ST. MATTHIAS.
(To THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOB.1
Ste,—The question raised in your issues of the 2nd and 16th inst. as to the election of Matthias ought not to disappear with- out further comtnent, and grateful to you for furnishing the occasion by your own most just remarks, and for the valuable addition made by your correspondent "A Life Student," I beg to offer my own established view of the matter.
Dealing first with the action of Peter in the case—for as he instigated the election, it seems probable that "the disciples" did but comply with his suggestion—what authority had he or did he adduce for the proposal which he submitted ? Obviously there is none. Neither had our Lord in foretelling His betrayal pro- vided for a successor to "the apostate apostle," nor authorized the selection of one by the Apostles themselves or by the whole body of the disciples. The emergency suggested the expedient. True, there was the prophecy which Peter quoted, "his bishoprick [office] let another take ;" but this does not appear to have been used as sanctioning the proposed election, and for all that appears to the contrary, we may conclude that it was but the simple sugges- tion of his own consciousness, his sense of the fitness of things. If this view shock any sensitive mind, such a mind may be reconciled to it by the reflection that as yet the day of Pentecost was not come and the Spirit not yet given. From which fact we get the further inference that the proceeding was as premature as it was unauthorized.
What, now, of Matthias himself ? The fact that Scripture is elsewhere wholly silent about him, no earlier and no later mention of his name even occurring, is surely full of significance. Where are the signs of his apostleship, or why are they wanting? It might not be difficult to suggest conjectures which would meet these queries, and vindicate the election, were it not for one other fact, but in that fact there is a force which should for ever silence such conjecture.
"Saul, an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father" (Gal. i. 1), who "was not behind the apostles," fills the space which Matthias has left vacant, and approving himself "as the minister of God, in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings," reasserts, and for ever establishes, the principle, "the last shall be first." All that is implied in this conclusion I leave others to infer.—I am,
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