miles in an honr, till it meets and looses itself in the lake Asphaltites; alias, the Dead Sea or Sea of Sodom.

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The great plain between the two lakes is about thirty miles in length, and about fifteen miles wide. Formerly the Jordan overflowed its banks annually, near forty perches on each side. This was overgrown with bushes, and was a harbour for lions and wild beasts, which were forced out when the river rose.

"Modern travellers inform us that the case is now different: by the rapidity of the current the channel is now deepened to at least nine feet; so that it contains all the water at the swelling, without overflowing the banks as it formerly did.

"The great plain is bounded by huge barren mountains, both on the east and west side. Those on the east begin at the city of Julias, where the Jordan enters the lake Genezeret, and stretch southward to the lake Asphaltites.

Those on the west side form a continued ridge from Bethsan, or Scythopolis, to the south end of the lake Asphaltites, which is about seventy-two miles long and about twenty miles wide. This ridge on the west side of the great plain and the Asphaltic lake, is what is called the wilderness; by which term they did not mean a tract absolutely uninhabited and desert, but only in general uncultivated and thinly peopled, such as pasture grounds generally are. The southern part of this ridge is what Matthew calls the hill country of Judea.

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Bethabara, or House of Passage, was near that part of the Jordan where the Israelites, under Joshua, miraculously crossed it into the land Canaan."

f

Olympas. Who baptized Jesus in the Jordan, Susan ?

Susan. John the Baptist.

Olympas. How many rites were performed on Jesus, William ?

William. Three-circumcision, dedication, and baptism. But our school-master tells some of our class that baptism now stands in room of them all;—that in baptism we are circumcised and dedicated both. I cannot comprehend how baptism can be three times as much to us as it was to Jesus. Had he so understood it, I think he would not have deceived the people by keeping up three ordinances as though really different, while in truth they are all one and the same.

Olympas. Circumcision, dedication, and baptism are three distinct ordinances. They indicate and signify very different ideas; and no sacred writer has ever regarded them as occupying the same ground or filling the same place in any institution. But we have in the fact of the circumcision, dedication, and baptism of Jesus, an insurmountable argument against those who teach that the last is a substitute for the first two. Circumcision was a patriarchal institution; dedication, a Jewish, and baptism a Christian institution. Things that are as distinct as three dispensations should never be confounded, nor identified with one another. Our Lord honoured every divine institution in existence at his time, and these three were all in being then, and of divine authority. Let us learn to imitate him in his devotion to the honour of our Father and our God.

CONVERSATION XXVI.

LUKE III.

Olympas. In the conclusion of chapter ii. we learn that Jesus went down with his parents from Jerusalem to Nazareth, and was subject to them. What precept of the Jews' law required this, Susan?

Susan. The fifth says, "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

Olympas. He honoured this precept, and was subject to them. How long was he subject to them, William ?

William. During thirty years; for such is the age assigned to him when he commenced his own work.

Olympas. Then he worked for his earthly parents and honoured them till he was thirty, and to his heavenly Father he exclusively devoted the remainder of his life. True, he glorified God in honouring his parents; but a portion of that time he laboured for the family, as the phrase "being subject" intimates; and, therefore, the fair presumption is that he wrought at the carpenter's trade. The Jews required their children to assist them, if need required, till they were thirty, and sometimes longer. Besides, they all taught their sons a useful trade, whatever their future prospects might be. All the presumptions are in favour of the idea that our Saviour actually submitted to work with his hands for the support of the family

till he was of the appointed age of majority, or freedom from the parental yoke. What think you, Eliza, is intimated by the saying, mother kept all these sayings in her heart?"

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His

Eliza. Such as the saying which he uttered when he was twelve years old, alluded to last evening-" Know you not that I should be about my Father's business," or "at my Father's house." Your remark on his being subject to his parents, would commend the propriety of reading "Father's house" rather than "Father's business.

Olympas. You mean, then, that the phrase, "kept all these sayings" imports all such mysterious and unusual things said by him, or concerning him by others; and what, then, means her "keeping them in her heart," William ?

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William. Memory, I suppose; for in looking over the Scriptures I see heart" often means memory and understanding: and so our teacher in the Academy commands us to "get our lessons by heart"-meaning to memorize them.

Olympas. "To memorize" is scarcely good English. Within my memory this phrase has been gaining a new currency. It is growing into use like the words resurrect and resurrected, which are gross innovations upon our good old English language. "To memorize" is to record in writing, or, according to Shakspeare, who is of high authority with one class of lexicographers, it means "to cause others to remember." But this new acceptation of the word is, upon the whole, an act of violence upon the legitimate province of the ancient memorize, as much as the outlandish "resurrected" is upon the dominions of the verb to resuscitate. I would, indeed, have you to observe

that "to keep a thing in the heart" in Jewish idiom, is to remember it, and to ponder upon it. Jesus, we are informed by Luke, "increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man." What think you of this expression, Thomas?

Thomas. It would indicate that Jesus was a child like other children-at first imperfect in wisdom and stature; and that as he increased in both, so he also grew in public favour—in favour both with God and man, because of his early and vigourous virtues and excellencies. "The child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and a divine gracefulness was upon him," would seem to convey the same idea.

Olympas. We shall now hear you read, William, the third chapter of Luke, so far as the eighteenth verse, with a special reference to the chronology of the Messiah's birth and times.

[William reads.]

Olympas. What date is fixed in this passage,

Thomas?

Thomas. The commencement of John the Baptist's ministry. The word of the Lord came to John in the fifteenth year of Tiberias Cesar.

Olympas How many Cesars in all reigned over Rome, William ?

William. They are said to have been twelve, and arranged in some histories as follows:-Julius Cesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellus, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian.

Olympas. But does the true line of descent continue to Domitian?

William. I think it terminated in Nero, the