his narrative, we have only a part of our Saviour's works related in the Gospel. Were they all recorded "the whole world," he says, "would not contain the books that should be written." So incessantly was our Lord employed in doing good. But though there was so much to lead the Nazarenes to believe in Christ, they received Him with marked unbelief. "They wondered," indeed, "at his gracious words," and well they might, you will think, when I tell you how He first addressed them. He went into their synagogue or place of public worship on the Sabbath day, as He was always in the habit of doing, and there He was asked to read a portion of Scripture. Reading the Scriptures was a part of the regular service of the synagogue; and it was the custom of the Jews, when any distinguished teacher went to the synagogue, to ask him to read a portion of Scripture and explain it. And there was delivered unto Jesus the book of the prophet Esaias; for each part or book of Scripture was, in those days, written on separate rolls or pieces of parchment. And "when he had opened" or unrolled the book, he found the place where that beautiful passage is written, which gives so faithful a picture of our Lord's own office and character. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ; because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." These words, so full of grace and love, of pardon and peace, the blessed Jesus read, and these only; and when, on

closing the book, He perceived that the eyes of the whole congregation were earnestly fixed upon Him, He took the opportunity of telling them most plainly, that He was Himself the very person of whom the prophet had said such excellent things so many years before; and that every word of that prophecy was now fulfilled before them. Could Christ have made Himself known to them in a more inviting and encouraging manner? But instead of allowing their hearts to be drawn towards Him, they said among themselves," Is not this Joseph's son?" and allowed the lowliness of His outward condition to prejudice their minds against Him. We are told, indeed, that they wondered at His gracious words; but wonder is not faith. Their proud hearts revolted at the thoughts of receiving, as their Saviour, one whom they had known from His earliest days, and seen growing up as a poor child in an obscure family, like a weak or tender plant, as the prophet says, from a dry stem. To their worldly ideas there was nothing attractive in Him, that they should desire Him for their Lord, notwithstanding all His miracles; so they despised and rejected Him. Our blessed Lord, indeed, warned them, that, if they thus shut their hearts against His gracious words, they might provoke Him to leave them altogether, and bestow His precious Gospel on the heathen, rather than on such an unbelieving people, though fellow-citizens with Him upon earth. But this only filled them with wrath; so that they thrust Him violently out of their city, and had He not made His escape, would have cast Him headlong from the brow of the hill on which

their city was built! Alas! how little does it avail to be near to Christ in other respects, if our hearts are far from Him!

What a grievous fact, and at the same time what a solemn warning, that those who should have been the most ready to receive Christ, should be the first to reject Him!

""Tis sad-but yet 'tis well be sure

We on the sight should muse awhile,
Nor deem our shelter all secure

Even in the Church's holiest aisle."

We wonder at the conduct of the Nazarenes; but let us be careful that in spirit we never imitate it. We have in this country many and great privileges ; we are members of a Christian, a Protestant, and a truly apostolical Church. May we be, indeed, the better and not the worse for it! It would be far happier for us "never to have known the way of righteousness, than, when we have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto us."

Rejected by the Nazarenes, our Lord left them and returned to Capernaum, in which place He from this time took up His chief abode; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region of the shadow of death light is sprung up."

You will understand this prophecy and the fulfilment of it better, when I tell you that that part of Palestine where Capernaum was situated, and which

was now called Galilee of the Gentiles, because it was inhabited by many Gentiles, as well as Jews, had formerly been occupied by the tribes of Zabulon and Nephthalim, and was on the western side of the river Jordan. Capernaum itself stood on the sea coast, that is on the coast of the sea of Galilee.

Far removed, you see, was this part of the Holy Land from the temple at Jerusalem, and from various causes thickly wrapped in ignorance and error, as with the gloom of night, or, as the prophet said, with a shadow dark as death. But the light of life was about to spring up among the inhabitants of Galilee; for from that time Jesus began regularly to preach there the Gospel, and to call upon them to "repent, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand."

In this place our Lord also added to the number of the disciples, who were in constant attendance upon Him, by calling to this office Simon Peter and Andrew his brother, with James and John the sons of Zebedee. These four were poor fishermen on the sea of Galilee; and when Jesus bade them " come after him," He said to them "follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." For the Gospel is compared in scripture to a great net, which the apostles were to cast into the troubled waters of human life; and which is continually bringing on the shores of eternity the souls of human beings, men, women, and children, some good and some bad. Here indeed they are often mistaken, the one for the other; but the angels wiil in the other world most carefully separate them.

Our Lord took his new disciples with Him to Capernaum; for He had called them to Himself

when He was walking by the sea of Galilee, where they were busily engaged in fishing, and they had immediately left their nets and followed Him. In Capernaum He entered into the synagogue, and on the Sabbath-day taught the assembled people, accompanying His preaching with miracles. It was the custom of our Lord to reverence the Sabbath, and to join with His countrymen in the observance of public worship; not indeed in the superstitious manner which the Pharisies taught; but joining to prayer and teaching deeds of mercy, which those proud Jews in their folly condemned, saying that such works of love were not lawful on the day of sacred rest. And what our Lord did Himself, He has mercifully provided for the continuance of in His Church. The sabbath, thanks to God, is still observed, at least in this our favoured land; and the gospel of Christ still preached for the comfort of all who feel their need of it. though the cure of bodily disease by miracles has ceased, the power of the Holy Spirit continues to attend the preaching of the Gospel in the public congregation on the sabbath day: so that many a sick soul is continually cured, and many a broken heart comforted, and many are delivered from the power of Satan, that impure spirit who still works in the children of disobedience.

And

E. Does the Bible tell us, Mamma, what the miracles were, which Jesus worked in the synagogue?

M. On this occasion He cast out an unclean spirit with which an unhappy man was possessed. For at that time a power was permitted to the evil spirits, of tormenting the bodies of men, and afflicting them in various ways out of the common course of nature.