Small Books on Great Subjects.—XI.
THE MAKING OF AN APOSTLE.
By R. J. Campbell.
LONDON: JAMES CLARKE & CO.,
13 & 14, Fleet Street.
1898.
First Edition, October, 1898.
Contents.
The Making of an Apostle
Simon Meets with Jesus
The Call to Service
Simon's First Commission as a Preacher
Simon Acknowledges Jesus to be the Christ
Simon Peter Witnesses the Transfiguration
Peter Thinks his Sacrifice Complete
The Scene in the Upper Room
Gethsemane and After
The Power of the Resurrection
A New Commission
The Prince of the Apostles
The New Testament supplies us with little in the way of biography.Even from the Gospels themselves we do not gather much concerning theactual life of our Lord apart from His public ministry. It has beenjustly said that no person has ever influenced the history of the worldon such a scale as Jesus of Nazareth, yet it would be impossible towrite a chronological life of the Founder of Christianity. What istrue of the Master is true of His followers. We know very little aboutthe Apostles themselves; apart from their life-work of preachingChrist, the details of their circumstances and fortunes are mostmeagre. Yet it is worth while from such materials as we have toattempt to trace the influence of Jesus Christ upon those through whomHe founded His Church upon earth. The choice of Apostles, forinstance, is sometimes regarded as having been made in a veryexceptional or semi-miraculous way, that Jesus summoned to His sideindividuals upon whom His gaze fell for the first time, and that thesemen forthwith became the instruments of His service. But fromcomparison of the Gospel narratives we discover that very interestinglife-stories might be written concerning the men who stood closest toJesus during His earthly ministry. We find, as we might have expected,that Jesus took in them an active personal interest, that their liveswere shaped under His influence as clay in the hands of the potter,that He had a plan with each of them, and patiently worked at it, thatHe applied to them a discriminating treatment and placed upon each hisown individual value. Is not the same process going forward even now?Does not the risen Lord still continue to issue His summonses to thesouls of men? We feel that it were better to think so, and that He bywhom the very hairs of our head are all numbered still gives to Hisservants in the world individual care, interest and attention,fashioning heroes and saints out of the most unpromising materials, andmaking apostles as in the days of old.
As an example of Jesus's ways of dealing with His servants the life ofthe Apostle Peter is most suggestive. In the first place, because hewas admitted to be the leader of the Apostles, or at any rate occupied