ened, disappointed, terrified, and dispersed as 
 they had been, all gathered together again with 
 one accord, fully recovered from all their depres- 
 sion, and with a settled resolution stamped on all 
 their demeanor, which never marked them be- 
 fore, even while their Master was with them, to 
 lead, combine, and encourage them. The cata- 
 logue of their names is full, with one vacancy 
 only, which they immediately supply. They 
 begin to preach the doctrines of a crucified 
 Saviour, and we hear no more of their earthly 
 notions of his kingdom. Their crude ideas and 
 temporal hopes have, in a few days, vanished 
 away. They preach Christianity, simply and 
 purely. They gather to themselves thousands of 
 converts. They are persecuted, imprisoned, 
 
200 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 threatened ; they behold one of their number soon 
 cut off with the sword ; they are surrounded by 
 enemies and temptations ; and yet they never 
 hesitate nor falter ; no, not the weakest of them ; 
 there is not a single defection from their reunited 
 brotherhood. They go through country after 
 country, and toil after toil, laying down their 
 lives, one after another, for the holy truth, and 
 they leave disciples behind them everywhere, to 
 teach, and dare, and suffer, and do, and die, as 
 they did. 
 
 Now what is the cause of all this, and how is 
 it to be accounted for ? Unbelievers may have 
 many explanations to give, and they may be in- 
 genious ones. I have but one, and it is a simple 
 one. It is, that their crucified Master rose from 
 the dead as they have told us he did ; that he 
 instructed them as they have told us he did ; 
 and that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, was sent 
 from the Father, according to his promise, to 
 enlighten and sustain them. In short, I consider 
 the conduct of the apostles, at and after the 
 death of Jesus, as perhaps the strongest proof of 
 the reality of his glorious resurrection. If he 
 rose from the dead and appeared to them, and 
 instructed and confirmed them, I can account 
 for the sudden change in their characters, and 
 for their subsequent knowledge and perseverance 
 and boldness and success. If he rose not from 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 201 
 
 the dead, I cannot account for those things ; and 
 the whole subject remains to me a deep historical 
 mystery. 
 
 Simple, honest, excellent men ! raised up by 
 Providence for wonderful ends by wonderful 
 means ! Your lives, unadorned as they are, and 
 comprehended in a few plain words, are yet alone 
 among the lives of men, — alone in the varieties 
 and contrasts of their fortunes, alone in the" 
 multitude and importance of their consequences. 
 We should be senseless if we did not perceive 
 the influence which you have exerted on the 
 character and opinions of mankind. We should 
 be thankless if we did not acknowledge the 
 benefits of that influence, and bless God that we 
 live to know and feel them. And we humbly 
 pray to God, the universal Father, the Source of 
 all excellence and truth, that our fidelity to our 
 common Master may be like yours; that our 
 perseverance in executing his commands may 
 be like yours ; and that like yours may be our 
 courage and constancy, if we should ever be 
 called on to sacrifice comfort, worldly consider- 
 ation, or life itself, to duty, conscience, and 
 faith. 
 
 9* 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMJ^S. 
 
 SAINT ANDREW'S DAY. 
 November 30. 
 
 Collect. Almighty God, who didst give such * 
 grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that 
 he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus 
 Christ and followed him without delay ; grant 
 unto us all, tliat we, being called by thy holy 
 word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently 
 to fulfil thy holy commandments, through the 
 same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Who leads the glorious company, 
 The Apostles' sainted band ? 
 
 First on the roll of duty see 
 The holy Andrew stand. 
 
 He first the promised Saviour sought 
 
 Within his low abode ; 
 And whom he found, to others taught, 
 
 The Christ and Lamb of God. 
 
204 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 And he, among the first, the call 
 
 To tend his Lord obeyed ; 
 Forsook his ship, his home, his all ; 
 
 And followed where he led. 
 
 " Fisher of men," by night, by day, 
 
 His ready toils he set ; 
 Intent to close his captive prey 
 
 Within the Gospel net. 
 
 Nor scrupled he to yield his breath, 
 
 By many a labor tried, 
 And die, with willing mind, the death 
 
 By which his Master died. 
 
 And now his name with service meet. 
 
 Leads on the sacred year, 
 And bids the Church prepare to greet 
 
 The Saviour's Advent near. 
 
 Bp. Mant. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 205 
 
 SAINT THOMAS'S DAY. 
 December 21. 
 
 Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who 
 for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer 
 thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy 
 Son's resurrection ; grant us so perfectly, and 
 -without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be 
 reproved. Hear us, 0 Lord, through the same 
 Jesus Christ, in whose name we ascribe unto 
 thee all honor and glory, now and forevermore. 
 Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 I HEAR the glorious Sufferer tell, 
 How on his cross he vanquished hell, 
 
 And all the powers beneath ; 
 Transported and inspired, my tongue 
 Attempts his triumphs in a song ; 
 *' How has the serpent lost his sting, and where 's thy victory, 
 
 death ? " 
 
 But when he shows his hand and heart, 
 With those dear prints of dying smart, 
 He sets my soul on fire; 
 
206 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Not the beloved John could rest 
 With more delight upon that breast, 
 Nor Thomas pry into those wounds with more intense de- 
 sire. 
 
 Kindly he opens me his ear, 
 
 And bids me pour my sorrow there, 
 And tell him all my pains. 
 
 Thus while I ease my burdened heart, 
 
 In every woe he bears a part, 
 His arms embrace me, and his hand my drooping head sus- 
 tains. 
 
 Watts. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 207 
 
 SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELISTS DAY. 
 December 27. 
 
 Collect. Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to 
 cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, 
 that it, being enlightened by the doctrine of thy 
 blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may 
 so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at 
 length attain to the light of everlasting life, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Among the planets heavenly bright, 
 Which round the Sun of glory shine ; 
 
 No orb emits a purer light, 
 
 A holier radiance, John, than thine. 
 
 Apostle thou of Christ the Lord ; 
 
 Prophet of scenes to come decreed ; 
 Historian of the incarnate Word ; 
 
 Martyr in will, if not in deed. 
 
 Yet by another name we deem 
 
 Thy claim to high renown approved, 
 
 A name, of equal praise the theme, 
 " Disciple, by thy Master loved." 
 
208 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Be ours to mark His portrait fair 
 
 Whom thy recording pencil drew ; 
 Be ours to mark thy faithful care, 
 
 To his divine commandments true ; 
 
 To note thy life ; to see thee fling 
 The beams of sacred truth abroad ; 
 
 And soar with thee on eagle wing, 
 
 And view unblamed the throne of God. 
 
 And may our faith, blest Saint, like thine 
 By love to God and man be proved ; 
 
 That we in some degree may shine, 
 " Disciples by our Master loved.'* 
 
 Bp. Manx. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 "Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus 
 Baith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? follow 
 thou me." John xxi. 21, 22. 
 
 " LoKD, and what shall this man do ? " — 
 Ask'st thou. Christian, for thy friend ? 
 
 If his love for Christ be true, 
 Christ hath told thee of his end. 
 
 This is he whom God approves ; 
 
 This is he whom Jesus loves. 
 
 Ask not of him more than this ; 
 
 Leave it in his Saviour's breast, 
 Whether, early called to bliss. 
 
 He in youth shall find his rest, 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Or armed in his station wait a 
 Till his Lord be at the gate ; — 
 
 Whether in his lonely course, ^ 
 (Lonely, not forlorn) he stay, vw"^ 
 
 Or with love's supporting force \^ 
 Cheat the toil and cheer the way ; ^ 
 
 Leave it all in his high hand. 
 
 Who doth hearts as streams command.* 
 
 Gales from heaven, if so he will, 
 
 Sweeter melodies can wake, 
 On the lonely mountain rill, 
 
 Than the meeting waters make. 
 Who hath the Father and the Son 
 May be left, — but not alone. 
 
 Sick or healthful, slave or free. 
 Wealthy, or despised and poor, — 
 
 What is that to him or thee. 
 So his love to Christ endure ? 
 
 When the shore is won at last. 
 
 Who will count the billows past ? 
 
 Only, since our souls will shrink 
 
 At the touch of natural grief. 
 When our earthly loved ones sink, 
 
 Lend us. Lord, thy sure relief ; 
 Patient hearts their pain to see. 
 And thy grace to follow thee. 
 
 Keble. 
 
 The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers 
 he turneth it whithersoever he will." Prov. xxi. If 
 
 N 
 
210 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYxMNS, 
 
 SAINT MATTHIAS'S DAY. 
 February 24. 
 
 Collect. 0 Almighty God, who into the 
 place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faith- 
 ful servant Matthias to be of the number of the 
 twelve apostles ; grant that thy Church, being 
 always preserved from false apostles, may be or- 
 dered and guided by faithful and true pastors, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Who is God's chosen priest ? 
 He who on Christ stands waiting day and night, 
 Who traced his holy steps, nor ever ceased, 
 
 From Jordan banks to Bethphage height ; — 
 
 Who hath learned lowliness 
 From his Lord's cradle, patience from his cross ; 
 Whom poor men's eyes and hearts consent to bless ] 
 
 To whom, for Christ, the world is loss ; — 
 
 Who both in agony 
 Hath seen him, and in glory ; and in both 
 Owned him divine, and yielded, nothing loath, 
 
 Body and soul to live and die. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 211 
 
 In witness of his Lord, 
 In humble following of his Saviour dear. 
 This is the man to wield the unearthly sword, 
 
 Warring unharmed with sin and fear. 
 
 But who can e'er suffice — 
 What mortal — for this more than angel's task, 
 Winning or losing souls, thy life-blood's price ? 
 
 The giffc were too divine to ask, 
 
 But thou hast made it sure 
 By thy dear promise to thy Church and Bride, 
 That thou, on earth, wouldst aye with her endure, 
 
 Till earth to heaven be purified. 
 
 Keble. 
 
 A GOOD PRIEST. 
 
 Give me the priest these graces shall possess ; — 
 
 Of an ambassador the just address ; 
 
 A father's tenderness ; a shepherd's care ; 
 
 A leader's courage, which the cross can bear ; 
 
 A ruler's awe ; a watchman's wakeful eye ; 
 
 A pilot's skill, the helm in storms to ply ; 
 
 A fisher's patience ; and a laborer's toil ; 
 
 A guide's dexterity to disembroil ; 
 
 A prophet's inspiration from above ; 
 
 A teacher's knowledge, — and a Saviour's love. 
 
 Bp. Kenn. 
 
212 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 SAINT PHILIP AND SAINT JAMES'S* DAY. 
 May 1. 
 
 Collect. 0 Almighty God, whom truly to 
 know is everlasting life ; grant us perfectly to 
 know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the 
 truth, and the life, that following the steps of thy 
 holy Apostles Saint Philip and Saint James, we 
 may steadfastly walk in the way that leadeth to 
 eternal life, through the same thy Son Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Holy Jesus, Saviour blest 
 As, by passion strong possest, 
 Through this world of sin we stray, 
 Thou to guide us art the way. 
 
 Holy Jesus, when the night 
 Of error blinds our clouded sight, 
 Round the cheering day to throw, 
 Saviour, then the truth art thou. 
 
 Holy Jesus, when our power 
 Fails us in temptation's hour, 
 
 * James the Less. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 213 
 
 All unequal to tlie strife ; 
 Thou to aid us art the life. 
 
 Who would reach his heavenly home ; 
 Who would to the Father come ; 
 Who the Father's presence see ; 
 Jesus, he must come by thee. 
 
 Bp. Mant 
 
214 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST'S DAY. 
 June 24. 
 
 Collect. Almighty God, by whose provi- 
 dence thy servant John -Baptist was wonderfully 
 born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son, 
 our Saviour, by preaching repentance ; make us 
 so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we 
 may truly repent according to his preaching ; 
 and, after his example, constantly speak the truth, 
 boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the 
 truth's sake ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Hark througli the lonely waste, 
 
 By foot of man unpaced, 
 " Prepare the way," a warning voice resounds I 
 Level the opposing hill, 
 
 The hollow valley fill, 
 Make straight the crooked, smooth the rugged grounds ; 
 Prepare a passage, — form it plain and broad ; 
 And through the desert make a highway for our God ! " 
 
 Thine, Baptist, was the cry, 
 In ages long gone by, 
 
COLLECrS AND HYMNS. 
 
 215 
 
 Heard in clear accents by the prophet's ear ; 
 
 As if 't were thine to wait, 
 
 And with imperial state 
 Herald some Eastern monarch's proud career ; 
 Who thus might march his host in full array, 
 And speed through trackless wilds his unresisted way. 
 
 But other task hadst thou 
 
 Than lofty hills to bow. 
 Make straight the crooked, the rough places plain. 
 
 Thine was the harder part 
 
 To smooth the human heart. 
 The wilderness where sin had fixed his reign ; 
 To make deceit his mazy wiles forego. 
 Bring down high-vaulting pride, and lay ambition low. 
 
 Such, Baptist, was thy care, 
 
 That no obstruction there 
 Might check the progress of the King of kings ; 
 
 But that a clear highway 
 
 Might welcome the array 
 Of heavenly graces which his presence brings ; 
 And where repentance had prepared the road. 
 There faith might enter in, and love to man and God. 
 
 Bp. Mant. 
 
216 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 SAl^'f PETER'S DAY. 
 June 29. 
 
 Collect. 0 Almighty God, who by thy Son 
 Jesus Christ didst givo to thy Apostle Saint Peter 
 many excellent gifts, and commandedst him ear- 
 nestly to feed thy flock ; make, we beseech thee, 
 all pastors diligently to preach thy holy word, 
 and the people obediently to follow the same, 
 that they may receive the crown of everlasting 
 glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen, 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Lord ! when thy Peter, weak in faith, 
 
 By terror too severely tried, 
 Failed in thine hour of threatened death, 
 
 And thee forsook, and thee denied ; — 
 
 When thrice his ear the challenge heard. 
 And thrice his tongue renounced thy name, 
 
 And each sad time the recreant word 
 
 More loud and more impassioned came ; — 
 
 One look from thee his fault reproved, 
 
 And made his slumbering conscience start ; 
 
 One look from thee, so dearly loved, 
 Spoke daggers to his bleeding heart ; 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 217 
 
 And sent him forth a prey to grief, 
 
 Unheeded all his former fears, 
 To seek in solitude relief 
 
 From bitter and repentant tears. 
 
 Lord ! when by human frailty led, 
 
 We pass thy gracious warning by, 
 Prone as we are awry to tread, 
 
 And thee forsake, and thee deny ; — 
 
 Grant us to feel the keen rebuke. 
 
 By conscience, faithful guardian, sent, 
 
 As if we saw thy pitying look, 
 When on thy frail Apostle bent. 
 
 That pitying look ! O may it melt 
 
 Our hearts in penitential showers ! 
 May Peter's grief by us be felt. 
 
 And O, be his forgiveness ours! 
 
 Bp. Manx. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 •*When Herod would have brought him out, the same night Peter was sleep- 
 ing." Acts xii. 6. 
 
 Thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved. 
 Watch by thine own forgiven friend ; 
 
 In sharpest perils faithful proved, 
 Let his soul love thee to the end. 
 
 The prayer is heard, — else why so deep 
 
 His slumber on the eve of death ? 
 And wherefore smiles he in his sleep 
 
 As one who drew celestial breath ? 
 10 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 He loves and is beloved again, — 
 Can his soul choose but be at rest ? 
 
 Sorrow hath fled away, and Pain 
 Dares not invade the guarded nest. 
 
 He dearly loves and not alone : 
 
 For his winged thoughts are soaring high 
 Where never yet frail heart was known 
 
 To breathe in vain affection's sigh. 
 
 He loves and weeps, — but more than tears 
 Have sealed thy welcome and his love, — > 
 
 One look lives in him, and endears 
 Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove : 
 
 That gracious chiding look, thy call 
 To win him to himself and thee, 
 
 Sweetening the sorrow of his fall, 
 Which else were rued too bitterly. 
 
 Even through the veil of sleep it shines. 
 The memory of that kindly glance ; — 
 
 The Angel watching by divines 
 
 And spares av/hile his blissful trance. 
 
 Or haply to his native lake 
 
 His vision wafts him back, to talk 
 
 With Jesus, ere his flight he take. 
 As in that solemn evening walk, 
 
 When to the bosom of his friend. 
 
 The Shepherd, he whose name is Good, 
 
 Did his dear lambs and sheep commend. 
 Both bought and nourished with his blood : 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Then laid on him the inverted tree, 
 
 Which, firm embraced with heart and arm, 
 
 Might cast o'er hope and memory, 
 O'er hfe and death, its awful charm. 
 
 With brightening heart he bears it On, 
 His passport through the eternal gates, 
 
 To his sweet home, — so nearly won. 
 He seems, as by the door he waits, 
 
 The unexpressive notes to hear 
 Of angel song and angel motion. 
 
 Rising and falling on the ear 
 
 Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean. 
 
 His dream is changed, — the Tyrant's voice 
 Calls to that last of glorious deeds, — 
 
 But as he rises to rejoice, 
 
 Not Herod but an Angel leads. 
 
 He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright. 
 Glancing around his prison room, — 
 
 But 't is a gleam of heavenly light 
 That fills up all the ample gloom. 
 
 The flame that in a few short years 
 
 Deep through the chambers of the dead 
 
 Shall pierce, and dry the fount of tears. 
 Is waving o'er his dungeon-bed. 
 
 Touched he upstarts, — his chains unbind, — 
 Through darksome vault, up massy stair, 
 
 His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind 
 To freedom and cool moonlight air. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Then all himself, all joy and calm, 
 Though for a while his hand forego, 
 
 Just as it touched, the martyr's palm, 
 He turns him to his task below ; 
 
 The pastoral staff, the keys of heaven. 
 To wield awhile in gray-haired might, 
 
 Then from his cross to spring forgiven. 
 And follow Jesus out of sight. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 221 
 
 SAINT JAMES'S* DAY. 
 July 26. 
 
 Collect. Grant, 0 merciful God, that as thine 
 holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and 
 all that he had, without delay was obedient unto 
 the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed 
 him ; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal 
 affections, may be evermore ready to follow tliy 
 holy commandments, through Jesus Clmst our 
 Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 And couldst thou, James, to win the meed 
 Of glory for his saints decreed. 
 
 Thy Saviour's cup of sorrow taste ? 
 And couldst thou bear above thee spread 
 The waves baptismal, dark and dread, 
 
 Which o'er thy Saviour past ? 
 
 Thou couldst : such aid his Spirit lent ! 
 The stripes, the bonds, the imprisonment, 
 
 The scornful look, the taunting word, 
 The angry council's stern decree, 
 The tyrant's r^ge and cruelty. 
 
 And last the fatal sword : 
 
 * The Greater. 
 
222 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 These came in turn ; and then thy death ! 
 O thou, to wear a martyr's wreath 
 
 The first of all thy brotherhood I 
 First of thy Saviour's chosen train, 
 Like him the cup of woe to drain, 
 
 Like him baptized in blood ! 
 
 We dare not rend the veil aside 
 
 By which the All-knowing wills to hide 
 
 The secrets of the unseen world ; 
 But to our vision it should seem. 
 Might we without irreverence deem 
 
 Of that dark veil unfurled ; 
 
 Should seem that thou wert there to see, 
 O James, O son of Zebedee, 
 
 And he, the favored of your Lord, 
 Martyr with thee at least in will ; 
 Together throned on God's high hill 
 
 Beside your King adored. 
 
 For not in vain his word was given 
 
 That ye who have through sufferings striven, 
 
 For him and for his Gospel known, 
 With him shall in his glory dwell. 
 And judge the tribes of Israel, 
 
 Throned by Messiah's throne. 
 
 Nor vain the word, that whosoe'er 
 Shall the Messiah's name prefer 
 
 To houses, parents, children, wife, 
 Shall hundred-fold by him be blest. 
 Be welcomed to his Father's rest. 
 
 And dwell in endless life. 
 
 Bp. Mant. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 223 
 
 SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. 
 
 August 24. 
 
 Collect. 0 Almighty and everlasting God, 
 who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew 
 grace truly to believe and to preach thy word ; 
 grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church to love 
 that word which he believed, and both to preach 
 and receive the same, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 " Behold, in whom no guile I find, 
 
 An Israelite indeed I " 
 Nathanael, thus thy virtuous mind 
 
 Did Israel's sovereign read. 
 
 A guileless heart ! what fairer Bcene 
 
 In all this world below 
 Does nature's loveliness contain, 
 
 Or God's creation show ? 
 
 Fair are the snow-wreaths that infold 
 Yon Alpine mountain's head ; 
 
 Fair is the stream, all crystal, rolled 
 Clear o'er its pebbly bed ; 
 
224 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Fair is the star of evening bright, 
 
 A gem in heaven^s blue zone ; 
 And fair the moonlight's robe of white 
 
 O'er earth's green surface thrown ; 
 
 But Alpine snow, nor crystal stream, 
 
 Can pure delight impart, 
 Nor moon, nor evening planet's gleam. 
 
 To match the guileless heart. 
 
 For these material works of God 
 
 Of him memorials stand. 
 And tell the Maker's power abroad, 
 
 The wonders of his hand : 
 
 But guileless truth and innocence, 
 
 By God to men consigned, 
 Keflect his moral excellence, 
 
 And image of his mind. 
 
 Bp. Manx. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 225 
 
 SAINT MATTHEWS DAY. 
 September 21. 
 
 Collect. 0 Almighty God, who by thy blessed 
 Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom, 
 to be an apostle and evangelist ; grant us grace 
 to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love 
 of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with 
 thee, world without end. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Prepare the feast ! the viands bring, 
 Heap high the festal board ! 
 
 The subject welcome-s Israel's king; 
 The follower greets his Lord. 
 
 But who is he, the host, whose care 
 
 Provides the costly feast ? 
 And who are they assembled there 
 
 Around the heavenly guest ? 
 
 'T is Matthew, 't is the publican ; 
 
 The favored host is he 
 Who sat, a much-despised man, 
 
 Beside Tiberias' sea. 
 
 10* o 
 
226 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 And they, the guests assembled round, 
 
 They boast no better name ; 
 One in disgraceful union found, 
 
 Allied to sin and shame. 
 
 0 holy Jesus, and are these 
 Associates meet for thee ? 
 
 Is this the host thy soul to please, 
 And this the company ? 
 
 Not to the righteous was I sent ; 
 Not to the whole I cry ; 
 
 1 call the sinner to repent ; 
 The sick man's health am 1. 
 
 For them my glory I resigned ; 
 For them endure the grave ; 
 I came the wandering sheep to find, 
 The perishing to save." 
 
 Shepherd of Israel, Saviour dear ! 
 
 Whose voice thy duteous sheep 
 Safe in thy fold delighted hear, 
 
 And to thy pasture keep ; 
 
 Repentant, lo ! to thee we turn, 
 
 To thee for health we pray ; 
 Give us 'what thou reveaFst to learn. 
 
 And what thou bidd'st obey. 
 
 Bp, Mant. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids, 
 The nearest heaven on earth, 
 Who talk with God in shadowy glades. 
 
 Free from rude care and mirth ; 
 To whom some viewless teacher brings 
 The secret lore of rural things, 
 The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale, 
 The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale 
 
 Say, when in pity ye have gazed 
 
 On the wreathed smoke afar. 
 That o'er some town, like mist upraised, 
 
 Hung, hiding sun and star. 
 Then as you turned your weary eye 
 To the green earth and open sky. 
 Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could dwell 
 Amid that dreary glare, in this world's citadel ? 
 
 But Love 's a flower that will not die 
 
 For lack of leafy screen. 
 And Christian Hope can cheer the eye 
 
 That ne'er saw vernal green. 
 Then be sure that Love can bless 
 Even in this crowded wilderness, 
 Where ever-moving myriads seem to say. 
 Go — thou art naught to us, nor we to thee — away I 
 
 There are in this loud stirring tide 
 
 Of human care and crime. 
 With whom the melodies abide 
 
 Of the everlasting chime ; 
 
228 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 Who carry music in their heart 
 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
 Plying their daily task with busier feet 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. 
 
 How sweet to them, in such brief rest 
 
 As thronging cares afford. 
 In thought to wander fancy-blest, 
 To where their gracious Lord, 
 In vain, to win proud Pharisees, 
 Spake, and was heard by fell disease, — 
 But not in vain, beside yon breezy lake, 
 Bade the meek Publican his gainful seat forsake. 
 
 At once he rose, and left his gold ; 
 
 His treasure and his heart 
 Transferred, where he shall safe behold 
 
 Earth and her idols part ; 
 While he beside his endless store 
 Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour 
 Of Christ's true riches o'er all time and space, 
 First angel of his Church, first steward of his grace. 
 
 Nor can ye not delight to think 
 Where he vouchsafed to eat, 
 How the pure Master did not shrink 
 
 From touch of sinner's meat ; 
 What worldly hearts and hearts impure 
 Went with him through the rich man's door ; 
 That we might learn of him lost souls to love. 
 And view his least and worst with hope to meet above. 
 
 These gracious lines shed Gospel light 
 On Mammon's gloomiest cells, 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 229 
 
 As on some city's cheerless night 
 The tide of sunrise swells, 
 
 Till tower, and dome, and bridge-way proud 
 
 Are mantled with a golden cloud, 
 And to wise hearts this certain hope is given, 
 " No mist that man may raise shall hide the eye of Heaven/' 
 
 And oh ! if even on Babel shine 
 
 Such gleams of Paradise, 
 Should not their peace be peace divine, 
 
 Who day by day arise 
 To look on clearer heavens and scan 
 The work of God untouched by man ? 
 Shame on us who about us Babel bear, 
 And live in Paradise, as if God was not there ! 
 
 Keble. 
 
230 
 
 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 SAINT SIMON AND SAINT JUDE'S DAY. 
 October 28. 
 
 Collect. 0 Almighty God, who hast built thy 
 Church upon the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head 
 corner-stone, grant us so to be joined together in 
 unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be 
 made a holy temple acceptable unto thee, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 As at the first, by two and two 
 His herald saints the Saviour sent 
 
 To soften hearts like morning dew, 
 Where he to shine in mercy meant ; 
 
 So evermore he deems his name 
 
 Best honored and his way prepared, 
 
 When watching by his altar-flame 
 He sees his servants duly paired. 
 
 He loves when age and youth are met, 
 Fervent old age and youth serene, 
 
 Their high and low in concord set 
 For sacred song, joy's golden mean. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 231 
 
 He loves when some clear soaring mind 
 
 Is drawn by mutual piety 
 To simple souls and unrefined, 
 
 Who in life's shadiest covert lie. 
 
 Or if perchance a saddened heart 
 That once was gay and felt the spring, 
 
 Cons slowly o'er its altered part, 
 In sorrow and remorse to sing. 
 
 Thy gracious care will send that way 
 Some spirit full of glee, yet taught 
 
 To bear the sight of dull decay, 
 
 And nurse it with all pitying thought ; 
 
 Cheerful as soaring lark, and mild 
 As evening blackbird's full-toned lay, 
 
 When the relenting sun has smiled 
 Bright through a whole December day. 
 
 These are the tones to brace and cheer 
 
 The lonely watcher of the fold. 
 When nights are dark, and foemen near. 
 
 When visions fade and hearts grow cold. 
 
 How timely then a comrade's song 
 Comes floating on the mountain air. 
 
 And bids thee yet be bold and strong, — 
 Fancy may die, but Faith is there. 
 
 Keble. 
 
COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 Father, gracious Father, hear 
 Faith's effectual fervent prayer ; 
 Hear, and our petitions seal, 
 Let us now the answer feeh 
 Still our fellowship increase ; 
 Knit us in the bond of peace ; 
 Join our new-born spirits, join 
 Each to each, and all to thine. 
 
 Build us in one body up. 
 Called in one high calling's hope; 
 One the Spirit whom we claim, 
 One the pure baptismal flame. 
 One the faith, and common Lord, 
 One the Father lives adored. 
 Over, through, and in us all, 
 God incomprehensible. 
 
 Wesley. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Cambridge : Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Ca