36. Videns autem turbas, misertus est eis, quia erant vexati et jacentes sicut oves non habentes pastorem.

37. Tunc dicit discipulis suis: "Messis quidem multa, operarii autem pauci.

38. "Rogate ergò Dominum messis ut mittat operarios in messem suam."

36. And seeing the multitude, he had compassion on them; because they were distressed, and lying as sheep having no shepherd.

37. Then he saith to his disciples: The harvest, indeed, is great, but the labourers are few.

38. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.

We are now reading what occurred immediately before Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount. Great multitudes were gathered together, they compared notes of His doings, and the general voice was :-"The like was never seen in Israel." The Pharisees stung by His great success began to attribute what they could not deny, to a diabolical agency. Jesus went about" would seem to have reference to what He did before, and was about to do again, and not to point out an interval between the Sermon and the sending of the Apostles. Verse 36 would be an apt commencement for the next chapter. The Gospels were not cut into chapters and verses by the inspired writers.

1A dumb man.—The dumbness is supposed to have been caused by the devil.

Being cast out. The man spoke immediately, as a proof of what was said. One meaning given to the voice of the multitude-"The like was never seen," is that, though the prophets performed miracles, none ever did one on his own authority except Jesus.

The Pharisees.-They must find a reason. Could He raise the dead by the help of the devil? Our Lord lets them alone and continues His work, but he refutes them on another occasion.

"His going about the different synagogues and stopping, as if at home, in Capharnaum, shows the model of a missionary life.

"Were distressed.-Some say they were anxious for instruction; some say fleeced by their scribes; some say tormented by devils. They were likely troubled in all the three ways.

Labourers are few.-Only Himself and the Baptist, who was in prison just as these words were spoken.

CHAPTER X.

Christ sends out his twelve Apostles, with the power of miracles. The lessons he gives them.

1. Et convocatis duodecim discipulis suis, dedit illis potestatem spirituum immundorum ut ejicerent eos, et cùrarent omnem languorem et omnem infirmitatem.

2. Duodecim autem Apostolorum nomina sunt hæc, Primus, Simon qui dicitur Petrus, et Andreas frater ejus;

3. Jacobus Zebedæi et Joannes frater ejus, Philippus et Bartholomæus, Thomas et Matthæus publicanus, Jacobus Alphæi et Thaddeus,

4. Simon Cananæus, et Judas Iscariothes qui et tradidit eum.

1. And when he had called his twelve disciples together, he 'gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and all manner of sicknesses.

2. Now the names of the twelve Apostles are these: The first, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother.

3. James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, "Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and 10 Matthew the publican, and "James the son of Alpheus, and 12Thaddeus.

4. Simon Chananeus, and 14Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Jesus carries out the prayers he ordered them to make by sending workmen at once into the harvest. He assembles the twelve, whom he had selected from His great number of disciples and sends them. The title APOSTLE comes from 'ATоσTÉλλw, mitto, I send or delegate to represent me. The Apostles, had as a body, some peculiar notes. They were twelve in number. There were three pair of brothers, Andrew and Peter, James and John, James and Thaddeus or Jude; and some say Simon was brother to these. Four or five of them were near relations of Our Lord. All were Galileans except Judas, and the greater number of them were fishermen. Two were afterwards Evan

gelists, and four wrote canonical epistles. John wrote a Gospel, Epistles, and the Apocalypse. They all suffered martyrdom, and thus sealed by their blood the truths which they preached.

1Gave them power over unclean spirits.-Exorcist, the third of our minor orders, was the first conferred upon the Apostles. Unclean spirits mean those devils who instigate to impurity and mean sins.

2Heal all manner.―This power was given them in order to prove their mission to the people.

3 Simon who is called Peter.-Peter is named and called the first in every list of the Apostles. Most writers say he was younger than his brother, who seems to have been called first. The primacy of Peter is confirmed by this.

Andrew, the brother of Peter, who also was crucified.

James, called afterwards the Greater, and the first of the Apostles who received the crown of martyrdom.

John the Beloved Disciple, and supposed to have been the youngest of all.

Philip was of Bethsaida.

Barthlomew is supposed to be the same as Nathaniel. Calmet takes great pains to prove it, and Dr. Mc Carthy accepts it as proved.

'Thomas, called also Didymus, or one of twins.

10 Matthew the publican.-The Evangelist gives his former occupation through humility. In the other lists of Apostles there is no mention of it.

11James the son of Alpheus, or the Less. He wrote the Epistle which bears that name.

12Thaddeus or Judas his brother. He wrote the Epistle of Jude.

13 Simon Chananeus.-He is so called from his being of Cana in Galilee ; is supposed by some to have been the bridegroom at the famous marriage feast and to have left his bride, like St. Alexius, on the very day of his marriage.

14 Judas Iscariot.-Probably from being a native of Kerioth, a village in Judea.

Peter is always first and Judas last in the various lists.

5. Hos duodecim misit JESUS, præcipiens eis dicens: "In viam gentium ne abieritis, et in civitates Samaritanorum ne intraveritis;

6. "Sed potiùs ite ad oves quæ perierunt domus Israel.

7. "Euntes autem, prædicate dicentes quia appropinquavit regnum cœlorum.

8. "Infirmos curate, mortuos suscitate, leprosos mundate, dæmones ejicite: gratis accepistis, gratis date.

9. "Nolite possidere aurum neque argentum neque pecuniam in zonis vestris ;

10. "Non peram in viâ, neque duas tunicas, neque calceamenta, neque virgam: dignus enim est operarius cibo suo.

The Gospel does not say that Our Lord sent His Apostles (like the Seventy-two) in pairs; but, as S. Matthew has paired them, we are to infer that such was the case. The instructions given in this chapter have reference to their purely apostolic work, and are meant to be the models for all future Missionaries and Apostles. The facts of history show us that those who went on the Gospel model succeeded, and that those who went subsidised and supported, had but a very partial success. Some commentators make it appear that Our Lord gave twelve precepts here to His Apostles. They do not seem to be so much precepts as instructions as to what is the most perfect way; because we see nearly every one of them modified in the time of Our Lord Himself. We cannot call them precepts, but rather directions, and, in this sense, their number is more than twelve. The commanded them, is to be taken then in a general sense, i.e., as far as you possibly can, act up to these principles. This view of the matter saves a number of difficulties. We incline to the opinion that they were meant to be not temporary, as some think, but