4.) It was a year of great activity, spent in incessant journeys, preaching, and works of mercy, and the most popular period of the Saviour's life, when the crowds were greatest and the people seemed ready to accept Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. Yet at its close, as before, he was left alone with his twelve disciples (John 6. 66-68). 4. Another period we find in =The Year of Opposition=, again contrasted with the year before it. 1.) It begins with the Retirement to Phoenicia (Mark 7. 24) and ends with the Anointing by Mary (John 12. 1-3). 2.) It is recorded in all the gospels in almost equal measure, Luke giving the most complete account of the ministry in Peræa, and John, as usual, relating the visit to Judea. 3.) This period is peculiar in the fact that in it Jesus visited all the five provinces of Palestine. We find him in Decapolis (which was a part of the Bashan district) (Mark 7. 31); passing through Galilee (Mark 9. 30); also through Samaria (Luke 9. 51, 52); in Peræa (Mark 10. 1), and in Judea (John 11. 7). 4.) This part of the Saviour's life has been variously characterized as "a ministry of sorrow and humiliation," "a year of instruction," and "a period of retirement." All are correct, for during this, the last year of his life, Jesus sought to be alone with his disciples, and in order to escape the crowds visited places where he was unknown. He aimed to instruct his disciples in the deeper truths of the gospel, to prepare their minds for his approaching death and for their mission as apostles (Matt. 16. 21). 5. We now approach the close of Christ's life on earth, and the narration is more detailed as the cross comes nearer to view. Our next period is =The Week of the Passion=. 1.) Beginning with the Triumphal Entry on the Sunday before the Passover (John 21. 12, 13), it ends with the Agony in the Garden about midnight on Thursday (Matt. 26. 36); thus embracing strictly but five days. 2.) It is related in all the gospels, John alone adding the teaching given at the Last Supper (John 13-17). 3.) All the events of this period took place in or near Jerusalem. 4.) This was the last call of Christ to the Jews of Jerusalem, and his final rebuke for their rejection of his ministry. 6. =The Day of the Crucifixion.= The most important day in all earth's history was that when Jesus died upon the cross. It is also the day whose events are narrated more fully than any other in the Bible annals. Therefore we study it apart from the rest of the week as a separate period. 1.) It begins with the Arrest (Matt. 26. 47), soon after midnight, Friday A. M., the day of the Passover, and ends at about sunset of the same day with the Burial (Matt. 27. 59, 60).