Door of the Sheep-fold. 22. The feast of the Dedication (November or December). Jesus at Jerusalem, walking in Solomon's portico, is asked to say plainly whether he is the Christ. Avoids the word, but appeals to his works "done in his Father's name," calls himself "the Son of God," and declares himself “. one with the Father:" "The Father is in me, and I in him." 39. He eludes the attempt to take him, by going to the east of the Jordan, where John had baptized.

Ch. xi. 1. While there, he hears of the illness of Lazarus, of Bethany, and, after two days' delay, returns into Judea, and raises Lazarus from the dead. 47. The fame of this miracle spreads, and the Pharisees in the Council decide from that time to put Jesus to death. 54. He "therefore walks no more openly among the Jews," but goes to a city called Ephraim, near the wilderness.† 55. The final Passover (our Easter) at hand. Much speculation as to his coming or not to the feast. [Ch. xii. 1. Six days before the passover, he comes to Bethany, to the house of Lazarus and his sisters, where Mary anoints his feet; and Judas, pretending care for the poor, reveals his own covetousness, M. MK. 12. Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, M. MK. L.] 20. The Greek Jews (Gentile proselytes?) desire to see Jesus. A voice in the temple attests him. 32. He predicts his own death. 44. Solemnly declares himself sent and instructed by the Father.

Ch. xiii. 1. Additional incidents at the Last Supper. Jesus washes the disciples' feet. [21. Declares that one of the Twelve is about to betray him, M. MK. L. 24. Points out Judas as the traitor, M.] 31. His pious reflections when Judas is gone out.

Ch. xiv.-xvi. His discourse during and after the passover, consoling his disciples and instructing them for their approach

* To this period careful Harmonists refer the incidents and discourses recorded in Luke's Gospel, xiv. xv. xvi., which seem to have taken place in the Peræa, and form, perhaps, the most interesting part. of Luke's Gnomology.

To harmonize John's Gospel with the others, we must suppose our Lord to have gone thence into Galilee, Decapolis, and further northwards to Cæsarea Philippi, teaching and working miracles, before setting out on his final journey from Galilee through the Peræa to Jerusalem. John omits all this.

3. The betrayal.

ing duties. They do not, even yet, thoroughly admit the idea that he is about to die. (I attempt no abstract of this discourse.) Ch. xvii. His prayer for them and for their disciples. [Ch. xviii. 1. Gethsemane. 13. The examination in the high-priest's house, м. MK. L.] 19. Jesus refuses to declare his pretensions, alleging the openness with which he had taught; 22. Is struck by an officer. [Peter's denial of Christ, M. MK. L. 28. Jesus is brought before Pilate, condemned and given up for crucifixion, M. MK. L.; but John has many new particulars.]

Ch. xix. 25—27. Jesus, on the cross, commits his mother to the care and protection of "the disciple whom he loved." 31—37. The soldier pierces the side of Jesus with his spear. [38. The burial, M. MK. L.]

[Ch. xx. The resurrection discovered, M. MK. L.] John has additional particulars in verses 4-17, describing how he and Peter found the grave clothes in the sepulchre, and Mary of Magdala's conversation with Jesus, "supposing him the gardener." [19-23. Jesus appears to the apostles, MK. L.] 24-29. Appears again and convinces Thomas, who was absent the time before. 30. The evangelist declares his purpose in writing the Gospel, "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."*

Ch. xxi. 1. Jesus appears to Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, John and another, at the Sea of Galilee, when they are fishing. 7. Is disclosed by the great draught of fishes. 15. Charges Peter thrice to feed his flock, and foretels that apostle's death by martyrdom. 20. Foretels that John "shall tarry till he comes." 23. The thoroughly oriental, if we do not call it a somewhat hyberbolical, conclusion, that if all the things which Jesus did

* Some think the Gospel properly ends here, and that the following chapter is not genuine. But so needless, while so large, a conjecture is not to be admitted against the evidence of manuscripts. There is no critical ground for doubting that John wrote ch. xxi. as well as the rest. It is possible, indeed, that he may have originally finished with ch. xx., the last verse of which, just quoted, is very like a conclusion; and he may have added another chapter afterwards. We must take it, at least, as we find it. The last chapter looks like a supplement, and we may be thankful that he has added it.

were written, "even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written," is highly appropriate to St. John's Gospel, which (as is manifest in the foregoing outline) consists almost intirely of additional materials, to those which had previously been given forth as a sufficient exhibition of the doctrines and claims of Christianity.

UNIVERSALLY-ADMITTED CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES,

AS DEDUCED FROM THE FOUR GOSPELS.

THE Conclusion of the four Gospels, which describe Christianity as it was set forth by its Founder, may seem an appropriate place for attempting something like an abstract or summary of the principles which, according to those books, constitute the religion of Jesus Christ.

What we learn from the four Gospels may be truly and properly called evangelical Christianity. For who shall teach it in greater purity than it was taught by its Founder? The Acts and Epistles will shew us how the apostles of Christ preached this Gospel after his death, how they reviewed his completed work, and how they reasoned respecting it with Jews and with Gentiles; but in the books already analyzed we have the sacred record of the Gospel in his own life and person; above which we cannot ascend, and in accordance with which, assuredly, the apostles preached and wrote afterwards in his name.

Paying no regard, therefore, to human systems of faith, we may, without much difficulty, enumerate certain great religious principles, whether in the way of belief, duty or influence, which are admitted, by the most thoughtful and practical Christians of every sect and name, to be characteristic of Christianity, whatever other ideas, of more disputable order, may be also thought essential to it, or non-essential, by different classes of Christians. I wish, if possible, to keep free from merely doctrinal debate in this enumeration. And it is clear

to most Christians who have risen above a merely literal and wordy idea of religion, that Christianity is not to be described adequately by any mere doctrinal articles or creeds whatever.

Christianity is a Spirit, and a Life; not a ceremonial, nor a system, nor a creed. It is to be described rather than defined. We are not to tabulate its doctrines, precepts and promises merely; but rather to confer with the Teacher himself in his recorded life and example. The perusal of the four Gospels is calculated to impress any unprejudiced reader, of a practical and devotional turn of mind, with the truth of this statement. Jesus Christ's Life and Example constitute the Gospel. What he said is inseparable from what he did and was. The peculiar religious power of the Gospel has been already described as traceable to this, its biographical character (p. 244, &c.).

But while regarding this living spiritual influence as the chief characteristic of Christianity, as read in the four Gospels, we also find certain grand beliefs, duties and hopes attested by it, which admit of articulate voice and description. Thus:

(1.) The conviction, "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," is, according to the apostle John, the foundation belief of Christianity; as in the common sense of language it must be. He tells us he wrote his Gospel to prove this; and the same is evidently the purpose of the other evangelists also throughout theirs.

(2.) This belief is implied in our reception of the Life of Jesus as genuine and exemplary; for he expressly claimed, by act and word, to be received as the Christ. And this belief implies the acknowledgment of his power and authority to teach in the name of the Almighty.

(3.) As the Christ, Jesus is connected with the Jewish dispensation, while rising above it and superseding it. He fulfils it, and so ends it.

(4.) He sets forth the One God, Jehovah, not as the God of the Jews only, but of Samaritans and Gentiles too.

(5.) He makes Him known under the hitherto unknown attributes of the "Heavenly Father," and gives enlarged and endearing views of Divine Providence as exercised by such a Being.

(6.) He fulfils the ceremonial Law, and brings it to an end,

declaring Virtue sufficient every where, without sacrificial offering; and Repentance and Amendment every where the true and sufficient atonement for sin.

(7.) Making the worship of God strictly spiritual, he declares that the Divine Mercy-seat is always accessible to human prayer, and the Holy Spirit of God ready to meet the spirit of man, whether imploring help in trouble, or help against temptation, or rising in grateful praise, or in virtuous and pure aspiration.

(8.) The Moral Precepts of Jesus, not systematically given, nor capable of being formed into a system, teach us that good and evil are in the heart and motive, and that our actions should be done with constant reference to the will of Him who seeth in secret and will reward openly.

(9.) All his morality is such as seems to regard man as a spiritual and immortal being. His unhesitating doctrine of Immortality quickens the spiritual nature within us; and the quickened spiritual nature feels in itself the suggestion, and welcomes the assurance, of immortality. This influence is reciprocal.

(10.) All these great religious principles are illustrated and enforced in the person and example of Jesus Christ himself;ever looking up to God with intire faith, serving man with lowly kindness, and blending the interests of time with those of eternity.

(11.) Jesus Christ foretels his own death and resurrection from the dead. And this one fact in his Messiahship, prospective only during his life, is made more prominent in the preaching and writings of his apostles when realized after his death, than it had been in his own preaching, though often predicted by him. They preach "Jesus and the Resurrection;" not simply his living history, but its completion in his death and resurrection from the dead. This is the great modification which the preaching of the Gospel has to undergo in its second scriptural period.

The great principles now enumerated make their appearance very inadequately (it must be confessed) in the Abstracts above given of the contents of the four Gospels. They are fully manifest only to the reader of the Gospels themselves; and not