Vera. 14, 15. Parallel passages: Matt. iv. 17; Luke iv. 14, 15.-The Galilean, ministry. I. H1s PREACHING BEGAN IN GALILEE. Though our Lord's public ministry may be regarded as having commenced at that Passover at Jerusalem to which reference has been already made, yet his public appearance as a preacher was in Galilee. The place, the date, the subject are all distinctly marked by St. Peter in the tenth chapter of the Acts, at the thirty-seventh verse, as we read, "That word which God sen~ unto t~e children of Israel, preac~ing the gospel [good tidings] of peace by Jesus Chnst (he 1s Lord of all}-that saying ye yourselves know, which was published throughout all Judre.a, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached." II. A FAVOURABLE FIELD. Now commence our Lord's labours amon"' the towns and villages of Galilee-a sphere of operation of the most promising kind at that period. Of the four provinces c! Palestine in the time of Roman rule, while Judma was south, Samaria central, and Perma east, Galilee was in the north. Originally it comprehended only a limited circle or circuit, as the name Galil imports, round Kedesh- Naphtali, including the twenty towns which Solomon gave to Hiram, but it grew into much larger dimensions till it included the four northern tribes, Asher and Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar, embracing an oblong twenty-five miles from north to south and twenty-seven from east to west. It was divided into Lower and Upper Galilee; the former district consisted mainly of the plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, and the latter, containing the district between the Upper Jordan and Phamicia, was called Galilee of the Gentiles because of its mixed population-Greeks, Arabs, Phrenicians, as well as Jews. This northern province of the Holy Land in the days of our Lord was studded with towns and even cities, had a thriving population, and abounded in hives of busy industry. Speaking of our Lord selecting this district as the scene of his labours, the late Dean Stanley says, " It was no retired mountain-lake by whose shore he took up his abode, such as might have attracted the Eastern sage or ,v-estern hermit. It was to the Roman Palestine almost what the manufacturing districts are to England. Nowhere, except in the capital itself, could he have found such a sphere for his works and words of mercy." The husbandman that tilled the fields, the merchantman that traded in the towns or villages, the fisherman that plied his craft on the waters of the lake, and labourers standing in the market-place,-all these and many such abounded in this populous region; and while easily accessible, and willing to wait on our Lord's ministry, they were more free from prejudice-less bigoted and less exclusive than their brethren of the southern province. III. THE DISTRICT POINTED OUT m PBOPHEOY. Ancient prophecy had marked this re!tlon out as that where gospel light would shine most brightly. These northern tribes, z;'bulun and Naphtali, had soonest sunk into idolatry through the influence of their idolatrow; neighbours, the Phrenicians, on the west, and had suffered sorest from Assyrian invaders from the east, most of them having been carried captive by Tiglath-pileser and their land repeopled in large part by strangers. The prophet, however, in order to con- sole and in some measure compensate, foretold a good time coming in Isa. ix. 1, 2, which rightly rendered reads thus: " There shall not hereafter be darkness in the land which was distressed; as in the former time he brought to shame the land of Zcbulun and the land of N aph tall, so in the time to come he bringeth it to honour, even _the tract. by the sea [i.e. the western shore], the other side of Jordan [the eastern. side], Gahlee of the nations [i.e. district north of the sea]. The people that walked lil darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the sh84ow of ~e~th, up_on them hath the light shined." Thus henceforth the scene of the Saviour's m1DJStry lies by the Jordan. the Lake of Gennesaret, and in Galilee of the Gentiles-
" 'Vl"hat went ye out to see O'er the rude Bandy lea, Where stately Jordan flows by many a palm, Or where Gennesaret's wave Delights the flowers to lave That o'er her weetem slope breathe ail'■ of balm t OD, D. 1-4.5.) THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 119