need either by their own direct agency, or by that of men
writing with their knowledge and approbation. How many years elapsed
before the appearance of the earliest of our canonical gospels, which is
commonly supposed to have been that of Matthew, we have no means of
ascertaining with accuracy. But we may reasonably suppose that the
period was long enough to allow the apostolic tradition of our Lord's
life and teachings to assume a somewhat definite shape in respect to
both matter and outward form. _First_, in respect to _matter_. As their
public instructions could not cover the whole of our Saviour's history
(John 20:30; 21: 25), they naturally selected, under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, those parts of it which embodied the spirit and meaning of
the whole. Since, moreover, the apostles remained together at Jerusalem
for some time after our Lord's ascension (Acts 8:1; 15:6), it is highly
reasonable to suppose that in a matter of such moment they had a mutual
understanding--an understanding which, while it interfered with the
freedom of no one, secured a general agreement as to the points in our
Lord's history and teachings which should be especially insisted on.
_Secondly_ in respect to _outward form_. While the apostles were
preserved by the illumination of the Holy Spirit from any superstitious
regard to the letter of our Lord's teachings, their reverence for him as
a perfect teacher, whose words were truth unmixed with error, must have
made them anxious to put the oral tradition of his sayings into as
perfect a form as possible; whence the tradition of our Saviour's words
would assume from the first a more fixed form than that of his life
generally.

It is supposed by many that the writers of the first three gospels drew
each from this common body of oral tradition such materials as suited
his general plan; no one of them proposing to give the whole of our
Lord's history, or even to observe a strict chronological order in the
events recorded by him, any farther than such order was rendered
necessary by their nature and essential connection. In the case of
Matthew, who was one of the twelve apostles, it might be thought that he
wrote simply from his own personal knowledge; but his gospel could not
cover all the ground of our Lord's history as known to him, and we may
well suppose that in the selection of his materials he had regard--not a
servile, but a free regard--to the common oral tradition of the
apostles,