Excerpt from Lives of the Apostles of Jesus Christ The materials of this work should be found in all that has been written on the subject of the New Testament history, since the scriptural canon was completed. But who is sufficient for these things 2 A long life might find abundant employment in searching a thousand libraries, and in com iling from a hundred thousand volumes, the facts and illustrations of this immense an noble subject; and then the best energies of another long life would be needed to bring the mighty masses into form, and give them in a narrative for the mind of the unlearned. What then, is here attempted, as a substitute for this immensi 2 To give a clear, distinct, narrative of each apostle's life, with such illustrations of the character of the era and the scene in which the inci dents occurred, and such explanations of the termsin which they are recorded, as may, consistently with the limits of this book, be drawn from those works of the learned of ancient and modern times, which are within the writer's reach. Various and nume rous are the books that swell the list Of faithful and honest references many and weighty the volumes that have been turned over, in the long course of research; ancient and venerable the dust, which has been shaken into suffocating clouds about the searcher's head, and has obscured his vision, as he dragged many a forgotten folio from the slum ber of ages, to furnish the modern compiler with the rich productions Of antique lore. Histories, travels, geographies, maps, commentaries, criticisms, introductions, and lexicons, have been daily and nightly turned in the hand; and of this labor some fruit is offered on every page. But the unstained source of sacred history! The pure well - spring, at which the wearied searcher always refreshed himself, after unrequited toils through dry masses of erudition, was the simple story of the Apostles and Evangelists, told by themselves. In this same simple story, indeed, were found the points on which the longest labor was required; yet these, at best only illustrated, not improved, by all the labors of the learned of various ages, were the materials of the work. These were the preparations of months and years; the execution must decide on their real value. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.