our ships and nets like Peter and John, or our law-studies like Paul, but we must give up ourselves, in all these pursuits, if we stay in them, to Christ, and must pursue them for Christ, and pursue him in them, or we are none of his.

Moreover, we shall have to beware, in abiding in the same calling wherein we are called, lest we fall back to the pursuit of that calling on the old mere worldly principles. There is this powerful temptation, by which the god of this world succeeds in alluring and destroying many souls now, which had but little weight with those who were called entirely away from their employments to follow Christ personally. At the same time let it be remembered that if this temptation be resisted, if the soul does faithfully follow Christ and labor for him in pursuing a worldly calling, it is a great and blessed triumph, and shall have a great crown. If a man lays all his plans of earthly business, and prosecutes them, with a sacred supreme regard to his duty as Christ's steward, gathering and using his money for Christ, his faith is great, and his reward will be great. A merchant, for instance, who is truly an example for Christ, who truly pursues his business for Christ, and maintains always a frame of heavenly-mindedness,

Like ships at sea, while in, above the world,

may be so far forth a greater Christian, than a minister of the gospel, who pursues his business for Christ; there being more to be overcome in the former case, greater difficulties in the way, and perhaps greater temptations. And certainly a man's crown of glory by and by will be determined not by the positión he filled, but the manner in which he filled it, whatever it might be; the sacrifices he made, whatever they were. So in many cases the last

shall be first and the first last.

So the poor Widow with her two mites may have in heaven a brighter crown than even rich Joseph of Arimathea, and Joseph of Arimathea may have a brighter

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crown than some of those who preached the gospel to him. The sacrifices that seemed but little things in this worldonly two mites-may be found great things in that; may be found to have really been in themselves comparatively great things here, and to be in their results infinitely greater there. But ah! we will not talk about sacrifices, for we make none in comparison with Christ, and we have none but in him; the great thing is to follow Christ, to have the sweet readiness to give up all to him. We will not undertake to compare the brightness of one crown and another, though it be true that one star differeth from another star in glory; but we will strive to gain the crown at any rate.

SEE THAT NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN.

CHAPTER XIX.

The calling of Philip, and Philip's work upon Nathaniel.-The social power and impulse of Christianity.-Desirableness of Love to Christ as the reigning feature in the character.

WE proceed in our investigation. "The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." In considering this comprehensive notice, it is of some importance to determine our localities. At this time, as we have seen, Jesus was at Bethabara on or near the river Jordan, some thirty miles east from Jerusalem. John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel were all at the same time in this same village, having gathered thither as attendants of John's ministry, and with the feeling that the time for the coming of the Messiah was drawing nigh. Bethsaida and Bethabara were some sixty miles apart, Bethabara on the Jordan being between sixty and seventy miles south from Galilee and the Sea or Lake of Tiberias, where, at Bethsaida, most of these disciples had their residence. They had travelled all this distance from that village, to attend upon the teachings, or partake in the baptism of John, perhaps moved by an inward impulse like that which directed the wise men of the East in pursuit of the new-born King of the Jews.

Our Blessed Lord had already called Peter, Andrew,

and John, and made them familiar with his residence and himself, this being the morning after their first sacred interview with him. They had been his guests the preceding night, as it would seem, having abode with him, because it was so late in the day when they entered his dwelling. And now this morning they were all to set out with Christ on a journey back into Galilee, from which region they had all come, in attendance on John's baptism. They were not now to follow Christ as his apostles and commissioned ministers, but were first to return back for a season to their usual occupations.

Before leaving Bethabara for Galilee, Jesus found Philip, another of John's disciples, who had likewise come down from Bethsaida with the same purpose as the others, to enjoy more of the instructions of John, and if possible to discover the Messiah. Philip, Andrew, and Peter were fellow-townsmen, and had probably been in habits of intimacy from their childhood. They seem to have been of the same occupation, and they had evidently received the same education in the sacred Scriptures, and in the lessons of the temple and the synagogue, common to the nation. They were fishermen of Bethsaida, on the borders of the lovely sea of Galilee. In their study of, and acquaintance with, the law and the prophets, and by the providential discipline and grace of God, they were alike prepared for the revelation of the Messiah. They had been now led, by Divine Providence, to Bethabara, for this very purpose, that there they might meet the Lord Jesus; and for this very purpose Christ himself had come to Bethabara at this time, to show himself to those who were prepared for him, to receive particularly these disciples from John's instructions, and to return with them into their native province, where, on the borders of their native lake, he would afterwards give them their final call to the ministry.

But there was yet another to be gathered, and Philip himself was to begin his own missionary work by gather ing him. Nathaniel was of the village of Cana of Galilee,

a town about fifteen miles from Bethsaida, between the lake of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea, and about ten miles north from Nazareth. Nathaniel was an acquaintance and friend of Philip, and probably likewise of Andrew, Peter, and John. By the same heavenly impulse with which Andrew, the preceding day, went in search of Peter, Philip now, this morning, before setting out for Galilee, went in search of Nathaniel. Christ was now gathering his disciples, his Apostles, and it is remarkable with what a fervent spirit of love, and happy, holy, zealous labor, they set out. It does not appear that Christ gave Philip any special instructions on this point, but Philip's own heart led him. When our Lord told Philip that they must that day set out from Bethabara on their return to Galilee, Philip may have said, as Andrew did in the case of Peter, Lord, suffer me first to go and find Nathaniel. Having found the Messiah himself, he could not, would not, delay communicating the glad tidings to his friend from Cana.

All these men had come from Bethsaida and Cana to Bethabara, to be more fully instructed of John. They were fellow-students and disciples under John; they were to be so, likewise, under Christ. They were about the same age, nor is it likely that any of them were more than thirty. Having all come from Galilee, and three or four of them being fellow-townsmen, and united in the same occupation, they were intimate and enthusiastic in their opinions. They were evidently of the better class in Galilee, much above the ordinary character and attainments of their countrymen. And the great reason was, that their minds had been excited and drawn out in regard to the day of redemption for Israel; they had been studying the Word of God, and waiting on his law in the Temple, and looking and longing for the coming of the Messenger of the Covenant, the Desire of Nations. Now it matters little how much darkness and how many wrong views to be corrected, there may have existed, mingled