hath borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe."1 That is to say, "John attested what he saw when he related to me the death upon the cross, and now he knows that his attestation is true; I hear him saying so at the moment when I am writing these lines." This is evidently a personal reflection of the writer, a writer who is not "he that hath seen."

This literary method of a book written by two people appears at first strange. It is not in the least so, if we put ourselves back in the time of the apostles. They, especially Peter and John, must have been very ill versed in Greek, if indeed they so much as knew a word of it. But if they wrote epistles or gospels, they could publish them only in Greek. If they had written them in their mother tongue, their books would not have been widely scattered, and they would have been lost, as Matthew's collection of the sayings of Jesus was lost. They therefore took collaborators, aids, secretaries. Peter, who had John Mark for interpreter, had also Silas, and caused Silas to write his epistle.

1 John xix. 35.

He says it in so many words.1 In the same way John, having to write a gospel, acquitted himself of his task as he could, giving the facts to a secretary who assuredly was not chosen at hap-hazard, and who made admirable use of what the apostle related to him.

To return now to the question which we have put to ourselves: How may we reconstruct the outline of the ministry of Jesus Christ? Three Paschal feasts were celebrated in the course of it,2 and it must therefore have occupied two and a half years. If next we attempt to put the events in their proper dates and to show a progress, a development, in the ministry of Jesus Christ, we must still address ourselves to the fourth Gospel.

The first three group the facts without the slightest hint of progress or development; but, on the other hand, we find in them, especially in the Gospel of Mark, notes of time which grow out of the nature of the events, and these indications of time impress themselves upon the reader all the more strongly because the Evan

1 1 Pet. v. 12.

2 John ii. 23; vi. 4; xiii. 1.

gelists had no thought of indicating them, and were themselves not aware of them.

Thus there is a moment in Jesus Christ's ministry-a "turning-point," as the Germans say which marks very nearly the middle of his public life, and which is indicated in all the four Gospels.1 It is the moment when the people turn away from Jesus Christ, when he loses the popularity which up to that time he had enjoyed. It is precisely a year before his death; for this event followed the multiplication of the loaves, which St. John expressly places in the neighborhood of a Passover which can only have been that of the year 29.2

Consequently, the ministry of Jesus Christ is to be divided into three parts; or, more correctly speaking, there are three periods of undeniable authenticity in the ministry of Jesus Christ,

I. The Galilean Ministry (preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom; the Beatitudes; the visit to Nazareth; the parables

1 Matt. xvi.; Mark viii.; Luke ix.; John vi. 2 "Can only have been," on the supposition that Jesus was crucified in the year 30, a very possible date, but concerning the accuracy of which a degree

of doubt exists.

of the Kingdom of Heaven; teachings and cures). This first period is characterized by the lively enthusiasm which Jesus inspired, and the great popularity which he enjoyed. His ministry opened in hope and joy. He was encircled with universal sympathy. He went up and down the country performing miracles of benevolence, attacking the official representatives of the theocracy; and the multitudes approved. He replied to the messengers of John the Baptist, and pronounced upon him a decisive judgment. He proclaimed the freedom of the conscience. This period terminates with the discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount, in which are collected a large proportion of the discourses spoken during this time. The choice of the twelve apostles marks its close. II. The second period of Jesus' ministry now opens. It began with the open hostility of the Pharisees, who accuse him of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Jesus in his turn rebukes the Pharisees, and parts company with them. Soon the people also cease to understand him, and abandon him. By one of those changes of mood common to crowds, a reaction takes

place. The popularity of Jesus suddenly wanes. The people accuse him of having trifled with their Messianic hopes. This crisis occurs precisely a year before Jesus' death.

This second period is better known than the preceding one, that of favor and success, which is somewhat enshrouded in obscurity and hesitation. These are its principal events: Jesus publicly breaks with the Jewish Messianic hopes; learning of the death of John the Baptist, and feeling himself watched by Herod, he retires into solitude, and begins his ministry of wandering, often going beyond the limits of Herod's territory (Tyre, Sidon, Cæsarea Philippi), and entering upon a life of greater intimacy with his apostles. This second period closes with the confession of Peter, and the first prediction of his own nearly approaching death by violence. These are the facts, the exterior events. To these exterior events correspond interior events in the soul of Jesus. The conviction dawns upon him that his work is not to be accomplished by words and miracles, and that his death is probably necessary to the coming of the kingdom. We say probably, for even while affirming that his

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