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Treasury, just opposite this vast surface of gold, and early in the morning, that Jesus, himself 'the effulgence of the divine glory', said to the assembled people, I am the Light of the world.'-Here, and in various other cases, the knowledge of the circumstances adds to the impressiveness of his divine truths.

Such was the structure of which our Lord, when it was in full magnificence before him, foretold the utter ruin; and forty years afterwards, 'before that generation passed away,' his prophetic declarations were fully accomplished, notwithstanding the earnest endeavours of the conqueror to save the Temple, when Jerusalem was taken.

The same heavenly messenger that uttered this declaration, hath also declared, that the hour will come, when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.'

HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY; BUT HIS WORDS SHALL

NOT PASS AWAY.

From Buhle's Economical Calendar, in Taylor's Edition of Culmet's Dictionary.

JANUARY is the second month of the winter, which is chiefly remarkable for showers. If there be snow, it is generally in the middle of the month, and seldom continues a day on the ground. All kinds of grain are sown this month; and in the latter part of it, bean-fields have been observed in flower near Joppa. At that period, when the sky is clear, traveling is burdensome from the heat. In the Plain of Jericho, (which is near the scene of our Lord's baptism), cold is scarcely at all experienced.

FEBRUARY has frequent snows, especially at Jerusalem. It is no less rainy than January; but the rain does not continue many days together. The later crops now appear above ground, and produce a delightful verdure: yet barley is sown even till the middle of the month. Many flowers blossom during it.

MARCH is the forerunner of spring, and in the southern parts the weather is for the most part warm; yet rains sometimes occur, with thunder and hail. Towards the end of the month, the Jordan and smaller rivers are swollen by the thawing of the snows on the mountains. Barley is ripe this month near Jericho; this region preceding Jerusalem a fortnight in its productions.-The fig-tree blossoms about the middle of the month, and frequently while the winter-fig is on the tree.

APRIL has frequent rains in the early part, which are called "the latter rains"; and after these none occur till summer. About the end of the month, the sky is generally fair and serene. In the region of south Jordan, the sun's heat is excessive; and the small streams are dried up: but in other parts the spring is now delightful. During this and the following months, travelers pass the night under their tents without inconvenience.--After the rains cease, the corn rapidly comes to maturity. Wheat has been found yellow in the vicinity of Jericho early in this month: and there and at Acra it is commonly ripe before the end of it. Barley is generally cut during it.

MAY commences the summer season; and, even in this month, the excessive heat renders the earth barren, and traveling in the day time scarcely endurable. This is the chief period of the wheat-harvest.

JUNE presents a sky always clear, and weather extremely hot: even in the night, silkworms are left on the trees; and the inhabitants sleep on the house-tops. As the month advances, the thermometer stands at from 76° to 80° in the morning, and from 84° to 92 in the afternoon.

JULY and AUGUST correspond with June, except that the heat is more intense. See pp. xci. xcix. &c. Till towards the end of this period, there is no dew.

SEPTEMBER continues like the preceding months; the heat being nearly the same, and even much greater when the day is quite calm but the nights are cold, and rains fall at the end, with much lightning in the night-time.—The chief vintage is at the end of August and the former part of September.

In OCTOBER the extreme heat is abated, and the nights are cold, with abundant dew. The air having been refreshed by the first short rains, the weather is delightful, but more variable after the second rains. These, called the "early" or "former rains" usually follow the September rains in about twenty or thirty days. They last three or four days; not without intermission, but in frequent showers. This appears to be the chief period of wheat sowing; barley is sown from this time till the end of January.

NOVEMBER nights are very cold, but the heat is still considerable in the day time. The mercury, as the month advances, gradually falls from 60° to 50°.

DECEMBER is the first winter month: from the 12th, onward to the 20th of January, is the coldest season at Aleppo. This appears to be rainy, though the number of rainy days does not exceed sixteen. The mercury usually stands at 46°; but the cold is sometimes so piercing, even about Nazareth, as to be fatal to travelers.

DISSERTATION IV.

ON THE SUCCESSION OF THE EVENTS RECORDED
IN THE GOSPELS.

SECT. I. Basis of the following Chronological Arrangement.

1. Fundamental Positions regarded by the Author as established.

IT has been shown in the First Dissertation—

I. That our Lord's Ministry included Two Passovers only: and

II. That the Miracle of the Five Thousand was wrought when the last Passover was approaching.

In the Second Dissertation, reasons are given for the position

III. That in framing a chronological arrangement of the records of our Lord's Ministry, a general preference is due to St. Matthew's order of events where it differs from that of Mark and Luke.

The three foregoing positions are independent of each other; but the following Arrangement is founded, essentially, upon the whole. There are two other principles of arrangement which are of great auxiliary service.

IV. The portion of St. Luke's Gospel which is contained in the tenth and following chapters, as far as the 11th verse of the seventeenth, is a Miscellaneous Collection of Discourses and other Occurrences, recorded without distinct reference to the order of time; and we are at full liberty to arrange the separate Records of which that Gnomology is composed, in the position which best suits the chronological order, as it may be ascertained from the Gospels of the Apostles Matthew and John.-See Diss. II. Sect. iv. Also the Appendix to that Dissertation.

V. Portions which are connected by contiguity, in any one of the Gospels, should not be needlessly separated from each other.

2. Mode of arranging the Occurrences between the Festivals.

Since there is a distinct record of every national festival which occurred during our Lord's Ministry, and of the Feast of Dedication, all difficulty ceases respecting the dates to be assigned to the various portions of St. John's Gospel. The intervening occurrences we must, in general, arrange by the aid of St. Matthew's Gospel, which, in the later portion, closely agrees in arrangement with that of St. Mark.

The miracle of the Five Thousand is placed by Matthew and Mark immediately after the apprehensive inquiries of Herod; from which period, till our Lord finally left Galilee, they both represent him as principally in those parts of North Palestine where he would be out of the reach of that cruel and crafty prince. St. Luke, in like manner, places that miracle (ch. ix.) a short time before the Transfiguration and our Lord's final journey to Jerusalem. These facts, taken in connection with the definite statement of St. John, that the Passover was nigh when the miracle was wrought, requires us to place it some considerable time after the Feast of Dedication. And this is also required by the occurrences which are recorded by St. John as taking place after this festival.

St. Matthew gives no record of our Lord's going to Jerusalem when the Dedication was approaching; and there is nothing in St. John's record which would lead to the belief that Jesus was then attended by his Apostles. Now in the tenth chapter, St. Matthew records the Mission of the Apostles; and from St. Mark's very definite statement in ch. vi. 30, as well as from St. Luke's, which corresponds with it, there is good reason to believe that the absence of the Apostles in general continued till just before the Miracle of the Five Thousand. Some of the Apostles, as well as other disciples, had joined our Lord in the Peræa; (see John xi. 16); but the chief and complete gathering of the Apostles evidently took place in consequence of the intelligence respecting the Death of the Baptist.-Our Lord's visit to Jerusalem at the Dedication, and the subsequent occurrences, recorded in John x. 22-xi. 54, may reasonably be placed in the interval between the Mission and the general Return of the Apostles; and the occurrences which are recorded by St. Matthew in that interval, ch. xi-xiii., are naturally to be referred to it, with one exception, which will be separately considered.

There is one remarkable fact recorded by St. Luke alone, of which St. Matthew takes no notice-the Mission of the Seventy. For the reasons stated in the Second Dissertation, (see p. liii.), I do not hesitate in placing the Mission of the Seventy in the interval during which the Apostles were absent, and in referring their ministry to the Peræa.

How this explains the silence of Matthew respecting it, is sufficiently obvious. See Diss. II. Sect. i.

Supposing, then, that the Feast of Dedication occurred during the first interval in St. Matthew's history that preceded the Crucifixion-viz. after the Mission of the Apostles-we are necessarily carried back, from that event, to the commencement of our Lord's Public Preaching in Galilee after the Imprisonment of John, before a suitable position can be found for the Feast of Tabernacles, which, we know from St. John, our Lord attended. The Gospel of Matthew, from ch. iv. 12 to ch. xi. 1, is a closelyconnected narrative, which presents no interval in which that festival can, with any probability, be placed: and, indeed, if a journey of our Lord to Jerusalem, at the time of that great national festival, attended as it was by events so remarkable, had occurred during that period of his Ministry which is the object of that narrative, it is scarcely conceivable that no notice whatever of it should have been taken by the Evangelist. Yet none is taken. I therefore place the Tabernacles before the time when Jesus began to make his public proclamation as the Messiah, Repent! for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

This position of the Tabernacles is still further required by the words of our Lord's kinsmen in John vii. 3, 4-Now the Jews' feast of Tabernacles was at hand his brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judæa, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest: for there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly if thou do these things show thyself to the world.' I have already shown (p. xxxvii.) how inconsistent this fact is with the supposition, that the Tabernacles occurred after the miracle of the Five Thousand, and the subsequent occurrences in Galilee; and I now state that it is, in my judgment, alike inconsistent with the supposition, that they occurred after that astonishing series of miracles which were wrought after the Imprisonment of John, and which were attended with the utmost publicity. In Christ's first progress through Galilee, after that event, there followed him (Matt. iv. 25) great multitudes of people from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and the Country beyond the Jordan'; and there is no indication of any interval in this succession of mighty works, from the time of its commencement to the Mission of the Twelve.-I place, therefore, the Feast of Tabernacles before its commencement: and when it is considered that this great festival took place at the conclusion of the husbandman's autumnal labours; that it was at the commencement of a season, generally settled as to weather, and moderate as to temperature; and, further, that some of the ceremonies of the festival itself had a special reference to the Messiah, and that our Lord, by his discourses and miracles

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