Thus were the mighty labors of human ambition made subservient to the still greater achievements of divine benevolence; thus did the unholy triumphs of the hosts of heathenism become, in the hands of the All-wise, the surest means of spreading the holy and peace-making truths of Christianity, to the ends of the earth,——otherwise unapproachable without a miracle. The dominion which thus grew upon and over the vast empire of Rome, though growing with her growth and strengthening with her strength, sunk not with her weakness, but, stretching abroad fresh branches, whose leaves were for the healing of nations then unknown, showed its divine origin by its immortality; while, alas! its human modifications betrayed themselves in its diminished grace and ill-preserved symmetry. Yet in spite of these, rather than by means of them, it rose still mightier above the ruins of the empire, under whose shadow it had grown, till, at last, supplanting Roman and Goth alike, it fixed its roots on the seven hills of the Eternal city; where, thenceforth, for hundreds of years, the head of Christendom, ruling with a power more absolute than her imperial sway, saw more than the Roman world beneath him. Even to this day, vast and countless “regions, Caesar never knew,” own him of Rome as “the center of unity;” and lands
“farther west
Than the Greek’s islands of the blest,”
and farther east than the long unpassed bounds of Roman conquest, turn, with an adoration and awe immeasurably greater than the most exalted of the apotheosized Caesars ever received, to him who claims the name of the successor of the poor fisherman of Galilee.
Such, and so vast, was the revolution, to the achievement of which, the lives and deeds of the apostles most essentially contributed,——a revolution which, even if looked on as the result of mere human effort, must appear the most wonderful ever effected by such humble human means, as these narratives will show to have been used. The character of the men first chosen by the founder of the faith, as the instruments of spreading the lasting conquests of his gospel,——their birth, their country, their provincial peculiarities,——all marked them as most unlikely persons to undertake the overthrow of the religious prejudices even of their own countrymen; and still less groundless must have been the hope that any of Jewish race, however well taught in the wisdom of the world, could so far overcome the universal feeling of dislike, with which this peculiar nation were regarded, as to bring the learned, the powerful and the great of Rome and Greece, and of Eastern lands, to own a low-born Galilean workman as their guide to truth,——the author of their hopes of life eternal. Yet went they forth even to this task, whose achievement was so far beyond the range of human hopes; and with a zeal as far above the inspiration of human ambition, they gave their energies and their lives to this desperate commission. Without a hope of an earthly triumph or an earthly reward,——without even a prospect of a peaceful death or an honored grave, while they lived, they spent their strength fearlessly for him who SENT them forth; and when they died, their last breath went out in triumph at the near prospect of their lasting gain.
In giving the lives of these men, many incidents will require notice, in which no individual apostle was concerned alone, but the whole company to which he belonged. In each class of the apostles, these incidents will be given under the head of the principal person in that class, whose life is placed before the rest. Thus, those matters in which all the twelve had a common interest, and in which no particular apostle is named, will find a place in the life of Peter, their great leader; and among the later apostles, the distinct pre-eminence of Paul will, of course, cause all matters of common interest to be absorbed in his life, while of his companions nothing farther need be recorded, than those things which immediately concern them.