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our knees, imploring instruction from above! that we may grow up from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood: "that maintaining the "truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all "things who is the head, even Christ; from whom "the whole body fitly joined together, and com"pacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure "of every part, maketh increase of the body, " unto the edifying of itself in love."

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ST. PHILIP AND ST. JAMES'S DAY.

O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life; Grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that following the steps of thy holy Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, we may steadfastly walk in the way that leadeth to everlasting life, through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

W

E are this day required to commemorate the mercy of God to His church manifested in calling to the Apostolate, and in qualifying for that high office, two eminent men, St. Philip and St. James. Each of these names belonged to two different persons among the officers of the primitive church. There were two Philips, one an Apostle and the other a Deacon; to the former of whom this day is dedicated. There were also two persons who bore the name of James; both of them Apostles, but distinguished by the epithets of the greater and the less, either on account of a difference in stature or in age. It is the latter of these, St. James the less, who was the brother of our Lord (being, as is supposed, a son of Joseph by a former wife) the first bishop of Jerusalem, and who was honoured by his cotemporaries with the title of the Just, whose memory is this day recorded in the church,

St. Philip was born at Bet' saida, a town near the sea of Tiberias, "the city of Andrew and Pe"ter." Of his parentage and way of life the history of the gospel takes no notice; but probably

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he was a fisherman, that being the general occupation of his native place. He had the honour of being first called to the discipleship. For our Lord soon after his return from the wilderness, having parted from Andrew and Peter after a short conversation with them, as he was passing through Galilee, on the very next day, found Philip, whom He commanded to "follow Him." This was the usual mode which He adopted in selecting and appropriating those who were to be His stated The prerogative therefore of the primary vocation evidently belongs to Philip. For though Andrew and Peter first conversed with Christ, yet they returned again to their secular business, and were not called to the discipleship till more than a year afterwards, when John the Baptist had been cast into prison. As Philip had seen no miracle performed by His Master for the eviction of his Messiahship, we may suppose that a peculiar measure of Divine grace accompanied the outward call, "Follow me;" whereby Philip was convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the person pointed out by antient prophecy, of whose appearance a general expectation was now raised among the Jews.

No sooner had religion taken possession of St. Philip's mind, than, like an active principle, it began to ferment and to diffuse itself. He soon after met with Nathaniel, a person of note and eminence, acquainted him with the glad tidings of the newly found Messiah, and conducted him to Jesus. Every good man is anxious to draw and direct others in the same way to happiness which he himself hath discovered. After St. Philip's call to the Apostleship, very little is reorded of him in the sacred story. It was to him, however, that our Saviour proposed the question, What they

should do for so much bread in the wilderness as would feed the vast multitude which was gathered together? to which our Apostle answered, that a sufficiency was not easily to be obtained; not considering that to feed two individual persons, or twenty thousand, is equally easy to Almighty power when God chooses to exert it. (John vi. 5.) It was to St. Philip also that the Gentile proselytes who came up to Jerusalem at the passover applied for information, being desirous of seeing Jesus, a person of whom they had heard so great things. (John xii. 22.) It was with him that our Lord, a little before the last paschal supper, held that discourse concerning Himself, which is recorded John xiv. 8, &c. and to which our collect refers. The compassionate Jesus had been engaged in fortifying the minds of His disciples with suitable consolation against the time of His departure from. them. He had told them that He was going to prepare room for them in the mansions of the blessed-that He Himself was "the way, the "truth, and the life," and that "no man could "come to the Father but by Him;" and that, knowing Him, " they both knew and had seen the "Father." Philip, not duly understanding the force of our Lord's assertions, besought Him to "shew them the Father," which would abundantly convince and satisfy their minds. We can hardly suppose that he had such gross conceptions of the Deity as to imagine the Father to be vested with a corporeal and visible nature. as Christ had told them that they had seen the Father, and as the Apostle knew that God was often wont to appear of old in a visible shape, he seems to have only desired that He would manifest Himself to them in the same way. Our

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disciple, because, after so long an attendance on His instructions, Philip did not know that Jesus Himself was the image of His Father, the express characters of His infinite wisdom, power and goodness appearing in Him, of which His miracles were luminous evidences.

In the distribution of the several regions of the world, which was made by the Apostles, it appears that the Upper Asia was the province of St. Philip. There he applied himself with indefatigable diligence and industry to recover men out of the snare of the Devil, and to bring them to an acknowledgment of the truth which is after Godliness. By his laborious preaching and miraculous powers, accompanied with Divine influence, he became the instrument of converting great numbers to the Christian faith.

Having for many years successfully managed his Apostolic office throughout his district, St. Philip came, in the last stage of his life, to Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia, a city rich and populous, but answering to its name in its idoJatrous devotions. Here by fervent prayer and carnest exhortation he turned many of the inhabitants from the worship of a serpent which the city adored. In consequence of this the magistrates seized him, and, having thrown him into prison, caused him to be severely scourged. After this preparatory act of cruelty, they led him to execution, and having bound him, according to some accounts, hanged him up by the neck against a pillar, or, according to others, crucified him.

Having thus sketched an outline of St. Philip's life, we proceed to that of St. James the less, who is associated with him in the commemoration of our church. Of the place where St.

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