He was sorely tried by the privations of poverty,
though He was exposed to the most brutal and degrading insults, and
though at last He was forsaken by His friends and consigned to a death
of lingering agony, He never performed a single act or uttered a single
word unworthy of His exalted and blessed mission. The narratives of the
evangelists supply clear internal evidence that, when they described the
history of Jesus, they must have copied from a living original; for
otherwise, no four individuals, certainly no four Jews, could have each
furnished such a portrait of so great and so singular a personage.
Combining the highest respect for the institutions of Moses with a
spirit eminently catholic, He was at once a devout Israelite and a
large-hearted citizen of the world. Rising far superior to the
prejudices of His countrymen, He visited Samaria, and conversed freely
with its population; and, whilst declaring that He was sent specially to
the seed of Abraham, He was ready to extend His sympathy to their
bitterest enemies. Though He took upon Him the form of a servant, there
was nothing mean or servile in His behaviour; for, when He humbled
Himself, there was ever about Him an air of condescending majesty.
Whether He administers comfort to the mourner, or walks upon the waves
of the sea, or replies to the cavils of the Pharisees, He is still the
same calm, holy, and gracious Saviour. When His passion was immediately
in view, He was as kind and as considerate as ever, for, on the very
night in which He was betrayed, He was employed in the institution of an
ordinance which was to serve as a sign and a seal of His grace
throughout all generations. His character is as sublime as it is
original. It has no parallel in the history of the human family. The
impostor is cunning, the demagogue is turbulent, and the fanatic is
absurd; but the conduct of Jesus Christ is uniformly gentle and serene,
candid, courteous, and consistent. Well, indeed, may His name be called
Wonderful. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world know him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But an many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name." [32:1]

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO CHAPTER II.

THE YEAR OF CHRIST'S BIRTH.

The Christian era commences on the 1st of January of the year 754 of the
city of Rome. That our Lord was born about the time stat