Persecution scattered Christians who fled from Jerusalem, telling wherever they went, of Christ as the Saviour. A deacon named Philip preached in Samaria with great effect. "Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost."
These two were chosen because they had taken the most active part in establishing the church in Jerusalem, and were specially fitted for similar work elsewhere. With what peculiar feelings John must have entered Samaria. He must have recalled a day when hot and weary he had journeyed thither with his Lord and met the Samaritaness at the well. Perhaps he now met her again, and together they talked over that wonderful conversation which made her the first missionary to her people, many of whom declared, "We know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world."
Did John on this visit enter into "a village of the Samaritans"—the same where he had said, "Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" Is it of them that it is now said he "prayed for them"? His fire of indignation and revenge had changed to the fire of love. The pentecostal flames had rested on his head.
Once more—only once—we find the names of James and John together. One short sentence, full of pathos, of injustice and cruelty, of affection and sorrow, tells a story of the early Church: Herod "killed James the brother of John with the sword." He was the first martyr of the Apostles. The smaller circle of the three, and the larger one of the twelve, is broken. For these brothers we may take up David's lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, slightly changed, and say, "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives: but in their death they were divided,"—for through half a century John mourned the loss of his loved companion from childhood.
After James—one of the three whom Paul named pillars—had fallen, the other two, Peter and John, stood for awhile side by side in strength and beauty. To each of them he might have given the name Jachin by which one of the pillars of Solomon's temple was called, meaning, "whom God strengthens." Peter was the next to fall, after which John long stood alone, until at last the three whom first we saw by the Sea of Galilee, stood together by the glassy sea, in each of them fulfilled the promise made through John, by their Lord,—"He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more."
