account in the service of his new Master. He reported in full the Sermon on the Mount and many other of our Lord's addresses, and, with the help of his fellow-Apostles, he recorded many of the more noteworthy events of their daily experience and observation. Thus he wrote, in the Aramaic tongue, those precious notes, or logia as Papias calls them, which copied and handed from one to another, gained a wide circulation, and became the sustenance of the early church.

Matthew is mentioned in the New Testament for the last time as one of those who were present at the meetings held in Jerusalem just before Pentecost. There is nothing but internal evidence to guide us as to whether he himself translated and redacted his notes into the existing Greek form of his Gospel. It is most probable that he did so. The editor was very fond of quoting from the Old Testament, and the original writer appears also to have had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. The natural inference is that writer and editor were one and the same person.

Peter and Andrew; James and John

The four men named above were probably intimate companions from infancy. Their fathers were doubtless both fishermen, neighbours and perhaps partners. It may be that the youthful Jesus was among the number of their friends. The readiness with which they left their all to follow Him at His bidding implies a degree of confidence which could only have been the result of long acquaintance. To the same cause also, and not alone to His divine intuition, must be attributed that perception of their characters which led Him to describe the true-hearted, strong-willed, clearheaded, cultured young brothers James and John, by the name Boanerges-sons of thunder. Nazareth was not much more than twenty miles from Capernaum, and it is probable that Jesus often visited the latter town, and that sometimes, when the sons of Zebedee and Jonas went for a sail on the

lake, the son of Mary made one of the party. That trait of our Lord's humanity, so conspicuous in the Gospel narrativesHis fondness for the sea-was doubtless as keen in His youth as it was in His manhood.

When first these disciples appear in history, they are themselves engaged in the fishery business in partnership with Zebedee, making in all a firm of at least five persons. The Galilean lake abounded with fish and supplied the surrounding population with a large portion of its food. The firm was in prosperous circumstances. It had in its employ hired servants. It possessed a number of boats, some of which were large enough to carry a good sized party on a lake liable to severe tempests. It appears to have had a fair stock of nets and other necessary tackle. It must also have owned sheds for the boats and some sort of warehouse or store wherein to sell the fish, salt the surplus when the catch was heavy, and keep the fish so preserved for sale as required. therefore not without reason that the partners regarded their "all" as considerable when, at a later period, they reminded their Master that they had left all to follow Him.

It was

To carry on a concern of that extent would involve, not merely the catching of fish and other labour requiring chiefly physical qualifications; but also a good deal of mercantile and clerical work. It would be needful to bear in mind the sorts of ware required by different classes of customers. Dealers who supplied poor neighbourhoods would take the commoner kinds of fish, whilst those who catered for the wealthy would purchase the choicer descriptions and pay a corresponding price. And accounts would have to be kept of the business done.

When after a night's toil on the sea the fishermen returned at early morning to the shore, they would find a motley crowd awaiting them-dealers from the neighbouring towns and villages, anxious to stock their barrows and baskets with the wares of the trade. The fish would be landed and taken to the warehouse where they would be sorted out on benches.

Then a busy time of cheapening and chaffering would ensue, with all the excitement and gesticulation that characterise buying and selling in Oriental markets. Time however would be precious both to sellers and buyers, and when the catch was a good one business would be brisk. As each sale was effected one of the firm would hastily note it down on paper, and when a dealer had completed his purchases, a reckoning would be made.

With some customers doubtless running accounts were kept and settlements made periodically.

All moneys received, whether for cash transactions or in settlement of accounts, would be taken charge of by one or two of the partners, who would disburse what was requisite for new nets and gear, wages and other expenses, and divide the remainder from time to time rateably amongst the proprieThus Peter, James, John and Andrew became accustomed to accurate methods of business, and to making brief and hurried memoranda of their dealings.

tors.

The majority of dealers would be Hebrews using the Aramaic tongue, but there would also be a fair proportion from the Gentile city, Tiberias, whose language would be Greek. As the partners were all familiar with both Aramaic and Greek they would in bargaining with the dealers suit their speech to the convenience of the latter. But in noting down their sales and making out bills a division of labour would be necessary. Thus John acquired the habit of writing in Greek to enable him, whilst the other young men recorded the purchases and debts of Aramaic-speaking customers, to take account of sales made to traders from the Heathen town.

Dr. Farrar thinks it probable that John managed a branch of the business in Jerusalem, and Père Didon says, "there was a special market at Jerusalem where the boatmen from the lake went to sell their dried fish." If this were so it affords an additional reason why John should have acquired the habit of writing in Greek.

It must be admitted that the view here given of the four

disciples differs from that generally entertained. It is customary to think and speak of them simply as fishermen, it being usually overlooked that the fish caught had to be disposed of. But a little reflection should lead anyone to see that a partnership of five persons, with men in their employ, must really have constituted a large establishment, the commercial side of which was quite as important as the industrial. Mr. J. G. Griffin, who was engaged for some time in Turkey at his profession of Civil Engineer, informs me that he was well acquainted with what according to his description must have been a very similar fishery business on the Danube. There were several partners in the firm, they had a number of men in their service and they carried on an extensive trade, supplying the district around with fresh, salt and dried fish.

It will be seen that the occupation of Peter, James and John was just such as would cultivate the qualifications needed in the office they were soon to be called to fill. As regards the fish-catching part of their occupation this has often been noticed before. Thomson, in The Land and the Book, describes the different modes of fishing;-with the hook and line, the hand-net, the drag-net, the bag-net and basket-net, and the spear-and points out the qualitiespatience, perseverance, caution, skill, watchfulness, promptness-required and strengthened in their practice. "No one occupation of humble life," he says, "not even that of the shepherd, calls into exercise and developes so many of the elements necessary for the office of a religious teacher as this of fishing" (p. 403).

But their dealings with men were quite as useful a part of the Apostles' education as their dealings with fishes. One reason why men of great learning are often so deficient in the critical faculty, and therefore draw such wrong conclusions from ascertained facts, is that their close application to study has allowed them but few opportunities for mingling with their fellow men, and so acquiring the talent of clear dis

cernment. There is nothing so effective as trade to make a man sharp and logical, quick to observe facts, to discriminate between truth and falsehood, and to arrive at correct results when the facts are known. Had Jesus been an impostor, the last men He would have succeeded in duping would have been those whose occupation every day was to baffle, like Matthew, the artful devices of those who tried to cheat the Romans of tribute, or to contend, like the Galilean fishermen, with shrewd Jew and pagan hawkers trying to get the best of a bargain.

There should be no

Again, as to their book-keeping. question that they did keep books. A business of that magnitude could no more be carried on satisfactorily without books then than now. They need not to have been large or elaborate books. They may have consisted merely of scraps of paper-second-hand paper perhaps from which the former writing had been partially obliterated—and may have been used by themselves several times over. (When permanence was not desired a sort of ink was often used that could be easily washed off; thus heavy expense in the purchase of papyrus was avoided.) The discoveries to which we have referred in Part II abundantly prove that it was the custom in ancient times for small tradesmen and others to keep accounts, and it is most unlikely that the firm in which Zebedee seems to have been the senior partner neglected so necessary a duty. Thus it was that in noting down hurriedly the morning sales as they were made the younger men acquired the art of rapid writing.

Lastly, having to trade with men speaking two different languages led to their gaining a command of those languages for conversational purposes, and to their respectively acquiring the ability to write quickly therein, so that whilst Peter and James became fast writers in Aramaic, John became a fast writer in Greek.

Bear in mind that their rough toil on the sea would produce strong, healthy, vigorous frames, and that, as children of