As a single example, for which alone I can find space, we will choose the portion of history, comprised between the second visit to Nazareth, and the return to the sea of Tiberias, previous to the feeding of the five thousand. The best authorities assign the visit to October A.D. 28, the miracle to April A.D. 29; the history therefore occupying a period of about six months. Dean Ellicott compresses it into a single day. For the right understanding of the question it is necessary to advert to preceding events.

By the miracle of restoring the withered hand on the Sabbath, in the synagogue of Capernaum, our Lord had incurred the determined hostility of the Pharisaic party there. They resolved upon his ruin, and to effect it, set themselves forthwith to concert measures with the Herodians, probably influential inhabitants and civil authorities of the place. Our Lord immediately withdrew to the sea, nor for a considerable period did he show himself again at Capernaum, except on a single occasion, when, passing through, He healed the Centurion's servant. During that period the Pharisees had matured their plans John the Baptist had, if I mistake not, now been put to death, and they knew enough of the character of Herod Antipas, to suspect that he was not likely to venture on the murder of a second prophet. They determined therefore to remove our Lord by a different stratagem. Working partly upon the apprehensions and partly upon the prejudices of His relatives, they persuaded them that His reason was disordered, thinking to have Him seized and placed under restraint.

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After an absence of some months the Saviour returned to Capernaum, and the multitude resorted to Him. It so happened by Divine providence, that on the morning when His relatives were on their road with the intention of taking Him away under their care, and were now close at hand, a poor demoniac, blind and dumb, was brought to our Lord to be healed. devil was cast out, and the man both saw and spake. The multitudes were astonished, and exclaimed, Is not this the Messiah? The Scribes and Pharisees, hearing of the miracle, were immediately upon the spot, and spread it abroad among the people, that it was by leaguing Himself with the Prince of the devils that Jesus cast them out. Our Lord called these

infatuated men to come near to Him in the court of the house where He was. He reasoned with them at great length, and proved the folly and wickedness of the imputation which they made, and its extreme danger to themselves. He was yet speaking, when His mother and brethren and sisters arrived. The multitude, deeply interested in what was passing, had filled the house, and stood around the entrance in masses which prevented the possibility of approach. A message was passed through the crowd that His mother and brethren wished to speak with Him. The message received no direct reply. He was engaged, He was understood to say, in doing the will of His Father, and His true kinsfolk were they who joined Him in doing it. His brethren and the Pharisees retired from the scene. It was plainly no opportunity for executing their design.

After awhile our Lord, attended by the apostles, and probably by a part of the crowd, proceeded to the seaside. He was soon surrounded by a great multitude of people, and entering into a ship, He began to teach them on the shore. But it was no longer after His wonted manner. He had denounced the nefarious conduct of the Pharisees in the strongest terms, and in tones which might seem to be impassioned. Now He adopted a method of address which did not admit of excited or exciting language. In a few simple stories He calmly and leisurely instructed His general hearers as to the source and growth and blessed effects of religion in the individual soul, and by the same stories He suggested to the earnest enquirers the future progress and dominion of His faith over the nations of the world. In the evening our Lord departed for the other side of the sea, to return, however, for a brief space on the morrow. The twenty-four hours succeeding His departure sufficed to accomplish much. By conclusive reasoning He had already refuted the Pharisees, by gentle teaching He had convinced the multitude, and now again by irresistible demonstrations of power He asserted before the eyes of His chosen apostles His authority over the whole domain of matter and of spirit. He said, Be still, and the storm was hushed; He said, Go, and the legion of devils precipitated themselves into the deep; He said, Arise, and the dead maiden was restored

to her loving parents. Nor were his humble followers at Capernaum left without ocular testimony to His power. In the midst of the throng He healed the disease which for twelve years had baffled the physicians, and ere the night closed His labours, He gave sight to two blind men, and to crown, as it were, His contest with Pharisaic obduracy, He bestowed speech and reason on a second dumb demoniac.

The infatuated, notwithstanding, adhered to their infatuation. Well might our Lord quit the place; well might he shun all intercourse with the Scribes and Pharisees of Capernaum. The early morning, it is probable, saw Him depart without another word. His apostles followed His steps. Whither was He going? Why, the Pharisaic calumny had not yet been entirely countervailed. There were yet those whose minds were to be disabused of false impressions, and relieved from distressing fears. His mother, and sisters, and brethren, had returned to Nazareth with hearts painfully, though, no doubt, variously affected. To appease the fears of some of them, and to remove, if possible, the prejudices of others, our Lord repaired to His former home. There, we may believe, He speedily satisfied His blessed mother and His family, that any apprehensions they might have entertained were altogether unfounded. Nor was our Lord indifferent to the well-being of His fellow-townsmen. On the Sabbath, which might be the following day, He appeared in the synagogue and taught in public. None could for a moment deny the wisdom of the words which He spake; all confessed the mighty works He had wrought. They were filled with amazement. But of His claims to their reverence they were not convinced. The moral poison, which Pharisaic malice had instilled, still rankled within them. Faith was rare in Nazareth, and a few sick folk healed of their infirmities was the only triumph over the general scepticism, which, on the authority of the evangelical record, we may attribute to the Saviour's revisit of His own town. But there is no reason to suppose that He left it abruptly. On the contrary, His recent proceedings had been marked by great deliberation. He shrank not from the charge which had been brought against Him, but met it in every quarter boldly, and without a shadow of fear, And it is natural to conclude that, quietly and leisurely, with

the apostles around Him, He set out on the circuit with which the portion of history we proposed to consider commences.

S. Mark, with his characteristic regularity and precision, immediately subjoins to the visit to Nazareth, his account of this circuit: And He went round about the villages teaching. The second evangelist is thus brief, because the first had given a full description of the journey, Matthew ix. 35, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. We naturally understand by this language a journey of considerable extent and duration, such as might embrace a large part of Galilee. It is believed to have occupied three or four months.

In the course of His journeying our Lord observed the sad spiritual condition of the population. They were as sheep having no shepherd, without guidance and without care. He felt deep compassion for their ignorance and destitution, and at the close, or, more probably, during the latter part of the circuit, He exhorted His disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into His harvest. We cannot doubt that their Master's exhortation was obeyed, and that the disciples did put up their petitions for an increase of Gospel labourers. This preparation by prayer gives solemnity to the mission, with a very particular account of which S. Matthew then proceeds, x. 1, And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Having mentioned the names of the apostles, the evangelist continues, ver. 5, These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying. We have next the charge at great length. It begins, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The expression at ix. 36, plainly in designed accordance with this, serves to bind the narrative together, and to show that there is no interruption from its commencement at ix. 35, to its conclusion at xi. 1. There we read, And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence, that is, from the place where they separated, to teach and to preach in their cities.

S. Mark, though more brief, affords us much additional information, vi. 7: And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits, and commanded them. ver. 12: And they went out, and preached that men should repent: And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. ver. 30: And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. S. Luke's account, though still more summary, is to the same effect, ix. 1: Then He called His twelve apostles together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. ver. 6: And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere. ver. 10: And the apostles, when they were returned, told Him all that they had done.

This mission and preaching of the twelve is evidently regarded by the three evangelists as a highly important event in the Gali læan ministry. Each of them devotes to it no small portion of narrative, and describes it with more or less of detail. It was a solemn and deliberate transaction. The going forth was not undertaken without prayer and preparation, not without very full and particular instructions, nor without special cautions against precipitancy or any other conduct unbecoming the character of the Saviour's heralds of the Gospel of God. By that mission our Lord clearly intended not only that the apostles should exercise and prove the powers He had committed to them, and train themselves for more difficult services in the future, but that they should at that present time be the means of instructing the erring multitude, and of bringing them to repentance and amendment of life. The charge which He gives them manifestly implies a wide sphere of action and labours not of short continuance. The mission was not completed, according to the best authorities, in less than six or eight weeks.

Our Lord and His apostles traversed the country by seven different routes or circuits, and they met again at Capernaum or in its neighbourhood. They were soon oppressed by the number of persons coming and going, so that they had not time to take their ordinary meals; and as the apostles needed repose,