for those who, having intruded themselves from worldly motives into the office of the ministry, make it a mere engine of secular interest or carnal gratification; and who, either through an unpardonable ignorance or a wilful neglect of the duties peculiar to their sacred function, suffer the precious souls of men to perish everlastingly!

ST. JAMES THE APOSTLE.

Grant, O merciful God, that as thine holy Apostle St. James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient to the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed Him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

WE

ERE the story of the Apostles and Evangelists distinctly known and circumstantially related, we may suppose that it would afford materials of exquisite pleasure to every Christian mind. But there never arose in the church any historians, like Thucydides and Livy, to illustrate the actions of saints. Heroes and statesmen have their reward here; saints, hereafter. Christ's kingdom must not appear to be of this world; and while large volumes have been filled with the exploits of warriors and the intrigues of statesmen, those men who were the Divinely appointed instruments of evangelizing souls, are for the most part unknown. Even the memoirs of the Apostles and Evangelists, which the New Testament affords, are brief; their acts being no further mentioned than as they are necessary to lead men to Christ, and to illustrate Christianity; and introduced not for the purpose of gratifying curiosity but of improving the heart.

Milner's History of the Church of Christ, val. i. p. 113,

These remarks are occasioned by the scantiness of that light which the Scripture has shed on the life and character of St. James. He was the brother of St. John, the son of Zebedee, and a fisherman by occupation. He is styled in ecclesiastical history, St. James the Great, in contradistinction to another of the same name, called James the Less, the son of Alpheus, and the brother of our Lord. By his mother Mary, surnamed Salome, he is supposed to have been related to his Divine Master. St. James and St. John were called to be disciples of Christ at the same time with Andrew and Peter, the sons of Jonas; and when the Apostles were selected, they were placed in the catalogue next to the aforesaid brothers. The sons of Zebedee were also of the favoured triumvirate who were admitted to be witnesses of some transactions in our Saviour's life from which the other nine were excluded, such as the resuscitation of Jairus's daugher, the interview which took place on the mount of transfiguration, and the gloomy scene in Gethsemane. To them also, as to Peter, was a new name given on their call to the Apostolate; for our Lord surnamed them Boanerges, or the sons of thunder. By this appellation He probably referred to the natural energy and impetuosity of their character, and to the bold and resolute manner in which they should propagate the doctrines of the gospel, fearing no menaces, and daunted by no opposition; but thundering in the ears of a sleepy and careless world the awful truths of God, awakening the torpid consciences of men by their vehement eloquence, and rending the hearts of men with conviction of sin, as the voice of the Lord, in natural thunder, breaketh the cedar-trees and shivereth in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

After the account which is given of our Apostle's call to the ministry, very little mention is made of him, none indeed apart from his brother John, till ten years after the day of Pentecost, when his martyrdom is concisely related. His conduct was, no doubt, consonant to the name of Boanerges, and such as justified the peculiar honour shewn him by our Lord; but probably the scene of his labours was confined to Jerusalem, and to occasional visits to the rising churches of Judea, Samaria and Galilee. From the circumstance of his being the first object of the persecuting fury of Herod Agrippa (the son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the great, under whose government Christ was born) a rigid adherent to the Mosaic institutions, we may infer his authority in the church, and the efficacy of his testimony among the people. St. Luke records his martyrdom without detailing any circumstances of it, or adding one remark for the illustration of his character, or as the eulogy of his virtues. Why was so great an Apostle as St. James taken away in the prime of life, in the midst of his successful labours? and why are the particulars of his life and labours unrecorded? God knoweth, though we know not. Incapable as we are of reconciling apparent difficulties, we may rest assured that the works of nature and the dispensations of providence, proceeding from the grand source of wisdom and order, have all a fitness and harmony, which escape the ken of our limited faculties. Hereafter, what we now deem a blemish, will appear a beauty; and we shall learn to adore what now we question. Some noble blood might be requisite to witness the infidelity of the world, and to invigorate the zeal of the church. And what victim more proper

could have been selected, than he who had declared his readiness to be baptized with the baptism of his Lord; or what blood more precious than that of this son of thunder? His life and labours, unrecorded on earth, are emblazoned in the annals of eternity, and shall be hereafter published to an assembled world.*

Though the sacred penman has passed over in silence the circumstances of St. James's martyrdom, there is one anecdote respecting it, handed down by ecclesiastical history, which appears to be authentic, and is well worthy of being recorded. The man who had been his accuser, when he saw the readiness with which our Apostle submitted to martyrdom, was struck with remorse; and by one of those sudden conversions which were not infrequent during the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, was himself turned from the power of Satan unto God, and confessed Christ with great chearfulness. They were both led to execution; and in the way the accuser asked the Apostle's forgiveness, which he easily obained. St. James, turning to him, said, "Peace, my son, "be to thee," and kissed him. They were both beheaded together. The efficacy of Divine grace, and the blessed fruit of holy example, are both illustrated in this story; of which it were to be wished that we knew more than the very scanty account which has been delivered.+

The circumstance in the life of St. James which our collect records, and on which its prayer is founded, demands a further notice than what we have yet taken of it. "Leaving his father and all

Christian Observer.

Apostles, vol. i,

Lives of James and John the

See Milner's History of the Church, vol. i. p. 114.