d
impartial." "Once or twice, indeed," he says, "he fastens on passages
from such writers, that he may make capital of them; but their main
arguments remain wholly unnoticed." [26:1] I confess that I find it
somewhat difficult to distinguish between those out of which I am said
to "make capital" and those which Dr. Lightfoot characterises as "their
main arguments," if I am to judge by the "samples" of them which he
gives me. For instance, [26:2] he asks why, when asserting that the
Synoptics clearly represent the ministry of Jesus as having been limited
to a single year, and his preaching as confined to Galilee and
Jerusalem, whilst the fourth Gospel distributes the teaching of Jesus
between Galilee, Samaria, and Jerusalem, makes it extend over three
years, and refers to three passovers spent by Jesus at Jerusalem:

"Why then," he asks,

"does he not add that 'apologetic' writers refer to such passages as
Matt. xiii. 37 (comp. Luke xiii. 34), 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ...
_how often_ would I have gathered thy children together'? Here the
expression 'how often,' it is contended, obliges us to postulate
other visits, probably several visits, to Jerusalem, which are not
recorded in the Synoptic Gospels themselves. And it may be suggested
also that the twice-repeated notice of time in the context of St.
Luke, 'I do cures _to-day and to-morrow, and the third day_ I shall
be perfected,' 'I must walk _to-day and to-morrow and the day
following_,' points to the very duration of our Lord's ministry, as
indicated by the fourth Gospel. If so, the coincidence is the more
remarkable because it does not appear that St. Luke himself, while
wording these prophetic words, was aware of their full historical
import." [27:1]

Now it might have struck Dr. Lightfoot that if anyone making an enquiry
into the reality of Divine Revelation were obliged, in order to escape
charges of want of candour, fulness, and impartiality, or insinuations
of ignorance, to reproduce and refute all apologetic arguments like
this, the duration of modern life would scarcely suffice for the task;
and "if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain all the books that should be written." It is
very right that anyone believing it valid should advance this or any
other reasoning in reply to objections, or in support of opinions; but
is it not somewhat unreasonable veh