APOSTLES.-The Appointment of the

As soon as Christ had broken forth from the chains of death, and risen up by His own power from that grave in which it was not possible for Him to see corruption, He appointed, and endowed with heavenly grace, many chosen servants, to tell it out among the heathen that the gates of heaven were now unlocked and unbarred; He ordained them to go forth, and carry the Gospel message into all the ends of the world, and to raise the ensign of the cross in far-off lands and distant isles.-Garnier.

APOSTLES.-The Boldness of the

Their boldness could not be attributed to the arts of rhetoric, as they had not been trained in the schools of the Rabbins, but was the native, ingenuous, and manly exhibition of deep conviction of the truth of what they spoke; and that conviction could have been obtained only by their having "been with Jesus," and having been satisfied that He was the Messiah.-A. Barnes.

APOSTLES.-The Character of the

Can we preserve the character of the Apostles? That has hitherto been considered worthy of our respect and regard. Never did men leave such a record of moral teaching, and such an impress of a holy life behind them,- -a life so pure, wise, loving, so suited, in every respect, to bless mankind, and to make a heaven below in proportion as it is received. They lived, laboured, and died, that the world should become better and happier, and they have so far succeeded that civilization can nevermore be separated from their names.—Dr. Macleod.

APOSTLES.-Christ the Theme of the

Whatever was characteristic in the preaching of the Apostles, whatever gave it originality, was connected with the death of Christ. They did not incessantly repeat that He died. Their range was large: their aspiration was lofty. How diversified their illustration! How re-doubled their argument! How exploring their research! But their theme, their vocation, their mission, was distinct from that of other great teachers and moralists.-They were witnesses of the death of Christ; they were promulgators of the death of Christ; they were expounders of the death of Christ; they raised the whole scheme and system of their announcements, instructions, appeals, upon the death of Christ. Far as they travelled, whatever the nations they visited, this was their paramount testimony and exhibition. "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," was, in their esteem, the truth of truth, the model truth, the centrical truth, the foundation truth. Some statements they may have withheld, but this was never withheld; some sentiments they may have cursorily touched, but this was never cursorily touched; some positions they may have reserved, but this was never reserved. They presented it with such vividness, that it was not only seen by the peoples, most distant from the actual theatre of the event, as in the power of description and the force of representation,-those peoples who had not heard of Calvary until now, beheld the awful wonder of Messiah's death as localized in their countries, as perpetrated to their senses,-"before their eyes Jesus Christ was evidently set forth, as crucified among them."-Dr. R. W. Hamilton.

APOSTLES.-Christianity Diffused by the

How wonderful is God, in that He can accomplish great ends by insignificant means! Christianity, for example, diffused through the instrumentality of twelve

legion of angels, would have been immeasurably inferior, as a trophy of omnipotence, to Christianity diffused through the instrumentality of twelve Apostles. When I survey the heavens, with their glorious troop of stars, and am told that the Almighty employs to His own majestic ends the glittering hosts, as they pursue their everlasting march, I experience no surprise: I seem to feel as though the spangled firmament were worthy of being employed by the Creator; and I expect a magnificent consummation from so magnificent an instrumentality. But show me a tiny insect, just floating in the breeze, and tell me that, by and through that insect, God will carry forward the largest and most stupendous of His purposes, and I am indeed filled with amazement; I cannot sufficiently admire a Being who, through that which I could crush with a breath, advances what I cannot measure with thought!—-Canon Melvill.

APOSTLES.-Contempt for the

"What! such mendicants as these convert the world!" say the well-conditioned classes; "vagrant, vagabond fellows, they are fitter for the stocks, or the common jail." "Such illiterate clowns, such babblers as these, instruct mankind!" say the learned classes; "away with them to their nets and fishing craft." "And," say the political classes, "it is dangerous to the State; they cover plots under their silly pretences, and must be dealt with by the strong hand of power." Methinks I hear, in every contemptible and arrogant speech which is invented against the modern missionaries by worldly and self-sufficient men, the echo, after two thousand years, of those speeches which were wont to be poured upon the twelve Apostles, when they began to emerge out of the foundation of society into the neighbourhood and level of its higher ranks.-E. Irving.

APOSTLES.-Difficulties Encountered by the

Conceive the Apostles of Jesus Christ, the tent-maker or the fisherman, entering, as strangers, into one of the splendid cities of Syria, Asia Minor, or Greece. As they pass along to the remote and obscure quarter where they expect to meet with precarious hospitality among their countrymen, they survey the strength of the established religion which it is their avowed purpose to overthrow. Everywhere they behold temples on which the utmost extravagance of expenditure has been lavished by succeeding generations; idols of the most exquisite workmanship, to which, even if the religious feeling of adoration is enfeebled, the people are strongly attached by national or local vanity. They meet processions, in which the idle find perpetual occupation, the young excitement, the voluptuous a continual stimulant to their passions. They behold a priesthood, numerous, sometimes wealthy: nor are these alone wedded by interest to the established faith; many of the trades, like those of the makers of silver shrines at Ephesus, are pledged to the support of that to which they owe their maintenance. They pass a magnificent theatre, on the splendour and success of which the popularity of the existing authorities mainly depends, and in which the serious exhibitions are essentially religious, the lighter as intimately connected with the indulgence of the baser passions. They behold another public building, where even worse feelings-the cruel and the sanguinary, are pampered by the animating contests of wild beasts and of gladiators, in which they themselves may shortly play a dreadful part—

"Butcher'd to make a Roman holyday!"

They encounter, likewise, itinerant jugglers, diviners, magicians, who impose upon

the credulous, and excite the contempt of the enlightened. They meet philoso. phers, frequently itinerant like themselves; also the teachers of the different mysteries which would engross all the anxiety of the inquisitive, perhaps excite, even if they did not satisfy, the hopes of the more pure and lofty-minded. Such must have been among the overpowering difficulties they contemned and defied.— Dean Milman.

APOSTLES.-The Dignity of the

The disciples were simply listeners to the teaching, and imitators of the example of Jesus; and it was only after they had served the apprenticeship of disciples-if I may use the word-that they were raised to the dignity of the apostleship.-Dr. Cumming.

APOSTLES.-No Envy among the

You will notice one very remarkable trait in the character of the ApostlesPeter and John. Throughout five or six chapters of the Acts we find them together, but Peter always the eloquent spokesman, John always the silent witness for the truth, and willing that Peter should have all the éclat of the orator, and that he should shine simply as an example and proof to mankind-not by the excellence of his speech, but by the quiet beauty of his life-that he had been with Jesus, and had been transformed into His likeness. How interesting and instructive is this fact! John had no envy or jealousy of Peter: he saw that Peter had the gift of speech, and that he had it not: he was contented to be dumb, because it was for the glory of God, just as Peter rejoiced to preach, because it was equally so. What should ministers of the Gospel learn from this? Let him that has great gifts be thankful, and use them; let him who has fewer be not jealous or envious, but submissive; and let both recollect that they are responsible, not for what they have not, but what they have; and that what they have is not their own, but a talent given them from the great Master, to be restored to Him with increase.-Dr. Cumming.

APOSTLES.-The Fate of the

No missionary that ever went to the heathen, fared forth on his way with so gloomy a foreboding, so cheerless a fate. Their miracles, which saved many, protected not themselves; their inspirations, which blessed many, could not bless themselves from every harm and sorrow which patient nature can endure. They are to be placed at the bar of civil law, to be hunted out with religious persecution; against them the tender affections of life are to rise in arms, and the soft and downy scenes of home are to bristle like the iron front of war; the tender hands which are wont to pluck the thorns of sorrow from our feet, are to guide the weapons of their death; of all men they are to be hated for their Lord's sake; they are to be hunted like the partridge on the mountains, and every refuge upon the earth is to be hidden from their sight. "Go," said He, "My chosen ones, go like the defenceless lamb into the paw of the ravenous wolf: the world thirsteth for your blood, and is in arms against your undefended lives: nevertheless, go. You are without weapons of defence; no bribes are in your hands, nor soft words upon your tongues; and you go in the teeth of hatred, derision, and rage: nevertheless, My children, go."-E. Irving.

APOSTLES.-The Holy Spirit and the

The universities have not appreciated the necessity of a higher afflatus to the

Christian ministry than any which their curriculum could give. It is indeed true that knowledge is power, and the highest knowledge is the highest power. But the highest intellectual gifts in the minister need the added gift of the Holy Ghost. And this last best gift brings a certain intellectual power. He guides into all truth. Most beautifully did the Holy Spirit light up the narrow mental horizons of the early Apostles. Most wonderfully did He expand and enrich the thoughts of Peter on the day of Pentecost. John speaks at once the language of simplest devotion and deepest philosophy. James teaches moral truth with the sublimity of an ancient prophet. And Paul, who owed something to Gamaliel, counted his wisdom as loss for Christ; and the vigorous logician of the Epistle to the Romans; the master of warning, of irony, of demonstration, of entreaty, whom we meet in the Epistles to the Corinthians; the entranced observer of divine mysteries, which he tells to the Ephesians; the defender of the faith against the subtle opinions of the Colossians, is an intellectual creation of the Holy Spirit of God.-Dr. Lord.

APOSTLES.-The Labours of the

The first champions of the cross were men in whom the truth displayed itself in deeds rather than in words. They were intensely active, rather than intellectually refined; they made no pretence to be philosophers, but thought it to be sufficient to be servants of Jesus Christ. Their hearers remembered them, not because they had melodiously warbled sweet nothings into their ears; but because they spoke in the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. They were not mystics, but workmen; not elocutionists, but labourers. We track them by the cities which they evangelised, the Churches which they founded, the tribes which they converted to Christ. Hence their power, under God, to move their. age, and all succeeding ages.—Spurgeon.

APOSTLES.-The Learning of the

Though not taught in the schools, yet there was a material sense in which they were not unlearned and ignorant men. They had been under a far more important training than that of the Rabbins. For three years they had been under the personal direction of Christ Himself; and, on the day of Pentecost, they were directly and miraculously endowed by the Holy Ghost with the power of speaking with tongues. Their example should not, therefore, be pleaded in favour of an unlearned ministry.-A. Barnes.

APOSTLES.-Necessary Variety among the

Because Christ Himself was so truly and deeply the Wonderful, it was necessary that His witnesses, who were also to be the future organs of His Spirit, should be men of broadly varied nature-not copies one of another, like images of clay cast in kindred mould, but differing in mental constitution, experience, spiritual affinities, and faculty of vision. No single man could take in His whole image, or apprehend, in its completeness, unity, and infinite reaches of application, the truth revealed in Him; and therefore the "chosen witnesses" were many and many-natured. And further, as no single flower can show forth all that is in the sun-as it takes the whole bloom of the year to do so, from the first snowdrop that pierces the dark earth to the latest flower of autumn-80 He needed them all for the adequate forthtelling of His holy personality.Dr. Culross.

APOSTLES.-The Poverty of the

The Apostles, like their Master, were poor; and, in travelling about from place to place, it often happened that they scarcely found entertainment of the plainest kind, or had money to purchase it. It is no dishonour to be poor, and especially if that poverty is produced by doing good to others. Paul was not ashamed to travel, to preach, and to appear before princes and kings, in a soiled and worn-out garment, for it was worn out in the service of his Master, and Divine Providence had arranged the circumstances of his life. But how many a minister would now be ashamed to appear in such a clothing! If an Apostle was willing to be meanly clad in delivering the message of God, then assuredly we should be willing to preach, or to worship Him in such clothing as He provides. What a sublime spectacle was here-what a glorious triumph of the truth-Paul, with an impediment in his speech; with a personage small and mean rather than graceful, and in a mean and tattered dress, and often in chains, yet delivering truth before which kings trembled, and which produced everywhere a deep impression on the human mind!—A. Barnes.

APOSTLES.-The Preaching of the

The early preaching of the Apostles was confined to a very narrow circle. They were Jews preaching to Jews. The point to which everything tended was— that Jesus Christ was to stand in the place of the old Mosaic law. Their arguments were scriptural and national. We have but little evidence that they preached in any such systematic manner as has grown up in Churches since their time. Already they found a system of morality, a system of public worship, and a general development of public truth. It was their business to concentrate all these elements around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; in Him to establish a new centre of influence, and from Him to derive a living force such as could not proceed from the dry formulas of the Law.-H. W. Beecher.

courses.

For them bright wisdom opens all her stores,

Her golden treasures spreading to their view,

Whilst Inspiration's all-enlivening light

Hangs hovering o'er their heads in glittering blaze;
Warmed by the ray, they pour the sacred strain

In eloquence seraphic.-Jenner.

The Apostles were not content to preach only what are called doctrinal disIn the texture both of their sermons and epistles they wove up doctrine and duty together. These were intermingled as the woof and warp of that loom where the flying shuttle weaves the sail with which men catch the breezes of heaven, and impel the bark onward to her desired haven. We see these inspired preachers coming down to the common business and practical duties of life— down from the throne of God-down from the heights of the cross-down from regions of such high speculation, that Peter owns himself to have lost sight of Paul, just as in summer-day, when watching the lark as she rose from the dewy grass, we have seen her mount up on untiring wing, till she became a mere dark speck upon the blue sky, and then, although her song still came ringing down, vanished from our field of vision. From heights so lofty the men who were moved by the Holy Ghost descended to expatiate on the most common topics that belong to practical piety. They instructed masters how to rule, and servants how to work they taught husbands how to love, and children how to obey they laid

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