the discipline of John the Baptist, who had been sent into the world as the forerunner of the promised Saviour, to prepare the way before him by the preaching of repentance, and to give notice of his approach. Standing with another of John's disciples on the banks of the Jordan, while John was baptizing there, his attention was drawn by his master to Jesus as he walked by; and he received a distinct assurance from the Baptist, that this was the promised Redeemer whose coming he had been commissioned to announce: "Behold," said he, "the Lamb of God." The information was not lost upon Andrew and his companion: for they thereupon followed Jesus; and were invited and guided by him to his dwelling, and were permitted to abide with him during the remainder of the day. This circumstance procured for our Apostle from several of the ancients the epithet of "the firstcalled disciple:" an epithet, if not strictly agreeable to the fact in the judgment of those, who say that he can hardly be said to have been "called" till a later period in company with his brother Simon'; yet justified in some degree at least by the circumstance of his being recorded as the first of the disciples who sought

Dr. Cave. Life of St. Andrew, 2.

Jesus, and was invited and admitted to his dwelling and conversation.

Thus introduced to a knowledge of the Saviour, he did not confine that knowledge to his own breast, but immediately imparted it to his brother in those memorable words, "We have found the Messiah." This circumstance again has not failed to be noticed by the writers of antiquity for on this account, and with reference to the name, subsequently given by our Lord to Simon, Andrew has been styled, "The rock before the rock;" so that, as Dr. Cave observes, “of all our Lord's Apostles St. Andrew had thus far the honour to be the first preacher of the Gospel"."

It does not appear that he continued permanently with Jesus after this interview. Probably he accompanied him to Cana, and was one of those " disciples," who were invited to the marriage, and whose faith was strengthened by that "beginning of miracles," whereby Jesus there manifested forth his glory." Probably also he was one of the " disciples'," who afterwards went with him to Capernaum, and thence to Jerusalem, and "tarried with" him, while he continued in Judea. After some time however, it is plain that both he and

d Life of St. Andrew, 9. John ii. 2, 11. John ii. 12.

Simon Peter returned to their own home by the sea of Galilee, and to the exercise of their own occupation, in which they were engaged, when, after the lapse of about a year, they were called by our Lord from their employment of fishers, to become, as he emphatically told them, "fishers of men." The occurrence, to which allusion has been already made, as related by St. John, had brought Andrew, and after him his brother Simon, to a personal acquaintance with Jesus, and probably in some degree to a personal attendance upon him: the occurrence, to which allusion is now made, as related more briefly by St. Matthew and St. Mark, and more particularly and fully by St. Luke, occasioned the subsequent attendance upon him of the two brothers to be constant and stated. The occurrence alluded to is that important event which ensued on the miraculous draught of fishes, caused by our Saviour in the presence of Andrew and Simon, the sons of Jona, and of the sons of Zebedee, James and John; whence he took occasion to call them to be his followers, and they, in obedience to his call, "forsook all and followed him."

We thus find Andrew become a regular fol

Matt. iv. 18-22. Mark i. 16-20. Luke v. 1-11.

lower of our blessed Lord, separated from his worldly business and relations, and permanently attached to his divine Master's family and service. The assurance, which he had received from John the Baptist, of Jesus being "the Lamb of God," the expected Messiah, had doubtless been confirmed in the interval by the proofs, which had been given of his claim to that character: by the miracles which Andrew had probably witnessed during his temporary attendance on him, at Cana, Capernaum, and, it may be, in Jerusalem also and Judea; and, after "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," by the astonishing efficacy of his doctrine, by his healing of divers diseases, and by the authority with which he commanded the unclean spirits; so "that the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about." All of these evidences of supernatural power the residence of Andrew and of his brother and companions on the lake of Gennesareth, and their necessary communication and traffick with Capernaum, and the other towns upon the lake, which were the usual scene of the actions of Jesus, must have brought under their observation: and all these favourable impressions must

h Luke iv. 14.

doubtless have been confirmed by the circumstances of the call itself, by the doctrine which he had delivered to the multitude out of one of their ships, and by the power which he had given to his doctrine, impressing upon their senses a convincing proof of his divine authority by commanding a miraculous draught of fishes in the very place, where they had "toiled all the night, and had taken nothing."

From thus becoming a follower of Christ, the next step in Andrew's history is that of his being called to the office and honour of the apostolate; for soon afterwards we find him -mentioned by the three first evangelists, as one of the twelve, whom our Lord "chose," and "named apostles," and "ordained," "that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach," "and gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." For what reasons it pleased the Divine wisdom and providence, that so little of the Acts of this Apostle, as of most of his brethren in the apostolate, after his call to that high office, should be recorded by the inspired historians, is a question which admits of no

* Luke v. 5. See Dean Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels. St. Andrew's day.

'Matt. x. Mark iii. Luke vi,