_3. Literature of the Meridian Dispensation:_ "The history of the Meridian Dispensation divides itself into two chief parts: (1) The Revelation of the Gospel by Jesus Christ, including the accomplishment of his work of redemption; and (2) the Propagation of the Gospel, and full establishment of the Christian Church, after his ascension. The former history is written in the "Gospels," of the "Four Evangelists," the respective openings of which furnish us with four different, but almost equally important, starting-points for all that follows. St. Matthew, who writes with the most constant reference to the fulfillment of prophecy, begins by showing that Jesus Christ was, by his reputed father Joseph, the son of David, and the son of Abraham; the predicted king of the royal line of Judah; the promised seed, in whom all kindreds of the earth were to be blessed; the great object of Covenants made by God wih Abraham and with David. St. Mark, commencing at once with the public proclamation of Christ, dates "the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God" from the ministry of John the Baptist as his forerunner. St. Luke places in the forefront of his narrative its practical purpose, for the instruction of a convert to Christianity, and begins "to write in order" from the birth of John the Baptist, and of Christ himself. St. John, having his mind imbued with the mysteries revealed to the "disciples whom Jesus loved," goes hack to a "beginning" antecedent to all time, and displays the eternal and divine glory of that "Life and Light," which were, manifested by Christ when he appeared on earth. And what is true of the beginning of the Gospel history applies to each step of its subsequent development. Critics may speculate on some common remoter source of the narratives of the four evangelists, till they learn to abandon the unprofitable search; harmonists may pursue their useful labors so far as to be in danger of confounding the separate characters, the four documents, in the artificial compound of their own making; but the student who rightly appreciates the purpose of God's providence, in entrusting the record to four writers instead of one, will trace the distinct spirit of each as really his own, and will find the truest harmony in the concordant spiritual impression they produce, under the guidance of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost." (Dr. Smith's New Testament History, p. 178.) The Literature of the second part of the Meridian Dispensation, viz. "The Propagation of the Gospel" is found in the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles and treatis that make up the balance of the New Testament. History says: