John 1:40

John 1:40

The World's Benefactors.

I. Little as Scripture tells us of St. Andrew, it affords us enough for a lesson, and that an important one. These are the facts before us. St. Andrew was the first convert among the Apostles; he was especially in our Lord's confidence; thrice is he described as introducing others to Him; lastly, he is little known in history, while the place of dignity and the name of highest renown have been allotted to his brother Simon, whom he was the means of bringing to the knowledge of his Saviour. Our lesson, then, is this: that those men are not necessarily the most useful men in their generation, nor the most favoured of God, who make the most noise in the world, and who seem to be principals in the great changes and events recorded in history; and that, therefore, we must unlearn our admiration of the powerful and distinguished, our reliance on the opinions of society, our respect for the decisions of the learned or the multitude, and turn our eyes to private life, watching, in all we read or witness, for the true signs of God's presence, the graces of personal holiness manifested in His elect, which, weak as they may seem to mankind, are mighty through God, and have an influence upon the course of His providence, and bring about great events in the world at large, when the wisdom and the strength of the natural man are of no avail.

II. Andrew is scarcely known except by name; and while Peter has ever held the place of honour all over the Church, yet Andrew brought Peter to Christ. God's mysterious providence works beneath a veil, and to see Him who is the Truth and the Life, we must stoop underneath it, and so in our turn hide ourselves from the world. They who present themselves at kings' courts pass on to the inner chambers, where the gaze of the rude multitude cannot pierce; and we, if we would see the King in His beauty, must be content to disappear from the things that are seen. Hid are the saints of God; if they are known to men, it is accidentally, in their temporal offices, as holding some high earthly station, and not as saints. St. Peter has a place in history, far more as a chief instrument of a strange revolution in human affairs, than in his true character, as a self-denying follower of his Lord, to whom truths were revealed which flesh and blood could not discern.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. ii., p. 1.