making a considerable impression upon the popular mind; and many persons took up arms and engaged in a kind of civil war. This sedition continued for many years, and, indeed, was not terminated till the destruction of Jerusalem. A knowledge of this political fact will help us to understand the tragedy referred to by our Lord in Luke xiii. It would appear that some of these Galileans came up to Jerusalem to worship God at one of the great festivals; Pilate the Governor barbarously murdered them in the court of the temple, and thus mingled their blood with that of their sacrifices.

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This insurrectionary party is also called "the Sect of the Herodians.' They were so called because the kingdom of Herod the Tetrarch included Galilee beyond Jordan, and the neighbouring places about Gaulan, Judas's country. Some of these disaffected people sought to entrap the Saviour into their seditious views, by asking him whether it was lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar or no. This was the grand question at issue. To be exempted from the taxation and political control of the Roman empire, was the ultimate object of the sect. The Jewish rulers, too, were anxious to find occasion against Christ; and nothing could answer their purpose better, than to identify him with this political party. A strenuous attempt was therefore made to fasten upon him a charge of taking part in this rebellion. When he was brought before Pilate, some of his accusers falsely swore that they had found him "perverting the nation,”

and "forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar." But they failed to sustain this accusation: they could not identify him with the seditious and turbulent faction which troubled the land. But though they failed in this, we find that the name of "Galilean" was given to Christ and his disciples as a name of reproach; and that, in after years, Julian the Apostate used to call Christ "the Galilean God," and actually passed a law prohibiting the Christians from being called by any other name than "Galileans." He sought to destroy the rising church by heaping reproach upon the persons composing it, and upon the Divine Saviour whom they delighted in and worshipped. In this design, however, Julian signally failed, and found to his cost that there was neither counsel nor might against the Lord. Having invaded the kingdom of Persia, and won many battles, he was at length suddenly attacked by the Persians; and, being eager to repulse the enemy, he hastened to the field of battle without his armour, when he received a mortal wound by a dart, which, through his arm and side, pierced his very liver. Catching in his hand the blood which flowed from his wound, he dashed it up toward heaven, and cried, "O Galilean, thou hast conquered!"

The scene of our present meditations is on the shore of the Lake of Galilee. This beautiful sheet of water is, in fact, only an expansion of the river Jordan, which enters it on the north. Nearly all travellers agree in reporting that the Jordan flows through without mixing

with the waters of the Lake, and that the stream may be distinctly followed by the eye. This water is variously named, "the Sea of Chinnereth," (Num. xxxiv. 11,)" the Sea of Galilee," (Matt. iv. 18,) "the Lake of Gennesaret," (Luke v. 1,) and "the Sea of Tiberias." This last name it has received from Tiberias, one of the towns on its western bank. This town was chiefly built by Herod Antipas, and named by him, in honour of the Roman Emperor, Tiberias. "Gennesaret" is probably only a corruption of "Chinnereth," which appears to have been the ancient name of the town of Tiberias. is supposed by some that this name is derived from two words, signifying "the Garden of a Prince," or "a Royal Garden," and may refer to the garden adjoining the palace of Herod at Tiberias. Others derive "Gennesaret from

It

a Hebrew word which signifies a Harp," the Lake being supposed somewhat to resemble that instrument in shape. Fuller quaintly observes on this etymology, "Sure the high winds sometimes make but bad music (to the ear of mariners), when playing thereupon." Bad music indeed! when the accompaniments were rude waves and a sinking ship, and the appropriate and thrilling chorus was the cry of the poor sailors in jeopardy, "Master, Master, we perish !"

In speaking of this Sea of Galilee, the Talmud says: "Seven seas,' saith God, have I created, and of them all have I chosen none but the Sea of Gennesaret."" waters are soft and sweet; it has a beautiful pebbly bed,

The

and the surrounding atmosphere is remarkably salubrious. The shores are described by Josephus as a perfect paradise, producing every luxury under heaven, at all seasons of the year. One of the most recent descriptions is that given by Dr. Olin. He says, "I remained seated upon one of the ancient tombs for half an hour or more, to enjoy the lovely and magnificent prospect which it afforded. of the Sea of Galilee, and the region adjacent. It was four or five hundred feet below me; its surface so smooth as to seem covered with oil, and glittering in the beams of a bright and burning sun, though darkened here and there with the moving shadow of a cloud. The entire eastern shore of the lake was visible, with the exception of a small portion at the southern or lower end. I could only conjecture its length and breadth; but it seemed to me that the expanse of water on which my eye rested might be twelve or fourteen miles in length, by six or seven wide. The high, bold shore is a good deal depressed on the north and north-east, where the Jordan enters; and it occasionally declines a little, or is broken through by a narrow valley, in other places; but, with few exceptions, it is every where a mountain steep. Steep as it is, however, it is usually clothed with grass, shrubs, and small trees. In a few places, where the slope is more gentle, it is covered with wheat and ploughed fields, which exhibit the same aspect of dark red, the sure evidence of fertility, which I had remarked in the Plain of Esdraëlon. The mountain bank seems to rise from the

water's edge; but sometimes there is a border of level ground below it, only visible, however, when sown with wheat, or recently ploughed." Dr. E. D. Clarke, speaking of the grandeur of the scenery, says, "The Lake of Gennesaret is surrounded by objects well calculated to heighten the solemn impression made by such recollections, and affords one of the most striking prospects in the Holy Land. Speaking of it comparatively, it may be described as longer and finer than our Cumberland and Westmoreland lakes, although perhaps inferior to Loch Lomond. It does not possess the vastness of Lake Geneva, although it much resembles it in certain points of view. In picturesque beauty it comes nearest to Lake Locarno in Italy, although it is destitute of anything similar to the islands by which that majestic piece of water is adorned. It is inferior in magnitude, and in the height of its surrounding mountains, to the Lake Asphaltites."

As already intimated, there were numerous towns and villages situated on the shores of this beautiful lake. Bethsaida, on the western shore, was the native place of Peter. The precise site of this town has not been ascertained, but it appears to have been not far from Capernaum. The waters of Galilee abounded with fish, and gave the means of subsistence and employment to the surrounding population. Peter was a fisherman by trade; and his boats and his nets constituted his worldly wealth. With the toils and perils of this laborious calling he had been familiar from his childhood. Nor is it likely that