the right and left; that on the south was Bethsaida, house of fish, the home of Philip, Andrew and Simon Peter; the northern suburb was possibly Chorazin. The principal commerce of the city was in fish from the lake. These were distributed throughout Palestine, even to Jerusalem, where, as we have seen, John the son of Zebedee, a fisherman, had a dwelling or business station. This source of wealth made Capernaum the chief city of Galilee, throughout which its highways radiated. Hence his new home was an advantageous position from which Jesus proposed to evangelize Galilee.

The adjoining Lake of Gennesaret is especially interesting. It is about six miles broad by thirteen long, and its surface is 700 feet below the Mediterranean. Lying thus in a deep valley with massive hills on the east and west, it is fed by the upper Jordan springing from Mt. Hermon and entering on the north about three miles above Capernaum, and is discharged from its southern end along the lower Jordan into the Dead Sea. It is liable to sudden and severe storms, caused by the cold and heavy air from the Hermon range sweeping along its surface to displace the hot and light air of the lower Jordan valley. But ordinarily it is smooth, bright and sunny. Its waters are clear, fresh and sweet, abounding in fish; and the little white-winged ships of the fisherman constantly enliven the surface. Towns and cities cluster on its borders, and between them the shores down to the water's edge are clothed with blooming oleanders.

The Dead Sea or Lake Asphaltes, seventy miles to the south, is ten miles broad by forty-five long, and its surface is 1,300 feet below the Mediterranean, and 3,900 feet below Jerusalem. It contrasts in several particulars with

the Galilean lake. It has no outlet; hence its waters are intensely salt, and hence also there is no life in its bosom, on its surface, or around its borders of wilderness and desert. Storms do not awake it, silence reigns above it, and it spreads its pall over the cities of doom.

These two lakes are symbolic, the latter of death from which is no escape, the former of the open way of life. The one lies dark in the shadow of God's frown; the other gleams brightly with the sunshine of his love. The one is bitter, telling of sin and sorrow; the other is sweet, telling of purity and joy. The one stands for the Law, Do that, and thou shalt die; the other for the Gospel, Do this, and thou shalt live. The one speaks of penalty, the other of pardon. The one is the lake of the Old Testament, which mentions it only; the other is the lake of the New Testament, which mentions it only. John, the second Elijah, closing the old dispensation, lived in the wilderness on the borders of Lake Asphaltes nearly all his solitary life. See him in his prophet's garb sitting on a rock that overhangs its gloom, meditating and assimilating the stern, uncompromising Law. At last he passes up the Jordan and meets with Jesus, who says, Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then and there the Law merges into the Gospel. John ascends the river nigh to Lake Gennesaret, is arrested, imprisoned, returned to the borders of his own lake and murdered. Jesus passes down into its bordering wilderness, is confronted and does battle with Satan, then returns to dwell by the Gospel lake. See him sitting in the gently rocking boat, telling of eternal life to the eager crowd on shore. The lake is his to teach along its shores, to rest upon its bosom amid sunshine and storm, and to make its freshness, its life, its stirring scenes,

symbolic forever of the Gospel of that salvation which he still lives to bestow.

The fame of the Nazarene was already rife in Capernaum when he made it his home. One day, very soon after his arrival, as he was walking on the shore of the lake, a crowd of people gathered around him. So he stepped into a boat belonging to Simon, who was near by with his brother Andrew washing their fish-nets, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had done speaking he said to Simon:

"Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." "

Night-time was more favorable for fishing with nets, the fish being attracted to the boat by the light of torches. Hence Simon, with a doubt in his mind, said: "Master, we toiled all night, and took nothing; but at thy word we will let down the nets."

When they had done so they enclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their nets were breaking. So they signalled to their partners, James and John, in another boat, for help. They came, and both boats were filled nigh unto sinking. When Simon Peter saw it, overwhelmed with the sense of divine presence, and recalling his doubt and personal unworthiness, he kneeled down to Jesus, saying: "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." To this impromptu prayer Jesus graciously replied: "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men." When they landed he said to Peter and Andrew: "Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men."

These then left their nets and followed him. Going on

from thence, he saw the brothers, James and John, who had already returned, in their boat mending their nets. He called them also, and straightway they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the servants, and followed him.

This beautiful lake scene, the first, of a series, was very significant. The miraculous draught of fishes, besides being a princely compensation to its owners for the use of the boat, was at once a proof of divine authority for the call about to be made, and a promise of divine assistance and abundant success in their prospective avocation. The impulsive Simon Peter here first comes to the front in his habitual rôle as spokesman. The four young men now called to be the constant companions of Jesus, and to become with others his apostles, were of those who accompanied him in Judea. They knew him very well, and hence responded to his call readily and heartily.

And when the Sabbath day was come, the first Sabbath in his new home, Jesus went as his custom was to public worship. This was held in the house of prayer, the Beth Tephillah, or the place of assembly, the Synagogue, the great central building of Capernaum. There he took his seat on the platform and proceeded to teach the congregation. Though already a celebrity among them, the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them not as the Scribes, the Doctors of the Law, with hesitation and submission, but with words of authority. He was interrupted, however, by a man in the congregation, who had a spirit of an unclean demon.

Here in the story of the Nazarene we come upon the obscure and difficult subject of demoniacal possession.

In the midst of all that is bright and beautiful, this dark shadow falls. The general conception is of an evil spirit taking possession of a man's brain, the demonic will overmastering the human will, and controlling ideation and corporal action. The man's mind or spirit is not wholly displaced by that of the demon, but subjugated, and he is forced to think the thoughts and speak the words of his master. He is tortured with a confused dual consciousness, so that when perhaps he would do good, evil is present with him. An especial mystery is that in some cases a number of demons are represented as possessing the same person.

The credibility of demoniacal possession, like that of miracles, rests primarily on the belief in the existence and providence of God, and in supernatural, transcendental realities. If there be good spirits, there may be evil spirits. Since God permits evil men to be, surely for some like inscrutable reason he may permit evil demons to be. Hardly less credible is the further permission, in special cases, to take masterful possession of a man's brain and body, thus to deal more effectively with material things, and indulge native malignity.

Historically we have the testimony of the evangelists and apostles that these things were so, that their day was marked by an extraordinary accession of Satanic influence. Matthew distinguishes lunacy or epilepsy, and the physician Luke distinguishes diseases in general from possession. Jesus recognizes the personality of the demon as distinct from the personality of the possessed. Whoever rejects this must give up the integrity of the Gospels. It seems that the phenomenon is peculiar to the New Testament history. There is little, if any, mention of it in the Old Testament. It has been freely attributed by Chris