whole process of this call, records, at length, the miracle which brought them to "forsake all, and follow Him;" and relates several circumstances by which these four Apostles received such astonishing and convincing evidences of Christ's power, as disposed them with eminent readiness and zeal to devote themselves ever afterwards to His service 3.

The city of Capernaum, in which Jesus now dwelt, was situated on the lowland, adjoining the northern shores of the great fresh water lake, through which the Jordan flows, called indifferently by the Evangelists the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias, and the Lake of Gennesaret. It happened that, in one of His accustomed walks along the shore, so many people crowded around Him to hear Him preach, or see Him work some miracle, that He took advantage of a fisherman's boat, into which He entered, and "taught the people out of the ship." We are not informed of the discourse of Jesus on this occasion; but, among His auditory were four disciples, who must have largely imbibed already the spirit of the Gospel; for they had heard the preaching of the Baptist, as well as of our Lord. Fishermen by their trade, they were occupied in their ordinary calling to the moment that Jesus "entered into the ship, which was Simon's." They had been wholly un

Dean Stanhope.

successful in their fishing at the time He did so; and this He knew, who knew all things. When, therefore, He had finished His preaching to the people, He prepared a miracle for the especial edification of the four whom He designed to call, which, as it was calculated to fill their minds with wondering and amazement, would also more conclusively convince them that He was "the Christ that should come into the world." In order to encourage Peter and his three companions the more cheerfully to follow Him, He was about to afford them a typical representation of the wonderful effects which would be produced by the preaching of His word; so He desired them to launch into the deep, and let down their nets'. The fruitless toil of the night was succeeded by such a miraculous draught, that Peter, in amazement and fear, amazed at so great a miracle, and afraid at the visible appearance of so great a power near Him,-throws himself at the feet of Christ, under a sense of his unworthiness and unfitness to stand before so mighty a Master. The Saviour, however, instantly dissipated these fears, and then explained the miracle, as exhibiting an event of far greater importance than the material supply of his worldly calling,-the success of their preaching,—by which, under the aid of the same Divine power, which enabled

Dr. Robinson.

them to enclose so great multitude of fishes, they should "from henceforth catch men '."

The effect of this miracle upon Simon, and Andrew, James, and John, was complete and immediate ;-" straightway they left their nets, and their ships, and their father, with the hired servants, and followed after Him :" nor did they thenceforward ever quit Him, till that one fatal panic, which for a moment struck them, after the scene in the garden of Gethsemane. No one can have ever read the Gospel, without observing the singular respect Christ afterwards put upon "Peter, and James, and John;"-at the raising of the daughter of Jairus, at His transfiguration, and at His last agony in the garden, He took these three apart from all His followers, and showed Himself in His greatest power, glory, and combat.

The Scripture is silent as to what became of Zebedee, the father of two of these eminent Apostles, when his sons thus left him : and we may be tempted to inquire whether, after this example, we should be justified to desert our parents in their old age, to leave the employment, without which they could no longer subsist, but with younger hands to toil for them; and whether even their spiritual condition was to be neglected by those who now "left father, and mother, house, and

1 Dr. Robinson.

from any cause

obtain his own

land, for Christ's sake, and for His Gospel." We must always remember that "God is the Lord;" and there could be no question to any reasonable mind that He, whose commanding power had just been so wonderfully exerted over the creatures of the world, was divinely authorized to call them to Himself, be the consequences in their own estimation what they might. But although the Scripture is silent as to what became of Zebedee, it does not lead us to suppose that he was either old, or unable to work for himself, to livelihood; nor is it likely that a man who could afford to employ hired servants, would be in any penury or distress that required the manual aid of his children. It is very probable he might not have approved their desertion of the means of living in which he had brought them up, in order to follow a young adventurer, as Jesus might appear to be to an anxious father, even though he had been a sincere and faithful follower of the Mosaical Law, and blameless. Yet we know that Salome his wife was present at the crucifixion, and therefore a believer in Christ; but it is not revealed to us whether Zebedee himself did attach himself to Jesus, as well as his wife and sons, or whether he continued to follow his lawful calling and employment'.

2 Dr. Lightfoot.

SECT. XXVII.-Christ cureth one possessed of a Devil.— Matt. iv. 23-25; Mark iv. 23-28; Luke iv. 33-37. OUR Saviour appears, after the call of the four Apostles, to have continued in or about Capernaum, preaching in their synagogues on the Sabbath-day; and it is said, that "He taught as One having authority, and not as the Scribes ;" "for His word was with power," and "all were astonished at His doctrine." There was this vast difference in the teaching of Christ and the teaching of the Scribes: the latter taught nothing but traditions;--what this, or that, or any other doctor of the Sanhedrim had taught and determined in former times; what this learned man had asserted, or denied, and how they had stated this or that question;-but our Lord taught in the evidence and demonstration of a prophet-the sound, and powerful, and selfgrounded word of God. The teaching of the Scribes was about external and trivial rites and ceremonies; but the tenor of Christ's preaching was the spiritual and soul-saving doctrine of faith, repentance, charity, self-denial, and such like; which by how much they had been strangers to the pulpits of the Scribes, and never heard of before, by so much the more did they now take the people with heart and admiration, being delivered in power, and piercing and pressing upon the soul'.

Dr. Lightfoot.