convenient.

There are two methods in which these lessons may be taught: One is the lecture method, by which the instructor gives the lesson to the class in the form of a lecture, placing the outline upon the blackboard as he proceeds, calling upon the students to read the texts cited, and frequently reviewing the outline in a concert drill. By this method the students may or may not have the books, as they and the instructor prefer. While it is not necessary to supply the class with the text-book, it will be a good plan to do so. Some lecturers prefer to have the books closed while the lecture is being given; but others desire to have the students use the outline in the book as a syllabus, enabling them to follow the subject more closely.

The other method, simpler and easier, is to let the student have a copy of the book, to expect the lesson to be prepared by the class, and to have it recited, either individually or in concert. Let each student gain all the information that he can upon the subjects of the lesson; let each bring his knowledge to the possession of all; let all talk freely, and all will be the gainers.

It would be a good plan to have papers read from time to time upon the subjects suggested by the course and parallel with it.

Some teachers and classes may regard the contents of this book as too extensive and may prefer a shorter course. The aim of the author has been to include in the course only those subjects that are essential to an understanding of the New Testament, and the entire series of lessons is recommended; but if a shorter course be deemed absolutely necessary, two plans are suggested:

1. There are three subjects which under necessity might be omitted: Second Study, The People of Palestine; Third Study, General View of the Life of Christ; Twelfth Study, The Synagogue. This will leave fifteen studies, or twenty-two lessons.

2. Another plan might be undertaken: to take up as a course the studies on the life of Christ, or even omitting, as above, the second and third studies, making eight; and to leave the eight studies in the early church—a most interesting and valuable subject—to a later period.

THE COURSE DIVIDED INTO LESSONS

For the convenience of teachers and classes, the eighteen studies of this course are divided into twenty-five lessons, as follows:

FIRST STUDY

In the historical study of the New Testament the two principal subjects are, the life of Jesus Christ on earth and, after the Ascension, the growth of the Christian church.

The life of Christ was passed entirely in Palestine; and we therefore begin our studies with a view of that land as it was in our Saviour's day.

I. It was an oriental land. In all ages the boundaries of Palestine have been about the same, though the dominion of its rulers has varied according to their power. Palestine Proper, originally the land of Canaan, and later the land of Israel, or the Twelve Tribes, is located near the south-eastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea; having Syria and Phœnicia on the north, the great Syrian Desert on the east, the Sinaitic wilderness on the south, and the Mediterranean on the west. Located just outside the tropics, near the point of contact between Asia and Africa, it belongs to the Oriental or Eastern world.

II. It was a small land. The greatest lands have not always been the largest. Greece, no larger than half a dozen counties in America, is greater in history than vast China; and the single city of Rome won and held the empire of the Mediterranean lands. Territorially the whole extent of Palestine was about that of Massachusetts and Connecticut united, or that of Switzerland, in Europe—about 12,500 square miles. Its sea-coast, from Tyre to Gaza, is 140 miles long; its Jordan line, from Mount Hermon to the foot of the Dead Sea, is 156 miles.

III. It was a land of varied natural features. There is a regularity in the natural conformation of Palestine which every traveler notices. The country lies in five parallel sections.

1. Approaching from the Mediterranean one meets first a sea-coast plain two or three miles wide at the north, but widening, as it goes southward, to nearly twenty miles at