These two were chosen because they had taken the most active part in
establishing the church in Jerusalem, and were specially fitted for
similar work elsewhere. With what peculiar feelings John must have
entered Samaria. He must have recalled a day when hot and weary he had
journeyed thither with his Lord and met the Samaritaness at the well.
Perhaps he now met her again, and together they talked over that
wonderful conversation which made her the first missionary to her
people, many of whom declared, "We know that this is indeed the Saviour
of the world."

Did John on this visit enter into "a village of the Samaritans"--the
same where he had said, "Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down
from heaven and consume them?" Is it of them that it is now said he
"prayed for them"? His fire of indignation and revenge had changed to
the fire of love. The pentecostal flames had rested on his head.

Once more--only once--we find the names of James and John together. One
short sentence, full of pathos, of injustice and cruelty, of affection
and sorrow, tells a story of the early Church: Herod "killed James the
brother of John with the sword." He was the first martyr of the
Apostles. The smaller circle of the three, and the larger one of the
twelve, is broken. For these brothers we may take up David's lamentation
over Saul and Jonathan, slightly changed, and say, "They were lovely and
pleasant in their lives: but in their death they were divided,"--for
through half a century John mourned the loss of his loved companion from
childhood.

After James--one of the three whom Paul named pillars--had fallen, the
other two, Peter and John, stood for awhile side by side in strength and
beauty. To each of them he might have given the name Jachin by which one
of the pillars of Solomon's temple was called, meaning, "whom God
strengthens." Peter was the next to fall, after which John long stood
alone, until at last the three whom first we saw by the Sea of Galilee,
stood together by the glassy sea, in each of them fulfilled the promise
made through John, by their Lord,--"He that overcometh, I will make him
a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more."

[Illustration: THE ISLE OF PATMOS _Old Engraving_ Page 233]

_CHAPTER XXXI_

_Last Days_

"I John ... was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of
God, and the testimony of Jesus.... And I heard behind me a great
voice, as of a