Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/291

 *tryman and friend. In the midst of the conversation, perhaps, while discoursing upon the deep question then in agitation, about the advent of the Messiah, suddenly the great preacher exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The two disciples at once turned their eyes towards the person thus solemnly designated as the Messiah, and saw walking by them, a stranger, whose demeanor was such as to mark him for the object of the Baptizer's apostrophe. With one accord, the two hearers at once left the teacher, who had now referred them to a higher source of truth and purity, and both followed together the footsteps of the wonderful stranger, of whose real character they knew nothing, though their curiosity must have been most highly excited, by the solemn mystery of the words in which his greatness was announced. As they hurried after him, the sound of their hasty feet fell on the ear of the retiring stranger, who, turning towards his inquiring pursuers, mildly met their curious glances with the question, "Whom seek ye?"—thus giving them an opportunity to state their wishes for his acquaintance. They eagerly answered by the question, implying their desire for a permanent knowledge of him,—"Rabbi! (Master,) where dwellest thou?" He kindly answered them with a polite invitation to accompany him to his lodgings; for there is no reason to believe that they went with him to his permanent home in Capernaum or Nazareth; since Jesus was probably then staying at some place near the scene of the baptism. Being hospitably and familiarly entertained by Jesus, as his intimate friends, it being then four o'clock in the afternoon, they remained with him till the next day, enjoying a direct personal intercourse, which gave them the best opportunities for learning his character and his power to impart to them the high instructions which they were prepared to expect, by the solemn annunciation of the great Baptizer; and at the same time it shows their own earnestness and zeal for acquiring a knowledge of the Messiah, as well as his benignant familiarity in thus receiving them immediately into such a domestication with him. After this protracted interview with Jesus, Andrew seems to have attained the most perfect conviction that his newly adopted teacher was all that he had been declared to be; and in the eagerness of a warm fraternal affection, he immediately sought his dear brother Simon, and exultingly announced to him the great results of his yesterday's introduction to the wonderful man;—"We have found the Messiah!" Such a declaration, made with the confidence of one