ST. JUDE. the eldest born unto Christ of the whole band, having made his noviceship with the Baptist. Of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, Sons of Thunder as our Saviour styled them to show their electric fire, John was the heir of Jesus and our representative under the Cross in the bestowal of His mother's love. He was the drinker-in of Jesus' words, and their chronicler in the sublimest writings ever penned by man. These two, with Peter, were chosen by Jesus to be witnesses of the raising of the daughter of Jairus to life, of the Transfiguration, and of the Agony in the Garden. James was the first of them who entered the gate of heaven, being the pioneer of Apostolic martyrdom; and John closed the glorious line on a peaceful bed, and closed also the narrative of redemption by his marvellous vision of the Heavenly City. Philip, so early called, was that true friend to Bartholomew (originally named Nathanael), whom he brought to the Messias. Both were very familiar with Jesus, especially Philip. ST. JOHN. Matthew, or Levi, the collector of the Roman tax, names himself in his list as "the publican." At the word of command he arose without a moment's hesitation, and gave up all and followed Jesus. though he had been a publican, he religion its first inspired book, in which he shows the links of the old law with the new, and tells, chiefly True Jew, even gave the new in this spirit, of the active life and wondrous deeds of the Messias. Thomas the Doubter is a great figure among the twelve; a reasoner, a questioner, slow to believe, a searcher of difficulties, but a type of the many honest minds in all ages who do not readily believe but are invincible in the faith when at last they accept it. James (the less or younger), and Jude his brother, were sons of Cleophas, who was either himself the brother of Joseph, or whose wife was the sister of Mary or of Joseph. These two, their brother Josas or Joseph, and their sisters, were called brothers and sisters of the Lord. An only child like Jesus was thus complimented by Hebrew custom. Jude, also called Lebbe, and again Thaddeus (to distinguish him from the apostate Judas), must have been a man of deep enthusiasm, to judge him from his fiery Epistle. His brother James was for thirty-seven years Bishop of Jerusalem, a powerful advocate, at the council of the Apostles, of St. Paul's policy towards the Gentiles and of his revelations, a perfect echo in his far-famed Epistle of many essential points of Christ's teaching. Simon the Zealous had been probably a participant in the insurrection which had taken place some years previously, and named that of the Zealots for the law. If this be true, it shows that our Saviour was not unwilling to favor even an extreme type of Hebrew patriotism, as long as it was not Pharisaical. Finally, there is Judas Iscariot, mentioned in the holy narrative only by compulsion, the dark shadow in this pictured group of heroes. What made him an Apostle? Did he force himself into the company and on to the acceptance of Jesus, from the start ST. JAMES. ST. THOMAS. a thief and a traitor? Rather, he was first honest in his attachment. But there is no vice so killing as avarice, though there are others more sudden in their stabs. Judas Iscariot has dignified avarice by making its product the traitor of all human history. How could Jesus ever choose him? It is a mystery. We can only suppose that in this case the ordinary rule prevailed; as in other cases so in this, the Master used His human means of information only, the divine knowledge remaining suspended and apart.* Judas was a man of affairs, "carried the purse,” was the necessary procurator of the little band. And his treason, if it wrecked his own salvation, was made one powerful means of the salvation of the world. It is seen that Jesus mingled in His Apostolate the most incongruous elements, mingled them together in a union of love so strong as to blend them into one heart and one soul: they quarrelled often, but always to be made. brethren again. He chose an unpardoned rebel against the Roman tyranny and a gatherer of the Roman tax; the strong and calm and ever faithful John and the impetuous and backsliding Peter; ST. BARTHOLOMEW. *St. John says (v. 65), that "Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe and who he was that would betray Him." What is here meant by the words "from the beginning"? Do they mean that Jesus knew Judas would betray Him when He first chose him as a member of the band? Or does it mean that He knew his evil intention the first moment he harbored it? The latter seems to us to be altogether the most probable meaning. Jude the enthusiast and Thomas the doubter; James the contemplative ascetic is a high official among the most restless and roving of missionary bands. One requisite of a fully equipped Church alone is lacking a man of intellectual culture. But Jesus will supply that want in the learned Scribe, Saul of Tarsus, to become in various ways the most notable of all the Apostles and the most like the Master in the gift of persuasion. And now the work of Jesus is not simply teaching divine truth, it is the making a new people; the Kingdom of God is formed. The new dispensation is both an interior condition of faith and righteousness and an external order and government of men; it is a living organism, with its own peculiar corporate life flowing out from and into the divine human life of Christ. With this the Redeemer became inseparably identified. Travelling back and forth, teaching the people, working miracles, disputing with enemies, the Apostles were always with Him. His relation to them was essentially superior to His relation to others. To instruct them-how very greatly they needed it is always evident-became His especial work. All were of that "class" which our Saviour evangelized with so much joy, the working class; but they became the masterpieces of His grace, the messengers of His truth and of His salvation to the entire world. They were the first officers in His everlasting kingdom. ST. MATTHEW. CHAPTER XXIII. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. I. THE BEATITUDES. Matt. v. 1-48, and vi. 1-34, and vii. 1-29; Y the choice of the Twelve Apostles the Church is organized; it is to be made alive by the teaching of truth. The Church may be compared to a tree; the external organization is like the bark and the wood; the sap is the doctrine of Christ. Some of this doctrinal instruction had already been given, most of it remained to be so, and Jesus leads His Apostles apart into a favorable locality where, seated on a hillside, He preaches to them and to the multitudes His greatest discourse-the Sermon on the Mount. He is anxious that men should know what to believe, how to think rightly, and thereby have right ways of action. He is mankind's guide to right. It would have sounded strange if one had said in His company, "It makes no difference what a man believes as long as he follows the Saviour." The peculiar action of man as such is his thinking. Jesus would set that right for all men and for ever by teaching the one true doctrine and entrusting it to His one true Church. St. Luke gives us a brief abstract of this discourse, St. Matthew a more extended account. We cannot know how long it took our Saviour to deliver it, but we may reasonably suppose that He dropped and resumed it several times, and that what is only a short paragraph in the Gospel summary may possibly have taken an hour for its full delivery. St. Luke says that "Coming down He stood in a level place" -that is, a plateau formed in a hilly place, shown to |