13 And he goeth up into a moun- tain, and callcth unto Mm whom he would : and they came unto him.
14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preachj
15 And to have power to heal sick- nesses, and to cast out devils :
16 And Simon he surnamed Peter ;
17 And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James ; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder :
18 And Andrew, and Philip, and
Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Al- phseus, and Thaddseus, and Simon the Canaanite,
19 And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him : and they went into an house.
20 And the multitude cometh to- gether again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him : for they said, He is beside him- self.
The beginning of this passage describes the appoint- ment of the twelve apostles. It is an event in our Lord's earthly ministry, which should always be read with deep interest. What a vast amount of benefit these few men
* In connection with this subject, Bishop Butler's Sermon on Re- sentment deserves perusal. He says at the conclusion of it : " That passion, from whence men take occasion to run into the dreadful sins of malice and revenge, even that passion, as implanted in our nature by God, is not only innocent but a generous movement of mind. It is in itself, and in its original, no more than indignation against injury and wickedness — that which is the only deformity in the creation, and the only reasonable object of abhorrence and dislike." — Bishop Butler.