Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1833, by BROWN SHATTUCK & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: E. W. METCALF AND CO. PREFACE. THE principles adopted in the arrangement of the present history, are sufficiently explained in the course of the work. That they will be universally satisfactory, is not to be expected. The essential difficulties of constructing a harmony of the evangelical historians are such as to forbid the expectation. But I cannot persuade myself that I am mistaken in thinking, that the system here adopted has greater probabilities in its favor than any other which has been suggested. A full statement of the reasons on which it rests is incompatible with the limits of the work. I would suggest to my readers, that they will find the instruction and interest of the volume greatly increased, by carefully examining in connexion with it the passages referred to at the bottom of the pages. Indeed, much of the pertinency of many remarks and illustrations will be otherwise unperceived. The most convenient mode of doing this, will be by using the Harmony of the Gospels mentioned in the note on the 49th page. I am aware that many things will be found unexplained which need explanation, and that defects and omissions will be perceived by others which have escaped my own observation. But I hope that, notwithstanding these, I have not altogether failed in the attempt to unfold to young minds some of the interesting points in our Saviour's history, and to excite in them a desire to be more intimately instructed in its wonderful and beautiful records. It would be a great happiness to believe, that I had aided in bringing any to a true admiration and faithful love of our blessed Lord. Cambridge, Jan. 4, 1833. |