S. SIMON AND S. JUDE.

OCTOBER 28.

How humble ought it to make us feel to remember that persons so holy, so good, and so honoured as to be Apostles and disciples of our LORD, are so little known, have had so little said about them, as S. Simon and S. Jude. And, indeed, this is the case with some other Apostles also. S. Paul, S. Luke, S. John, S. Peter, S. James, we are told a good deal about in the history of their acts, written by S. Luke; but of S. Simon and S. Jude we know very little, except that they loved our SAVIOUR, venerated Him, toiled in His Church in His Name, took long perilous journeys through hostile and perhaps savage countries to spread the knowledge of Him, and finally suffered most cruel deaths for His sake.

S. Simon is called Simon the Canaanite and Simon Zelotes. Both these names, ' Canaanite' and 'Zelotes' have perhaps the same

meaning, and indicate that Simon showed great zeal for the Christian faith, and was most earnest and ardent in the service of his SAVIOUR.

After the death of JESUS, he remained in Jerusalem until after the Feast of Pentecost, when, with the other Apostles of our LORD, he received that most wonderful gift of the HOLY GHOST, about which you have read in another part of this book; a gift of strength and power which neither he nor any of the rest had before, to go and preach and teach about our SAVIOUR to all nations and in all countries, speaking to each their own language, of which before he did not know a word.

He went into various countries; into Egypt, of which you have read in the history of Jacob and Joseph, and among other nations, of whom perhaps you hardly know anything; but it is said by some of those who have written about him that he came at last into our own country. Britain, as England was then called, was a very wild, terrible, barbarous, heathen place. Where we now see sunny corn-fields, and meadows, and gardens, venerable churches, and cheerful busy towns and villages, was then all thick dark woods, overrun with wild beasts, savage bears and wolves; and the people who lived in it were almost as savage as the beasts.

The people all of them went naked, or

nearly so, and painted their bodies over with blue paint. They used spears, and bows and arrows, both in fighting their enemies (and they were very quarrelsome) and in killing animals and birds for food: and their drinking cups were large shells. And how very rude, and savage, and ignorant they were, you will guess, when I tell you that when a baby was born-a poor little, weak, helpless baby-it was always brought to its father, and the very first taste of food it ever had in this world was put into its little mouth on the point of its father's sword. And this they did from the very foolish notion that it would make the little baby into a brave man.

This was not only very foolish, but the people in our country at that time were sad heathens; for they worshipped idols, images of wood and stone, and killed men and women and children at the feet of these idols; and sometimes they put numbers of them, men, women, and children, into large cages made of wicker work, like basket work, and burnt them alive. And this they called religion.

So S. Simon was one of those holy men who, it is said, came here to teach us the one true religion, as he had learnt it from our blessed SAVIOUR. And after him came others and others, many of them; and by degrees these fearful practices ceased, and we became more like Christians; very far indeed from what

we ought to be, but, as you must know, very different from what I have been telling you. But, you see, it was a very brave thing for one man to venture himself among hundreds of such terrible and wicked people. We cannot wonder that Simon was called Zelotes, the brave, earnest man, full of zeal, and determined to preach what he knew was true and holy. Perhaps he knew that this earnestness and zeal were to cost him his life, but if he did, it did not make him draw back. He, like that other zealous Apostle, S. Paul, "counted the sufferings of the present time not worthy to be compared with the glory which should be revealed hereafter." For it did cost him his life.

But he did not live and work in vain. He brought many persons from their evil course. He taught and persuaded several of these wicked heathens to quit their evil, terrible lives, and instead of quarrelling and fighting all around, and doing all sorts of wickedness, to "do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with GOD," their SAVIOUR, of Whose gentle, holy life he told them. But, you see, these persons who did attend to him were but a trifling few, in comparison with the hundreds and thousands of people in all the country around; and these powerful wicked ones, in their wrath and violence, laid violent hands on this zealous preacher of our LORD's Gospel.

S. Simon became one of the holy army of martyrs; for the Britons seized him, and they crucified him.

S. Jude, the other Apostle, whose name we remember this day, had the honour to be a near relation of our LORD Himself; most likely, a cousin. Like S. Simon, whose name is joined with his, he was remarkable for his earnest zeal in praising GOD, and therefore was often called Thaddeus, a name which means earnest praise of God. He was also called Lebbæus, a name which signifies prudence and understanding. So, you see, though we have so few words about S. Jude, those words are in his high praise.

He was brother to S. James the Less, whose history you have read; and it seems likely that these names, Thaddeus and Lebbæus, though fully deserved by him from his admirable character and conduct, were, perhaps, more often given to him in order to distinguish him from the other disciple of the same name, Judas (Iscariot), the betrayer of the LORD. A sad thing it must have been for a good and holy man like S. Jude, as we now call him-Judas then-to have ever been mistaken for that bad and wicked man, Judas Iscariot.

At the last most awful and most holy supper, which our blessed SAVIOUR ate with His disciples on earth, and after which He esta