THE GOSPELS COMBINED; 448 PARALLEL PASSAGES BLENDED, AND SEPARATE ACCOUNTS ONE CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE, THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST AS TOLD BY MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, AND JOHN. HIS WORDS IN SPECIAL TYPE. COMPILED BY REV. CHARLES H. POPE. BOSTON, MASS. W. A. WILDE & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1895. PREFACE. THE four undated, unsigned books we call The Gospels, the oldest records of the only cosmopolitan religion, claim the attentive study of every intelligent person. Preserved in hundreds of ancient manuscripts, attested and quoted by a vast number of succeeding writers, they are far beyond Greek and Roman "classics" in the clear personality of their authors and the relative purity of their text. With great differences of style and substance, they corroborate and supplement each other's accounts to an unsurpassed degree; and whoever studies them long and well acquires a single impression, a blended history. But it is not easy to gain this; and imperfect or confused notions have arisen in consequence of failure in such comparative study. To meet this difficulty, many scholars have arranged the words of the four Gospels in parallel columns, in "Harmonies," a fine form for leisure examination and critical analysis. Others, from Tatian, A. D. 160, to our day, have chosen to unite the four into one continuous narrative, allowing each Evangelist to speak in his turn, and assimilating their accounts into a single testimony. In the present work this union is accomplished in a manner which, it is believed, will make The Gospels Combined peculiarly easy to read, — adapted to the wants of busy people, — and quite free from the intrusion of any elements which tend to divert the reader's attention from the exact thoughts of the Evangelists, or warp his opinion as to the subject-matter. The separate passages are arranged in the order which the |