St. Andrew's Day,

NOVEMBER 30.

HE earlier religious life of this Apostle affords a proof of the perfect adaptation of the preaching of John the Baptist to the task of training his Disciples to the recognition of Jesus as 'The Lamb of God.'

St. Andrew was a native of Bethsaida, a city of Galilee, and was the son of Jonas, and the brother of Simon Peter, though whether he was older or younger than that Apostle has never been fully ascertained. The probabilities, however, may be said, on the whole, to favour the supposition that he was junior to St. Peter. He is commonly spoken of by the Fathers and ancient writers as 'the first-called Disciple,' though he can have no exclusive right to such a title, to the prejudice of that unnamed Disciple believed to be St. John-by whom he was accompanied when the Baptist drew their joint attention to the passing Saviour. A distinction which may be more readily substantiated for St. Andrew is that he was the first of all the Apostles to commence the work of evangelization :-' He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ' (John i. 41). The vocation of Andrew and Peter to the Apostolate, however, did not take place till about a year after their first introduction to Jesus Christ; and during that interval it would seem that they occupied themselves in their ordinary pursuits, seeing that it was from the actual employments of the net and the boat that they were finally called upon to become fishers of men.'

Modified by such considerations, we may read the words of Wheatly, to the effect that, as St. Andrew 'was the first that found the Messiah (John i. 38), and the first that brought others to Him (John i. 42), so the Church, for his greater honour, commemorates

him first in her anniversary course of holydays, and places his festival at the beginning of Advent, as the most proper to bring the news of our Saviour's coming."*

One of the distinctive lessons of St. Andrew's career attaches to this period of his life, and is of course to be read as encouraging generally the spirit which is concerned for the widest diffusion of the Gospel throughout the world; and, more particularly, the spirit which prompts individuals, without having received from God and the Church the commission to minister in the ranks of ordained men, to regard themselves as centres of a domestic and neighbourly propaganda, and so to order their life and conversation as to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour' in deeds aptly done and words fitly spoken.

In a poem for St. Andrew's Day, which occurs in the late Dr. Monsell's 'Spiritual Songs,' where it is entitled 'Domestic Care,' the author gives prominence to the circumstance of the special fitness of this festival for considerations of family interest. The verses, it will easily be recognized, are founded upon the narrative of the Evangelist St. John i. 40-42.

What day in all the year than this
More meet to bring domestic bliss
In praise before the Lord?
Or if we have domestic care,
To lay it before God in prayer,

And search His answering Word.
We think of one this blessed day
Who followed Christ without delay,
And, full of holy fear,

First his own brother Simon sought,
And him to Jesus meekly brought,
In brotherhood more dear.
The youthful convert, fain to prove
The blessings of his new-found love,
First seeks his own abode ;

And the dear brother of his heart
Persuades to choose the better part,
And give himself to God.

No triumphs of maturer years,
Won for the cross in toil and tears,
Will ever seem so fair,

As that one gain-a brother found!
And doubly, as a brother, bound
This new-born bliss to share.
Are there for us some brethren dear,
Near to our hearts, but not so near
To God as they should be?
For whom we know no peace or rest
Until they choose the thing that's best,
And Christ's salvation see?

* Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer.

DR. NEANDER ON MARTHA AND MARY.

Or are there those, whom we have borne
Upon our hearts, till their return

To Him, from Whom they strayed,
Has been to prayer the best reply,
The Saviour's tenderest sympathy
In mercy could have made?
Then let us come, and one and all
Use this glad Christian festival

For special prayer and praise;
Prayer for the lost to be restored,
Praise for the loved ones whom the Lord
Hath brought back to His ways.

And as the rolling year brings round
The memory of some lost one found,
Some loved one gone astray;
Let each domestic grief, or joy,
Our heart's best Faith and Love employ
On each St. Andrew's Day.

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Of another phase of family life and individual action, as exemplified severally by the sisters Martha and Mary in and amongst the hospitalities of Bethany, and the record of which is preserved by St. Luke and St. John, the late Dr. Neander discriminatingly remarks: It is wholly contrary to the sense of history to interpret this narrative (as some do) so as to make Martha represent the practical and Mary the contemplative tendency, and thence to infer that Christ ascribes superiority to the latter. The antithesis is between that turn of mind which forgets, in a multiplicity of objects, the one fundamental aim, and that, on the other hand, which devotes itself solely to the one object from which all others should proceed. Christ demands of His followers constant activity in His service, and, therefore, could not have approved an entirely contemplative spirit. What He honours in Mary is the spirit, which ought to be the centre and animating principle of all activity. It is true Martha is more practical and worldly, Mary more contemplative and spiritual; but these manifestations do not necessarily indicate character, although in this instance, and indeed commonly, the manifestation corresponds to the character. It was not necessary that Martha's multiplied cares should distract her from the one thing needful. Christ blamed her, not for her cares, but for not making them subordinate -for so surrendering herself to them as to put the greater interest in the background.'

As compared with the generality of festivals observed in honour of Saints, the dedication of a day to the memory of St. Andrew is of more than average antiquity; and its institution may be pretty exactly referred to A.D. 358, in which year his remains, together with those of St. Luke, were, by order of the Emperor Constantius, transferred to Constantinople, and there deposited in the great church