Among the crowd who had flocked to the wilderness to hear the impassioned preaching of John there were two fishermen, who became convinced that Jesus was the long-promised Christ. The first of these, Andrew, hastened to inform his brother Simon Peter that he had found the Messiah. These two were apparently our Saviour’s first disciples. Probably their views of the nature of his mission were exceedingly vague. They, however, attached themselves to his person, and followed him. Jesus received them kindly, but without any parade. At the first glance he seems to have comprehended the marked character of Simon Peter; for he addressed him in language in some degree prophetic of his future career: “Thou art Simon, the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas; which is, by interpretation, a stone.” Cephas was the Syriac for Peter. Illustration: Jesus. BOSTON: B. B. RUSSELL. The next day two others attached themselves to Jesus,――Philip and Nathanael. Then, as now, the moment one became a disciple of Jesus, he was anxious to lead others to him. Philip, who had accepted the invitation of Christ to follow him, sought out one of his friends, Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael was a little doubtful whether the son of the carpenter Joseph, from the obscure hamlet of Nazareth, could be the heaven-commissioned Messiah for whose advent the pious Jews had been praying during weary centuries. Incredulously he inquired, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” The laconic reply of Philip was, “Come and see.” It appears that Nathanael was a man remarkable for his upright and noble character. As Jesus saw him approaching, he said to those around him, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Nathanael, overhearing the remark, inquired of him, “Whence knowest thou me?” The reply of Jesus, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee,”――thus alluding to some secret event which Nathanael was sure no mortal could know,――convinced him of the supernatural powers of Jesus; and he exclaimed in fulness of faith, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel!” The reply of Jesus was a distinct avowal of his Messiahship: “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Jesus, strengthened, not exhausted, by his temptation in the wilderness, returned to Nazareth. In the mystery of his double nature as Son of God and Son of man, the mission of his life seems now to have been fully revealed to him. He then commenced preaching his gospel of penitence for sin, faith in him as a Saviour, and a holy life.