(ver. 9.) “And it came to pass in those days, that JESUS came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. (10.) And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the SPIRIT like a dove descending upon Him: (11.) and there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art My beloved SON, in whom I am well pleased. (12.) And immediately the SPIRIT driveth Him into the wilderness. (13.) And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the Angels ministered unto Him. (14.) Now after that John was put in prison, JESUS came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of GOD, (15.) and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of GOD is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel. (16.) Now, as He walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. (17.) And JESUS said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. (18.) And straightway they forsook their net’s, and followed Him. (19.) And when He had gone a little farther thence, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. (20.) And straightway He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after Him.” 4. The candid reader must needs admit that precisely the self-same manner is recognisable in this first chapter of S. Mark’s Gospel which is asserted to be peculiar to the last. Note, that from our SAVIOUR’S Baptism (which occupies the first three verses) the Evangelist passes to His Temptation, which is dismissed in two. Six months elapse. The commencement of the Ministry is dismissed in the next two verses. The last five describe the call of four of the Apostles,—without any distinct allusion to the miracle which was the occasion of it.... How was it _possible_ that when incidents considerable as these had to be condensed within the narrow compass of twelve verses, the same “graphic, detailed description” could reappear which renders S. Mark’s description of the miracle performed in the country of the Gadarenes (for example) so very interesting; where a single incident is spread over twenty verses, although the action did not perhaps occupy an hour? I rejoice to observe that “the _abrupt transitions_ of this section” (ver. 1-13) have also been noticed by Dean Alford: who very justly accounts for the phenomenon by pointing out that here “Mark appears as _an abridger of previously well-known facts_.”(253) But then, I want to know what there is in this to induce us to suspect _the genuineness_ of either the beginning or the end of S. Mark’s Gospel?