JOHN, SAINT, THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST. Among the persona who at the commencement of his ministry joined them selves to our Saviour were two brothers, named James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were both admitted by him into the number of his 'I'welve Apostles, and John was throughout distinguished by him with peculiar marks of regard. lie speaks of himself, in the account which he left of the ministry of Jesus, as the disciple whom Jesus loved ; and whenever a very few only of the apostles were to be employed by Jesus, or to accompany him, John was always one of the number, James and Peter being usually the others.
At the Last Supper we find him leaning on the bosom of Jesus. He attended Jesus in the garden and in the hall of the high-pricet. He accompanied him to Calvary, and when Jesus was hanging on the cross John drew near, and while the miraculous darkness struck fear into the hearts of those who were employed in the work of death, ho entered into conversation with Jesus, who commended to him the care of his mother Mary. This dying request of our Lord the apostle seems to have regarded as a sacred injunction, for he took her from that time to his own house.
After the resurrection of Jesus he was again distinguished by his notice ; and when Jesus had ascended to heaven, and the interests of the Gospel were committed especially to those who had been chosen by him out of the world, John became one of the leading persons in the Church ; acting in concert with the other apostles, aud especially Peter and James, till the history in the ' Acts of the Apostles' ceases to notice what was done by the other apostles, and is confined to the travels and labours of Saint Paul.
Saint John's labours in the Church were chiefly among the inhabit ant, of Syria and Asia Minor, and to doubt he had a large share in planting Christianity in those provinces, where for a time it flourished greatly ; but Christian antiquity does not present to us many parti culars of the labours of the apostles, and we learn from it respecting John little more on which dependence may be safely placed than that he resided at Ephesus in the latter part of his life, and died in extreme old ago.
Two pleasing stories are related of him by early Christian writers deserving of regard : ono that, when too feeble to do more, he was wont to be carried into the assemblies of Christians at Ephesus, saying, as he went along, "My little children, Iove one another." The other respects his conduct to a young mau who had joined a party of banditti. But when we read in those writers that he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, and camo out unhurt, distrust arises, aud we question the sufficiency of the evidence. There is however little reason to doubt that lie was at one period of his life banished to the island of Patmos, and that there he wrote the book called the Apocalypse,' or Revelation.' There are also preserved three epistles of his : but the moat valuable of his writings which have descended to our time is the 'Gospel according to Saint John.' This Gospel is unlike the other three in several respects, and is supposed by those who have considered it to have been written with some especial purpose, either as a kind of sup plement to the other evangelists, which was the opinion of Euaebius, or with a view to the refutation of certain erroueous notions respecting our Saviour which had begun to prevail before the long life of Saint John was brought to a close : but with whatever design it was com posed it must ever be regarded as amongst the most valuable testimonies to the life, character, and doctrine of Jesus.