SERMON V.

THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

REVELATION XXI. 14.

AND THE WALL OF THE CITY HAD TWELVE FOUNDATIONS, AND IN THEM THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE LAMB.

THE object of the representation in the text is, no doubt, in part, to bestow exceeding honor upon the apostles of Christ. Heaven is represented as a city, with a wall great and high, with twelve courses of foundation stones, most precious; and conspicuous in those twelve stones are inscribed, here and there, the names of the apostles. It would be difficult to conceive of a greater mark of honor. The builders of cities are celebrated in history, but here are men whose names are associated with the very foundations of that heavenly city, the "new Jerusalem,” "which is above all." We will consider

I. THE CALL OF THESE MEN TO THE APOSTLESHIP. The Saviour, after that John was put in prison, came into Galilee, "preaching the gospel of the

(103)

kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel." Walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw "Simon Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him."

There had been a previous interview between him and these two men, in consequence of the words spoken by John the Baptist to Andrew and another. Simon had been brought by Andrew, his brother, to Christ, and Christ had surnamed him Peter. They had not, however, followed him constantly, as disciples, till they were called from their boat, on the same day that the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, received a similar call from their boat, and followed Christ. These were with their father in the ship, "mending their nets; and they left their father in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him." Their mother was Salome.

Passing by the place where the customs were received, Christ saw Matthew sitting at his business, and he said, “ Follow me;" and he arose, left all, and followed him. Matthew is also called Levi, who made a feast for Christ, and many publicans sat down with him. The day following the interview with Andrew and Peter, Jesus "would go forth into

Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me."

These six disciples are all of the twelve of whose call we have any account. The other six six are

these:

BARTHOLOMEW, of whom we know nothing. Some, indeed, suppose that he was the same as Nathanael of Cana, because he is mentioned by John, in the last chapter of his Gospel, as present, with the disciples, when Christ appeared to them, and ate with them, on the sea shore. But this is a mere supposition.

SIMON, the Canaanite, or Zelotes, -not that he was from Cana, but the word, Canaanite, is a SyroChaldaic word, whose Greek translation is, Zelotes, or a man of zeal. The sect of "Zealots," so called, were men distinguished for their zeal in sustaining Jewish institutions, and procuring the punishment of offences against the ceremonial law and the traditions of the elders; though the sect did not prevail, to any great extent, till just before the destruction of Jerusalem. Of this Simon, also, we know nothing; it being probable that in all the cases in which Simon is named, Peter is intended, as being the elder of the two. It is doubtful whether he is the Simon, as some think he is, who was named by the Jews, on one occasion, with James, and Joses, and Jude, as the brother of our Lord, or

as we know that the name, in this connection, means) his kinsman. The next two were brothers.

JAMES, the son of Alpheus, (or Cleophas,) was the cousin of Jesus, being the son of 'the other Mary.' He is called James the Less, or the younger, to distinguish him from the brother of John. James the Less was the writer of one of the Epistles.

LEBBEUS, or Thaddeus, is JUDE, who also wrote one of the Epistles. It was he who asked the question, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?"

THOMAS, translated Didymus, or a twin, is known to us chiefly by his doubts respecting the resurrection of Christ, and his subsequent exclamation, "My Lord and my God."

JUDAS Iscariot is so called from his belonging to a place called Kerioth, in the tribe of Judah, - Ish Carioth, (or Is Cariot,) meaning a man of Carioth.

When and how these six were called to be disciples of Christ, we do not learn. Their appointment with the other six, as the twelve apostles, is distinctly mentioned. A disciple is a learner; an apostle is a messenger; and the time came for Christ to select from his disciples, or attendant learners, some whom he should commission as apostles.

Their appointment is thus mentioned by the evangelist Luke: "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. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles."

The selection and appointment of the twelve apostles was preceded by a whole night of prayer. Even the perfect man, Christ Jesus, would not approach so momentous a work as the selection of those who were to be the inspired apostles, without prayer, and that of no ordinary kind. On the morrow, he had purposed to make choice of the men to whom all succeeding generations would look, as the first authorized expounders of the Christian religion. Never was the selection of cabinet ministers and privy councillors, ambassadors, or commissioners, so important as that selection of the apostles, the prime ministers of a kingdom which was to be an everlasting kingdom; ambassadors, on the high concerns of eternity, between God and man. The great importance of this selection, perhaps, kept the Saviour awake all night, and, in communion with God, he sought and obtained direction. Here is an instance in which his human nature is seen to retain all its dependence, its need of prayer and of divine guidance; the presence, in his person, of the divine Word, never confounding the distinction between the human and the divine, but leaving him still the man Christ Jesus.' And let us note, that, if such as he needed