drew near and went with them." But the eyes of Andrew and John were not
"holden that they should not know Him." The pleasing dream of years was
past: they were wakening to a glorious reality. Their following of Him
in that hour has been claimed to be "the beginning of the Christian
Church."

That day of abiding with Jesus was the first of many days these
disciples spent with Him, knowing Him more and more perfectly, and the
truth which He alone could reveal. They were then passing from the
school of the Baptist to that of the Greatest Teacher. What was said in
those sacred hours? John has reported other private interviews with
Jesus, but concerning this one his lips are sealed. Did he tell of his
surprise and joy to learn that He, Jesus, the son of his aunt, Mary, was
the Messiah of whom his mother, Salome, had taught him from his early
days? Were there any memories of childhood--of the sandy beach of
Bethsaida, or the hills of Nazareth; or, were all such thoughts buried
in newer and deeper question? Was there any hint of their future
relation too sacred for others then to know? Was this the beginning of
that sweet intimacy so private then, but of which the whole world should
hear in all coming time?

After the evening meal in Emmaus the two disciples there "rose up the
same hour, and returned to Jerusalem," with joyful and quickened steps
to report the glad tidings of what they had seen and heard. Andrew and
John were to be of the number who, in three years, would hail these
disciples from Emmaus. Like them, Andrew and John hastened away from the
sheltering booth on the Jordan bank on a like errand. But they went not
together, nor to an assembled company. They each went in search of his
own brother--Andrew for Peter, and John for James. Andrew found his
brother first. Afterward John found his: so we infer from his narrative.