With remarkable research and a readable style, David Francis Bacon provides intimate sketches of the Apostles and delivers on his promise to write "a distinct, plain, historical narrative of the life of each of the apostles, illustrated by such aids as could be drawn from the works of various authors, of former ages, and of other countries, which hitherto, in the inaccessible forms of a dead or foreign tongue, have been too long covered from the eyes of thousands, who might be profited by their more open communication; from these sources, as well as from the sacred record, to draw the materials of the narrative, to throw occasionally the lights of historical, topographical, and scientific, as well as exegetical illustrations on the word of truth, and from all, to learn how we may live, labor, and die, as did these first champions of Christ crucified." A hope was also expressed by the author, that the facilities of his situation would enable him, by research among the long-hidden treasures of large and costly libraries, to bring forth, in direct illustration of this narrative, much of those treasures of scriptural knowledge, which, by their size and rarity, are beyond the reach and the means of a vast number of Biblical students, who would derive great advantage and pleasure from their perusal; and that even clergymen and students of theology, might find in this work many things, drawn from these valuable materials, that would make this a desirable book for them. Yet far from promising the combined results of all the labors of the learned on these subjects, the author then distinctly professed his main object to be, the collection and combination of such facts and illustrations as would make the work acceptable and interesting to readers of all classes, to popular, as well as to learned readers; and he accordingly engaged to present all the contents of the book, clear and plain, even to those whose minds have not been accustomed to deep research in Biblical study.
