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The Desire of Ages
longed. They desired to be alone with Jesus, to sit at His feet, and hear
His words.
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“He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He
dwelt, and abode with Him that day.”
If John and Andrew had possessed the unbelieving spirit of the
priests and rulers, they would not have been found as learners at the
feet of Jesus. They would have come to Him as critics, to judge His
words. Many thus close the door to the most precious opportunities.
But not so did these first disciples. They had responded to the Holy
Spirit’s call in the preaching of John the Baptist. Now they recognized
the voice of the heavenly Teacher. To them the words of Jesus were
full of freshness and truth and beauty. A divine illumination was shed
upon the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures. The many-sided
themes of truth stood out in new light.
It is contrition and faith and love that enable the soul to receive
wisdom from heaven. Faith working by love is the key of knowledge,
and everyone that loveth “knoweth God.”
1 John 4:7
.
The disciple John was a man of earnest and deep affection, ardent,
yet contemplative. He had begun to discern the glory of Christ,—not
the worldly pomp and power for which he had been taught to hope,
but “the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.”
John 1:14
. He was absorbed in contemplation of the wondrous
theme.
Andrew sought to impart the joy that filled his heart. Going in
search of his brother Simon, he cried, “We have found the Messias.”
Simon waited for no second bidding. He also had heard the preach-
ing of John the Baptist, and he hastened to the Saviour. The eye of
Christ rested upon him, reading his character and his life history. His
impulsive nature, his loving, sympathetic heart, his ambition and self-
confidence, the history of his fall, his repentance, his labors, and his
martyr death,—the Saviour read it all, and He said, “Thou art Simon
the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation,
A stone.”
“The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth
Philip, and saith unto him, Follow Me.” Philip obeyed the command,
and straightway he also became a worker for Christ.
Philip called Nathanael. The latter had been among the throng
when the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. As Nathanael