Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/306

 name, though so often repeated in connection with his sons, may be best conceived by reference to that deeply enigmatical question, with which grave persons of mature age are sometimes wont to puzzle the inquisitive minds of young aspirants after Biblical knowledge, "Who was the father of Zebedee's children?"—a query which certainly implies a great deficiency of important facts, on which the curious learner could found a definite idea of this somewhat distinguished character. Indeed "the mother of Zebedee's children" seems to posses in the minds of most readers of the gospels a much more prominent place than "the father of them;" for the simple occasion on which she presents herself to notice, is of such a nature as to show that she was the parent from whom the sons inherited at least one prominent trait,—that of high, aspiring ambition, with which, in them as well as in her, was joined a most decidedly comfortable degree of self-esteem, that would not allow them to suspect that other people could be at all behind them in appreciating those talents, which in their own opinion, and their fond mother's, showed that they were "born to command." Indeed it appears manifest, that there was much more "thunder" in her composition, than in her husband's, and it is but fair to suppose, from the decided way in which she put herself forward in the family affairs, on at least one important occasion, without any pretension whatever on his part, to any right of interference or decision, that she must have been in the habit of having her own way in most matters;—a peculiar prominence in the domestic administration, very naturally resulting from the cirstance, that her husband's frequent long absences from home must have left the responsibilities of the family often upon her alone, and he, like a prudent man, on his return, may have valued domestic quiet above the maintenance of any very decided supremacy. If the supposition may be adopted, however, that Zebedee died soon after the call of his sons, the silence of the sacred record respecting him is easily accounted for, and the above conclusion as to his domestic management, may be considered unnecessarily derogatory to his dignity of character.

Sprung from such parents, and brought up by them on the shores and waters of Gennesaret, James had learned the humble business of his father, and was quietly devoting himself to the labors of a fisherman, probably never dreaming of an occasion that should ever call forth his slumbering energies in "thunder," or hold up before his awakened ambition, the honors of a name that