HIS most distinguished personage was the last of the prophets. His mission was to herald the coming of "Jesus Christ, the Son of God." His mother's name was Elizabeth, and she was of the lineage of Aaron. His father's name was Zacharias, and he was a priest, of the course of Abia. He was by six months the senior of the Messiah. He grew to manhood in the mountains of Judea, was clad in the coarse camel's-cloth mantle of the old Hebrew prophets, and, like them, he wore the hide girdle, and ate locusts and wild honey for his daily food. He drank "neither wine nor strong drink," and was "filled with the Holy Ghost," from his birth.

      John's home was the wilderness, and be broke forth upon the world as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Jehovah." All his manners were a contrast to the degenerate priesthood of his time. Anointed Royalty was to come among men, and this stern, rough messenger came to make the announcement. There was no mistaking his meaning, for he was fearless, and his discourses were like the heavy strokes of the midnight alarm-bell. For Pharisee or Sadducee, soldier or publican, he had the same ponderous sledge-hammer blows, and there was no escaping them. He came in "the spirit and power of Elias." Many [611] mistook John for the Messiah, but he steadily affirmed, "I am not the Christ."

      In John, "the Law and the Prophets" ended. His dispensation was the vestibule of the great Christian temple, and his "baptism was from heaven," and lay just before the open door. He was the "friend of the Bridegroom, and rejoiced greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice." The valley shall be exalted, and the mountain shall be made low, because "the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed."

      The Baptist was decapitated in prison, by the artifice of false and cruel women. The rebukes of John had stung the two adulterers to the heart, and Herodias was capable of stooping to anything that she might gratify her revenge. A prison and fetters are familiar arguments of kings when their vices are exposed and their crimes reproved by the heralds of God. He had lived, a shining light, and now is required to die by the edge of the persecuting sword. He had been the harbinger-star, and now must pale before the rising Sun, for Christ had already begun his public ministry. Twelve months closed his life and his ministry together. He had baptized Jesus Christ, at the fords of the Jordan, just below the ruins of ancient Jericho. His hands had baptized the disciples of Jesus, at Ænon's waters, at the personal request of their Master and Saviour. Now he, pays the debt of his fidelity to public morals, by giving his life to the truth; his body to the earth, by the hands of his own mourning disciples; and his head to the dainty keeping of that beautiful adulteress, who was not content with the blood of Herod, with the ruin of her own daughter, the sacrifice of Philip, her lawful husband, but must lay up in keeping the righteous blood of the Baptist, to meet it in the day of account. Our Saviour gives us the most exalted testimony ever, given to any living worthy, in the following words: "Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of God, is greater than he. If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." [612]

ATTHEW was of Galilee, and exercised his calling of customs-gathering at Capernaum, on the western shore of Genezareth. The tax-gatherer was in the service of the Romans; he was a genuine Hebrew. The Saviour was walking on the shore of the above sea, whence he called this man from his vocation; and he followed Him, to become a gatherer of tribute in the kingdom of the Prince of Peace. Doubtless rich, and engaged in a profitable employment, he laid by all for this divine call. For a time he preached the gospel in Judea, and parts adjacent, and then went abroad among the Gentiles, and thus spent the evening of his days, going far into Africa, even as far south as Ethiopia. Here he suffered martyrdom for the truth, in a city called Naddabar, being slain by a halbert. He was prudent and wise in his work, accurate in method, careful and laborious in the details of his Master's biography, and specially unanswerable in his genealogy of Christ.

      The Gospel by Matthew is a monument of genius. It is, beyond question, a legal document. The report of facts is cautious to a scruple. Had our Saviour directly provided this man as His biographer, it could not have been more in harmony with the events, as they occurred. For his account was drawn up probably about the year of our Lord 38, a full generation after the birth of Christ, yet, as if in direct view of all--making the most unanswerable document extant. Scarcely forty pages in extent, only a little tract, making no appearance on the bookseller's shelf, it is yet the most momentous piece of composition now in the keeping of mankind. There are three parts to the book: the early life, of Jesus, up to the opening of His public ministry; then, His ministry and its field; and lastly, His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. By what appears among writers as common consent, this Gospel is a rule by which the other Gospels are judged. Compact, careful, luminous, modest, complete, full of the words of Christ, it demonstrates two propositions beyond dispute: first, plenary inspiration; second, the highest type of a witness's testimony. [613]

HE Apostle Peter was born at Bethsaida, of Galilee. He is thought to have been some ten years the senior of his Lord. His father's name was Jonas, who brought up his son in his own occupation, which was that of a fisherman, on the Sea of Tiberias. His speech was that corrupted Hebrew spoken in Galilee, and he is regarded as among the least educated of the Apostles; yet has he wielded a sceptre of moral and religious power over the mind of the Christian era, and has left a name which is on the lips of over three hundred millions of the world more frequently than the name of a Cæsar or an Alexander, and is in more documents than any two names of the great for two thousand years.

      We note in Peter what is common to those who capture the finny tribes and bring them forth for the food of man--a certain freedom and boldness of soul, and a generosity and self-forgetfulness, which rarely stops at the largest sacrifices and the richest outlay for others. All the nobler features of his character Peter retained to the last, and this fact is the index to the conspicuous position which he fills in the incidents of the next forty years after our Saviour's ascension. Christianity evidently did a vast work for Peter, raising all that was low, and strengthening all that was weak, till he became "as another man."

      Peter evidently delivered some of his discourses to the Hebrews in their own vernacular, while to the Roman centurion Cornelius, and his family, he spake in the Greek language. He, with his brother Andrew, and the two sons of Zebedee, was a disciple of the Baptist. The acts of his life, as on record in the New Testament, are quite varied. He rebuked his Master in a hasty reply to His announcement of his passion at Jerusalem; he drew out in earnest protestation his loyalty to Christ, as the traitor was announced; he resorted to the sword, on the first appearance of the midnight throng sent from the temple to apprehend the Saviour; he denied that he knew his Master, and fortified his shameless conduct with swearing; he repeated the [614] same night, shedding bitter tears of penitency; he had one of the first interviews with Christ after His resurrection; he preached the leading sermon on the day of Pentecost; he performed a notable miracle at the beautiful gate of the temple on the cripple, and preached again; he saw, by the intuitions of the Holy Ghost, the perfidy of Ananias and his wife, and pronounced the quick retribution of death upon both; he raised Tabitha from the dead; he opened the kingdom of Grace to the Gentile world in the house of Cornelius; he was delivered by miracle from Herod's incarceration at Philippi; he preached far and near the blessed gospel; he wrote two Epistles; he at last fell under the persecuting hand of the Roman emperor, on the same day when Paul was beheaded by the same bloody tyrant. The date of Peter's crucifixion was somewhere between A. D. 64 and A. D. 70.

HE first seen of Paul is at the death of Stephen. Here he was a witness, and at his feet those Who stoned him put down their garments. He looked on with a grim satisfaction, to see that it was legally done, and then went back to his confrères in guilt and blood, little knowing what the providence of God had laid up in its secret bosom for him in the great future.

      Next be enters on the sacred record as a persecutor. He was on his way to the city of Damascus, to punish the followers of Jesus. Talents were not wanting, nor Was intrepidity, nor indomitable perseverance, in the character of this young Cilician. He acts under the authority of the leaders at Jerusalem, and must return to them, having executed his commission in the scattering of the disciples of the Nazarene. A miracle is the means of his awakening to it sense of his condition. He is led by the band into Damascus, a penitent and praying man. By another miracle, he is restored to sight, and becomes a true Christian hero. Now he seeks baptism, and begins [615] his career of apostleship. Preaching was his legitimate work, and he began here where he came to persecute. His mind was stored with the choicest of Grecian learning, in his boyhood, in the noble schools of Tarsus. Afterward, in the care of Gamaliel, he was deeply cultured in the Hebrew learning of his times. Nor can we sufficiently admire the wisdom of that Divine ruling, which brought the schools of the Greeks and of the Hebrews under revenue to the Christian work, by giving their united strength and polish in this remarkable orator and writer. Perhaps no case has ever come before us, in the long line of the greatly good and useful, where so many qualifications concentrate to make a great mind and a distinguished career. He is, from this capital of Syria, about taking his departure for a journey, whose rich achievements will return into the city of God, bearing a freight unequalled and alone for grandeur and heroism.

      Worldly-wise men have conceded in their testimony his nobleness, as they have perused his history. Temporal interest was all on the side of his taking up the hatred of his countrymen against the despised sect, and following it to the bitterest sequel. Wealth was with them. Empire was in the hands of the Roman. The highest positions were none of them in the gift of the disciples of Jesus. What could he expect, but a life-conflict of trial, and want, and betrayal, and at last, death by the hands of persecutors.

      Few persons, without the fullest consideration, can enter into the conditions of success as laid out in the life of Paul, and as met by him in the development of that wonderful career. For what we have in Luke's account in the Acts of the Apostles, and in Paul's Epistles, is but an epitomized presentment of more than thirty years of labor, and suffering, and writing, and speaking, such as rarely or never come into the limit of one life, however long or enterprising.

      The writings of Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, form one of the most brilliant pictures of miracle, of imprisonment, of persecution, of preaching, of travelling, of church-founding, of evangelizing, possible, even to the first century, in the conflict with ignorance, and superstition, and ignoble power. Here the highest type of the [616] Apostle is made to appear, in the busy fieldwork of labors and sufferings--having one object perpetually before him, the pulling men out of the fire--carrying everything into one system, that of the Saviour Jesus. He is never out of his proper place; for we see him in the capital of Syria, or in the metropolitan city of the Holy Land, among its bigoted doctors of the Hebrew law; or in the polite and learned centre of Grecian greatness, at Athens; or in Ephesus, the place of rendezvous to all Asia in the worship of Diana; or in Rome, the centre of civil and military government of the world; invading the markets, the theatres, the parks of pleasure, the synagogues of the Jews, the river-side resorts of heathen worship, and all places where men might be reached by the tidings of salvation--and he is ever equal to his lofty purpose and theme.

ARK was honored with being one of the authors of a book of the New Testament canon. He was not one of the Apostles. He was nephew to Barnabas, and his mother's name was Mary, of the tribe of Levi, a lady of standing and competence, to whose house Peter repaired, on being set free from prison by the angel of the Lord. He appears on the records of evangelistic labor in the year 44, accompanying Paul and Barnabas from Jerusalem to Antioch. John, whose surname was Mark, set forth with them from Antioch, and went with them as far as Perga, in Pamphylia, and there turned back to Jerusalem, leaving Paul and his fellow-laborer, Barnabas, to go on with the work. Afterward, when his uncle would have taken him with them, Paul objected, for the reason that he left them at Perga on the former journey. The difference between the two caused them to separate, and Barnabas took his nephew and went to Cyprus. Paul afterward restored his confidence to John, and directed Timotheus to "take Mark and bring him with thee; for he is profitable [617] to me for the ministry." No after mention occurs of Mark in the New Testament.

      Strong and united testimony places Mark's subsequent labors in a light very honorable to himself, and wholly redeems his reputation for zeal and self-denying labor for Christ. He was with Peter in Rome, and is said to have written his Gospel at the earnest request of the Church at Rome, as the life of Christ by Peter. This book was read there by the authority of Peter, as the assent and good-will of Roman disciples made it the leading authority in the West.

      John labored mostly, during his later life, in Egypt, where he was successful to an eminent degree. His position was first in Egypt, and his labors contributed largely to the dissemination of the gospel in Northern Africa, where the seeds fruited for centuries into the largest and best returns. He suffered martyrdom in Egypt, about the end of Nero's reign, and his remains were said to have been removed to Venice with groat pomp. The Gospel by Mark has the repute of having been written at Rome by the counsel of Peter, between A. D. 60 and 65. There are those who deny Peter's connection with John, and the incident of this Gospel being written at Rome, but candor compels us to accord to both our cordial belief.

UKE was a physician. He had not the honor of being an Apostle, nor of being one of the original disciples of Christ. There has been considerable conjecture respecting many things connected with his introduction into the small band who together undertook the work of the early ministry of the Christian religion. He was long a travelling companion of Paul, and was called by him "the beloved physician." We know but little of the tangled web of this man's biography, but his works are before us. These have given him a distinguished place in the Christian world. More than [618] a fourth part of the New Testament is from his hands. The noblest biography is in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. These books were the records of a man familiar with the offices to the sick, a physician to the body, presenting the greatest of all works, that of the Great Physician of the Soul. We wonder at the fact, that the sacred annals, which form the basis of Christian belief, came from a physician, a tax-gatherer, and three fishermen.

      This man presents a Gospel to the world which puts forth the Saviour's life in order; that is, it is one of the most thorough pieces of composition in all the vast range of literature. Whoever affects to despise this work is an ignorant and a foolish man, or acts the part of a knave. A tract is full of wisdom, and contains enough for a library of volumes. Every incident is brief as it could be--every important fact is incorporated. All periods are alive with interest. There is a chain of proof, running through the entire work, too strong to be broken, and so high that heaven alone could have bestowed it upon a writer, for the elevation of mankind, by the almighty hand of truth. Thus God and man appear together, working for the world's safety. A short epitome of its themes will demonstrate this to the reflecting mind: the birth of Christ, the infancy and youth of Christ; the preaching of John; the genealogy of Christ, and His baptism; the ministry of Christ; the last journey to Jerusalem; the crucifixion; the resurrection; and the ascension of Christ to heaven. Taste is everywhere gratified. The severest criticism is incapable of aught but approbation. Christian reverence follows the unfolding of the life of Christ, with all that devotion which should characterize the mental studies of a being who is preparing to join the company of the redeemed in heaven, under the guidance of the truths contained in this book. Mental homage passes by natural and easy stages into affection, and this passion grows up into those nobler proportions which make the matured Christian disciple. It is an easy lesson to the pious parent, imbued With such a spirit, to give these sacred paragraphs to the minds of children, in the Christian home. Plenary inspiration is one of the most pleasing and graceful inductions of the reasoning faculty, when associated with evangelized affection. [619]

      As to the Acts of the Apostles, the second book from the pen of Luke, active and successful Christian philanthropy would have no true portraiture without it. This book of over thirty years' evangelization is a complete image of Christ, as seen reflected in His disciples, and a justification of all that is taught in the Epistles, to the Churches which follow it.

E now take up the name of John, son of Zebedee, whose home was at Bethsaida, on the Sea of Galilee. He was several years younger than our Lord, and the youngest disciple. His was a strong, robust nature, and, with his brother James, he was called by a name which indicates a rough and impetuous disposition. They were surnamed Boanerges, sons of thunder. Jesus manifested a special affection for John, and he says of himself, that "he was that disciple whom Jesus loved." Most of our best authorities say that he was a disciple of John the Baptist, and that he was called of Jesus when in the company of John.

      A part of John's life was spent in Jerusalem, where he preached the gospel. Twice was he imprisoned: in company with Peter once, and again with the other Apostles. He was sent to Samaria with Peter, that the converts under the ministry of Philip, the deacon, might receive the Holy Ghost. Domitian banished John to the Isle of Patmos, in the Ægean Sea, where he wrote the Revelation. After his return from banishment, he went into Asia Minor, not far from the year 66. He occupied himself in preaching the gospel, principally a Ephesus, where the great temple of Diana was built, and to which vast wealth was sent in votive offerings by the princes of all Asia. He planted churches at Smyrna and Pergamos, and at many other places. His success and his bold preaching displeased Domitian, and many others of the chief men of the Roman Empire. On the coming of Nerva to the empire, in A. D. 96, John came to Ephesus, [620] where he died at a good old age, in the third year of Trajan's reign, A. D. 100.

      The first book attributed to John is the Gospel bearing his name. It is formed upon a plan peculiarly his own, being wholly unlike the other Gospels. In all parts of it John has introduced much of the conversations of Jesus. The Saviour appears in this book in so personal a mode that he stands before us as "very man." John exhibits this divine manhood, by opening the door into that intimate friendship which he was permitted so highly and exclusively to enjoy. We, no doubt, can here behold that image of God, so nobly put forth in Genesis, which God intended to glorify in the first man, and was hindered by the fall.

      The Revelation was written by John, while in the Isle of Patmos. Though written prior to his Gospel, it sustains and teaches the same high doctrine, the Jehovah, in Jesus of Nazareth. Here, therefore, we, and all coming ages, must find the mysterious nature of the divine incarnate, laid away as the keepsake of nations.

HIS man appears in the sacred history in the most remarkable of attitudes, that of one loved of Christ. Two men are placed in this most exalted of attitudes--Lazarus of Bethany, and John, the beloved disciple. This intimate relation was admitted by the Saviour, and the part acted by Lazarus was modest and becoming.

      The resurrection of Lazarus is the crowning miracle of all the mighty acts of Jesus. No one could say aught against it, either as a miracle, or as an act toward a family at once valued and much admired by the leading men at Jerusalem. There is room to believe that Lazarus was well known at Jerusalem, and highly connected. Therefore his death caused much attention to be excited in Jerusalem, and his being raised from the dead made Jesus to be exceedingly popular, till the leaders turned the people's will against Him. [621] Lazarus was in public daily after his restoration to life, and his testimony was truth itself, and most remarkable in its incidents.

HIS was Mary, the mother of James. Cleophas and Alpheus are the same person. It is thought she was the sister of the Virgin Mary, and had four sons, mentioned in the New Testament, James the less, Joses, Simon, and Judas, who are termed brethren of Jesus Christ, that is, His cousin-germans. Mary early embraced faith in Christ, was an attendant on His ministry, and ministered to His wants of her substance. She was in Jerusalem at the time of the last Passover, and at the time of His crucifixion followed Him to Calvary: she was with His mother at the foot of the cross, while He, suffered. At His burial she was present, and, on the third day before, had in the labor of others borne her part in preparing the perfumes to embalm His body. Going to His tomb very early on the morning of His resurrection, she there learned from the mouth of an angel that He truly had risen from the dead, and was one of those who carried the news of this fact to His disciples. On the way to bear these tidings to the disciples, Jesus appeared in person to them, and they held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him. From what we thus learn of this Mary, she was a sincere, benevolent, and devout disciple of her Saviour.

HIS Mary is so called from Magdala, in Galilee, from whence she was. Luke tells us that Christ cast seven demons out of Mary, as she had been possessed of them. Few names have been [622] associated with so many coarse jibes and reflections as this one. There is no proof whatever that she was a coarse or vulgar woman.

      There is no doubt but that Mary Magdalene was, both in character and in circumstances, a woman of good reputation, and of high standing in society. The sacred writers mention her with honor always, as a constant attendant upon the ministry of Jesus, and as doing things in the highest degree becoming to a pious and intelligent female. In Christ's last journey to Jerusalem, Mary of Magdala was with His disciples in company, and the third Mary, standing at the foot of the cross as Jesus was crucified. She stayed in Jerusalem over the sad interval to His resurrection, preparing, with others, the things needed for embalming the body of the crucified.

      Early on the morning of His resurrection--very early--she came to the sepulchre, with Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, to look after the resting-place of the dead; but she was told by the angel that He had risen. She asks where the gardener had laid Him, little knowing, at the instant, to whom she was addressing herself. Jesus speaks her name, and she knows Him. She is made the bearer of a message to the disciples to meet Him in Galilee.

      Mysterious are the facts of obloquy and reproach associated with this spotless name, so that her very nativity is a synonym of shame and an epithet of sin, by which an entire class of outcasts must be known, probably in most languages, to the end of time. Whereas, if we will reperuse the Evangelists with this in mind, her name is the sum of womanly virtues.

HIS Mary was the younger sister of Martha and Lazarus, and lived at the village of Bethany, just over the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem. The home of these pious persons was a frequent retreat for the Saviour, after the toil and noise of daily teaching in the near city. They were objects of holy regard by our blessed [623] Lord, and the most intimate and sacred relations subsisted between them. Lazarus died and was buried, and Jesus raised him from the tomb, and restored him to the bosom of his family. His home was kept by the two sisters, and, after this noted miracle, was the centre of almost universal interest to the Jewish people, and especially to their rulers.

      Mary and Martha appear to have been devoted Christians, and Mary was addicted to sitting at the Saviour's feet as He was engaged in teaching. This was a very natural position for her to take, as His custom was to hold His discourses in the court of the old Jewish house, where large numbers, several hundreds at once in the larger sort, and seventy-five and one hundred in the smaller, were assembled.

      This Mary also has been confounded with that "sinner" mentioned by the Evangelists. Yet there is no evidence to this effect. It has been the effort of infidels to fasten something on the intimate friends of the Saviour, and thus by inference on Him. This Mary has been ignorantly pointed out as a person of shame, and thus Christ was a friend of publicans and sinners. Every act of this Mary, as told in the New Testament, is an honor to her, a praise to her sex, and a full satisfaction to the noblest Christian character. This family had their possession at Bethany, and lived in a manner worthy of Jesus, who was known everywhere as their personal friend, and worthy of His cause. Probably no other home, outside the homes of Mary, His mother, and Simon was so honored as was that of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus.

HIS Mary was the one to whose house Peter went when the angel of God liberated him from prison, and foiled the intentions of the persecuting Herod. She was a person of competency, [624] owned a house in the, city of Jerusalem, and there a prayer-assembly was being held when Peter was in prison. It is thought by many that the disciples were gathered here when the Holy Ghost was given.

NNA was the prophetess who came into the temple, led there by the Holy Ghost, when the infant Saviour was taken there to do for Him as the law of Moses required. She came in just as the venerable Simeon was praising God for the child Jesus, and joined in praise. She also spake of the Messiah to all who waited for the redemption of Israel, in Jerusalem.

      This holy woman had been married early, and her husband had died after seven years, leaving her a widow. She remained in this state through her life. She thought only of pleasing the Lord, and was a constant, daily attendant on the temple, serving the Lord with fasting and prayer. Here we find her greeting the Redeemer, at the advanced age of eighty years, full of faith and patient waiting for the Great Redeemer.

HIS remarkable woman was chosen by Divine Providence to be the mother of Jesus. She was of the royal house of David, as was her husband, Joseph. Early espoused to Joseph, she was under his lawful protection, when informed by the angel Gabriel that, by a miracle of divine power, she was to be a mother, and give Messiah to her people. Mary was convinced that the message was from God, by being told that Elizabeth, who was old and barren, was already [625] six months gone of a child; therefore her reply: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

      Infidels have made much ado about the facts of Mary's history, and have done themselves no honor, besides doing the Christian cause no injury, in their base conjectures, malignant misrepresentation, and heartless slanders. The Evangelists have each approached this subject with becoming simplicity and truthfulness. The infant is presented to the, world in the most remarkable manner. The visit of the shepherds was of divine ordering. The presentation of the child in the temple was by inspiration, in act and in salutation. The coming of the magi was a miracle of wisdom. The flight into Egypt was God's mode of evading the violent and murderous will of a wicked ruler.

      Mary was a perpetual observer of the life and deeds of her divine son. She was at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. At Jerusalem, at the last Passover celebrated by Jesus, she was not at the Supper. She followed Him to Calvary, and stood at the foot of the cross at his crucifixion, while the sword spoken of by Simeon pierced through her own heart. Her later days were made comfortable by the express direction of the Saviour, who committed her to the keeping of John, the "beloved disciple." Mary was one of the witnesses of her son's resurrection. After this she was among the disciples at the descent of the Holy Ghost, and shared in the blessedness of that august event.

      This remarkable woman now disappears from the Sacred History. A veil is drawn over her and her acts. No cause is given for that superstitious devotion which Romanists are wont to accord to her. She was not conceived by miracle, nor have any miracles attended her memory. She was accompanied by a miracle-working Providence, but that power never was in her hands. All merits in her intercession for others are supposititious and uncertain. All we know of her might as well have occurred in the life of any other prudent, good woman, of the royal line of David. Besides, none of this foolish stuff appears in regard to the Princess Mary until Christianity was inundated by a deluge of pagan myths. [626]

LIZABETH was of the lineage of the priests of the house of Aaron. She is distinguished in Scripture as the mother of John the Baptist. This person was highly honored of God in two respects: she was past the time of child-bearing, and God permitted her to have a son; she was chosen to give to the world the harbinger of our Lord.

      Her husband was Zachariah, of the house of Abia. He was in the temple of God, at Jerusalem, offering incense, when the angel Gabriel was sent to him, and announced that he was to have a son, who was to fulfil the words of the Prophet, in "preparing the way of the Lord." He was slow to believe, and was afflicted with dumbness until the son was born, when his speech returned to him again.

      When the Princess Mary was to have her son, the Redeemer, she paid a visit to Elizabeth, who was her cousin, residing in the city of Hebron. Her object was one of congratulation, because of their mutual blessing, as chosen of God for great and yet unequal honors. After three months' visit, the princess returned home. Soon after her departure, Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist.

EROD was king in the land of Judea when Jesus Christ came. He had then been sovereign in Judea for thirty-three years. We look back on the memory of the period, consigning his name to the detestation to which his contemporaries assigned it, while we admire his great talents, and the remarkable enterprises and public monuments of his greatness, and place him in the first rank of kings. He was very properly surnamed the Great.

      This king was the second son of Antipater, the Idumean, and was born B. C. 71. At twenty-five his father made him governor of Galilee, where he distinguished himself by the suppression of robbers, [627] and the execution of their leader, Hezekiah. In the civil war between the Roman republican leaders and Cæsar, he took sides with Cassius, and was made governor of Cœlo-Syria. When Mark Antony arrived victorious in Syria, Herod, by some means, was favored by him, who made Herod and his brother tetrarchs in Judea.

      Soon after, Antigonus and the Jews joined against him, and were too strong for him; hence he retired first into his native land, Idumea, and then into Egypt. From thence he departed for Rome to seek better fortunes. On a difference arising in the Asmodean family, Herod obtained the crown of Judea, returned to Jerusalem, and in three years got possession of the country. Then he became guilty of many extortions and cruelties, while he made haste to be rich, and to put the Asmodean race of kings out of his way.

      When Antony and Octavius quarrelled, and it was necessary for Herod to make choice between them, he raised an army with which to help the former, while, by the determining hand of Providence, Octavius was victor at the battle of Actium. Now it was necessary to make peace with the sole master of the Roman world, and, to prepare his way to it, he put Hyrcanus, the last of the Asmodeans, to death. Then he embarked for Rhodes, where Augustus then was. To make his appearance the more impressive, and to flatter his master, he arrayed himself in royal vestments and ornaments, but left off his crown, and thus came in to the presence of Cæsar. He confessed his attachment to Antony, recapitulated his acts of devotion to him, and did not hesitate to refer to his attachment to his former friend and benefactor. But he was ready to be as true to another friend and benefactor, and delicately intimated that he could be as grateful to Augustus, should he reconfer his crown and kingdom upon him. Struck with Herod's defence, and admiring his ingenuous confession, the crown and kingdom were restored, and a large share of Cæsar's confidence and many favors were bestowed upon the re-established king of Judea.

      But amidst all his prosperity, Herod's domestic felicity was poisoned, his peace was destroyed, and his greatness as a king was discolored by his vices and deeds as a man. His wife Mariamne [628] hated him, and was brought to trial, convicted, and executed. She submitted to her fate with all the intrepidity of innocency and heroism, and thus stands on the historian's page an honored and an injured woman. Herod was struck with remorse, and never afterward enjoyed a tranquil hour. Now flying the society of his fellow-men, now ferocious and vindictive, and then frenzied to the last degree, he lost all the distinctions of the well-balanced mind, and sacrificed with brute vengefulness, both friends and foes to his momentary fits of rage and hate.

      In a season of self-possession he built Sebaste and Cesarea, erected many strong fortresses, constructed and ornamented a stately theatre and amphitheatre, in which he celebrated games in honor of Augustus. The statuary used as ornaments in* these structures displeased the Jews, who made them the occasion of a deep-laid conspiracy against his life, which they had long sought, because of his being a native Idumean, and a murderer of their own Asmodean princes and their families, and the usurper of their throne and kingdom, and above all, a slavish admirer of the hated Roman emperor.

      To cause himself to be viewed as their benefactor, and to be regarded as an object of veneration, Herod rebuilt the temple of Jehovah, at Jerusalem, in a style at once so magnificent and so costly, that the Jews long spoke of him as devoted to their religion, and as a model king. While thus engaged he made a visit to Rome, the metropolis and mistress of the world, and returned with his two sons, who had been educated there under the patronage of Cæsar, furnished with every means of magnificence and luxury by a doting father. They had not long been in Jerusalem ere they aspired to sovereignty, conspired against their father, were apprehended tried, convicted, and executed. This summary treatment of conspiracies did not secure him against them, for, through life, every little while he would detect and punish a fresh conspiracy by some of his family relations.

      The deed which, above all others, covers the name of Herod the Great with infamy is the slaughter of the innocents of Bethlehem, in order to make way with our Saviour, whose advent had been [629] announced to him by the coming of the wise men to Jerusalem. A dreadful visitation followed this deed. A son, Antipater, named from his grandfather, who had but lately returned from Rome, was arrested by his father's orders, convicted of conspiring against the life of his father, and was cast into prison, where he soon after slain by the command of the king. The judgments of heaven seemed now to thicken over him: he was seized by a fatal malady. Tormented by a guilty conscience, hazed by fears of conspiracy on all sides, the most loathsome object imaginable, he not only decreed conspirators to death while on his dying-bed, but planned murders for others to perpetrate when he should be no longer able to shed human man blood.

      After having bequeathed his kingdom to Archelaus, and two tetrarchies to his other two sons, he called together the chief Jews to Jericho, and bound his sister by an oath to have them all put to death on his demise. But she broke this wicked oath, and, with her husband Alexis, set the Jews at liberty. This bloody tyrant died at sixty-eight years of age, dreaded by his subjects, loathed by his relatives, detested by mankind, and held up as a symbol of infamy on every historian's page who records his name.

HIS Herod was son of Herod the Great. His mother was Cleopatra of Jerusalem. His father at first intended Antipas to succeed him as king, but afterward changed his will, and made Archelaus his heir and successor. But both of these princes went to Rome, and Augustus changed the portions to each, giving to Antipas, Galilee and Peraea.

      Herod Antipas returned to his dominions, and there built fortresses, and adorned the chief places in his dominions. About A. D. 33, he was allied to Aretas, king of Arabia, by the marriage of his daughter, [630] whom he soon divorced, that he might marry Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who was still living.

      This incestuous marriage was denounced by John the Baptist in deservedly severe terms, and caused Herod much anxiety. Herod often heard this truly wonderful man, and did many things taught by him, but Herodias held him in the toils of vicious indulgence so strongly that he would not give her up. Therefore, a conspiracy was formed against his teacher's life, by Herodias and her daughter. They watched their opportunity, and finally chose a fair opportunity. A birthday, from immemorial usage, was a day of great hilarity and festive day in the palace. The guests would be full of wine, and therefore easily pleased. This was the auspicious day to the artful plot of vengeance against the Baptist, who then lay in prison, for his plain dealing with the adulterous king. The daughter of Herodias entered the festive assembly of wine-drinkers, and danced before them. They were delighted, and Herod pledged, by an oath, that he would give the damsel what she might desire. She retired to the apartments of her mother, and was there advised what to ask. She returned, and preferred her request, in these remarkable words: "Give me here John the Baptist's head in a charger." Revenge against John for his truthfulness, was sweeter to Herodias than anything else could be. Herod was sad at this unexpected turn of affairs, and would gladly have delivered John. His oath, and his honorable guests, who had all joined in the pledge to the daughter, decided the matter against the life of a good and great man. A guard was despatched to the prison, who there beheaded John, and brought the head into the guest-hall of Herod, and it was there given to the damsel, who took it to her mother.

      Aretas, king of Arabia, was deeply affronted at the treatment which his daughter had received at the hands of Herod, and went against him with a strong force. After an obstinate battle, in which the fortunes of the conflict were with the avenger of the injured princess of Arabia, Antipas made terms with Aretas, highly honorable to the victor. In A. D. 39, Herodias persuaded Antipas to visit Rome, and desire of Caius, who was emperor, that he might be a king, at least equal to her own brother Agrippa. She, hoping to add [631] to his application the weight of her own presence, decided to accompany him to Rome. When he had arrived at Baiæ, where the emperor then was, and was having his first audience with him, Agrippa's messenger arrived, and presented letters against the cause of Antipas, accusing him of designing a conspiracy against the Roman Empire. In proof of this accusation, he stated that Antipas had fortified the chief cities of his government, and was then in correspondence with the old-time enemies of Rome, the Parthians. Besides, he had no other use for seventy stand of arms, then in the arsenals of Galilee. Not being able to answer these things, he was banished to Lyons, in Gaul.

      The emperor offered to forgive Herodias, for the sake of Agrippa her brother; but she preferred to share the banishment of her husband. This Antipas is the Herod mentioned in the Gospel, who was made a friend to Pilate by his act of deference in sending Jesus to him, when he knew that Jesus belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction. Herod's men of war were permitted to array the person of the Saviour in the tawdry cast-off clothes of royalty, and in this condition he was returned to Pilate, as a full answer to the question whether he need fear the pretensions of such an individual. How little the mocking Herod knew that he was then filling a cup of bitterness to the very brim, whose overflowing he would so soon drink, away on the banks of a little river in Gaul, just beneath the overhanging Cevennes, and in sight of the ever-memorable Mont Blanc.

ILATE was sent to govern Judea, in the room of Gratus, A. D. 26 or 27. His term of ten years' official, position in Judea closed in the twenty-second year of Tiberius. He was a man of an impetuous and obstinate temper, and sold justice for money. He has a [632] fearful name on the page of history, credited with rapine and injuries, and tortures of the innocent, and murders. His cruelty has amounted to a proverb of reproach. During the whole time of his government of Judea, the country was in continual disquiet, and his conduct was the occasion of the troubles and revolt which followed.

      Luke says that Pilate mingled the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices. The reason why he so treated them is unknown. When on trial before him, he made some faint attempts to release Jesus from the hands of the Jews, for he was not ignorant of the reasons for their enmity against Him. His wife sent a message to him, while Jesus was in the judgment hall, warning him not to injure that just person. He was alarmed by the seeming import of this message, as if it might portend evil to him. He proposed to release Jesus, or Barabbas, taking advantage of the day of the Passover, because of an ancient custom. But this did not please the Jews; therefore they threatened him, by intimating that he was friendly to Jesus, as king to the prejudice of the Roman authority in Judea. They understood how much trouble the province of Syria had been to the Roman emperors immediately before him, and that the Jews were perpetually on the eve of a revolt.

      This threat was enough to end the whole matter. Pilate took water and washed his hands, in token of his innocency of Jesus' blood, and they took the blood-feud to themselves. He then gave Jesus to their will. Pilate was deposed by Vitellus, the pro-consul of Syria, and sent to Rome, to give an account of his conduct to the emperor. Tiberius died ere he arrived. But Caligula sentenced him to banishment, and he passed a brief period at Vienne, in Gaul, where, at last, weary of life, and hated by his fellow-men, he laid violent hands upon himself. Pilate acted as judge, not because it was legally his place, but because Judea was under him as procurator, and it had fallen to this office in the absence of the pro-consul, who resided at Damascus, the then capital of the pro-consular province of Syria. [633]

LAUDIUS FELIX came to the government of Judea after Cumanus, in the days of the Apostles. He was a man of infamous character, and a plague to the land over which he presided. What brings this man's name into the sacred history is its connection with Paul, who was frequently brought before him, during the space of two years, as under trial for his life under three charges: sedition, heresy, and profanation of the temple. Felix was so oppressive that Tacitus leaves the following record of him; "he exercised the authority committed to him with all manner of cruelty and lewdness." His residence was at the city of Cesarea, where Paul was brought for safe keeping, by an escort of Roman soldiers, provided and sent by Claudius Lysias, the tribune at Jerusalem. Cesarea was near seventy miles from Jerusalem, and Antipatris thirty-eight, to the north-west from that city.

      Paul makes his defence before Felix, who was attended by his wife, Drusilla. This defence was a bold and just rendering of the gospel, in regard to righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Its effect upon Felix was deep, but momentary, for be trembled under the appeals of the Apostle, but put the whole matter off, and clung to his paramour, and his vices.

      Among this man's vices we notice avarice, for he frequently sent for Paul, hoping that the prisoner's friends would pay him largesses for his freedom. Money stood before justice, adultery before chastity, and popular esteem with the Jews before good government, while Felix held the government of Judea in his hands.

      Felix was recalled to Rome A. D. 60, and was followed thither by many of the Jews, whose object was to complain of his extortion and various acts by which his government in Judea had been disgraced. Had not his own brother, Pallas, interceded for him, the indignation of the emperor would have been fatal to him. As it was, Felix was no more intrusted with the confidence of the emperor, but lived the remainder of his life in seclusion. [634]

ORTIUS FESTUS succeeded Felix in the government of Judea. He suppressed robbers, put down a magician who drew away many people after him into the desert, and restored the land to order and good government. In regard to the case of Paul, Festus intended to have him safe at Cesarea, and to hear him on the subject matters of his accusation by the Jews.

      In the mean time, Paul, a partial bearing or examination being had, appealed unto the tribunal of the emperor, as this was his right because of his citizenship, and because the Jews were a party against a Roman citizen. Before, however, he is sent to Rome, Herod Agrippa desired Festus to have a hearing of Paul, that he might both see and hear so distinguished a man. Festus so decided.

      When Paul was permitted to answer for himself, he did so in the most masterly manner. The tribunal was one before which he had never before spoken; for Festus was seated, that day, in royal state, with Agrippa, and his wife, Bernice, with the tribunes and chief men of the city. How his distinguished auditors were affected may be read in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. For nothing can be more suitable, or more graceful, than this entire discourse of Paul before Agrippa. The Christian is dignified, earnest, and serious; the Apostle is bold, strong, and even grand; the gentleman is polite; and the scholar is faultless in his erudition. Such a union of great qualities they never heard from another man of that age, for no other was so capable.

EROD AGRIPPA, who put the Apostle James to death, and imprisoned Peter, and was himself delivered by the just judgments of God to a most horrible death, by being eaten of worms, had a third daughter, Drusilla. She was renowned for her beauty, [635] but was a stranger to both piety and chastity. She was promised to Epiphanes, son of Antiochus, king of Comagena, upon assurance from this prince that he would espouse Judaism and be circumcised. But subsequently he refused to fulfil the condition, and the marriage was broken off, and Drusilla was afterward married to Azizus, king of Emessa.

      This beautiful woman was persuaded by Felix, when governor of Judea, to forsake her lawful husband, the king of Emessa, and become his wife, returning thus to her own people, though wedded to a heathen. Her life was brief and troubled. After her husband had fallen under the displeasure of the emperor, and had retired to seclusion, Drusilla, attended by a son by him, went to reside in that delightful country about the Bay of Naples. The last we know of Drusilla is that she and her son both perished by an eruption of mount Vesuvius.

HIS name is Berenice, but is shortened to Bernice. She was daughter of Agrippa the Great, and sister of Agrippa the younger. She was a woman of remarkable beauty, and of varied fortunes. Betrothed to Mark, son of Alexander Lysimachus, alabarch of Alexandria, she did not go to him, but was married to her own uncle on her father's side, Herod, king of Chalcis. After the death of Herod, she proposed to Polemon, king of Pontus and part of Cilicia, that, if he would be circumcised, she would marry him. Polemon complied with her proposal, but she did not remain long with him.

      Berenice returned to her own brother, Agrippa, with whom she lived on terms of scandalous intimacy; that is, she has credit of being his paramour. Here it may be proper to say, that no class of persons in the world has been more infected with the libidinous passions than has the class which includes royal families: virtuous domestic life has been the exception, and not the rule. [636]

[AINT 611-636]