its tabernacle and its temple, its festivals and purifications, was but a shadow and a type of a coming One unto whom the gathering of the people should be, and in whom all the nations of the carth should be blessed. At the same time, the early promise continued to blossom out in prophecies, which shed beauty and fragrance over the dreary desert by which the Church was making her steady way towards the promised land. Their history, their captivities, their deliverances were a perpetual prophecy to the Jews of their deliverance from a worse-a spiritual bondage. The interpositions of God to deliver them from earthly enemies and straits prefigured a higher work to be done in the future.

The highest splendour of the history of the old covenant appeared in David, when the promise was given that his Seed should reign for ever, and that the throne of his kingdom should be established for ever.1 There is a further development of the expectations connected with the coming of Messiah. The quarter whence the Star that should come out of Jacob was to arise is more specifically mentioned. The family of David is singled out from the tribe of Judah, and made the bearer of the line of the promise. First, the revelation was in the most general form, the Seed or Offspring of the woman; next, this promised Offspring is to be of the seed of Abraham. Again, the boundaries are narrowed, and we see the Star arising out of Jacob, and Shiloh coming out of Judah. And, lastly, the house of David is selected out of Judah, and Bethlehem, the city of David, is pointed out as the birthplace of the Saviour. The peaceful, prosperous reign of Solomon was prophetic of the reign of the Prince of peace, and the building of the temple expressed, in its perfection and reality, the conception of the Christian Church. Psalms were heard in the temple and at the hearthstones of the people, which spoke of the future King. The pious Hebrews were always, as it were, in the attitude of expectation. There was a gradual advancement from the first ray which broke on the darkness of the night, to the clear dawn, which foretokened the going forth of the Bridegroom out of His chamber. The plan of salvation had been gradually developed, and made clearer and clearer, as the time for the full manifestation of its Author and Finisher drew near. And, while this was going on, the salvation itself was imparted to every one who in faith built on the foundation laid in Zion, according to the measure of truth revealed to him. Many died "in faith, not having received the promises (or the things promised), but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."2 1 2 Sam. vii. 12, 13; 1 Kings viii. 25; Ps. lxxxix. 29.

2 Heb. xi. 13.

We have a long catalogue of such worthies. It was in the growing light of a dawn like this that such men as John, and Andrew, and Peter, and Philip, and Nathanael, came on the stage of life. They were neither blind nor infatuated. It is not to be wondered at, that when Jesus was pointed out to them by him whom all men counted as a prophet, as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, they followed Him, and were convinced that they had "found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write."1

1 St. John i. 45.

CHAPTER II.

EARLY LIFE AND NATURAL TRAITS OF ST. JOHN.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE HOLY LAND.RUINS. SACRED ASSOCIATIONS.-NATIVES OF GALILEE.-BETHSAIDA.

CHILDISH

PASTIMES.-SEA

STRUCTION.-JOHN

OF GALILEE.-ZEBEDEUS.-HIS EARLY DE

MISE. JEWISH EDUCATION.-PROFANE AND SACRED LITERATURE.-SCHOOLS IN THE POST-EXILE PERIOD.-EDUCATION OF APOSTLES.-MODE OF INAT SCHOOL.-OUTWARD LIFE OF THE BOY.-JUDAS THE GAULONITE. SAMARITANS. - PILGRIMAGES.-JERUSALEM.-SAUL OF TARSUS A COEVAL OF JOHN.-THE PASSOVER.-JOHN YOUNGEST OF THE TWELVE. WAS HE EVER MARRIED?-MEANING OF BOANERGES.-STRONG ELEMENTS IN HIS CHARACTER.-SUSCEPTIBILITY ΤΟ IMPRESSION.-COMPARED WITH AUGUSTINE AND LUTHER. HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER.

THE importance of Palestine, the principal theatre of the earlier events now to be narrated, is not to be estimated by its geographical extent. Its breadth, from the Jordan to the sea, is scarcely at any point more than fifty miles: and its extreme length, from Dan to Beersheba, not far from one hundred and eighty. It occupies the northern portion of the high mountain tract which lies between the great plains of Assyria and the shores of the Mediterranean. On its northern frontier rise the ranges of Lebanon. On the east, the vast fissure of the Jordan valley and the desert separated it from the empires on the plains of Mesopotamia, and the cities that rose on the Euphrates and Tigris, so wellknown in ancient history. Another great desert separated it on the south from Egypt, a land which had taken the lead of all others in arts and civilization. On the west, it was accessible only by the sea; but afforded no great harbours inviting and protecting commercial enterprise. It thus stood midway between the two seats of ancient empire and civilization. And when at last the West began to rise as a new power, as the nearest point of contact between the two worlds, it became the scene of the chief conflicts of Rome with Asia. It has thus been the chosen field where the gauge of battle has been thrown down between powerful armies, from the days of the Assyrian kings to those of Mehemet Ali.

The wide and fertile plains of Sharon1 and Shechem and Esdraelon,

1 The scattered trees are apparently the remnants of a great forest which once existed here. The Septuagint translates " Sharon," in Isa. lxv. 10, by the word Spuuós, forest, with reference probably to the feature by which it was then dis

like its everlasting hills, remain as of old; but the land is far from what it once was in populousness and fertility. It is literally a land of ruins. "There is no country," it has been said, "in which they are so numerous, none in which they bear so large a proportion to the villages and towns still in existence. In Judæa it is hardly an exaggeration to say that, whilst for miles and miles there is no appearance of present life or habitation, except the occasional goatherd on the hill-side, or gathering of women at the wells, there is yet hardly a hill-top of the many within sight which is not covered by the vestiges of some fortress or city of former ages.' These ruins tell us that we must not judge of the resources of the ancient land by its present depressed and desolate state. How different must have been the aspect of the country, when every hill was crowned with a flourishing town or village, or was a terraced garden to its summit! The neglect of the terraces which supported the soil on the steep declivities, the destruction of the forests, and the gradual cessation of rains, consequent on this loss of vegetation, has subjected the country to the evils of sterility and depopulation. Once herds and flocks grazed upon a thousand hills; fields of wheat and barley, and plantations of figs and pomegranates, citron and palm, variegated the landscape, and afforded food, or the promise of food, to the crowded population. In comparison with the deserts which surrounded it, even to a people emigrating from the banks of the Nile, it might well have been denominated a "land flowing with milk and honey."

And what sacred historical associations, running back to the time of world-renowned patriarchs, and inspired seers, cluster around every part of the land! This was the goodly land Moses had viewed from the top of Pisgah, where the tribes, after their long wandering in the wilderness, under the leadership of Joshua, obtained possession, and found rest. Here were Hebron, and Bethel, and Sychar, and Bethlehem, and Nazareth. Here was Jerusalem, its mountain-site, the towers and gates and battlements of its lofty and complete walls, tinguished. It was famed for the excellence of its pasture land; and within its borders Herod the Great built Cæsarea, which became the residence of the governors of Judæa.

At Shechem "there is no wilderness, no wild thickets, yet there is always verdure; not of the oak, the terebinth, and the carob-tree, but of the olive-grove -so soft in colour, so picturesque in form, that for its sake we can well dispense with all other wood." (Van de Velde, i., 386.)

Esdraelon runs from the shores of the Mediterranean on the west to the valley of the Jordan on the east. It reaches, where it is widest, about twelve miles from the hills of Samaria to the mountains of northern Palestine.

1 Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 117. London, 1862.

2 Dr. Olin's Travels in the East, ii., p. 428

507, 553; iii., p. 595.

Dr. Robinson's Bib. Res., i., pp.

giving to it, to all beholders, a commanding and picturesque appearance. It had been the scene of great wonders for centuries before the birth of John; and it was destined to be of greater still. Here holy prophets had delivered their messages, and David and Solomon had reigned. Here Isaiah touched his harp. Here was the first temple in which the Shechinah had once dwelt; and the second the glory of which was to be greater than the former, by the presence of Him who was 'the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person."

John, the apostle, was a native of Galilee, in the north of Palestine, probably the town of Bethsaida, on the western shore of the lake, not far from Capernaum and Chorazin. Such have been the devastations in that region, that it is now difficult to fix upon the exact site of these cities. The green slopes of Tabor and the snowy summits of Hermon were in full sight of his childhood's home. Galilee includes the ancient territories of Issachar, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali, the whole northern section of the country. Josephus describes the soil as rich and well cultivated. Fruit and forest trees of every kind abounded; numerous large cities and populous villages, amounting in all to no less than two hundred and forty, thickly studded the whole face of the country. The inhabitants were industrious and warlike, being trained to arms from their infancy. The northern border ran from Dan westward across the mountain-ridge, till it touched the territory of the Phoenicians. The upper Jordan, from the fountain of Dan, the Sea of Galilee, and the river Jordan, formed the eastern border. The southern ran from the Jordan by Scythopolis, up through the valley of Jezreel to Gilboa, and along the base of the hills of Samaria and Carmel. And on the west it was bounded, from the foot of Carmel, by the territory of Ptolemais.

2

It was divided into two sections, "Upper" and "Lower" Galilee.

1 Robinson's Res., ii., pp. 404, 405; iii., pp. 347-361. There were two towns named Bethsaida, one near the northern extremity of the lake, on the eastern shore; the other in the neighbourhood of Chorazin and Capernaum, on the west side of the lake. The former is mentioned Luke ix. 10, near which the five thousand were fed; the ruins of it are still to be seen at the distance of little more than four miles beyond where the Jordan enters into the lake. The latter was the city of Andrew and Peter; and like Chorazin and Capernaum, has been so completely effaced, that its precise locality is a matter of some doubt.

2 Jewish Wars, iii.,.3 (2,3); Life, 45. The " soil is universally rich," is the language of the Jewish historian, "and fruitful, and full of plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites the most slothful to take pains in its cultivation by its fruitfulness; accordingly, it is all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part of it lies idle. Moreover, the cities ic here very thick; and the very many villages are everywhere so full of peopic, that the very least of them contain above fifteen thousand inhabitants."