PREFACE.

HE OBJECT OF THIS WORK is to place in the hands of the Great, General Public a Plain, Complete and Connected History of Jesus and His Apostles, in their various "Journeys" over Palestine; To invest the life and works of our Lord with new interest, by showing the Time, Place and Circumstance of His daily walks among Men, the Routes over which He traveled by land and by sea, across craggy mountains and through teeming valleys; describing every scene of interest by the way, the green fields and waving corn; fragrant flowers and blossoming trees; the rich fruits and abundant harvests; the birds which filled the air with their melody, and the wild beasts which endangered His pathway across the trackless wilderness.

The Work gives graphic accounts of the voyages of Jesus and the Twelve in an open boat, of "Scenes by Night," and " "Sights by Day," their privations and disappointments; their joys so few and sorrows so many; describes the boats and fishermen of blue Galilee; the Houses of the Poor and Palaces of the Rich; the Habits and Customs of the People, the Climate and Products of every month in the year; Illustrating each City and Hamlet of note, Temple and Ruin, over the Routes, and the REMARKABLE PEOPLE who built and inhabited them, and their condition in the days of the VISITATION OF JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES.

Thus the Work brings before the reader, in VIVID REALITY and COMPLETE ORDER, every known Act and Walk of OUR BLESSED LORD AND SAVIOUR, from the Manger to the Sepulchre and the "Forty Days" after the resurrection.

THE NEED OF THIS WORK is evident to every Bible student. While the truths of the Gospels are beyond question, and con

stitute our main guidance in this great undertaking, it is also a well-known fact that the disorder in which the many narratives and subjects are thrown together, has caused much unbelief in these hidden truths. The most profound thinkers of the two continents have realized this, and earnestly desired a remedy. "The Revised Version" was an outgrowth of this desire, wherein the Convocation of Canterbury, May 3 and 5, 1870, Resolved,

"I. That it is desirable that a revision of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures be undertaken.”

But that committee again say (III.)

66 THAT IT DID NOT FALL WITHIN THEIR PROVINCE TO CONSTRUCT A CONTINUOUS AND COM

plete Greek TEXT!" (The Gospel was in the "Greek text.") Therefore, while the Revised Version has given us great light on the Gospels, their misplaced order remains as before.

Says the learned Dr. Geikie, "The Gospels do not enable us to follow any chronological sequence in the incidents recorded of these months of our Lord's ministry." Mr. Andrews says, "Matthew, in his grouping of the miracles, in chapters 8 and 9, does not follow the order of time. . . Luke narrates without specifying time or place."-Andrews' Life of Our Lord, p. 236.

"Mark wrote whatever Peter remembered, but did not write in order the things which were spoken of, or done, by Christ.". Papias, Second Century.-Dr. Abbott.

The learned Divine, Dr. John Kitto, says, "The Evangelists attached little weight to minute preciseness in the incidents recorded," while Dr. Beecher goes farther in saying that "The chronology of the New Testament was nebulous and loose to the last degree."

"Mark," says the eminent Dr. Lyman Abbott, "does not purport to give a complete biography of Christ, but only detached incidents and teachings in His life," and "It is reasonable to believe that Luke has inserted out of their original connection epigrammatic utterances of Christ, the occasion of which he (Luke) did not know and does not indicate in his narrative. But if Luke's Gospel is less to be followed as a guide in questions of chronology and geography, it is a broader and more comprehensive biography than either of the other three gospels.

"Matthew predominates in the fulfilment of prophecy; "Mark in the manifestation of power;

"Luke, the welcome of all classes and nations."—Abbott. John wrote almost entirely of Christ's work in Judea; while the other three Evangelists wrote quite as exclusive of it.

Therefore, we see that the reading of one book gives a very meagre and indefinite account of the walks and works of Jesus on earth, while the reading of the four in rotation, without great study, or outside help to connect them, could never convey to the reader a clear conception of the remarkable history of Jesus while among men.

Instances of this want of chronology and system in the Gospels are too numerous to here mention.

NEED OF BIBLE "HELPS" INDISPENSABLE.

Says Martin Luther: "That which I have so often insisted on elsewhere, I here once more repeat, viz. that the Christian should direct his first efforts toward understanding the literal sense of Scripture, which alone is the substance of faith and of Christian theology."

The eminent Dr. Daniel March says:

"To understand and treasure up the Truths of the Bible, WE NEED TO KNOW SOMETHING OF THE PLACES AND PEOPLE that stand forth so prominently in the sacred page," and "WE SHALL DO WELL

IF WE MAKE BOTH THE WORD AND PLACE AS FAMILIAR AS POSSIBLE TO OUR MIND, and TO INVEST THEM WITH THE UTMOST DEGREE OF CLEARNESS AND REALITY."

Such has been our untiring effort in this Work; because

"To know something of a land whose air Jesus breathed so long, amongst whose people He was wont to mingle, and by whose best characteristics He must have been affected, IS ESSENTIAL TO A VIVID REALIZATION OF HIS LIFE."-C. Geikie, D. D.

THE IMMENSE DIFFICULTIES IN HARMONIZING THE GOSPEL records, written many years apart, without regard to Time or Place, and for different classes of readers, must be obvious to every thoughtful bible student. They were written at a period when pens, ink and paper were dear. The scraps upon which they were written were not paged or versed, and, if ever in order, which is doubted, must have got sadly misplaced in passing through so many hands as they afterwards did.

"CAN THE GOSPELS BE HARMONIZED?"

But I cannot agree with my highly esteemed contemporary, Dr. F. W. Farrar, who, in the Preface to his work, "The Life of Christ," says, "I do not regard as possible any final harmony of the Gospels' ... and "that the Gospel notices of chronology are too incomplete to render certainty attainable."

I REGARD THE HARMONY OF THE Gospels as possible, but in so doing I could not follow the order of Dr. Farrar.

It is only after many years of careful and untiring labor and research in this direction, that the author of these pages places them before the world, claiming that the Gospels contain a complete and reliable history of Jesus on earth.

This conclusion has been reached by several courses.

1. By carefully comparing the detached records of the four Evangelists verse by verse, and arranging them consistent with time, sense and circumstances.

2. "THE REVISED VERSION" has aided much in the matter. Says the learned editor of the Sunday-School Times:

"One who has not read the New Version in close comparison with the Old, can have little conception of the number of obscurities cleared up, of doubts solved, and of disputed questions settled by this process.

This version I have compared verse by verse with the "Authorized" version, and that again with all the prophecies bearing on the subject involved.

3. OTHER SCHOLARLY AIDS. While these "JOURNEYS" are founded strictly upon the Gospels (see Gospels, Part Second), the writer has called to his aid a complete geographical knowledge of the country, the results of the latest Researches of the Palestine Exploring Expeditions, and the authorities of the "Great Lights" of the first and second centuries after Christ, as well as the criticisms and opinions of the best minds of the two continents, down to the

LATEST PERIOD.

It is with no little satisfaction, to say the least, that I refer to the many eminent Divines, Travellers and Critics whom it has been my inestimable privilege to consult, and quote, in making complete these "Journeys." No one, I trust, will accuse me of having followed such prolific reapers through untold harvests, without myself having garnered something to advantage for my little store, which I, in turn, as freely lay before my guests.