- noticed until some account has been given of the intervening portions
of his long life. Here then the course of investigation must leave the sure path of scripture testimony, and lead on through the mazy windings of traditionary history, among the baseless records of the Fathers.
Pillars.—This was an expressive figurative appellation, taken no doubt, with direct
allusion to the noble white columns of the porches of the temple, subserving in so
high a degree the purposes both of use and ornament. The term implies with great
force, an exalted excellence in these three main supporters of the first Christian
church, and besides expressing the idea of those eminent virtues which belonged to
them in common with other distinguished teachers of religion, it is thought by Lampe,
that there is implied in this connection, something peculiarly appropriate to these
apostles. Among the uses to which columns were applied by Egyptians, Jews,
Greeks and Romans, was that of bearing inscriptions connected with public ordinances
of state or religion, and of commemorating facts in science for the knowledge of
other generations. To this use, allusion seems to be made in Prov. ix. 1. "Wisdom
has built her house,—she has engraved her seven pillars." And in Rev. iii. 12, a
still more unquestionable reference is made to the same circumstance. "Him that
overcomes, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more
out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my
God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God,—and my
own new name;"—a passage which Grotius illustrates by a reference to this very use
of pillars for inscriptions. It is in connection with this idea, that Lampe considers the
term as peculiarly expressive in its application to "James, Cephas and John," since
from them, in common with all the apostles, proceeded the oracles of Christian truth,
and those principles of doctrine and practice, which were acknowledged as the rule
of faith, by the churches of the new covenant. To these three, moreover, belonged
some peculiar attributes of this character, since they distinguished themselves above
the most of the twelve, by their written epistolary charges, as well as by the general
pre-eminence accorded to them by common consent, leaving to them the utterance
of those apostolic opinions, which went forth from Jerusalem as law for the Christian
churches.
Lampe quotes on this point Vitringa, (Obs. Sac. I. iii. 7,) Suicer, (Thes. Ecc. voc. [Greek: stylos],) and Gataker, (Cin. ii. 20.) He refers also to Jerome, commenting on Gal. ii. 9; who there alludes to the fact that John, one of the "pillars," in his Revelation, introduces the Savior speaking as above quoted. (Rev. iii. 12.)
THE RESULTS OF TRADITION.
Probably there are few results of historical investigation, that will make a more decided impression of disappointment on the mind of a common reader, than the sentence, which a rigid examination compels the writer to pass, with almost uniform condemnatory severity, on all apostolic stories which are not sanctioned by the word of inspiration. There is a universal curiosity, natural, and not uncommendable, felt by all the believers and hearers of the faith which the apostles preached, to know something more about these noble first witnesses of the truth, than the bare broken and unconnected details which the gospel, and the apostolic acts can furnish. At this day, the most trifling circumstances connected with them,—their actions, their dwelling-places, their lives or their deaths, have a value vastly above what could ever have been appreciated by those of their own time, who acted,
