of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples, to qualify them. for the great work of preaching the gospel, St. Thomas as well as the rest preached the gospel in several parts of Judea; and after the dispersion of the Christian church in Jerusalem, repaired into Parthia, the province assigned him for his ministry. After which, as Sempronius and others inform us, he preached the gospel to the Medes, Persians, Carminians, Hyrcani, Bactrians, and the neighboring nations.

Leaving Persia, he traveled into Ethiopia, preaching the glad tidings of the gospel, healing their sick, and working other miracles to prove he had his commission from on high. And after traveling through these countries, he entered India.

When the Portuguese first visited these countries after their discovery of a passage by the Cape of Good Hope, they received the following particulars, partly from ancient monuments, and partly from constant and uncontroverted traditions preserved by the Christians in those parts; namely, that St. Thomas came first to Socotora, an island in the Arabian sea, and thence to Cranganor, where having converted many from the error of their ways, he traveled further into the east; and having successfully preached the gospel, returned back to the kingdom of Coromandel, where, at Maliapur, the metropolis of that kingdom, not far from the mouth of the Ganges, he began to erect a place for divine worship, till prohibited by the idolatrous priests, and Sagamo, prince of that country. after performing several miracles, the work was suf fered to proceed, and Sagamo himself embraced the Christian faith, whose example was soon after followed by great numbers of his friends and subjects.

But

This remarkable success alarmed the brahmins, who plainly perceived that their religion would soon be extirpated, unless some method could be found of putting a stop to the progress of Christianity; and therefore resolved to put the apostle to death. At a small distance from the city was a tomb, whither St. Thomas often retired for private devotions. Hither the brahmins and their armed followers pursued him, and while he was at prayer, they first shot at him with a shower of darts, after which one of the priests ran him through with a lance.

His body was taken up by his disciples, and buried in the church he had so lately erected, and which was afterward improved into a fabric of grea magnificence.

ST. JAMES THE LESS.

Ir has been doubted by some, whether this was the same with that St. James who was afterward bishop of Jerusalem, two of this name being mentioned in the sacred writings, namely, St. James the Great, and St. James the Less, both apostles. The ancients mention a third, surnamed the Just, which they will have to be distinct from the former, and bishop of Jerusalem. But this opinion is built on a sandy foundation, for nothing is plainer than that St. James the apostle (whom St. Paul calls "our Lord's brother," and reckons, with Peter and John, one of the pillars of the

cnurch) was the same who presided among the apostles, doubtless by virtue of his episcopal office, and determined the causes in the synod of Jerusalem. It is reasonable to think that he was the son of Joseph, afterward the husband of Mary, by his first wife, whom St. Jerome styles Escha, and adds, that she was the daughter of Aggi, brother to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Hence he was reputed our Lord's brother.

After the resurrection, he was honored by the particular appearance of our Lord to him, which, though passed over in silence by the evangelists, is recorded. by St. Paul.

Some time after this appearance, he was chosen bishop of Jerusalem, and preferred before all the rest for his near relation to Christ.

When St. Paul came to Jerusalem after his conversion, he applied to St. James, and was honored by him with "the right hand of fellowship." And it was to St. James that Peter sent the news of his miraculous deliverance out of prison. "Go," said he, 'show these things unto James and to the brethren; that is, to the whole church, especially to St. James the pastor of it.

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He performed every part of his duty with all possible care and industry, omitting no particular necessary to be observed by a diligent and faithful guide of souls, strengthening the weak, instructing the ignorant, reducing the erroneous, and reproving the obstinate. But a person so careful, so successful in his charge, could not fail of exciting the spite and malice of his enemies; a sort of men to whom the apostle has given too true a character, that "they please not God, and

are contrary to all men. They were vexed to see St. Paul had escaped their hands, by appealing unto Cæsar; and therefore turned their fury against St. James; but being unable to effect their design under the government of Festus, they determined to attempt it under the procuratorship of Albinus his successor, Ananus the younger, of the sect of the Sadducees, being high priest.

In order to this a council was summoned, and the apostle, with others, arraigned and condemned as violators of the law. But, that the action might appear more plausible and popular, the scribes and Pharisees, masters in the art of dissimulation, endeavored to ensnare him; and, at their first coming, told him that they had all placed the greatest confidence in him; that the whole nation as well as they, gave him the title of a just man, and one that was no respecter of persons; that they therefore desired that he would correct the error and false opinion the people had conceived of Jesus, whom they considered as the Messiah, and take this opportunity of the universal confluence to the paschal solemnity, to set them right in their opinions in this particular, and would go with them to the top of the temple, where he might be seen and heard by all.

The apostle readily consented; and being advantageously placed on a pinnacle of the temple, they addressed him in the following manner: "Tell us, O Justus, for we have all the reason in the world to believe that the people are thus generally led away with the doctrine of Jesus whom they crucified; tell us, what is this institution of the crucified Jesus?" To which the apostle answered, with an audible voice, "Why do you

inquire of Jesus the Son of Man? He sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and will come again in the clouds of heaven." The people below hearing this, glorified the blessed Jesus, and openly proclaimed, "Hosanna to the Son of David."

The scribes and Pharisees now perceived that they had acted foolishly; that instead of altering, he had confirmed the people in their belief; and that there was no way left but to dispatch him immediately, in order to warn others by his sufferings, not to believe in Jesus of Nazareth. Accordingly they suddenly cried out, That James himself was seduced, and become an impostor: and they immediately threw him from the pinnacle on which he stood, into the court below; but not being killed on the spot, he recovered himself so far as to rise on his knees, and pray fervently to heaven for his murderers. But malice is too diabolical to be pacified with kindness, or satisfied with cruelty. Accordingly his enemies, vexed that they had not fully accomplished their work, poured a shower of stones upon him, while he was imploring their forgiveness at the throne of grace; and one of them, more merciful than the rest, put an end to his misery with a fuller's club.

Thus did this great and good man finish his course, in the ninety-sixth year of his age, and about twentyfour years after our blessed Saviour's ascension into heaven. His death was lamented by all good men, even by the sober and just persons among the Jews, as Josephus himself confesses.

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