II.
The Occasion of the Night-Long Peayer.
1. We come here to a new departure in our Lord's Messianic mission. The selection of the Twelve by Jesus from among those who had been led to believe in Him, to be His Apostles, and be with Him during His earthly ministry, and then take up the work, and carry it forward after He left the world, is an important
' J. Stalker, Imago Christi, 138. 2 M. Lonsdale, Sister Dora, 102.
172 PRAYER AND CHOICE
landmark in the history of the gospel dispensation. We are not informed as to the particular time in His ministry at which He made the selection, but we know that He had preached and laboured for some time alone and single-handed. It seems that His selection of the Apostles at this time had become a necessity to Him in carrying forward the work for which He came into the world. He had won many followers, and as it was necessary that some should be with Him all the time to be His witnesses, and as the multitudes who attended on His ministry could not follow Him from place to place, especially in the journeys that marked the latter part of His ministry, He chose the Twelve for this purpose, and ordained them to this end. So Mark tells us that Jesus called unto Him whom He would, and they came unto Him, and He chose twelve that they should be with Him.
^ There is one letter to his sister written from Massowah in 1878, in which General Gordon writes freely about mission work in North Africa.
" There is not the least doubt that there is an immense virgin field for an apostle in these countries among the black tribes. But where will you find an apostle ? 1 will explain what I mean by that term. He must be a man who has died entirely to the world ; who has no ties of any sort ; who longs for death when it may please God to take him ; who can bear the intense dullness of these countries ; who seeks for few letters ; and who can bear the thought of dying deserted. Now, there are few, very, very few men, who can accept this post. But no half-measures will do. ... A man must give up everything, understand everything, to do anything for Christ here. No half nor three-quarter measures will do. And yet, what a field ! " ^
2. This new departure called for special preparation and prayer. When we consider the ground on which this election of Apostles had to be made, the work to which they were to be called, we can the better understand why even He should have spent the whole night in prayerful preparation for the task of the coming day.
These men were to be the companions of His ministry, fellow- workers unto His Kingdom, workers of miracles in His name, preachers of His gospel of salvation from sin and death ; and, above all, living witnesses, when He had gone from the world,
^ B. E. Speer, Some Great Leaders, 292
ST. LUKE VI. 12, 13 173
both of the historic truths of His life, and of the supernatural and holy character of the religion He set forth by word and deed. This is the chief point — they were to be witnesses of Him ; not so much of what He said and did, as of w^hat He was in Himself ; witnesses of His holiness, of His grace, of His Divine love and compassion and sympathy for men ; witnesses in their own lives to the power of His life to sanctify and uplift and save men. He foresees that they will have to take in hand His work when He is no more with them in the flesh, and to be responsible under God for carrying it on in His name. The heaviest part of their task will consist, not in having to speak of Him and for Him, but in having to show to the world what was the spirit of His own perfect life. The Apostles themselves felt this. Speaking for them all — himself included — Paul declares the purpose of their ministry to be, " that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." Every true-hearted and well-instructed Christian worker feels this to-day. Christ foresaw it all on this night of ceaseless prayer ; and His chief care was to have men morally and spiritu- ally capable of being witnesses to His truth and holiness.
^ Afterwards he said : " That was an awful thought of Euskin's, that artists paint God for the world. There's a lump of greasy pigment at the end of Michael Angelo's hog-bristle brush, and by the time it has been laid on the stucco, there is something there that all men with eyes recognize as divine. Think of what it means. It is the power of bringing God into the world — making God manifest. It is giving back her Child that was crucified to Our Lady of the Sorrows." ^
3. In most respects this was the most important work that had ever been done for the world. As the sun rose to chase away the darkness from the eastern horizon, the Sun of Eighteous- ness arose from a sleepless night spent in prayer to chase away the moral and spiritual darkness that had so long covered the earth, and the gross darkness that to so great an extent covers the people to this day. This was the first organized effort at the world's evangelization. This was the first missionary society ever organized for the purpose of preaching the gospel to every creature. In the glorious light of our gospel day, this was a morning worthy of everlasting remembrance. There is missionary