- initeness of the Greek aorists, whose very name implies this unlimitedness in respect
to time. The limitation to the past, implied in the common translation, is by no means required by the original; but it is left so vague, that the action may be referred to the present and the future also.
Beyond this, the writings of the New Testament give not the
least account of Thomas; and his subsequent history can only be
uncertainly traced in the dim and dark stories of tradition, or in
the contradictory records of the Fathers. Different accounts
state that he preached the gospel in Parthia,—Media,—Persia,—Ethiopia,—and
at last, India. A great range of territories is thus
spread out before the investigator, but the traces of the apostle's
course and labors are both few and doubtful. Those of the Fathers
who mention his journeys into these countries, give no particulars
whatever of his labors; and all that is now believed respecting
these things, is derived from other, and perhaps still more
uncertain sources.
India is constantly asserted by the Fathers, from the beginning of the third century, to have very early received the gospel, and this apostle is named as the person through whom this evangelization was effected; but this evidence alone would be entitled to very little consideration, except from the circumstance, that from an early period, to this day, there has existed in India, a large body of Christians, who give themselves the name of "St. Thomas's Christians," of whose antiquity proofs are found in the testimony, both of very ancient and very modern travelers. They still retain many traditions of the person whom they claim as their founder,—of his place of landing,—the towns he visited,—the churches he planted,—his places of residence and his retreats for private devotion,—the very spot of his martyrdom, and his grave. A tradition, however, floating down unwritten for fifteen centuries, can not be received as very good evidence; and the more minute such stories are in particulars, the more suspicious they are in their character for truth. But in respect to the substance of this, it may well be said, that it is by no means improbable, and is in the highest degree consistent with the views, already taken, in former parts of this work, of the eastward course of the apostles after the destruction of Jerusalem. The great body of them, taking refuge at Babylon, within the limits of the great Parthian empire, the more adventurous might follow the commercial routes still farther eastward, to the mild and generally peaceful nations of distant India, whose character for civilization and partial refinement was such as to present many facilities for the introduc-
