6:12 {3} And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
(3) In using earnest and long prayer in choosing twelve of his own company to the office of the apostleship, Christ shows how religiously we ought to behave ourselves in the choice of ecclesiastical persons.
6:12 Went out into a mountain to pray. Preparatory to calling the apostles. Our Lord always prepared for any great crisis by prayer.
6:12 In the prayer of God - The phrase is singular and emphatical, to imply an extraordinary and sublime devotion. Mr 3:13.
6:12-19 We often think one half hour a great deal to spend in meditation and secret prayer, but Christ was whole nights engaged in these duties. In serving God, our great care should be not to lose time, but to make the end of one good duty the beginning of another. The twelve apostles are here named; never were men so privileged, yet one of them had a devil, and proved a traitor. Those who have not faithful preaching near them, had better travel far than be without it. It is indeed worth while to go a great way to hear the word of Christ, and to go out of the way of other business for it. They came to be cured by him, and he healed them. There is a fulness of grace in Christ, and healing virtue in him, ready to go out from him, that is enough for all, enough for each. Men regard the diseases of the body as greater evils than those of their souls; but the Scripture teaches us differently.
