ng with your head thrown back.

Raphael's Bible begins with the creation of the world; then follow the
history of Adam and Eve, and Noah and the deluge; in the fourth
section is the story of Abraham told in four compositions. Thus,
besides this picture of Abraham and the Three Angels, there is the
scene where Lot and his family are fleeing from Sodom, and his wife is
turned into a pillar of salt. There is also the meeting of Abraham and
Melchisedec (after Abraham's rescue of Lot), and a picture of God
promising a long line of descendants to Abraham.

In this open gallery the people of Rome could walk and read the Bible
in a succession of pictures. Since these and similar pictures and
statues and carvings were everywhere, men, women, and children read
them as they would read books, and a popular painter was like a
popular story-teller nowadays.

III

THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES

Another of the Bible scenes which Raphael painted was one which is
told in the New Testament concerning the Lord Jesus and his Apostles.
Some of these, as Peter and Andrew, James and John, were fishermen who
lived near the lake of Gennesaret in Galilee, and had spent most of
their lives in their boats. They had been much with their Master, and
sometimes left their boats to go with him through the country, when he
talked with them and healed the sick, and told the glad tidings, for
that is what the word Gospel means. One day he had been using Simon
Peter's boat as a sort of pulpit from which to speak to the people on
the shore.

"Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, 'Launch
out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught,'
And Simon answering said unto him, 'Master, we have toiled
all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy
word I will let down the net.' And when they had this done,
they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net
brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in
the other ship, that they should come and help them. And
they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to
sink.

"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees,
saying, 'Depart from me: for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' For
he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the
draught of the fishes which they had taken; and so was also
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners
with S