SUMMARY OF RESULTS: GALILEE PROVIDENTIALLY FITTED
FOR THE FIRST RECEPTION OF CHRIST AND His GOSPEL.

AFTER the careful review now closed, we feel justified in saying that Galilee at the time of Christ was one of the finest and most fertile portions of the earth. Stretching from the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan and the sweet-watered Merom and Gennesareth on the east; abounding in springs, rivers, and lakes — among which its one hallowed sea was the gem and pride of the whole country, as it is for ever dear to Christian hearts; possessing a rare and delightful climate, and scenery of great variety and beauty; its surface never dull or monotonous, but wonderfully varied by plains and valleys, gentle slopes and terraced hills, deep ravines and bold peaks, naturally fortified eminences and giant mountains; its soil naturally fertile. but forced by skilful husbandry to the highest state of productiveness, until this province was, noted for the perfection and abundance of its fruits; Galilee thus possessed features of richness and beauty rarely if ever combined in so small a country in all the world besides. The surface of the country was covered with wealthy cities and flourishing towns, and crossed in many directions by her 'way of the sea' and other great thoroughfares, which were thronged with the caravans of commerce. Its' agriculture and fisheries, wine and oil trade, and other industries, were in the most flourishing condition, being managed with energy and skill by a people who knew well how to use to advantage the resources of their highly favoured country. Its synagogues and other public buildings were built often in splendid style and at great expense. Here money was abundant, and easily raised either for taxes, heavy tributes, military affairs, or for costly dwellings and palaces. Here all matters pertaining to the synagogical service and to the instruction of children were faithfully attended to, and here were found teachers, learned men, missionaries, poets, and patriots of the highest order.

In regard to the character of the Galileans, it is claimed that gold and dross were lying side by side. But even those who discover in them a great deal of exterior roughness are compelled to admit that beneath this rough surface they possessed a fund of strength and talent which entitled them to the highest regard. But much of a positive character can be said in their praise. Their patriotism in national emergencies; their enthusiastic loyalty to their country's interests; their general adherence to the law of Moses in preference to tradition, which ruled and hampered the public mind in Jerusalem; their interests in the Temple and its solemn feasts; their deep-seated and inspiring hope, which looked with steadfast gaze towards the future — 'waiting for the redemption of Israel,' — these things show that the Jews of the north, at least equally with, and perhaps far beyond, those who dwelt beneath the very shadow of the Temple, maintained within themselves, in their integrity, some of the noblest traits of the Hebrew nation.

But farther, we find the Galileans to have been a moral, intelligent, industrious, and enterprising people, possessed of vigorous minds and healthy bodies — 'healthy as their own climate and cheerful as their own sky,' — a people familiar with their own law and history, and not wanting in the finest poetical spirit; with the disposition and ability to appreciate in the main the teachings of Christ; a people among whom were found most devoted men. 'Israelites indeed'; among whom also devotion to the national idea reached its highest development, till at last they rose, a solid wall of patriot hearts, to be crushed by the all-conquering power of Rome; both country and people, one may say with truth, fitly chosen of God as the training-place of those men — Master and disciples — who were to move the world; the proper soil in which first to plant the seeds of that truth which was destined, ere long, to be spoken by eloquent lips in the pulpits of Caesarea, Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome.