The Epistle. 2 Tim. iv. 5.

ATCH thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an Evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee; and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the copper-smith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou ware also, for he hath greatly withstood our words.

THE EPISTLE.-The occurrence of the name of Luke in this Epistle is sufficient to justify its being selected for the service of the day set apart to commemorate his labours. But the simple manner in which he is mentioned does not render the memorial which it conveys less forcible or pathetic. "Only Luke is with me." These words were penned when one of the noblest advocates that had ever been raised up to support the cause of truth and holiness stood exposed to the last efforts of tyranny for his destruction. Luke, as we find from the Acts of the Apostles, a narrative written by himself, had been the companion of St. Paul through a large portion of his perilous journeys; and now he was the sole attendant on that devoted servant of God in the season of approaching martyrdom. There must have been much of noble constancy and fortitude in the character of St. Luke to keep him thus watchful of the Apostle's comfort in this trial of faith. We may even conjecture that the Lord Himself, ever mindful of the state of His servants, ordered it that so devoted a minister of His Gospel as St. Paul might not be left without the consolations of friendship, and that of the highest and purest kind. The testimony, therefore, borne to the character of Luke, in this short and incidental expression of the Apostle's Epistle, is sufficient to recommend his memory to the affection of the wise and holy of all ages. May we be as faithful to Christ and His people as was this primitive Evangelist, who has taught us so many and such valuable truths!

The Gospel. St. Luke x. 1.

HE Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire.

THE GOSPEL.-St. Luke is supposed to have been one of the seventy disciples, and as mention is made of Luke the beloved physician, he is said to have practised medicine, besides which tradition ascribes to him no small proficiency in the art of painting. If he was a native of Antioch, a place celebrated for its luxury and refinement, it is not impossible that this tradition may be true, though it rests on a basis which can claim but little credit. After leaving St. Paul, he is supposed to have travelled into Egypt, and subsequently through several parts of Greece, at last ending a life spent in labours in every way profitable to the Church by martyrdom. Jerome, as quoted by Dr. Lardner, says, "Luke, a physician of Antioch, not unskilful in the Greek language, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and the constant companion of his travels, wrote a Gospel, and another excellent volume, entitled the Acts of the Apostles. It is supposed that Luke did not learn his Gospel from the Apostle Paul only, who had not conversed with the Lord in the flesh, but also from other Apostles. Therefore he wrote the Gospel from the information of others: but the Acts he composed from his own knowledge." Theophylact, another of the fathers, says, "There are four Evangelists, two of which, Matthew and John, were of the choir of the twelve Apostles: the other two, Mark and Luke, were of the number of the Seventy. Mark was a disciple and companion of Peter, Luke of Paul. Luke wrote fifteen years after Christ's ascension." Most of what is here said, and almost all the popular traditions respecting St. Luke, are rejected by Lardner as very suspicious. He doubts the account given of his being a Syrian, and a native of Antioch. "We do not," he says, " find it in Irenæus, nor Clement of Alexandria, nor Tertullian, nor Origen, nor in any other writer before Eusebius. Probably, therefore, it is not founded on any general or wellattested tradition; but was the invention of some conjectural writer, who, having first imagined, out of his own head, that Luke was originally a Gentile, at length determined that he was converted by Paul at Antioch. But all this was taken up without any good ground, or sufficient authority; and Luke may have been a believer before either Paul or Barnabas went to Antioch." So little is the confidence which can be placed on any information merely traditional.

Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast built 715 thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head cornerstone; Grant us so to be joined

together in unity of spirit by their

doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE COLLECT.-God was pleased at the beginning, and has ever since exercised a similar mercy, to raise up a sufficient number of holy men to communicate the truth to all who were willing to receive it. Jesus Christ was the appointed corner-stone of the living temple. Apostles and prophets were filled with the spirit of holiness that they might lay the foundation in words of living and substantial power. If on this foundation we are ourselves to be built up, the unity of the Spirit must bind us together in one common bond of harmony with all God's people. By this alone can we become a holy temple, acceptable to the Lord, through the Saviour Christ.

The Epistle. St. Jude 1.

UDE, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

THE EPISTLE. Jude, surnamed Thaddeus, or Lebbæus, was the brother of James the Less. He attached himself to Christ at an early period of the Saviour's labours, and continued faithful unto the end. If tradition can be depended upon, he remained in Palestine some time after our Lord's ascension. Having finished his task in the provinces nearer home, he is said to have travelled into Arabia, and then into Syria and Mesopotamia, continuing to preach the word of God, as at first delivered to the saints. It has been reported by some writers that he died a martyr in Persia; but the more general belief is that he spent his last days at Edessa, where he was allowed to end his life in the uninterrupted preaching of the Gospel. It is reported, on the authority of Jerome, that it was Jude who was sent to preach the Gospel to Agbarus, king of Osroene; but Eusebius says that Thomas sent to Edessa Thaddeus, one of Christ's seventy disciples, to preach the Gospel there.

The Gospel. St. John xv. 17.

The ser

HESE things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, vant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your's also. But all these things will they do unto you for my Name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen, and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

And ye

THE GOSPEL.-Simon was surnamed the Canaanite, or Zelotes, to distinguish him from Simon Peter. The former of these names has the same meaning in Hebrew which the latter has in Greek, and was the characteristic title of those who belonged to the sect of the Zealots. When the other Apostles left Jerusalem, Simon, it is said, went to Egypt, and thence into Libya. How long he continued there we have no certain means of learning; but tradition reports that on his leaving those parts he came to Britain, where, after preaching the Gospel for some time, he was put to death by crucifixion. Thus did our Lord's words, "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you," find a fulfilment in the case of all who devoted themselves to the early preaching of His Gospel. Surely we ought frequently to ask ourselves whether the perfect freedom we enjoy while professing the Gospel, may not spring as much from the laxity of our principles and our morals, as from the favourable circumstances in which we are apparently placed.