the business, moreover, being one associated with their religious services ?

S. So the story is told.

P.-Was the process effectual?

S.-What the ultimate results were we are not told. According to John, Jesus frequently revisited the temple, and to be consistent should have interfered again if the practice he had objected to still subsisted. But we hear of no further action of the sort on his part. The accounts of the other evangelists are at entire variance with that of John, for, according to them, the practice was in force at the close of the ministry of Jesus, and was then put down by him, under circumstances to show that he had never taken such action before.

P. This is a strange discrepancy certainly, if there is any real foundation for the story. Was it consistent with the doctrine Jesus held forth, that a man should take the law into his own hands, and put down by violence what he might disapprove of?

S. On the contrary, he taught just the reverse. He said of himself, "I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. xi. 29), and he declared, "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek." "Resist not evil," he said, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also" (Matt. v. 3, 5, 39, 40).

P.-His practice and his preaching seem to have been highly inconsistent. Was this open interference with what stood connected with the temple sacrifices alleged against him when he was finally proceeded against?

S.-His accusers seem to have been at their wits' end to bring matter against him, but no one appears to have thought of this very remarkable handle which might have been used to his prejudice.

P.-The tale has assuredly the characteristics of fiction throughout. Does the contradiction as to whether the event happened at the beginning or the end of the ministry of Jesus involve any serious discordance as to time?

S.-It does. The first three evangelists record the occur- Duration rence of but one passover during the ministry of Jesus, namely of that at which his career was brought to a close. John, on the

ministry.

Recapitulation of discrepancies in early history.

Field of

ministry.

other hand, has him officiating through a period embraced by three passovers (ii. 13, 23; vi. 4; xi. 55). So that according to the first three the ministry of Jesus lasted but a portion of a year, while pursuant to John it occupied more than two years.

P.-Would you be good enough to give me an idea of the movements of Jesus in the course of his career, pointing out where the accounts disagree.

S.-Willingly.

my statements.

This map will enable you to follow me in

I have already mentioned to you certain serious differences between the evangelists in the early part of the history of Jesus. That is, Matthew has his parents residing at Bethlehem at the time of his birth, while Luke brings them there specially for a census from Nazareth, which he represents as their place of abode. Then Matthew has them flying with Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt, and returning thence to Nazareth; whereas Luke says they went direct from Bethlehem to Nazareth, the flight to Egypt, and its cause, having no place in his narrative. I have shown you that Luke brings Jesus to Jerusalem at the age of twelve in company with his parents for the passover, a circumstance not mentioned by the other evangelists. Furthermore, the first three evangelists describe the meeting of Jesus with John, his baptism by John, the descent upon him of the Holy Ghost with a voice from heaven, and his immediately being taken to the wilderness of Judea, where he remained forty days tempted of the devil. The fourth evangelist, on the other hand, mentions the meeting with John, and the divine manifestations, but says nothing of the baptism of Jesus; and three days after this meeting he places Jesus at Cana in Galilee, where he performs the miracle of changing water into wine. John thus excludes the temptation, while the other evangelists exclude the miracle at Cana. We are brought now to the period of the public ministry of Jesus.

Matthew says that after his temptation Jesus returned to Galilee (iv. 12); then proceeded from Nazareth to Capernaum (iv. 13); then went preaching through all Galilee (iv. 23); afterwards ascended a mountain, and gave forth that discourse currently called his sermon on the mount (v. 1); then entered

Capernaum (viii. 5); was on the sea of Galilee in a storm (viii. 24); visited the country of the Gergesenes (viii. 28); returned to Nazareth, where he performed a noted miracle on a man sick of the palsy (ix. 1); went through the cities and villages round about (ix. 35); preached in the cities (xi. 1); upbraided those in which he had most worked, naming Chorazin and Bethsaida (xi. 21); was by the sea side (xiii. 1); returned to Nazareth (xiii. 54); on hearing of John's death withdrew by ship to a desert place (xiv. 13); crossed the sea to the other side (xiv. 22); was again on the sea and landed at Gennesaret (xiv. 34); went to the border of Tyre and Sidon (xv. 21); came back to the sea of Galilee (xv. 29); went by ship to the coast of Magdala (xv. 39); crossed to the other side (xvi. 5); went to the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi (xvi. 13); ascended the mount where he was transfigured, having Moses and Elias with him (xvii. 1); was still in Galilee (xvii. 22); went to Capernaum (xvii. 24); and then set out on his journey to Jerusalem where he met his end (xix. 1).

Mark and Luke describe the same course in very general concurrence with Matthew, the details in Mark being the fullest and closest in accord. Mark, however, places the curing of the palsied man at Capernaum, on the second visit made to that place (ii. 1), and Luke does not say where it occurred, Jesus being last spoken of by him as in the wilderness (v. 16-18). Luke, moreover, says that what is known as the sermon on the mount was delivered on a plain to which Jesus descended from a mountain (vi. 17), and he places the event after the curing of the palsied man.

These evangelists thus concur in confining the ministrations of Jesus to Galilee, not bringing him to Judea or Jerusalem till he comes there at the close of his career. John's account is a very different one. Having taken Jesus to Cana of Galilee (ii. 1), he states that he went to Capernaum (ii. 12), and then attended the passover at Jerusalem (ii. 13). There is now a new episode connected with John. He is found baptizing at Enon, on the Jordan, the point where he first baptized being lower down, at Bethabara; and to this neighbourhood, which is in Samaria, Jesus comes and carries out the rite, baptizing, through the instrumentality of his disciples, more