LAYS OF THE GOSPEL. BY S. G. BULFINCH. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of BOSTON: JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. M DCCC XLV. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. BOSTON: PRINTED BY THURSTON, TORRY AND CO. 31 Devonshire Street. PREFACE. THIS book was at first undertaken as an enlarged edition of a small work which I published several years since, under the title, "Contemplations of the Saviour." In the course of execution, however, the plan has been gradually changed; and in this volume, nothing remains of the former one, but a partial resemblance in the arrangement of the scriptural subjects, and a few of the original pieces, mostly in an altered form. The idea I have had in view, was to present such a series of illustrations, as might assist devout feeling, in the reading of the Saviour's history. With this object I have divided 'the Gospel history into one hundred sections, following generally the arrangement of Drs. Carpenter and Palfrey. Each section is designated by reference to the chapter from which it is taken, and to its first and last verses; and from each of these portions of scripture some passage is selected which seemed suitable for poetical development. In arranging the sections, I have endeavored, while avoiding repetition, to guard against omitting any passage of much comparative importance. In one respect a departure from the order of the Harmony seemed advisable; the facts and discourses which are there placed together at the end, as "of uncertain date," being here brought into the course of the narrative, in the places indicated by their position in the gospel of St. Luke. The difficulty of the undertaking will, perhaps, in some degree excuse the imperfections of its performance. The |