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facts that were for the entire church, it would have been recorded more minutely, and more special reference been given to it. But it was in some respects like the transfiguration, and occupies a similar place in the subsequent revelations of scripture. It is a remarkable fact, that an event so wonderful as that of the transfiguration, should have so little allusion made to it in the writings of the apostles. The reason of this is found in the fact that the great object of the transfiguration terminated in the mind of our Lord himself. was mainly designed to prepare him for his approaching sufferings, and having accomplished this end, we find but little subsequent reference to it. So was it also with the event before us. It was designed mainly to prepare the church for the storm that was soon to burst upon it, and to cheer the hearts of christians by a vision of the glory that awaited them. It was not therefore necessary that it should be written at length in a book, for it was already indelibly written on the memories of those for whose sake it was particularly revealed. The very fact that it was enacted before so many witnesses, made it less necessary to put it on record, for the knowledge of the facts would be diffused sufficiently, without such a record. Private appearances of our Lord were sometimes more fully recorded, for the very reason that they were private, and could only be satisfactorily known in this way. But public appearances like

this, whose main design was to act upon the living, were not fully recorded, because their very publicity made it less necessary to publish them in this way. Hence we have the simple fact that they happened, and nothing to satisfy mere curiosity.

It is enough for us to know that there is a mount of ordinances where we too may meet Jesus, and see him in his glory by the eye of faith. As we retire from the world and ascend that mount, in the quiet of solitary prayer, or in the communings of the great congregation, we too may have precious glimpses of Him whom our souls love. And as we visit his sepulchre, we too may hear his promise to meet us again, not on the rocks and hills of Palestine, or even on the mount of transfiguration there; not with the five hundred witnesses, where doubting and tears mingled with worship and gladness; but on those hills of light that stretch away over the heavenly Canaan; in that city that hath no need of the sun or the moon to enlighten it, and among the ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, that stand round the throne; where all tears shall be wiped away, all sorrow forgotten, and where we shall sing the song of eternal victory through Him that loved us, and gave himself for us. Let us prepare for this glorious meeting, for he has gone before us, not into Galilee, but into heaven.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NINTH APPEARANCE-JAMES THE LORD'S BROTHER.

The three Jameses-James the Just, the brother of our Lord-His character by Hegesippus-Apocryphal traditions-His childhood and Nazaritic dedication-Not a disciple of Jesus at first-His position in the church-The significance of this appearance to him-The silence of scripture-General teachings.

"Till God in human flesh I see,

My thoughts no comfort find,
The holy, just, and sacred Three,
Are terrors to my mind.

While Jews on their own law rely,
And Greeks of wisdom boast,
I love the incarnate mystery,
And there I fix my trust."

"After that he was seen of James." 1 Cor. xv. 7.

THERE are several persons mentioned in the New Testament under the name of James. The most prominent in the gospels is James the son of Zebedee and brother of John, who was the first martyr among the apostles. There was another James among the twelve, called James, the son of Alpheus, who is called in one place, (Mark xv. 40,) James the less, alluding to inferiority of age or of stature to the son of Zebedee. There is mention

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in the Epistles and Gospels, of James the brother of our Lord, and it is a very difficult question to determine whether he is the same person called the son of Alpheus, or another. Neander pronounces this one of the most difficult questions in apostolic history. The more probable opinion is that he was different from the son of Alpheus, and was not one of the twelve apostles, nor indeed, in the first instance, a follower of Jesus at all. In John vii. 5, it is stated that "neither did his brethren believe in him ;" and in Matt. xiii. 55, and Mark vi. 3, James is mentioned as one of the brethren of our Lord, and the mode in which they are named seems to intimate that they were not at that time his avowed disciples. Our Lord confirms this where he says, (Matt. xiii. 57,) "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house." Hence the conclusion that seems most probable is, that James the brother of our Lord, was distinct from the son of Alpheus, was not one of the twelve apostles, nor indeed a disciple of Jesus at all during the early part of his ministry, but became one before his death; and afterwards, (whether strictly an apostle or not, may be doubtful,) was an apostolic man of great eminence, the Moderator of the first Synod in Jerusalem, first pastor of the church there, and author of the Epistle that bears his name. It was undoubtedly to this James that our Lord appeared, for he is the

only one mentioned by Paul in his epistles, and is expressly called (Gal. i. 19) "the brother of the Lord." By gathering the scattered rays of light that are left regarding him, we may obtain some notion of the object of this appearance.

We have, from traditional sources, some facts that are reliable about James, and others that are obviously mixed with fable. He is called James the Just, because of the saintly austerity of his character, an austerity so high and spotless as to exact the reverence of the Jewish people to a very great degree. Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian of the second century, tells us that James led, from his youth, a life of the most exemplary strictness. He states that he was holy from his mother's womb; that no razor ever came on his head; that he never anointed himself with oil, nor used the bath; that he wore no woollen, but only linen clothes, like the priests; that he only of the Christians was allowed to enter the holy of holies, and that he was so much in the temple on his knees, in prayer for his people, that his knees became hard like a camel's, and that he was called Obliam, the bulwark of the people. (Eusebius, Ecc. Hist. ii. 23.) He further assures us that he was martyred, about A. D. 69, by being cast from the pinnacle of the temple, and stoned by the Pharisees, crying with his latest breath, "I pray thee, Lord God, Father, forgive them! for they know not what they

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