St. Andrew's Day.

THE FIRST PLACE.

ST. MATTHEW iv. 18.

JESUS, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother.

THE Prayer-Book begins with Advent; and this year, Advent begins with St. Andrew's Day. The history of that Apostle accordingly claims our attention before we enter upon those four heart-stirring sundays which follow next in order; those four Advent Sundays which were intended as well to prepare us for our LORD's second Coming in His glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and dead, as to remind us of His first Coming in great Humility.

We are all familiar with the arrangement which gives to St. Andrew's Festival the foremost place among the Festivals of the Sacred Year; familiar too with the reason of it. It seems right that inasmuch as of the two disciples' who heard the Baptist's testimony to our SAVIOUR, and who thus were the first to

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follow Hima, the name of one is specially recorded, that Disciple should enjoy the distinction which we find actually accorded to St. Andrew. A kind of gratification is even felt in noticing that the honours are thus in a manner divided among the Apostolic body: St. Peter, foremost in rank, when all were equal in authority: St. John, foremost in his divine Master's Love: St. Matthew, foremost among the writers of Gospels: St. James, foremost in Apostolic Martyrdom: St. Andrew, foremost in the Church's Calendar. But when we seek to bend our thoughts dutifully on the bright example of Holiness thus set before us, we discover with surprise and something like disappointment that it is hard to find anything in St. Andrew's history altogether peculiar and distinctive. Another name is always mentioned along with his; and when anything is related concerning him, he is almost always spoken of as doing it in conjunction with somebody else. The consequence is that we can hardly recollect anything about him which is not just as applicable to another as to himself; and might be said with equal truth of some other person. The very expression 'he first called his own brother,' (which is the most striking incident recorded con

a St. John i. 35 to 40.

cerning him,) shews that some one else was similarly engaged at the same time, though with inferior success. Simon Peter was fishing as well as St. Andrew, when our SAVIOUR called them both to become fishers of men.' When Greeks desired to see CHRIST, their wish was announced to Him by Andrew and Philip.' Lastly, on the Mount of Olives, it was in company with Peter, and James, and John,' that St. Andrew heard our LORD deliver His mighty prophecy concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the World.

Such then was the Apostle whom CHRIST first invited to follow Him; the Apostle who occupies the first place in the Church's yearly Festivals. He proves to have been one who sought not the first place for himself, and yet found it. He is always lost in another's brightness. He never puts himself prominently forward. Only once is he related to have spoken to our LORD, and then it was in dutiful reply to the question, 'How many loaves have ye? Go and see.' Nay, he is found to have been only one of many who then made answer. Another person is always found standing by his side,-participating in his privileges, halving his honours, sharing his joys. It was the House of Simon and Andrew' to which

our LORD is said to have repaired. It is as Simon Peter's brother that he is always described. No sooner is he called to the knowledge of the Truth, than straightway he goes in search of that brother; and he is so happy as to be the first to find him.

Now, all this cannot be the result of accident. It cannot be in vain that about so great an Apostle so little should be recorded; and that the little recorded should all point in one and the same direction. When it is further considered that St. Andrew, though not the greatest of the Apostles, occupies the foremost place in the Church's yearly remembrance of the Saints, his history will seem to become a kind of indication as to what sort of men are worthy to occupy the first place now, and will assuredly occupy the first place hereafter. It will not be the ambitious, and the forward, and the vain; but rather the meek and unselfish; the benefactors of their brethren; the seekers after another's good; those lowly and retiring ones of whom the world makes little account, and of whom indeed the world knows but little; but whose daily walk is a walk of sanctity and peace; whose life of modest goodness is hid with CHRIST in GOD.'

That such characters as these are not the

world's heroes may be said without any breach of charity. There is hardly any one respect in which the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of CHRIST are more entirely distinguishable from each other than in the very opposite spirit which actuates their respective members; the strange contrast which subsists between those who оссиру the foremost places in either. How it fares in this world, we know very well. Lovely exceptions to the prevailing rule our memories do indeed readily supply; but the prevailing rule is not that the humble and unselfish, the benefactors of their brethren, those who chiefly seek another's good and are content to be lost in another's brightness, certainly the rule is not that these enjoy the foremost rank! In the kingdom of Grace, however, (as the Gospel may be considered prophetically to shadow forth its mysterious outlines,) what do we behold but the actual exhibition of this striking spectacle? Who but the beggar is made supremely rich, and who but the blind seeth most plainly? Who but 'the lame take the prey?' Here, a widow with two mites is the pattern of munificence, and an obscure centurion the model of faith: while a repentant malefactor is the first to cross the threshold of Paradise. 'He hath put down the