afterwards that He had set Himself up against Cæsar. Rather He fulfilled the Prophet's prediction. His conduct corresponded to what Isaiah had foretold concerning Him. The Son of God took upon Him the form of a servant.1 There came twice this testimony from Heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." To the nations, to Gentiles as well as Jews,2 He showed judgment, He taught truth. How unlike noisy demagogues and agitators, whether religious or political; not only in the unostentatious manner of His teaching, but in His treatment of the feeble! In Him was no harshness. Those who were like a bruised reed were not broken off, but bound up and healed.3 Those like a flickering lamp-wick ready to expire, were not blown out by a hasty breath, but gently raised and fanned into a steady flame. These proverbial figures found their fulfilment in Him. And in this course of mild wisdom and mercy He would persevere till there should be no more need; till complete victory crowned His course. In that perfect character distant nations even should learn to trust. CLXII. CHRIST CHOOSETH HIS TWELVE APOSTLES. St. Luke vi. 12. And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. When our Lord took upon Him our nature, He took upon Him also our infirmities; and among these our need of 5 In the LXX. the word signifies both Son and Servant. But the quotation here is not strictly from the LXX. It is, rather, a free translation or application of the Hebrew. Is. xlii. 1-3. St. Mark iii. 7, 8. 3 Compare St. Luke iv. 18; ix. 56; St. Matt. xi. 28-30. The lamp-wicks of the ancients were often little more than a bundle of flax, which often smouldered long in the rude lamp. 5 Art. XV. prayer. Hence we find Him, on more than one occasion, going up into a mountain to pray. He who had not where to lay His head, yet found place and opportunity for prayer. Some retired spot on the mountain side He made His oratory. There was His closet into which He entered, shutting His door as it were upon the world without, that He might pray to His Father which seeth in secret. What He preached, He practised. After a busy day, and before an important one, so He prayed. It is a lesson to those who lead busy lives, and have few opportunities, and are wont to plead want of time and place for prayer. Not that we need be so scrupulous as to suppose (even if the constitution of our bodies and minds admitted of it) that we must needs spend the same amount of time, any more than we need seek precisely the same place, in such exercise. We are not bound from this to spend whole nights in prayer, any more than we are bound to fast for forty days. Only pray we must, especially in view of our more important undertakings; and, even as the Son of God did in the days of His flesh, we must find, or we must make, time and place for prayer. CLXIII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Luke vi. 13—16. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphæus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. On the morning of that most momentous day of their lives, 3 He called unto Him His Disciples, His principal followers, the Scholars of His school; and of them He chose twelve, who henceforth have the name of Apostles,' men sent forth on His errands, promoted from the post of Scholar to that of Teacher in the School of Christ. These He ordained; 2 probably by imposition of hands, according to the custom of the Jews, as appointed by God. They did not ordain themselves. They were not self-sent. They waited till they were duly set apart to their office. No man, whatever may be his personal qualifications, can be regarded as a lawful minister till he is lawfully ordained. Till then he can have no official character. To the Apostolic office, though not of course to the Apostles' special powers, have now succeeded the Bishops of the Church; who by a spiritual descent have come down to our day, and so connect us with that primitive and Apostolic Church, which was founded by no mere good man, but by Christ Himself. This at once distinguishes the Church from all mere modern sects however respectable. These twelve were to be still further with their Divine Master for a time,5 till further qualified by associating with Him for the work to which He designed them. This may serve as an answer to those who take upon them to teach not only without being sent, but even without having been trained. The Apostles waited not only to be ordained, but also to be educated. That they were originally unlearned and ignorant men, will not justify any such in these days in setting themselves up for Apostles. There was something very significant in the number of these judges of the twelve 1 "Mission is so essentially necessary to a man's having authority in the Church, that Christ would have His first ministers bear the name of Apostles or envoys, to the end their mission might be known as well as their very name; and that all the world might be convinced, that there is no true mission in the Church besides that which resides in their successors, which is communicated by them; and which, through them, runs back even to the Apostles, and to Christ Himself by an uninterrupted succession."-Quesnel. 2 St. Mark iii. 14. 3 Num. xxvii. 18, 23; Deut. xxiv. 9. Art. xxiii. Compare Heb. v. 4; 2 Chron. xxvi. 18. 5 St. Mark iii. 14, 15. They were not actually dispatched till the time recorded in St. Mark vi. 7; St. Matt. x. 1, 5; St. Luke ix. 1, 2. tribes of the spiritual Israel,1 heads of the New Testament 2 Church.3 1 St. Matt. xix. 28. "The Synagogue is the figure or emblem of the Church; the Jewish people, that of the Christian; the twelve heads of the tribes, that of the twelve Apostles; and the carnal promises, that of the spiritual. It is for the completion of these promises, and in order to put the elect in possession of them, that the priesthood is instituted. And it is at first communicated to twelve, to show the twelve tribes which composed the Jewish Church, that it is in Christ and His members that the Kingdom expected by them was to be accomplished, and that the children of the Church only are the children of promise."-Quesnel. 2 Rev. iv. 4; xi. 16. Representatives of the Church of the Old Testament and of the New. 3 It may be noted that in all the Catalogues of the Apostles, St. Peter is put first. This of course cannot justify the preposterous claim put forth by the Church of Rome. His primacy (though Beza even grants him that) does not elevate him above the rest, or make the first of the Apostles anything more than Apostle. The name his Master gave him afterwards is now mentioned by anticipation. Of the two who came next, St. Mark tells us He called them in like manner by a name indicative of character. They were Boanerges, which means "the sons of thunder." From them sounded out in a special an manner the word of the Lord, His "glorious voice." (Ps. xviii. 13; xxix. 3-5, 7-9; lxviii. 33; Heb. xii. 26). They were prompt to call down fire from Heaven (St. Luke ix. 54). They desired to sit, the one on His right hand and the other on His left, in His Kingdom. One was the first to die, the other to live longest for his Lord. Bartholomew is believed to have been the same with Nathanael. Matthew in his humility remembers and records that he was the publican. James the son of Alphæus was probably the same as Cleopas or Clopas (St. John xix. 25). Among the ancients the same man was called sometimes by one, sometimes by another of his different names. He was the inspired author of the Epistle which bears his name, and was connected by consanguinity with our Lord. This second Simon had before his call belonged to a party among the Jews who went by the name of Zealots. Judas the brother of James, and so also related to our Lord, is the same with him who is elsewhere called Lebbæus or Thaddaeus. There was another Judas, called Iscariot, from Kerioth the town from which he came. He is put last. He was the traitor. He betrayed his Lord. But the unworthiness of a minister hinders not the effect of an ordinance (Art. xxvi.) We must separate the man from his office. CLXIV. THE CONDUCT OF CHRIST'S FRIENDS. St. Mark iii. 19-21. And they went into an house. And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. After ordaining the twelve Apostles, our Lord came down with them from the mountain and stood in the plain.1 The rest of His Disciples escorted them, and the multitudes from all parts seem again to have flocked around Him now that He has again appeared, to make the most of their opportunity. To escape from their importunity He went into an house; the house probably of one of His Disciples at Capernaum. But the multitude again assembles, not leaving them time for their necessary food. This seems to have moved the resentment of His impatient, and as yet inappreciative and unsympathetic friends. They say in their ignorance, as His enemies afterwards in their malice,3 He must be mad. They would have restrained Him by a friendly violence from injuring His health, or from getting Himself into trouble with the authorities. He must surely be mad to act like this, when He might do so much better both for Himself and us. So they argued. So worldly-minded men often judge those whose aims are higher than their own, or whose conduct they fail to understand. It is an easy way of accounting for what condemns our own indolence. Meanwhile it shows the candour of the evangelist in recording this idea of His mistaken friends. None but a genuine historian would have recorded it, or that other admission, "Neither did His brethren believe in Him." And if Christ was so misconstrued and misunderstood, let us not repine, or think 1 St. Luke vi. 17-19. 5 St. John vii. 5. 3 St. John x. 20. |