QUESTIONS.

Who had the title of king of Judea, when Christ was born? Of what tribe, and of what family was Jesus? Who were his parents? Where was Christ born? To whom was the birth of the Saviour announced? Who came from Arabia to pay homage to Jesus; and what induced them to do so? and what guided them to the place where the infant lay? Whither did Joseph flee, with Mary and her son, to avoid the jealous fury of Herod? In what town did Joseph take up his abode when he was informed that he might quit Egypt with safety? What symptoms of extraordinary sense did Jesus exhibit when twelve years old? How old was Christ when he was baptized of John, previous to his entering upon his public ministry? What striking circumstances happened when Christ came up out of the water and was praying? What trial exercised the Saviour immediately after his baptism? Of what did the temptations consist? When Christ had vanquished the temptations, what consolation was afforded him?

CHAP. III.

THIS is the testimony which John the Baptist gave concerning Jesus, when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who art thou?" He declared, "I am not the Christ, the Messiah, or Anointed One, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He, though coming after me, is is preferred before me; the strings of whose sandals I am unworthy to unloose. I saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but He that sent me to baptize with water had said unto me, 'Upon

whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining, the same is he who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost'. And I saw; and I bear record that this is the Son of God." And again, looking on Jesus as he was walking along, John said, "Behold the Lamb of God." Jesus afterwards called to be his disciples, Simon Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and Philip of Bethsaida, and Nathaniel, whose character Jesus discerned, and to whom he manifested supernatural knowledge of the situation he was in, and of what he was doing before he came into his presence, saying, "Before Philip called thee, when thou wast yet under the fig tree, I saw thee." And Jesus began to work miracles, and to preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And there went a fame of him through all the region round about. And in their synagogue he rebuked the people of Nazareth who were infamous for their transgressions; they thurst him out of their city, and dragged him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his

way.

The great festival of the Passover was now approaching, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, agreeably to the command of the law of Moses. On his first entrance into the temple, according to the prophecy of Malachi, (the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to the temple) he saw in the outer court, even the court of the Gentiles, those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, for the sacrifices, and those who exchanged Jewish

money for foreign coin, and he drove them out, as prophaners of that sacred place, saying, "Take these things hence; make not my father's house a house of merchandize." The high respect in which the people already held Jesus, on account of his miracles, and his discourses, and the consciousness of their having done wrong, prevented the sellers of victims, and the exchangers of money from resisting his command. And his disciples remembered that it was written in the book of Psalms, "A zeal for thy house consumeth me;" and they applied these words unto him. And the Jews said unto him, by what sign showest thou thy authority for doing this? Jesus replied unto them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then said the Jews, "Forty and six years hath this temple been in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?" But he spake of the temple of his body. When, therefore, he afterwards was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered this his saying, and understood the prediction concerning him. And during this feast of the Passover, many seeing the miracles which he did, believed in him. But Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. After these things, came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them, and by them baptized. And at this time Herod, the Tetrarch, being reproved by John the Baptist, on account of his having taken his brother

Philip's wife, and for other evils which he had done, shut up John in prison; and finally, at the instigation of Herodias, that wicked woman, he put to death the holy man of God. But when Jesus heard that John was imprisoned, he left Judea, and departed into Galilee. On his road into Galilee it was necessary that Jesus should pass through Samaria. And when he drew near unto a town named Sychar, at noon, being wearied with his journey, he rested himself on the side of a well called after the patriarch, Jacob, by whom it was supposed that it was first digged. And his disciples went into the town to buy food. A Samaritan woman coming unto the well to draw water, Jesus asked her to give him to drink, and entering into conversation with her, he mentioned certain particulars of her private life, so that being convinced thereby that he was a prophet, she ran unto the town, and brought out unto Jesus her friends and acquaintance, saying, "Is not this the Christ who manifesteth miraculous knowledge of my domestic circumstances." And many of the inhabitants of Sychar believed on him; and at their entreaty, he abode with them two days. They acknowledged him to be the Christ, the Saviour of the world; moved by the wisdom and the mighty power which they saw in him. And Jesus went on unto Galilee, and the Galileans received him, having seen the things which he did, at Jerusalem, during the festival. And Jesus came again unto Cana of Galilee, where he had wrought his first miracle

M

of changing water into wine. A certain nobleman, supposed to have been Chuza, the steward of Herod, came unto Jesus, beseeching him to come to Capernaum, and heal his son, who lay there sick, at the point of death. Then Jesus said unto him, "Go thy way, thy son liveth."

And the man believed the words which Jesus had spoken unto him, and departed. And as he was on his journey, his servants met him, saying, "Thy son liveth." Thy son liveth." And on demanding at what hour he began to amend, the father knew that it was the very hour when Jesus had said unto him, 66 Thy son liveth." And he believed, and his whole house. But Jesus leaving Nazareth, came and dwelt at Capernaum, which is on the side of the lake in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthali, and taught there on the Sabbath days. Thus was fulfilled that which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, "The land of Zabulon and of Napthali toward the way of the lake beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the gentiles. The people that sate in darkness saw a great light; and to them who sate in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up." And Jesus went into the synagogue at Capernaum on the Sabbath-day, and taught. The people were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes; his word was accompanied with supernatural power. And there stood in their synagogue a man who was raving mad, and fancied himself possessed by a demon; and, with a word, Jesus banished the spirit of disease, and restored him to sanity and health. And all