DATES AND EVENTS IMPORTANT TO THE STUDENT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Herod is named King of Judea by the Roman Senate. OCTAVIAN (Augu'stus) becomes sole Governor of the John the Baptist is born. A.D. 1 JESUS is born in February; Herod dies in April, and is succeeded by his sons-I. Archela'us, as Ethnarch of Jude'a, Sama'ria, and Idume'a; II. Herod Antipas, as Tetrarch of Galilee and Pere'a; and III. by Philip, as Tetrarch of Batne'a, &c.— COMMON YEAR 1. Archelaus is banished; QUIRINUS takes a Census of The Emperor AUGU'STUS dies, and is succeeded by PILATE becomes Procurator of Judea. is tempted (February ?). Philip, the Tetrarch, dies. PILATE stripped of his power, is succeeded by MAR- The Emperor TIBERIUS dies, and is succeeded by Herod Antipas is banished. Herod Agrippa I., ruler of all Palestine, persecutes the Herod Agrippa I. dies, after having put James to death, FADUS becomes Procurator; THEUDAS is slain. Paul carries alms to Jerusalem; begins his first Missionary tour. CUMA'NUS, Procurator. FELIX, Procurator; Herod Agrippa II.; Paul attends the council of the Apostles in Jerusalem; goes on his second Missionary tour. The Emperor CLAUDIUS dies, and is succeeded by NERO; Paul visits Jerusalem for the fourth time; commences his third Missionary tour. Paul returns to Jerusalem, is made prisoner, and de- FELIX deposed, is succeeded by FESTUS. FELIX dies, and is succeeded by ALBINUS. The outer buildings of the Temple are completed; Paul suffers martyrdom in Rome. ALBINUS is succeeded by FLORUS. Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans. EXPLANATIONS. U. C. (Urbis Condita) the Year of the foundation of Rome. over a vowel-thus, Petre'a-shows the stress of the voice in pronunciation is to be laid on that vowel. two dots over a vowel-thus, Sinai-shows that the vowel is to be pronounced as a separate syllable. A BIBLICAL READING BOOK. BOOK I. SKETCH OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. No, no-a lonelier, lovelier path be mine; I love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm; I love to wet my foot in Hermon's dews; I love the promptings of Isaiah's muse; In Carmel's holy grot I'll court repose, And deck my mossy couch with Sharon's deathless rose. JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God and Saviour of the world, was born in Judea. This name is derived from Judah, the name of a tribe of Hebrews or Jews, that had great and lasting power in the country. Instead of Judea, the land was also called Canaan, because the Canaanites were its earliest inhabitants. We now call the country Palestine, a name connected with the word Philistines, who inhabited the south of the country on the seacoast. We also call it 'the Holy Land,' because the holy men that are spoken of in the Bible dwelt there. Judea forms the south-western part of Syria, and lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Jews of old, who were very proud of their country, believed that Jerusalem, its chief city, was the middle point of the world. This shows at once their ignorance and their knowledge. It shows their ignorance, for the earth on which we dwell is not, as they thought, a flat surface, but round. It is, indeed, a sphere or globe; that B is, a body in shape like an orange. This sphere is 7912 miles through, and 24,899 miles round. The space round, or the girth, has been divided into 360 equal parts, which are called degrees. Each of these degrees contains 69 of our ordinary miles, or 60 geographical miles. Each of these degrees is also divided into 60 equal parts, which are called minutes, and these minutes are again divided into 60 equal parts, which are called seconds. Degrees are marked thus, 26°; minutes thus, 44'; and seconds thus, 21"; and these figures, 26°, 44', 21", are thus read-twentysix degrees, forty-four minutes, twenty-one seconds. In Maps, degrees, minutes, and seconds, are marked at the sides and at the top and bottom. When a map lies before you, the top is the North, the bottom the South; on the right hand you have the East, and on the left hand the West. The figures that stand on the sides measure latitude, or the distance of a place in a northerly or southerly direction, or from the equator to the pole. Hence latitude is known by consulting the figures on the sides of a map. The figures placed at the top and the bottom represent the distance of a place from a given line, called the first meridian, measured in an easterly or westerly direction, on or along the equator. Hence, if you want to know the longitude of a place, consult the figures at the bottom or the top of your map. If on the sides the figures increase from the bottom towards the top, this shows that you have to do with North latitude; if, on the contrary, they become greater the lower you go, then you must call it South latitude. The earth is, as I have said, a sphere-say an orange. You see the orange bulges out at the sides. The same is the case with the earth. Suppose a line drawn round the middle of the orange over this bulging part; this line would divide the earth into two equal parts. Apply the supposition to the globe, and you have in the line what is called the equator. Hence the equator is a circle dividing the earth into two equal parts. Now take a bodkin, and, placing the orange flat on a stool, run the bodkin through the orange in the middle. The bodkin represents what in regard to the earth is called the axis or diameter, the two ends of which are termed poles; the upward end the North pole, the lower end the South pole. If now you draw a line from the North pole over the South pole, and continue it until it comes to the North pole again, you will have another circle, which, like the equator, may be divided into 360 equal parts or degrees. This circle is also divided into four equal parts, or four parts of 90 degrees each. For from the North pole to the equator there are 900, or what is called a quadrant—that is, the fourth part of a circle: from the equator to the South pole also are there ninety degrees; so from the South pole up to the equator ninety more; and, finally, from the equator back to the North pole once more ninety. Four times ninety make three 6 hundred and sixty. There are accordingly 360° from the North pole round to the North pole again. There are also 360o from any point on the equator round till you come back to the point whence you started. If in measuring longitude on the equator, or on the top and bottom of a map, the numbers increase from the left to the right hand, then the longitude is East; if the numbers increase towards the left hand, the longitude is called West. In other words, longitude on the right hand of the first meridian is East longitude; longitude on the left hand of the first meridian, is West longitude. The first meridian for England runs through Greenwich; that is to say, geographers begin to measure from Greenwich. You cannot find a place merely by being told the latitude. Find me a certain place in this line ; you ask me at what part of the line is it? If I add, "The place is where this line intersects that,' thus +, then, giving you both latitude and longitude, I help you to find the place at once, for it must be at the point of intersection. You must have both latitude and longitude. If I were to tell you to go to a point in this room found on a line drawn straight from where I sit to the wall, you would not know how far down that line to go to. But if I were to say, 'Go to the middle of that line,' then you would know the point at which I wished you to be. You thus see the need there is of your knowing how far North or South, and also how far East or West, you have to carry your eye in order to find a given place. This necessity arises from the fact, that the earth, being round, has cities, towns, and villages, all over its surface, every one of which lies in a different place; that is, has a different latitude and longitude from every other. Take the orange and cut it into two equal parts, directing the knife round the line I told you to draw to represent the equator. What was a sphere is now divided into two equal portions, or hemispheres-that is, since a hemisphere means half a sphere, into two half spheres. Let all the pith and juice of these hemispheres be taken out, and flatten the skin with your hand on the table. Then you make what was round into a flat surface. Your globe has now become a map; and you see how places which really exist on the spherical globe may be represented on a flat surface or a map. Instead of dividing your orange at the equator, let the knife go through both poles. Then you have also two equal parts, or hemispheres. By your former cutting you obtained what is called the Northern and the Southern hemispheres; you have now got the Eastern and the Western hemispheres; in other words, what is termed the new and the old world. The Eastern hemisphere, or that in which we live, is the old world, and it comprises Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Western hemisphere, of which Columbus (b. 1442; d. 1506) is accounted the disco |