twelve; and he also is called Lebbeus and Tbaddeus. He preached the gospel in Antarus and Laodicea. Then went he unto Thadmor, and Raca, and Circesum, and Temun, and certain parts of the East; and there followed him Thomas into India."
"If at any time," says Assemannus, "Matthew the evangelist visited any of the eastern regions, he did not go beyond the bounds of Nisibis and Assyria; but, when he had passed over those regions, soon returned. Bartholomew also travelled over these and other lands, and preached in Greater Armenia."
The apostle Thomas, there is strong evidence to believe, finished his course by martyrdom. This occurred in Coromandel, where the place of his sepulture is still shown. He had preached in Syria, Mesopotamia, Chaldæa, and Persia. The inhabitants of Malabar had heard the gospel by his voice. He had planted the standard of the cross on the coast of Coromandel, and had pressed onward, in the fulfilment of his divine commission, so far as to the confines of China.
Of the seventy disciples commissioned by our Lord, one, named Adæus, is commemorated in the East as the founder of many churches. He had two efficient fellowlabourers in his disciples, Agæus, or Achæus, and Mares. "Adæus preached at Edessa, and in Athur, (Assyria,) and at Mosûl, and in Persia … At length Mares went to announce the gospel in all parts of the land of Babylon, and of both the Arachæ," namely, Persia and Assyria. "Nor did he cease to visit all these regions, and also the places in which Thaddeus, or Adæus, had preached the faith, and to visit, to catechize, to baptize, to teach, and to build up churches, to cure diseases, and to perform signs and wonders, until he had converted very many to the faith, and wonderfully propagated the Christian religion in those parts."
