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brother Peter. At last, coming to Patræ in Achaia, now Patras, an archiepiscopal see, he was crucified there, by order of Egæus, proconsul 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 apostrophized it in the following ardent manner ;Hail, precious cross, which has been consecrated by the body of my Lord! how ardently have I loved thee! how long have I sought thee! at length I have found thee, now waiting to receive 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 decussate, 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 Constantinople, 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. Andrews, in the fourth century. The day reserved 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 account 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 distinguish 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 Andrew, 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."

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 Judea. 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 pleasant waters, are the world. They are fishermen. Day by day do they rise up to the contented exercise 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 neighbouring 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,

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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 fathers, perhaps their ancestors, were fishers before them. They themselves have no idea of a different lot.. The only changes on which they calculate, are the changes of the weather and the vicissitudes of their calling; and the only great interruptions 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 ex. pect 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 morning when you first hear of them from the historian. They have been toiling through a weary night, and have caught nothing; and now, somewhat disheartened at their ill success, they are engaged in spreading their nets, washing

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