The Training of the Twelve

This book, published in Edinburgh in 1871, was Bruce's first major exegetical work. Written during the years he was himself a pastor, it offers guidance, following the example of Christ, to those beginning in the ministry on how to equip other believers for service unto God. Divided into thirty-one chapters, the book is a chronological "harmony" of the gospels, centered on the twelve apostles, and ending in the first half of Acts. Throughout, the relationships of these twelve men with Christ and with each other are carefully detailed, in a work which "documents the struggles and the successes of the first group of people who endeavored so to love each other that they became recognizable as Christ's disciples".