brother. No strength of faith can exclude some doubtings. God had said, "I will make thee a great nation;" Abraham saith, "the Egyptians will kill me." He, that lived by his faith, shrinketh, and sinneth. How vainly do we hope to believe without all fear, and to live without infirmities! Some little aspersions of unbelief cannot hinder the praise and power of faith. Abraham believed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. He that through inconsiderateness doubted twice of his own life, doubted not of the life of his seed, even from the dead and dry womb of Sarah. Yet was it more difficult that his posterity should live in Sarah, than that Sarah's husband should live in Egypt; that was above nature, yet he believed it. Sometimes the believer sticks at easy trials, and yet breaks through the greatest temptations without fear. Abraham was old, ere this promise and hope of a son; and still the older the more incapable; yet God makes him wait twenty-five years for performance. No time is long to that faith which has learned to defer hopes without fainting and irksomeness."

M. Voltaire, and others of a kindred spirit, have attempted to make out a case against the credibility of this narrative on the score of Sarai's age. It is alleged that there is not the least likelihood of a voluptuous heathen king coveting for his harem a woman of her age. Taking her birth as B.C. 1986, and the visit to Egypt as occurring in B.C. 1921, she would be sixty-five years old at the time of this transaction. It should, however, be kept in mind, that if, as is almost sure, her death took place B.C. 1859, she would be one hundred and twenty-seven years old. She would thus be in her prime at the period referred to-a sufficient answer to the sneers and the licentious wit of unbelievers.

As this visit to Egypt has left a broad and distinct mark on the history of Abram, it was natural that the Jews of later times should make much of it. Josephus holds Egypt greatly indebted to the son of Terah. "Whereas," he says, "the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abram conferred with each of them, and, confuting the reasonings they made use of, every one for their own practices, demonstrated that such reasonings were vain and void of truth; whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for before Abram came into Egypt they were

VOL. I.

2Q

unacquainted with those parts of learning; for that science came from the Chaldæans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also" (Antiq. b. i. viii. 2). The researches of recent Egyptologists contradict the statements of Josephus as to the time when astronomy began to be studied as a science in the land of the Pharaohs. The king with whom Abram was brought in contact was most likely Osirtisen I., whose reign must have been about B.C. 1920. The title Pharaoh was the general designation given to all the Egyptian monarchs. It is equivalent to our word king. The derivation of the title seems to indicate the sacred character of the monarch. Wilkinson, Rosellini, and other Egyptologists, derive it from Phrè or Phrà, the Egyptian sun-god. The Hebrew word rendered Pharaoh is Phràh. The name of the Egyptian god was usually written Rè or Rà, and when the article Pi (the) was added, it became Phrè or Phrà, the title of the reigning monarch-" the Son of the Sun."

In the sixteenth verse the wealth of the Hebrew patriarch is noticed -"He had sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants and maidservants, and she-asses, and camels." Much of this seems to have been gotten in Egypt, for it is said of Pharaoh that "he entreated Abram well for Sarai's sake, and that he had sheep," &c. In the following chapter we are again informed that "Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and gold" (ver. 2). In the transaction with Ephron the Hittite (xxiii. 16), "Abraham weighed to Ephron, the silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant." Again, when Abraham sent the "eldest servant of his house" to his kindred at Haran, to seek a wife for his son, it is said that "the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed" (xxiv. 10). And when he came to the well at Haran, and met Rebekah, he is represented as taking "a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands, of ten shekels weight of gold" (xxiv. 22), which he put on her. Such passages leave no doubt as to Abraham's great wealth, which is shown to have chiefly consisted of flocks, and of silver and gold. In his flocks were the ass (Asinus vulgaris = Equus asinus, Plate XIX., Fig. 2), the camel (Camelus dromedarius, Plate XXXVI., Fig. 3), the ox (Bos mambricus), and the sheep (Ovis aries, Plate V.-For sheep, see under Genesis iv. 2). It is worthy of note, that no mention is made of the horse (Equus caballus, Plate XIX., Fig. 1), an animal for which Egypt was famous from earliest times. The horse would have been of comparatively little use to him, a mere leisurely wanderer, as he followed

by easy stages the guidance of the Lord. The camel would be much more serviceable for the work required, and in the places where he chiefly sojourned. The ass is noticed under Psalm civ., 11, the camel under Genesis xxx. 43, and the horse under 1 Kings x. 28, 29. The woodcut of the Syrian ox, given here, conveys a good idea of the variety of ox used by the Israelites. There is no evidence that anything like the great variety of breeds to be met with now, obtained in ancient times. The domestication of oxen, using the term, as in Scripture, for cattle generally, appears to have been one of the earliest of man's triumphs over the lower animals. Lamech's son, Jabal, as we have seen, was the first who specially gave himself to this "He was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle" (iv. 20).

The social, industrial, and religious associations connected with the biblical references to the ox, claim for it a full notice :

1. Its place in zoological classification. In the scheme of classification proposed by Professor Owen for the Mammalia, or animals that suckle their young by teats, the ox is ranked under the order Artiodactyla, or those which have an even number of toes. By this feature it is linked with the sow and the hippopotamus, from which, however, it differs greatly in other generic features. For example, it chews the cud, or ruminates. This characteristic associates it with the deer, the sheep, and the goat, in the group Ruminantia, or cud-chewers. The transitional link between the ox (Bos) and the sheep (Ovis) is the musk ox (Bos moschatus) of the northern parts of North America. The following cut is introduced for the purpose of comparison. On the one side the ruminants meet the animals characterized by a single, perfect, hoof-covered toe (Solidungula), as the horse, ass, &c.; and on the other

the non-ruminant promiscuous feeders (Omnivora), as the sow, &c. The structure of the cud-chewers has certain persistent peculiarities, which separate them broadly from the other orders of the hoofed animals along with which they are grouped. These structural peculiarities in the bony skeleton and in the digestive organs are connected with wellmarked habits.

2. The original type of the domestic ox. The question of the origin of the varieties, which, as we shall see, obtained even in Scripture times, has given rise to much discussion and to many theories. Is the original stock extant? If not, are there any remains by which it may be identified? The chief sources pointed to for the origin of domestic cattle

are six:-(a) The bison (Bison Europaeus-Owen). This species at one time was widely distributed. There is no doubt that the remains of the ancient bison (Bison priscus), which have been found in British tertiary strata, belonged to a variety of the bison, or aurochs, which is still to be met with in the Caucasus, and in the forests of Lithuania. Their length from the nose to the tip of the tail is nearly thirteen feet. Their widespread distribution in ancient times-their occurrence in Asia Minor, over the continent of Europe, and even in the British Isles -led many to conclude that they were the parents of all domestic cattle. But in addition to many minor features, there are certain wellmarked anatomical peculiarities which are fatal to this theory. For example, the European bison has only five lumbar vertebræ, while the

ox has six; the former has fourteen pair of ribs, and the latter has only thirteen. (b) The urus (Bos urus). At the period of the Roman invasion (B.C. 52), Cæsar found the urus wild in Britain. He says-"These uri are little inferior to elephants in size, but are bulls in their nature, colour, and figure. Great is their strength and great their swiftness, nor do they spare man or beast when they have caught sight of them. These, when trapped in pitfalls, the hunters diligently kill. The youths exercising themselves by this sort of hunting are hardened by the toil; and those among them who have killed most, bringing with them the horns as testimonials, acquire great praise. But these uri cannot be habituated to man or made tractable, not even when young. The great size of the horns, as well as the form and quality of them, differs much from the horns of our oxen." The bones of the urus have been traced over an area as wide as that in which those of the ancient bison occur; and Cuvier, with others, concluded that the urus was the parent of the common ox (Bos taurus), of which the Syrian ox is only a variety. There are several features of resemblance between its skeleton and that of the domestic ox; its size and general disposition make it little probable that it was the parent of all those varieties of domestic cattle which are to be met with over the world. (c) The buffalo (Bos bubalus). The buffalo is very widely distributed. Varieties are found in Europe, Africa, and Asia. It occurs still in a wild state in Bible lands, and in some countries of Asia is much employed as a domesticated animal. The characteristics of the skeleton, however, exhibit modifications in structure so widely different from the structure of the ox, as to preclude the idea that any process of domestication could have produced the domestic cattle of Syria from the buffalo. (d) The gazál (Bos frontalis). This species is found wild in Bengal, and has been pointed to as the original stock of the Indian ox, or zebu (Bos Indicus). But as the latter is manifestly only a variety of the common ox, it has been concluded that the gazál may be the original parent of both. The general appearance, form of the head, period of gestation, and habits of this animal, are opposed to this assumption. The likelihood is that the gazálasseel gazál of the natives-is a remote variety of a species met with in a wild state in the mountainous regions of Central India. This is the gour (Bos gaurus B. aculeatus of Cuvier), whose characteristics, however, are even farther removed from the common ox than those of the gazál. (e) In many countries of the Old World distinct traces of a breed have been met with, which has been held the parent stock of domestic cattle. Two forms of this are connected with Britain, and