The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 73

"Here may we sit and dream Over the heavenly theme, Till to 0111' sonls the former days return: Till on the grassy bed, Where tholl8Bnds once he fed, The world's incarnate Maker we discern." IV. THE BUDJE0TB OF OUR SAVIOUR'S PREACHING, The precursor had been imprisoned in the castle of Machrerus, some nine miles east of the Dead Sea, in the district of Perrea; but the Prophet himself takes up the work. 'fhus it ever is. God buries his workmen, but carries on his work. The great theme of the Baptist, as we have seen, was repentance and correspondent reformation, yet with faith implied. The theme of repentance was resumed by Jesus, but with the other doctrine of faith not implicitly but explicitly taught. The doctrine of faith now comes into prominence- the doctrine of faith, and that not merely bare credence or simple assent to the good news, but faith in-reliance on the gospel as the great and only means of safety and salvation. He proclaims, moreover, the advent of Messiah's reign. That critical epoch had now come; that greatest era in all human history had arrived. V. DIFFERENCE IN THE USE OF TWO SYNONYMOUS TERMS. The kingdom is usually called by St. Matthew the "kingdom of heaven," and not "kingdom of God,n lest the latter expression might confirm the Jews, for whom in the first instance the evangelist wrote, in their erroneous apprehension of it as a great kingdom of a worldly and temporal kind, as by a Hebrew idiom the no.me" God" is joined to anything excessively great or extremely grand ; thus, we read of the "river of God," of" the cedars of God," and other similar expressions. By St. Luke, on the other hand, it is called the " kingdom of God n and not the "kingdom of heaven," lest the Gentiles, for whom this evangelist specially wrote, should misapprehend the expression as countenancing local divinities, as they were accustomed to gods and goddesses of different localities or quarters of the universe, such as Naiads, Nereids, Dryads, Hamadryads; gods of the ocean and of rivers; deities of the ethereal and infernal regions. This kingdom had been foreshadowed by Daniel in his vision of the great world-powers.-J. J. G. Vers. 16-20. Parallel passages: Matt. iv. 18-22; Luke v. 1-11.-The call of the I. PREVIOUS AND LESS FORMAL CALL. Our Lord now calls to his first /0'/J,r disciples. side the first four disciples-Andrew and John, Peter and James. With the former pair he had already made acquaintance when they were disciples of John the Baptist. The account which St. John in his Gospel gives of the matter is complementary, and throws light on it, enabling us to understand more clearly how it was that these two brethren showed snch alacrity and readiness in now obeying the Saviour's more formal call, and in following him. Andrew was one of the two disciples whose attention the Baptist directed to Jesus as "the Lamb of God," and John was in all probability the other, though, with his usual reserve, he does not name himself in the narrative. 'l'hese two were privileged to spend a day with Christ, by special invitation, from ten o'clock in the morning, if we adopt the modern reckoning; otherwise from four p.m. Andrew was the means of bringing his brother Simon Peter to Christ, and John may have tendered the same signal service to his brother James. In the interval between the first and this more formal call, these disciples had returned to the;r daily duties, biding their time till the Master would require their more special and active services. II. THE MISSIONARY BPmIT OF ANDREW. The ChriRtian spirit is in its very nature missionary. As soon as Andrew, with whom in one sense the Christian Church begins, got good for his own soul, he wished to share it with others; soon as he found Christ for himself, he set about making him known to others. His charity, too, begins at home, for he does not rest satisfied with the great discovery he had been favoured with, nor does he selfishly keep it to himself, he immediately goes in quest of his own brother, to communicate to him the good news. But though charity in his case beg1m at home, it did not confine itself to snch narrow domestic limits. On two other occasions we find Andrew similarly employed in bringing persons to Christ. It was he that brought the lad with the five barley loaves and the two small fishes to Christ, as we read in John vi. 8. Not only so; it was Andrew who, in company with his townsman Philip, iiltroduced to the Saviour those Greeks who, having come up to worship at the fea:.t., 70 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [ce. 1. l-45