There was another movement of a very different kind, with which we know that he did sympathize heartily. After centuries of dreary silence, in which it seemed as if Jehovah had deserted His chosen people, a thrill went through the land that God had again visited them, and that a Prophet had once more appeared. His was a call, not to resist foreign taxation or to throw off the yoke of Rome, but to withstand their own temptations and to break the heavy bondage of their own crying sins: 'Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' S. John heard and followed, and from the Baptist learnt to know and at once to follow 'the Lamb of God' that was to do what the lambs provided by man in the Temple could never do—'take away the sin of the world.' In the Baptist's teaching, as in that of Christ, S. John gives us a profounder element than that set forth by the Synoptists. They give repentance as the substance of his preaching. S. John insists rather on his heralding the Messiah. Assuming that the unnamed disciple (i. 40) is S. John, we infer (i. 41) that he proceeded to bring his brother S. James to Jesus as S. Andrew had brought S. Peter. But from 'that day' (i. 39), that never to be forgotten day, the whole tenour of the young man's life was changed. The disciple of the Baptist had become the disciple of Christ.

After remaining with Jesus for a time he seems to have gone back to his old employment; from which he was again called, and possibly more than once (Matt. iv. 18; Luke v. 1—11), to become an Apostle and fisher of men. Then the group of the chosen three is formed. At the raising of Jairus' daughter, at the Transfiguration, and in the Garden of Gethsemane, 'Peter, 'James, and John' are admitted to nearer relationship with their Lord than the rest; and on one other solemn occasion, when He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem (Mark xiii. 3), S. Andrew also is with them. In this group, although S. Peter takes the lead, it is S. John who is nearest and dearest to the Lord, 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.'

On three different occasions the burning temper of the 'sons of thunder' displayed itself. (1) 'And John answered Him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and

he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us' (Mark ix. 38; Luke ix. 49); a touch of zealous intolerance which reminds us of Joshua's zeal against Eldad and Medad (Numb. xi. 28), as Christ's reply recalls the reply of Moses. Probably his brother S. James is included in the 'we forbad him.' (2), When the Samaritan villagers refused to receive Him, 'because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem,' His disciples James and John said, 'Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?' (Luke ix. 54). Once again their zeal for their Master makes them forget the spirit of their Master. (3) On the last journey to Jerusalem Salome, as the mouthpiece of her two sons (Matt. xx. 20; Mark x. 35), begs that they may sit, the one on the Messiah's right hand, and the other on His left, in His kingdom. This is their bold ambition, shewing that in spite of their close intimacy with Him, they are still grossly ignorant of the nature of His kingdom. And in their reply to His challenge the same bold temper and burning zeal are manifest. They are willing to go through the furnace in order to be near the Son of God. When S. John and his mother stood beside the Cross, and when S. James won the crown of martyrdom, Christ's challenge was taken up and their aspiration fulfilled.

It will not be necessary to recount at length the history of the last Passover, in which S. John is a prominent figure. As he gives us so much more than the Synoptists about the family at Bethany, we may infer that he was a more intimate friend of Lazarus and His sisters. He and S. Peter prepare the Last Supper (Luke xxii. 8), at which S. Peter prompts him to ask who is the traitor; and after the betrayal S. John gets his friend introduced into the high-priest's palace. He followed his Master to judgment and death, was the one Apostle who dared to stand beside the Cross, and received His Mother as a farewell charge (xviii. 15, xix. 26, 27). His friend's fall does not break their friendship, and they visit the sepulchre together on Easter morning. (On the characteristics of the two as shewn in this incident see notes on xx. 4-6.) We find them still together in Galilee,

seeking refreshment in their suspense by resuming their old calling (xxi. 2); and here again their different characters shew themselves (see notes on xxi. 7). S. Peter's thought is ever "What must I do?' S. John's is rather 'What will He do?' The one acts; the other watches and waits. S. Peter cries, 'Let us make three tabernacles!' 'Shall we smite with the sword?' S. John sees and believes. And the Gospel closes with Christ's gentle rebuke to S. Peter's natural curiosity about his friend.

In the Acts S. John appears but seldom, always in connexion with, and always playing a second part to his friend (Acts iii., iv., viii. 14–25). We lose sight of him at Jerusalem (viii. 25) after the return from Samaria; but he was not there at the time of S. Paul's first visit (Gal. i. 18, 19). Some twelve or fifteen years later (c. A.D. 50) he seems to have been at Jerusalem again (Acts xv. 6), but for how long we cannot tell. Nor do we know why he left. Excepting his own notice of himself, as being 'in the island called Patmos for the word and testimony of Jesus' (Rev. i. 9), the N. T. tells us nothing further respecting him.

(ii) From the Departure from Jerusalem to his Death.

For this period, with the exception of the notice in the Apocalypse just quoted, we are entirely dependent upon traditions of very different value. The conjecture that S. John lived at Jerusalem until the death of the Virgin, and that this set him free, is unsupported by evidence. Some think that she accompanied him to Ephesus. The persecution which followed the martyrdom of S. Stephen would loosen S. John's attachment to Jerusalem. From that time it became less and less the heart of Christendom. It would be during this prolonged residence at Jerusalem that he acquired that minute knowledge of the topography of the city which marks the Fourth Gospel.

It is quite uncertain whether the Apostle went direct from Jerusalem to Ephesus; but of two things we may be confident: (1) that wherever he was he was not idle, (2) that he was not at Ephesus when S. Paul bade farewell to that Church (Acts xx.), nor when he wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians, nor when he

wrote the Pastoral Epistles. That S. John did work at Ephesus during the latter part of his life may be accepted as certain, unless the whole history of the subapostolic age is to be pronounced doubtful; but neither the date of his arrival nor of his death can be fixed. He is described (Polycrates in Eus. H. E. III. xxxi. 3, v. xxiv. 3) as a priest wearing the sacerdotal plate or mitre (Téтaλov) which was a special badge of the highpriest (Exod. xxxix. 30); and we learn from the Apocalypse that from Ephesus as a centre he directed the churches of Asia Minor, which, after the fall of Jerusalem, became the most living portion of Christendom. What persecution drove him to Patmos or caused him to be banished thither is uncertain, as also is the date of his death, which may be placed somewhere near A.D. 100.

Of the traditions which cluster round this latter part of his life three deserve more than a passing mention. (1) John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, crying out, 'Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall on us, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within' (Iren. III. iii. 4). Epiphanius (Haer. xxx. 24) substitutes Ebion for Cerinthus. Both Cerinthus and the Ebionites denied the reality of the Incarnation. This tradition, like the incidents recorded, Luke ix. 49, 54, shews that in later life also the spirit of the 'son of thunder' was still alive within him.

(2) After his return from Patmos he made a tour to appoint bishops or presbyters in the cities. In one place a lad of noble bearing attracted his attention, and he specially commended him to the bishop, who instructed and at last baptized him. Then he took less care of him, and the young man went from bad to worse, and at last became chief of a set of bandits. The Apostle revisiting the place remembered him and said, 'Come, bishop, restore to me my deposit,' which confounded the bishop, who knew that he had received no money from S. John. 'I demand the young man, the soul of a brother;' and then the sad story had to be told. The Apostle called for a horse, and rode at once to the place infested by the bandits and was soon taken by them. When the chief recognised him he turned to b

ST JOHN

fly. But the aged Apostle went after him and entreated him to stay, and by his loving tears and exhortations induced him to return with him to the church, to which in due time he restored him (Eus. H.E. III. xxxiii. from Clement of Alexandria).

(3) Towards the very end of his life, when he was so infirm that he had to be carried to church and was too weak to preach, he used often to say no more than this, 'Little children, love one another.' His hearers at last wearied of this, and said, 'Master, why dost thou always say this?' 'It is the Lord's command,' he replied, 'and if this alone is done, it is enough' (Jerome, Comm. in Ep. ad Gal. vi. 10).

Other traditions may be dismissed more briefly; but the first rests on respectable authority: that he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil at Rome and was none the worse (Tertullian, Praescr. Haer. xxxvi.); that he drank hemlock without being harmed by it; that in his old age he amused himself with a partridge, and pleaded that a bow could not always be bent, but needed relaxation; that after he was buried the earth above him heaved with his breathing, shewing that he was only asleep, tarrying till Christ came. This last strange story S. Augustine is disposed to believe: those who know the place must know whether the soil does move or not; and he has heard it from no untrustworthy people. The belief bears testimony to the unique position held by the last surviving Apostle. Even when he was in his grave Christians refused to believe that they had lost him.

These fragments form a picture, which (as was said at the outset) although very incomplete is harmonious, and so far as it goes distinct. The two sides of his character, tender love and stern intolerance, are the one the complement of the other; and both form part of the intensity of his nature. Intensity of action, intensity of thought and word, intensity of love and hate these are the characteristics of the beloved disciple. In the best sense of the phrase S. John was 'a good hater,' for his hatred was part of his love. It was because he so loved the truth, that he so hated all lukewarmness, unreality, insincerity, and falsehood, and was so stern towards 'whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.' It is because he so loved his Lord, that he shews