St. Mark's Day. STEDFASTNESS. 1 ST. PETER v. 13. Marcus my son. We know surprisingly little about the Saint whose Festival we this day celebrate. Less is known about St. Mark, by far, than is known about St. Matthew, St. Luke, or St. John. We are indeed informed that he became the Bishop of a famous Church,-the Church of Alexandria; and there are several other things related concerning him in books of History: but the Bible is all but silent about him. His name is mentioned in one place only; namely, at the close of St. Peter's first Epistle, where St. Peter calls him his son Marcus my son.' He is nowhere else mentioned by name in Scripture: neither are we aware that any thing whatever is related concerning him. It seems a very likely supposition indeed that he was the young man who followed our LORD, when the soldiers were dragging Him H.D. N 89 from the Garden of Gethsemane to the house of the High Priest,-that young man whom St. Mark himself describes as having a linen cloth girt about his naked body:' on whom they laid hands. Whereupon, he left the linen cloth, and fled away naked. St. Mark, then, may have been this very young man; and we humbly believe that He was. But this, after all, is mere conjec ture. So that all we know about St. Mark from Holy Scripture is, that St. Peter calls him his son: Marcus, my son.' It may be said,— True, but we have his Gospel. This is surely a great fact. He speaks to us through sixteen chapters of the New Testament; and we thereby surely know a great deal about St. Mark.' : The answer is,-St. Mark's Gospel is indeed a great fact concerning St. Mark but we do not learn any thing about him from his Gospel. We know more from Scripture about St. Philip, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. James, though they wrote nothing, than we do about St. Mark. His very Gospel is not so much his as St. Peter's. He travelled with St. Peter: attended him while he was at Rome; and it is thought that during his residence in that City, he committed to writing, (under the influence of the HOLY GHOST,) his History of our SAVIOUR's Life. Let us not be so rash as to say much where we know but little; yet are two things pretty certain with reference to this matter,-namely, that St. Mark was divinely guided to write his Gospel with St. Matthew's Gospel lying open before him, and to follow St. Matthew almost throughout divinely guided, however, to omit several things which St. Matthew sets down, and to set down some things which St. Matthew omits. But even when relating the things which St. Matthew had already related, it is easy to convince oneself that he possessed private information of his own and the best account which can be given of the matter seems to be that the HOLY SPIRIT directed him to apply to St. Peter for information. Let us not venture to say more, lest we should speak unwisely. Delightful however is it to think of the Evangelist writing the lovely work which bears his name, now treading reverently in the footsteps of his predecessor: now, appealing to his venerable Father in the Faith. Now, following humbly St. Matthew's guidance; now, turning to St. Peter for information and help. But (may we not add ?) all the while filled with a deep and awful sense that the mighty Hand of the Everlasting GOD was upon him conscious. : even that what he wrote was another's rather than his own. This is the sum of what presents itself on the subject of St. Mark. We will not seek to drag forward another subject which does not belong to the day. One plain remark of a practical kind growing out of the present Festival is all that shall be added. The Collect invites us to bend our thoughts in a direction which, without such guidance, we might have perhaps overlooked entirely. We are crossing the waves of this troublesome World, like ships at sea, impatient for the shore; fearful only lest we should lose our way, or founder, or suffer loss. In this day's Collect, we are accordingly directed to pray, that, being not like children, carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the Truth of CHRIST'S Holy Gospel.' Now, there is a fitness in the use of this prayer on the Festival of St. Mark for so far was he from incurring the sin, and sharing the fate, of the many weak and unstable spirits of his time; men, who began to grope in darkness almost before the Sun had set; men, who were hurried away into error while yet Apostles who had been baptized with fire were alive to set them right:-so far was he from treading in the footsteps of these, that he is found to have attached himself to the Apostle who had a priority of rank, even among Apostles. (We say not that St. Peter had any one single power or privilege which the other Eleven Apostles had not: we declare that he had none whatever but we do say that he stands foremost in the glorious company of the Apostles and that to him, St. Mark attached himself.) CHRIST had singularly honoured Simon Peter; and on Simon Peter, St. Mark attended. To Simon Peter St. Mark looked, as to a father; and the venerable Apostle regarded him, in return, with paternal love. Marcus my son,' he says. ' Doubtless, the warnings against forsaking the Faith, in which Holy Scripture abounds; the exhortations to stedfastness, which it so frequently repeats,—these, doubtless, had a peculiar force at the time they were first delivered. There was fiery persecution abroad; and the Truth was confined to a few. Old opinions had not yet been quite exploded: active and subtle minds were inventing errors and there were strange influences at work. Satan was very active, 'because he knew that he had but a short timea.' There was a special force then in every exhorta Rev. xii. 12. |