Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord

PHILOCHRISTUS
Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord

LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL, E. C.
TO THE AUTHOR OF ‘ECCE HOMO’ NOT MORE IN ADMIRATION OF HIS WRITINGS THAN IN GRATITUDE FOR THE SUGGESTIVE INFLUENCE OF A LONG AND INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP.
PHILOCHRISTUS THE ELDER TO THE SAINTS OF THE CHURCH IN LONDINIUM, GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE FROM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Forasmuch as almost all those disciples who with me saw the Lord Jesus in the flesh, are now fallen asleep, and I myself am well stricken in years and daily expect the summons of the Lord; it hath therefore seemed good to me to bequeath unto you some memorial of Christ in writing; which, instead of my voice, shall testify to you of him for ever.
For this cause I was long ago moved, even from the second or third year after the destruction of the Holy City, to leave some record behind me to testify of the Lord. But when I adventured to write, behold, it was an hard matter and well-nigh impossible, to set forth such an image of the Lord Jesus as should be at once according to the truth, and yet not altogether too bright for mortal eye to look upon and love. Therefore at the last, when I perceived that it was not given unto me to portray any character of the Lord as he was in himself, I determined rather to set forth an history of mine own life; wherein, as in a mirror, might perchance be discerned some lineaments of the countenance of Christ, seen as by reflexion, in the life of one that loved him.
PHILOCHRISTUS
My former name was Joseph the son of Simeon, and I was born in Sepphoris, the metropolis of Galilee, in the twentieth year of the reign of the Emperor Augustus, about four years before the death of King Herod. In those days Israel was grievously afflicted, and tribulation befell the righteous. Satan put it into the heart of the rulers of the land to move the people to the worship of false gods, and the Lord God had not yet raised up a Redeemer for Israel.