art,--burdens of care, with broken nights and weary days. We may be
sure of God's tender interest in the wife who suffers in the sick-room;
but his eye is even more intently fixed upon him who is bearing the
burden of sympathy and care. He is watching to see if the man will
stand the test, and grow sweeter and stronger. Everything hard or
painful in a Christian's life is another opportunity for him to get a
new victory, and become a little more a man.

It is remarkable how little we know about the apostles. A few of them
are fairly prominent. Peter and James and John we know quite well, as
their names are made familiar in the inspired story. Matthew we know
by the Gospel he wrote. Thomas we remember by his doubts. Another
Judas, not Iscariot, probably left us a little letter. Of the rest we
know almost nothing but their names. Indeed, few Bible readers can
give even the names of all the Twelve.

No doubt one reason why no more is told us about the apostles is that
the Bible magnifies only one name. It is not a book of biographies,
but the book of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each apostle had a sacred
friendship all his own with his Master, a friendship with which no
other could intermeddle. We can imagine the quiet talks, the long
walks with the deep communings, the openings of heart, the confessions
of weakness and failure, the many prayers together. We may be very
sure that through those three wonderful years there ran twelve stories
of holy friendship, with their blessed revealings of the Master's heart
to the heart of each man. But not a word of all this is written in the
New Testament. It was too sacred to be recorded for any eye of earth
to read.

We may be sure, too, that each man of the Twelve did a noble work after
the Ascension, but no pen wrote the narratives for preservation. There
are traditions, but there is in them little that is certainly history.
The Acts is not the acts of the apostles. The book tells a little
about John, a little more about Peter, most about Paul, and of the
others gives nothing but a list of their names in the first chapter.

Yet we need not trouble ourselves about this. It is the same with the
good and the useful in every age. A few names are preserved, but the
great multitude are forgotten. Earth keeps scant record of its
benefactors. But there is a place where every smallest kindness done
in the name of Christ is recorded and remembered.

Long, long ages ago a