great truth that the Mosaic institutions had forever
passed away to make room for the universal dispensation of Christianity;
and that he wrote, too, among Gentiles for whom the abolition of these
institutions had no special interest. In general style and spirit,
moreover, the gospel of John is closely allied to his first epistle, and
cannot well be separated from it by a great interval of time; but the
epistle undoubtedly belongs to a later period of the apostle's life.

From the language of John, chap. 5:2, "Now there _is_ at
Jerusalem, by the sheep-gate, a pool, which is called in the
Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, _having_ five porches,"--it has been
argued that, when John wrote, the city must have been still
standing. But Eusebius speaks of the pool as remaining in his
day, and why may not the porches, as useful to the Roman
conquerors, have been preserved, at least for a season?

We have seen the relation of John's gospel to the other three in respect
to time. It must have been written several years later than the last of
them; perhaps not less than fifteen years. If, now, we look to its
relation in regard to _character_, we must say that it differs from them
as widely as it well could while presenting to our view the same divine
and loving Saviour. Its general plan is different. For reasons not known
to us, the synoptical gospels are mainly occupied with our Lord's
ministry in Galilee. They record only his last journey to Jerusalem, and
the momentous incidents connected with it. John, on the contrary,
notices his visits to Jerusalem year by year. Hence his materials are,
to a great extent, different from theirs; and even where he records the
same events--as, for example, the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and
the last supper--he connects with them long discourses, which the other
evangelists have omitted. Particularly noticeable are our Lord's
oft-repeated discussions with the unbelieving Jews respecting his
Messiahship, and his confidential intercourse with his disciples, in
both of which we have such treasures of divine truth and love. How
strikingly this gospel differs from the others in its general style and
manner every reader feels at once. It bears throughout the impress of
John's individuality, and by this it is immediately connected with the
epistles that bear his name. It should be added that in respect to the
time when our Lord ate the passover with his disciples there is an