369 XV. The Relation of Church and State, XVI. "They shall neither Marry nor be Married,” XVII. The Great Commandment-"What think you XVIII. "The Scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the Chair of Moses "-"Woe to you, Scribes and XIX. The Unbelief of the Pharisees-The Union of the Messias with His Eternal Father, XXII. Personal Application of the Vision of Judgment, 596 XXV. Jesus prepares for his Last Supper, and the Chief Priests make a Bargain with Judas, XXVI. Jesus Celebrates the Jewish Passover, XXVII. Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet, XXIX. The Beginning of the Last Discourse-The De- nial of Peter foretold-Strife for Pre-eminence, 617 XXX. The Last Discourse continued: "I have Prayed XXXII. The Last Discourse continued: Jesus Dis- courses of the Holy Spirit-How the Father XXXIV. Jesus resumes His Discourse: Union with Him is the Condition of all Spiritual Life-The Identity of Joy and Love and Obedience- XL. The Resistance of the Apostles and their Flight, XLII. The First Trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin- XLIII. The Terrible Night of Holy Thursday, XLIV. Jesus before the Sanhedrin, XLV. The Despair of Judas and his Suicide, mountain chains, it is traversed from end to end by a single water-course, the far-famed river Jordan, which, rising at the foot of Mount Hermon, flows directly south, broad ening in its northerly portion into the charming Lake of Genesareth (otherwise called the Sea of Tiberias), and ending in the bitter waters of the Dead Sea. Between these two lakes the river flows in many turns, over shifting sands and among reeds and weeds, as if sadly conscious of bearing its bright waters to the cauldron of death, falling into the Dead Sea as if it were its grave. It is in reality the grave of Sodom and Gomorrha, once flourishing cities whose destruction seems still to be commemorated by bubbles of poisonous gas rising to the surface like the belchings of the volcanic giant after his feast. Chosen from the beginning as the scene of God's sojourn among men, Palestine is the meeting-point of the three grand divisions of the ancient world, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is the geographical centre, as it was destined to become the religious heart of ancient civilization. Upon the banks of its holy river and its lakes, and over its plains and hillsides, dwelt in our Saviour's time a little nation highly favored by God. It was indeed broken and conquered, but it still stood erect clasping to its bosom the sacred deposit of divine truth confided to its ancestors many ages before. At the coming of Christ Israel was reduced to a population of not more than three or four millions, its former military glory, together with political independence, departed for ever. Yet in the whole wide world it alone preserved the knowledge of the true God, one, infinite, eternal, the Creator and Judge of men. It was, withal, a race of hard heart and stiff neck, but yet the only one which had the law of God. This was written upon the pages of the national constitution and graven upon the living tablets of the people's hearts. Among all other nations the idea of God was almost wholly effaced from men's souls, or rather every forceful man was worshipped as God, every portentous element of nature, every good and evil passion. Outside of Palestine everything was God except the true God. This elect race was descended from Abraham the patriarch through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, or Israel. To each of these three, during the adventurous wanderings which made up their lives, God had repeatedly promised this land as the peculiar possession of their posterity. They, descendants of |