THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

393

CCLXIV.

JHE J WELve POPOSTLES.,

HERE were many people
who followed Jesus in
His journeys from place
to place. But He now
wished to choose from

~ among them twelve men who might
be apostles or missionaries, and go
to other nations, and preach the
gospel. Before Jesus chose these

apostles, He went alone into a
mountain to pray, and spent the
whole night in prayer to God. But
why did Jesus pray? He had no
sins to confess; no pardon to ask;
He did not need to be taught what
He should do, for He was the all-
wise God, and knew everything.
Yes; but He was man as well as
God; and, as man, He often felt
sorrow and trouble, and then He
loved to go to His Heavenly Father,
and to speak to Him in prayer ; and
this comforted Him: and He prayed
too for His disciples, and for all His
people everywhere.

When it was morning, Jesus
called His disciples, and chose from
among them the twelve apostles.
What were their names? Simon
Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, and his brother John;
Philip, Matthew, Bartholomew,
Thomas, James the son of Alpheus,
Simon Zelotes, Judas the brother of
James, and Judas Iscariot. We
have read of some of these before.
Four of them had been called by
Jesus, when they were fishing in

 

had been called when he was sitting
at the receipt of custom.

Were the apostles all good men ?
Eleven of them really loved their
Master, and wished to serve Him.
They were weak and sinful like
ourselves; but they had come in
faith to Jesus for the pardon of
their sins, and they had prayed for
the Holy Spirit to renew and sane-
tify their hearts; and their prayer
had been heard. But one of the
apostles was very unlike the rest.
This was Judas Iscariot. He had
never prayed for pardon, nor for a
new heart. #atan was in his heart,
not the Holy Spirit of God. Judas
pretended to love Jesus, but he did
not really love Him. He was a hyp- -
ocrite. He hated his Master, and
at last betrayed Him to His cruel ene-
mies. Jesus knew all this from the
first; and it had also long before
been prophesied that Jesus would
be put to death by wicked men, and
betrayed into their hands by one of
His own disciples; by a pretended
friend.

_ What did Jesus say to his apos-
tles? He commanded them to go
and preach. They were first to go
among the Jews, and preach ty
them. The Jews had always been
the chosen people of God ; He had
given them many promises of mercy,
and therefore they first were to have
the gospel. The apostles were to
carry with them no gold nor silver;

the sea of Galilee; and Matthew | they were to go like poor men, not