
PREFACE.
REAT pains have been taken in the construction of this work, to give the narrative the
roundness, unity, and fluency that are so essential to the interest and picturesqueness of
the story, and to a conception of the life of
the Lord Jesus in its oneness and consecutiveness. Without doubt the best way to
study Christ is to read each of the Gospels in its unity. Supplementary to this the
scholar is able to construct for himself, by
a laborious study of learned works and a
diligent comparison of the several Gospels,
a conception of the life of Christ as a
whole. It is to assist the general reader in
forming such a conception that the present
consolidation is made.
It is now two hundred and twenty years since the learned Dr. Lightfoot published his celebrated harmony of the four Gospels; and very many others have labored in this Held during these two centuries. But the plan and purpose of the present work differs in some regards from all that have gone before. For this is not