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another and another, without apparently thinking it necessary to arrange them particularly in their order of time; and sometimes one will go back again over the ground, as if to supply something that was omitted in its proper place; or will anticipate something which seems appropriate to what he is now relating, as in Mark xvi. 1, &c., and 9; Luke xxi. 37; Matt. xxvii. 53, &c.

I have endeavoured, with some help from kind friends, to arrange these incidents, as far as I could, in the places to which they seemed most likely to belong; but after much labour I find it impossible to be sure of this in many cases. But there are two considerations which keep me from being much distressed at my failure to secure accuracy in this respect: one is, that since, so far as I can find, no two compilers of Harmonies agree together, so no one can possibly agree with them all; and therefore, after all, readers must judge for themselves, if they care to do so, which arrangement seems most nearly the correct one: and the other is, that if the sequence had been of any real importance the Spirit of Inspiration would never have left it doubtful.

If any learned persons should look through my work they will doubtless think many of the notes trivial: "Everybody knows so-and-so." But it is not intended for the learned, but for the unlearned, and for all those who love the Book of God, but who cannot obtain, or perhaps understand, the erudite volumes I have spoken of. The very simpleness of these apparent difficulties prevents teachers in general from perceiving that they are difficulties to those who have not had much opportunity of study; and therefore those things which puzzle such persons most are precisely those which are left unexplained. I have not put in one single note without knowing that one person or another has wished for explanation on that special point.

I have divided the main body of the history into first, second, and third years of our Lord's public ministry, as being more convenient than having one long chapter or book of the whole, and because I had always supposed it was an historical fact that His ministry did occupy that period of time. But I have since been informed that this also is a subject of controversy with scholars; and yet that there is so much in favour of the belief that it did so, that the decision may well be permitted to stand, with the explanation, that it is by no means put forth as a certainty.

With regard to that much-contested point, the verbal inspiration' of the Holy Scriptures, I would with all reverence, in comparing earthly things with heavenly, take another illustration from every-day life. A series of events has happened (we will say) in my family history, of which I am anxious to preserve a record; but yet, for reasons of my own, I do not choose to write the record myself. I recount the story to four of my children (whether separately or together matters not), and bid them write it carefully out, and shew the MSS. to me. They, assisted by their own memory, for that they also were present during the transactions referred to, make out their separate copies accordingly, and bring them to me. I examine them; and while I do not interfere with their manner of expressing themselves in unimportant particulars, yet I do so far correct them as not to allow a single word that is untrue or wrong in any way; nor yet do I suffer the omission of any important detail. Thus the story goes forth with my authority and sanction; and yet I do not dictate the exact expressions; nor, when it was not really needful, think it necessary to require from them the exact sequence of many unconnected details, whose significance did not depend on their situation in the written history.

When I began

I cannot help making one more remark. this work I quite expected I should find it necessary to interpolate at least some short passage in many places, in order to make mere sense out of paragraphs cut out of separate books, and only laid together. I am myself astonished to find there has been almost no need for such interpolation at all scarcely more than an 'and' or a 'but' all through. And this seems to me a most singular and incontrovertible proof of the divinity of the whole. Take any other histories of one event—say of the Crimean war, or the biography of any well-known character-and see if it would be possible to weave them together thus, to say nothing of the contradictions, greater or smaller (and far greater than any of the apparent ones in the Sacred Writings), that would inevitably be found in any such compound narrative by any human writers. And nothing can account for the perfect harmony in every way of these four Books of the Gospels, written by such different men, at such different times, and under such different circumstances, but the fact that One unforgetting and unerring Being inspired and overruled the writing of all.

I will conclude these remarks with two extracts from works which I have only met with since all this was written.

"A Harmony of the Gospels in strict chronological order is impracticable. We cannot possibly work it out with anything like scientific certainty, for this plain and obvious reason, that with the exception of the beginning and end of the narratives, which as connected with a biography necessarily correspond, the Evangelists do not write chronologically each of them has his own distinct plan and system of arrangement, and this so independent of chronological order, that if we attempt to put them together in such an order, we shall find ourselves entangled in inextricable

:

difficulties. As a good man said once, it is 'spending time and strength in trying to make four men agree that never quarrelled.""-Rev. E. A. THOMSON.

"The Gospels, and especially the first three, can in no sense be regarded as methodical annals. It is therefore difficult, and perhaps impossible, to so harmonise them as to arrive at certain and satisfactory results. There is often no definite note of time, and then we can only proceed upon conjecture, founded upon careful comparison of all the circumstances.

"It is the aim of the present work not so much to ascertain and fix the true and precise chronological order (although this object is not neglected) as to place side by side" [or rather to weave together] "the different narratives of the same events, in an order which may at least be regarded as a probable one; and by so doing to . . . make the Evangelists their own best interpreters, to show how wonderfully they are supplemental to each other in minute as well as important particulars, and in this way to bring out fully and clearly the fundamental characteristics of their testimonyUNITY IN DIVERSITY."-From DR. ROBINSON's Introduction to his Notes, as quoted in the Religious Tract Society's preface to their edition of his Harmony of the Gospels, in Greek, a work of whose existence I was not aware till mine was completed.

N.B. The numbering of the verses has been retained according to the ordinary Testaments, in order to facilitate reference to the various writers. Where a verse is made up of fragments of two or three of the original ones, the number is given which belongs to the commencing portion of it.

THE GOSPELS INTERWOVEN.

IN

Book E.

THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD.

1. John i. 1-14.

N the beginning1 was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.8

2

2 The same was in the beginning with God.1

3 All things were made by him;5 and without him was not any thing

made that was made.

6

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.7

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.8

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the

1 Gen. i. 1.

2 Rev. xix. 13.

world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

2. Luke i. 5-25.

5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

6 And they were both righteous

Psa. xvi. 11, xxxvi. 9; Pro. viii. 35; Hos.

3 Phil. ii. 6; John v. 17, 18, &c.; John vi. 2; Amos v. 4. viii. 58, x. 30, xvii. 5.

4 Pro. viii. 22-31; Gen. i. 26.

5 Isa. xliv. 8, xlv. 6, 12, 18, 21, 22; xlviii.

13; Job ix. 5-10, xxvi. 6-17.

Deut. viii. 3; Job xii. 10, xxxiii. 4;

7 Gen. i. 3; Num. xxiv. 17; Job xxxvi. 32; Psa. iv. 6, xxvii. 1, lxxiv. 16, cxviii. 27, cxix. 105; Isa. lx. 19, 20; Dan. ii. 22; Mal. iv. 2. 9 Mal. iii. 1.

8 Gen. i. 2.

B

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