declared that there was no guile!'. . . How lovely a character is thus drawn in outline, as it were, by a single touch: how large a history is summed up in a single word! And is it not a very striking circumstance that the reward of a spirit thus guileless and believing is discovered to be the promise of a larger revelation, and yet more infallible proofs ?' Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.' Accordingly, the native place of Nathanael becomes the scene of the Water made Wine, in the very next chapter; while he enjoys the further promise that 'hereafter he shall see Heaven open, and the Angels of GOD ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.'

Saint Matthew the Apostle.

THE LIFE ABOVE THE CALLING.

ST. MATTHEW ix. 9.

He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him.

IN such simple terms does the Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew, (whose other name was Levi,) describe his call to Apostleship. A man named Matthew.' A man whose praise hath spread throughout all the world; yea, doubtless, throughout all the worlds! A man more famous in Heaven even than on earth! For this was he who was chosen to commit to writing the first of those four Gospels in which the Church was to read the history of her SAVIOUR'S Life and Death and Passion. He was to lead the way for the others; and to publish, first of all, a narrative of the manner of Man's Redemption ;-to describe those acts and record those sayings which the very Angels desire to look into with adoring

eyes.

We are apt to think that we know something

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of a person, when we possess his writings; but St. Matthew may almost be said to disappear in his own work. His name occurs very seldom indeed; and when mention of it is made, no one would suspect that the blessed writer is speaking of himself. Once informed of the circumstance, however, it is obvious to remark with interest on the spirit in which that reference to himself is made by the Evangelist. In his enumeration of the Twelve, he not only mentions his own name after that of St. Thomas, 'Thomas and Matthew ;' -unlike St. Mark and St. Luke in their respective catalogues, who make the name of 'Matthew' precede the name of "Thomas";'-but he alone mentions the opprobrious trade which himself pursued until he was called to be an Apostle of THE LAMB. Matthew,' (he says,) ‘the Publican”.' There was humility in all this, certainly.

The only other place where his name is mentioned is the present; where his call to Apostleship is recorded rather than described. It would appear that he presided over the toll-house of Capernaum where it was probably his office to levy some kind of tax or tribute on persons crossing from the Eastern to the Western side of the Sea of Galilee. He was actually sitting

a St. Mark iii. 18. St. Luke vi. 15.

b St. Matth. x. 3.

at the receipt of custom' when the Voice of CHRIST Sounded in his ears. And he arose and followed Him.' Concerning the manner of an event of which so little is said, we have the less to offer: but we observe that, with his call, St. Matthew seems desirous that we should connect the Feast which he made "in honour of his LORD and ours, and which he proceeds accordingly to relate in the verses which follow.

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He begins, And it came to pass, as JESUS sat at meat in the house.' From reading this, no one could know, for certain, whose house is meant. St. Mark makes the matter plainer; for he writes, And it came to pass, that, as JESUS sat at meat in his house.' But it is St. Luke who puts the meaning of the first Evangelist out of all question; by saying, And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house d St. Matthew, in fact, wrote as a man writes when he is speaking of his own home. To him, that home was the house:' the familiar scene of his toils and pleasures,-the house which was his! But though we can see this, when it is pointed out to us, it does not strike the mind at first sight. Nothing, in short, is said to direct our attention specially to St. Matthew. The very

c St. Mark ii. 15.

d St. Luke v. 29.

mention of his Feast he only intends, evidently, in order to introduce our SAVIOUR,—not himself, -to the reader's notice.

On a review of what has thus been offered, it will perhaps be readily admitted that we scarcely know enough about St. Matthew from his Gospel, to venture to form any opinion as to his character. To dwell on his humility, would perhaps be unreasonable. The readiness with which, on receiving our LORD's summons, 'he arose, and followed Him,' remarkable as it is, is a trait in the character of St. Matthew which is common to others of the Apostles. The Church has noticed this grace of ready obedience in connexion rather with the name of St. Andrew.

But there is one reflection growing directly out of the history which we have been thus considering, which may well claim a few words; namely, the indication, or rather proof, which St. Matthew's history affords that there is in the world more of goodness, more of holiness and the heavenly mind, than we are altogether inclined to allow. The same lesson is taught us indeed in countless places of Scripture; especially by such an amazing history as that of the Blessed Virgin. But we are less prepared for such a lesson in the case of St. Matthew, than in