OLIVE-TREE-OLIVE, WILD.

OLIVES, MOUNT OF. See MOUNT OF OLIVES. Having already given the sketches of two modern travellers, Messrs. Stephens and G. Robinson, who visited

this celebrated mount in the course of their travels, we avail ourselves of the recent publication of Dr. Robinson's valuable Biblical Researches in Palestine, to add here his impressions.

"The sides of the mountain are still sprinkled with olive-trees, though not thickly, as was probably the case of old; and a few other trees are occasionally seen. I took the middle path, which brought me out at the

Church of the Ascension and the mosque, situated on the summit. Around them are a few huts, forming a miserable village. Here one is able to look down upon the city and survey at least the roofs of the houses. The view may be said indeed to be a very full one; but it is not particularly interesting. It presents a dull mixed mass of roofs and domes; but the distance is too great to be able to distinguish the buildings or the topography of the city in any good degree. A more pleasing view is obtained from various points lower down the side of the mountain.

"From the church on the summit, only the city and the western prospect are visible; the eastern view being cut off by a higher part or ridge of the hill some twenty or thirty rods farther east, with a wely or tomb of a Muslim saint upon it. From this wely one obtains a commanding view of the northern end and portion of the Dead Sea, and also of the adjacent country, including a large part of the valley of the Jordan, as well as the naked dreary region lying between Jerusalem and Jericho, and between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. The course of the river Jordan could be traced by the narrow strip of verdure which clothes its banks. Beyond its valley, the eastern mountains stretch off northward and southward in a long even ridge, apparently unbroken. They present to the view, as here seen, no single peak or separate summit, which could be taken for the Nebo of the Scriptures. At a considerable distance north of Jericho, indeed, a loftier summit is seen, forming the highest point of the mountains of Gilead, just north of Es-Salt; but this could not have been Nebo. The atmosphere was at the time perfectly clear, and the waters of the Dead Sea lay bright and sparkling in the sunbeams, seemingly not more than eight or ten miles distant, though actually much further off. I unfortunately neglected to look for Kerak, which would doubtless have been visible in so clear a day. When we sought for it in a later visit, the haziness of the atmosphere prevented us from distinguishing it. Towards the W. and N.W. the view extends to the Terebinth Valley so called, and the high point and mosque of Neby Samwil.

footpath ascends towards St. Stephen's gate; entering which I returned home by the Via Dolorosa."

OLYMPAS, OXUμTаs, the name of one of the brethren at Rome to whom St. Paul sent his salutation.

(Rom. 16. 15.)

OLYMPIC GAMES. See GAMES.

OMEGA, w, is the last letter of the Greek alphabet; and is hence poetically put for the last: "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." (Rev. 1. 8; 22. 13.)

OMER, y (Exod. 16. 16,18,22,33,36.) From these passages, which relate to the miraculous supply of manna to the Israelites in the wilderness, it appears that the omer was used in the measurement of dry articles. It contained the portion which was assigned to each individual for his daily food. It corresponded to the xovig of the Greeks, and held five pints and one-tenth English corn measure.

OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD. This attribute refers to his Almighty power, and is essential to his nature as an infinite, independent, and perfect Being. The power of God may be more especially seen: (1,) In creation, (Gen. 1; Rom. 1. 20;) (2,) In the preservation of his creatures, (Heb. 1. 3; Col. 1. 16,17;) (3,) In the redemption of the world by Our Lord Jesus Christ, (Luke 1. 35,37; Ephes. 1. 19;) (4,) In the conversion of sinners, (Psalm 110. 3; 2Cor. 4. 7;) (5,) In the continuation and success of the Gospel in the world, (Matt. 13. 31,32;) (6,) In the final perseverance of the saints, (1Pet. 1. 5;) (7,) In the resurrection of the dead, (1Cor. ch. 15;) (8,) In making the righteous happy for ever, and in punishing the wicked. (Matt. 25. 34; Phil. 3. 20,21.)

OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD, is his ubiquity, or his being present in every place. This attribute may be argued from his infinity, (Psalm 139;) his power, which is everywhere, (Heb. 1. 3;) his providence, (Acts 17. 27,28,) which supplies all. As he is a spirit, he is so omnipresent as not to be mixed with the creature, or divided, part in one place, and part in another; nor is he multiplied or extended, but is essentially present everywhere. In the Scriptures there is nothing confused in the doctrine of the Divine ubiquity. God is everywhere, but he is not everything. All things have their being in him, but he is distinct from all things; he fills the universe, but is not mingled with it. He is the intelligence which guides, and the power which motions; but his personality is preserved, and he is independent of the works of his hands, however vast and noble. So far is his presence from being bounded by the universe itself, that, as we are taught in the 139th Psalm, were it possible for us to wing our way into the immeasurable depths and breadths of space, God would there surround us in as absolute a sense as that in which he is said to be about our bed and our path in that part of the world where his will has placed us. On this, as on all similar subjects, the Scriptures use terms which "I returned down the mount by the more southern are taken in their common-sense acceptation among manpath; from which a branch led me across the Jewish kind; and though the vanity of the human mind discemetery, to the tombs of Absalom and Zechariah so poses many to seek a philosophy in the doctrine thus called, at the bottom of the valley, just under the S.E. announced, deeper than that which its popular terms corner of the wall of the mosque and city. Here is the convey, we are bound to conclude, if we would pay but narrowest part of the valley. Close by the tombs is a a common respect to an admitted revelation, that where well, which then had water, though it seemed not to be no manifest figure of speech occurs, the truth of the docused; and here is also another bridge of stone over the trine lies in the ordinary tenor of the terms by which it is torrent bed with a fine arch. From this point a rugged expressed. Otherwise there would be no revelation, we

OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. -ON.

do not say, of the modus (for that is confessedly incom prehensible), but of the fact. In the case before us, the terms presence and place are used according to common notions; and must be so taken, if the Scriptures are intelligible. Metaphysical refinements are not Scriptural doctrines, when they give to the terms chosen by the Holy Spirit an acceptation out of their general and proper use, and make them the signs of a perfectly distinct class of ideas; if, indeed, all distinctness of idea is not lost in the attempt. It is, therefore, in the popular and just, because Scriptural manner, that we are to conceive of the omnipresence of God.

From the consideration of this attribute, we should learn to fear and reverence God; (Psalm 89. 7;) to derive consolation in the hour of distress; (Psalm 46.1;) to be active and diligent in all holy services. (Psalm 119. 168.)

OMNISCIENCE OF GOD, is that perfection by which he knows all things, and is: (1,) Infinite, (Psalm 147.5;) (2) Eternal, (Isai. 46. 10; Acts 2. 23; 15. 18; Ephes. 1. 4;) (3,) Universal, extending to all persons, times, places, and things, (Psalm 50. 10-13; Heb. 4. 13;) (4.) Perfect, relating to what is past, present, and to come. He knows all independently, distinctly, infallibly, and perpetually. (Jerem. 10. 6,7; Rom. 11. 33.) (5,) This knowledge is peculiar to himself, and not communicable to any creature. (Job 36. 4; Mark 13. 32.) (6,) This attribute is incomprehensible to us, how God knows all things, yet it is evident that he does; for to suppose otherwise is to suppose him an imperfect Being, and at variance with the revelation he has given of himself. (Job 21. 22; 28. 24; Psalm 139. 6; 1John 3. 20.)

This attribute of God is constantly connected in Scripture with his omnipresence, and forms a part of almost every description of that attribute; for as God is a spirit, and therefore intelligent, if he is everywhere, if nothing can exclude him, not even the most solid bodies, nor the minds of intelligent beings, then, indeed, as St. Paul avers, are "all things naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Where he acts, he is; and where he is, he perceives. He understands and considers things absolutely, and as they are in their own natures, forms, properties, differences, together with all the circumstances belonging to them. "Known unto him are all his works from the beginning of the world," rather from all eternity, known before they were made, and known now they are made, in their actual existence.

In Psalm 94, the knowledge of God is argued from the communication of it to men: "Understand, ye brutish among the people; and, ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?" This argument is as easy as it is conclusive, obliging all who acknowledge a First Cause, to admit his perfect intelligence, or to take refuge in Atheism itself. For if God gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to men of understanding, if he communicates this perfection to his creatures, the inference must be that he is possessed of it in a much more eminent degree than they: that his knowledge is deep and intricate, reaching to the very essence of things, theirs but slight and superficial; his clear and distinct, theirs confused and dark; his certain and infallible, theirs doubtful and liable to mistake; his easy and permanent, theirs obtained with much pains, and soon lost again by the defects of memory or age; his universal and extending to all objects, theirs short and narrow, reaching only to some few things, while those which are wanting cannot be numbered; and there

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fore, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so, as the prophet has told us, are his ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts.

OMRI, Sept. Außpt, a general of the army of Elah, king of Israel, who succeeded that monarch when assassinated by Zimri, at the siege of Gibbethon. (1 Kings 16. 9-28.) He was a wicked prince, whose crimes surpassed those of his predecessors. He, however, had a long reign, and dying at Samaria, B.C. 914, was succeeded by his son Ahab.

ON, N or 18 Sept. 'HOTOMs, (Gen. 41. 45,) otherwise called "Beth-shemesh in the land of Egypt," | (Jerem. 43. 13,) or Heliopolis, which signifies the city or house of the sun; was situated south of Pelusium, and at some distance from the eastern branch of the Nile. According to Berosus this was the city of Moses, and it was to the daughter of the priest of this place that Pharaoh married Joseph, on exalting him to the second station in Egypt. According to Josephus it was given to the Israelites on their settling in Egypt, which is probable from the fact of its lying in or near the land of Goshen. In after ages, and with the consent of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, a temple was built here for the Jews by Onias, who had been dispossessed of his authority by Antiochus. This temple was in great repute among the Hellenistic Jews; though there can be no doubt of the irregularity of this establishment, yet Onias justified it to the Jews by reference to Isaiah 19. 18,19: the Temple at Jerusalem, however, was always held in much superior estimation by the Jews even of Egypt, who frequently repaired thither to worship.

The inhabitants of this city are represented by Herodotus as the wisest of the Egyptians, and here Moses received that education which made him "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." (Acts 7. 22.) But notwithstanding its being the seat of the sciences, such were its idolatries, that it was called by the Jews Aven, or Beth Aven," the house of vanity," or idolatry. (Ezek. 30. 17.) It was predicted by Jeremiah (43. 13,) and by Ezekiel (30. 17,) that this place with its temples and inhabitants should be destroyed; which was probably fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar.

Most of the ruins of this once famed city, described by Strabo, are buried in the accumulation of the soil; but that which marks its site, and is, perhaps, the most ancient work at this time existing in a perfect state, is a column of red granite, seventy feet high, and covered with hieroglyphics. A modern writer on the monumental history of Egypt remarks, "At the present day, the only mark that points out, amid the sands of the desert, the site of Heliopolis, is a magnificent obelisk, upright, and in its place, and having on each face the same hieroglyphic inscription, engraved most beautifully, which includes the name of Osortasen. It reads, Horus the life-giver, the king of an obedient people, (sun offered to the world,) lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, the lifegiving son of the sun Osortasen, beloved of the spirits of Poone, the hawk of gold, the life-giver, the great god, (sun offered to the world,) the celebrator of the festivals, giving eternal life.'

"Modern writers, who support the barbarous and destructive character of the invasion of shepherds, admit the remaining of this obelisk in its place to be a very singular circumstance, and endeavour to explain it by the supposition that it had been thrown down by the shepherds, and erected soon after their expulsion by

their conquerors. They refer to the two obelisks called | priests from indulging in the use of wine; and we find Cleopatra's Needles, which are now at Alexandria, but abundant proofs, from the sculptures in other places, are found from their inscription to have been originally of its having been offered to the sun. erected in some other city, in proof of the existence of such a practice. This, however, really proves nothing. Had the obelisk at Heliopolis been thrown down, and afterwards re-erected by any successor of Osortasen, whether Pharaoh or Ptolemy, he would certainly either have recorded the deed in an inscription upon the obelisk, or he would have erased the name of Osortasen and substituted his own in its place. All the monuments of Egypt bear testimony to the universality of this practice of adding or substituting the name of the restorer for that of the founder; and the practice continued as long as the hieroglyphics remained in use. So that the absence of all hieroglyphic records of their removal from the obelisks of Alexandria, plainly limits the time of it to a very late period, when Heliopolis had been long deserted.

"This consideration suggests the probability that the obelisk at Heliopolis is now standing in the place in which it had been at first erected, contributing some degree of support, at any rate, to the plain tenor of the inspired account of the sojourn of Joseph in Egypt. The Pharaoh then reigning was a shepherd king, but he had adopted the manners and customs of Egypt; and instead of the savage devastator and oppressor described by the Egyptian priests, he was the benefactor of the country over which he ruled."

"Heliopolis," says Sir John Gardner Wilkinson," the On of Scripture, a small but celebrated city of Lower Egypt, was the place where the worship of Re was peculiarly adopted. Plutarch says, "Those who minister to the god of Heliopolis never carry wine into the temple, looking upon it as indecent to drink it during the day, when under the immediate inspection of their lord and king. The priests of the other deities are not altogether so scrupulous on this point; making use of it, though sparingly, unless at some of their more solemn purifications, when they wholly abstain from it. Indeed, they give themselves up wholly to study and meditation, hearing and teaching those truths which regard the Divine nature. This, however, does not appear to refer to the ordinary libations made to the sun, which were doubtless of wine; as the usual drink-offerings presented to the gods; but to a regulation which prevented the

"Plutarch continues to observe, that 'even the kings themselves, being of the order of priests, have their wine given them according to a certain measure prescribed in the sacred books, as we are told by Hecatæus; and it is only since the reign of Psammeticus, that this indulgence has been granted them; for before that time they drank no wine at all; and if they made use of it in their libations to the gods, it was not because they looked upon it as in its own nature acceptable, but as the blood of those enemies who formerly fought against them, which being mixed with the earth produced the vine; and hence they think that drinking wine in quantities makes men mad, being filled with the blood of their own ancestors. These things are related by Eudoxus, in the second book of his Tour, as he had them from the priests themselves. The assertion, however, respecting the prohibition of wine, previous to the time of Psammeticus, is erroneous, as kings and priests were permitted its use at the earliest periods, as the sculptures abundantly prove, as well as the Scriptural account of Pharaoh's butler. (Gen. 40. 11.)

"It was of Heliopolis, or On, that Potipherah (Gen. 41. 45,) was a priest, whose daughter Asenath was given in marriage to Joseph, and the name of that person, yi is evidently compounded of Phrê or Phrah, 'the sun,' and answers to the Egyptian Pet-phrê, or Heliodotus, which in hieroglyphics would be thus written:

Name of Pot-pherah, Pet-phre, or Pet-re.

"The priests of the sun of Heliopolis, like those of Thebes and Memphis, were celebrated for their learning; and it was to this city that Plato, Eudoxus, and other Greek sages repaired, in order to study the wisdom of the Egyptians;' and Pythagoras, according to Plutarch, was the disciple of Oinuphis, the Heliopolite.' Astronomy and all branches of science were studied at Heliopolis; and the priests of the sun enjoyed the greatest reputation for learning. Their city, though

ON-ONYCHA.

ONESIMUS, Ovnoμos, the name of a slave of feeling prohibited their use on certain occasions, this was confined to the initiated, who were required to keep Philemon, converted under the preaching of the Apostle themselves more especially pure for the service of the Paul. (Colos. 4. 9; Philem. 10.) Having fled from his master, he was sent back by the Apostle, who, on that occasion, wrote his admirable Epistle to Philemon. This letter had all the success he could desire. Philemon not only received Onesimus as a faithful servant, but rather

him back to Rome to St. Paul that he might continue to 30. 34. Its true nature is doubtful. Gesenius says, as a brother and a friend. A little time after he sent ingredients of the holy perfume, mentioned in Exodus