St. Matthias,

FEBRUARY 24.

HE date of the introduction of this festival is involved in considerable obscurity. It appears to have been established in the Greek Church in the course of the eleventh century. It was, perhaps, partially, observed in the West before that time; but it is entirely omitted in many ancient calendars. Dr. Waterland observes, in a MS. note on Wheatly, "The oldest authority I have yet met with is the Calendar in Athelstan's Psalter, Cotton Libr. A.D. 703."

The observance of the day among ourselves has been attended with some confusion. The Common Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth directs that, in Leap years, an intercalary or additional day should be supplied between the twenty-third and the twentyfourth of February; and hence St. Matthias's Day, which in common years was observed on the twenty-fourth of February, was in Leap years celebrated on the twenty-fifth. But in the review of our Liturgy it was thought more proper to add a twenty-ninth day to February; so that now, there being no variation of the days, this festival must always keep to the twenty-fourth of that month. In the Greek Church, the Day of St. Matthias is observed on the ninth of August.

Although Matthias was not an Apostle of the first election, immediately called and chosen by our Saviour, and although his name does not emerge into notice before the occasion of the solemn service held between the Ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for the appointment of a successor to the traitor Judas, Eusebius quotes from the Hypotyposes or Institutions of

* Riddle's Manual of Christian Antiquities.

Clement of Alexandria, a very decided and reasonable opinion that not only Matthias, but Barsabas, the unsuccessful candidate with him for the honour of the Apostolate, was one of the seventy disciples whom Christ commissioned to be the heralds of His own approach throughout the cities of Judæa (Luke x. 1—16).* So · much, indeed, is clearly to be inferred from the expression of St. Peter, that the choice of a new Apostle should be made from amongst those 'men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us' (Acts i. 21, 22).

The allusions to St. Matthias in the New Testament are of the scantiest; but from other authorities it is safe to believe that he was a member of a noble family of the tribe of Judah, and that from his early childhood he had been carefully instructed in the divine law.

Part of the doctrine of the Festival of St. Matthias is a warning and a terror. His introduction into the Apostolate reminds us of a previous miserable secession; his promotion, of a voluntary degradation, and perdition. The living and faithful Apostle is a substitute for a self-slain traitor. The literal sin of Judas does not admit of repetition. Only once was it within the possible of an unutterable Baseness to betray an unutterable Friendship; and to-day even covetousness itself, if it could become incarnate, could not palpably make merchandise of the Son of Man. Yet in more subtle forms is the betrayal of the Saviour of every-day recurrence. It requires for this purpose no overt treason, no active sacrilege, no malicious opposition. The Master may be sacrificed afresh by omission not less than by commission; the folded arm may betray as surely as the kiss and the open hand. Luxury and sloth are as effectual bribes as thirty poor pieces of silver; and of such bribes whose hands are clean? It is not for us, from any cause soever, to void the work which Providence has committed to our trust. Neither from disloyalty nor faintness of heart have we any right to enter into the unblest rest of an anticipated Sabbath. It is not for us to hang back as cowards when doughtier champions are leading the attack upon the powers of evil. It is not for us; hesitating and uncertain between the poles of pity and fastidiousness, to forbear the touch that might carry health to the plague-stricken. But if we do so forbear, we may be sure that God has agents in reserve. Nature is wealthy, and no one man is necessary to her processes; she did not groan to fashion even him who may seem the most indispensable. The task and the sphere which may appear the most personal and proper to the possessor of certain gifts and capabilities, are equally proper and personal to scores of yet Eusebius Ecclesiastical History; book ii., c. I.

*

TREASON OF SELF-INDULgence.

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undeclared competitors. It may be that in the prodigality of Nature, and her carelessness of the individual, men may be superseded in the very occupation to which her finger seemed especially pointing them. Merely to be superseded, therefore, when it does not arise from our own consent or complicity, whether of action or supineness, does not imply fault or disgrace, and duty is clear without the impediment of such calculations. We are to see that no man take our crown, at least of will and of effort; we are to be careful that of us the fearful voice should never be heard by way of censure and complaint, His bishoprick let another take.'

The same retrospective glance at Judas which formed the motive of the just-preceding paragraph, is exemplified in a poem entitled 'Self-Condemnation,' of which holy George Herbert' is the author.

Thou who condemnest Jewish hate,

For choosing Barabbas a murderer

Before the Lord of glory;

Look back upon thine own estate,
Call home thine eye (that busy wanderer)
That choice may be thy story.

He that doth love, and love amiss,
This world's delights before true Christian joy,
Hath made a Jewish choice:

The world an ancient murderer is ;
Thousands of souls it hath and doth destroy
With her enchanting voice.

He that hath made a sorry wedding
Between his soul and gold, and hath preferred
False gain before the true,

Hath done what he condemns in reading:
For he hath sold for money his dear Lord,
And is a Judas-Jew.

Thus we prevent the last great day,

And judge ourselves. That light which sin and passion
Did before dim and choke,

When once those snuffs are ta'en away,
Shines bright and clear, even unto condemnation,

Without excuse or cloak.

A more modern rendering of the humble self-consciousness of the foregoing poem is given in a few verses which occur in the Churchman's Family Magazine' for March, 1866, where, with reference to St. Mark xiv. 18, 19, they bear the title, 'Who is the Traitor ?'

I sat at supper with my Lord,

Ere yet was broke the Paschal bread,
Ere yet the healing wine was poured-
The food by which a world is fed;
A trouble that was almost gloom
Hung care upon the face divine:
A traitor lifts his hand of doom
Upon the table, near to Mine.'

So spake the Ruler of the Feast,

And smote the guests with sudden dread ;
Till one who leaned on Jesus' breast
Raised his but now reclining head.
Could it be self-distrust that made
Him put a question in reply ;
Was Love of loss of love afraid,
That he should murmur, Is it I?'
Who was a Rock for steadfastness,
Who was for zeal a very flame,
Next asked the question, fearing less
Than Love to earn a traitor's name.
No doubt did that frank forehead wear;
Nor dimmed that eye of loyalty;
No faltering was there in the clear

Brave voice that uttered, 'Is it I ?'
Then he who once, when danger hung
Threatening above his Master's path,
Still to His perilous fortunes clung,
And dared the fierce Judæans' wrath ;
Who to his fellows,
'Let us go

Where He will lead, and with Him die !' Abased his voice, and, trembling, low Demanded, wondering, 'Is it I?'

The wise and watchful who had read

The signs by which the Christ was shown, And by the Law and Prophets led,

Had all fulfilled in Jesus known;

Who, guileless, bade a guileless friend
Draw to the new-found Saviour nigh,
In words where shame and sorrow blend,
Now tearful asks, Lord, is it I ?'

He who, immersed in sordid gain,

Braved all the public scorn of old;
Then, all things braving else, was fain
To close his books, and leave his gold;
Mindful perchance of former days
Sacred to base cupidity,

Fears more than others fear, and prays
A deprecation, 'Is it I?'

So one, and other. Yet no sign—

Love still shall keep its hold on love; Zeal still shall burn with fires divine: Weakness lean on the Strength above: Self-sacrifice itself shall gain,

And Constancy shall keep its vow; Devotion piety retain

And none be answered, 'It is thou!'

So one, so most. If none of these

Shall be the traitor to his Lord,

I bow my head upon my knees

And dare not breathe the testing word;

DEATH AND BURIAL.

For all my sins in judgment rise;
And conscience wails a bitter cry;

And shame and tears conceal mine eves:

'Lord, save Thou help me, it is I!'

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The first period of the ministry of St. Matthias was spent in Judæa, which is said by some to have fallen to him as his province at the division of the world made by the Apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit. Thence he is affirmed to have passed into Macedonia; whilst Sophronius relates that he traversed a considerable part of the outlying districts of (the Asian) Æthiopia. In all his labours he was distinguished for his zeal, activity, courage, and success. Concerning the death of St. Matthias, many conflicting opinions have found currency; and the theory that he died a natural and peaceful death has not altogether wanted for supporters. Julius Africanus, who identifies the Apostle with a certain Abdias, or Obadiah, records that he was beheaded at Naddarer, a large city of Æthiopia; but he cites as a prelude to this martyrdom, so grotesque an exercise of miraculous power in a presumed contest with the magicians Zaroe and Arphaxad, as lays his narrative open to the suspicion of having been a later invention. And Nicephorus, varying his narrative from that of Julius, yet invalidates his statements by bringing forward such particulars as are contradictory to accounts which are more worthily received, and more conclusively authenticated. Again, St. Matthias is said to have been seized in Galilee, about A.D. 62, whilst on his way to Jerusalem, and to have been carried before Ananias, the high priest, who had, some time previously, ordered the execution of St. James the Just, and who now caused St. Matthias to be beheaded with a battleaxe. Still another version, given in the Greek menæa, and corroborated by several ancient Breviaries, assigns Cappadocia as the country of his martyrdom, the mode of which is further said to have been crucifixion; so that, as Judas was hanged upon a tree, his more faithful successor resembled our Lord in the instrument and manner of his passion. The day of the death of St. Matthias is with more unanimity stated to have been the 24th of February; and it is frequently stated that his body, having been kept a long time at Jerusalem, was translated to Rome by Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, and by her placed in a tomb of porphyry, and deposited in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the head of the Apostle is still exhibited, in defiance of a rival claim set up in behalf of Treves for the possession of his relics.

A festival, one of whose leading ideas is the casting down of one Apostle, and the setting up of another to a bishopric in that worldwide province of which Christ is Metropolitan, offers a very fitting occasion for a consideration of the qualities requisite in those to whom is 'given the ministry of reconciliation.' The following