and correctly to understand them. The force and beauty of the language in which they are couched, the propriety and significance of the allusions which they contain, and the point and emphasis of the lesson which they inculcate, must be, in a great measure, lost upon those who are ignorant of the circumstances and habits of the people to whom they were originally addressed. In short, it is quite plain that the Moral and Practical parts of Scripture, having a constant reference to the condition and circumstances, the habits and associations, of the inhabitants of Eastern countries, can never be clearly comprehended, nor accurately nor safely expounded, without the knowledge of these things.

A similar remark applies to the Doctrinal and Argumentative parts of Scripture. The language of the Psalms and of the Prophets has a constant reference to the worship of the Tabernacle or the Temple, and to the associations and views arising from that worship. Many of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion are expressed in terms borrowed from the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. The Apostles, being many of them Jews, both by birth and education, naturally employed language which was familiar to them. Redemption, Atonement, Regeneration, Justification, Sanctification, and many other terms, cannot be clearly nor correctly understood without reference to the Law. The Epistle to the Hebrews, and much of the Epistle to the Romans, and indeed all the Epistles, are full of arguments which it requires a considerable acquaintance with the state of the Jewish mind and manners duly to appreciate.

It would thus appear that the various kinds of knowledge, which it is the object of Geography to communicate, are exceedingly useful towards a fulland correct understanding of the different portions of Holy Writ.

But this knowledge will appear to be still more important, when we consider its tendency.

II. TO CONFIRM AND ESTABLISH OUR FAITH IN THE DIVINE

AUTHORITY OF REVELATION.

THE Scriptures are frequently very minute in mentioning the time, and the place, and the circumstances of those events which they record. In the Historical parts, they proceed with all the precision of a true History. There is none of the shadowy and indistinct drapery of romance thrown around the Sacred narrative. It may be difficult, it is true, in some instances, to determine the precise geographical position of the places mentioned in Scripture. But this difficulty proceeds, not so much from want of specification in the original record, as from our inability, at this distance of time, to understand

And the

the brief descriptions or allusions of that record; and still more from our inability to recognise the features of a country so far removed from us—a country which has been exposed to many changes—a country where drifting sands have obliterated the traces of a former civilization, and where the besom of Divine indignation has swept away proud cities-where the revolutions of human prosperity, and the ravages of human ambition, have caused much desolation. Instead of being surprised that our geographical knowledge should sometimes be at fault in such circumstances, the cause of wonder should rather be, that at this day we are able to make so much of documents so old as those of the early parts of the Old Testament. In these documents, places and events are described with great brevity. They are touched as with the touch of lightning-brilliant but evanescent. circumstances, although minute, are so few and scattered, that it is difficult, in matters belonging to an antiquity so remote, to come to any clear or accurate conclusion. The Antediluvian period of Sacred History is exceedingly. brief. Even after the Flood, things are recorded with much conciseness; and when the Books of Moses come to speak of events which Moses himself witnessed, although the record is more minute and special, it is the minuteness and specialty of truth, rather than the result of any intention to be minute and special. Moses speaks of places as if they were actually stretched out before him, and as if those whom he more immediately addressed were looking at them also--not as if he were speaking of places, about the position of which there could be either obscurity or doubt. A similar remark may be made with regard to other parts of the Old Testament. The Prophets speak of Nineveh and Babylon, as if the lofty towers of these cities were rising up before them, not as if they were, what they subsequently became, heaps of undistinguished rubbish lying amidst pools of water. In like manner, the writers of the New Testament speak of the places to which they refer as places well known to themselves, and to those whom they more immediately addressed. But such a whirlwind of desolation has swept over many of the scenes of Sacred History, and the ordinary land-marks have been so much dislocated and defaced, that it requires considerable time and care to arrange and adjust them. And upon those places which have not been visited by any violent or sudden change, the clouds of dust and obscurity have settled so thick and heavy, that it requires both skill and patience to find them out. But, when they are found out, they are always found to accord most accurately with the circumstances in which they are described, or referred to, in Holy Writ. In this way a very striking argument for the truth of the Sacred Record emerges.

In a record that is confessedly fictitious, nothing is more difficult than to keep up, with any degree of plausibility or success, the congruities of time and place. It requires an amount of knowledge and versatility which few

possess, and a constant and unwinking watchfulness which few can command, to sustain the truth and force of the illusion. There are so many points of detection, that it is almost impossible to guard against them all. One who is describing a place which he has never seen is sure to make some mistake. It may be small, and may escape ordinary eyes; but the most carefully gotup story is sure to be detected in the long-run. Now, the Bible has stood the test of ages; and, so far from any fallacy or fault being found, the evidence arising from the mention of time and place, and other circumstances which characterise a true narrative, has been gathering additional strength. To this result no department of knowledge has done more than that of Geography. The more those parts of our globe to which the Scriptures refer have been visited and explored, the more light and confirmation has been thrown around them. Places which have been but slightly and casually mentioned have been discovered, and everything connected with them has been found to accord most accurately with the terms or allusions of the Sacred record. The evidence arising from this source is quite irresistible. There is a strong and natural tendency in the human mind to test and to separate matters of fact from matters of fiction or falsehood. One of the most obvious and satisfactory ways of doing so, is to compare the local descriptions or allusions which occur in any narrative with the appearances which these places really present. By the minuteness and specialty to which they frequently condescend, the Scriptures have appealed with confidence to this mode of trying and establishing their truth; and the fact of their having done so constitutes a presumption in their favour, because documents which were altogether unfounded would not have presented so many points by which their authenticity might be tested. By the study of Sacred Geography, we become acquainted with the scenes and circumstances which are referred to in the Sacred record; and when we find that the record and the reality accurately correspond, and correspond in a way which cannot be said to have been contemplated or designed, except in so far that truth is always consistent with itself, then we are more firmly established in the authenticity of the record, and the events which it contains are more deeply and vividly impressed upon our minds. We are satisfied, from the points of accordance and harmony which Geography unfolds, that we have not followed cunningly-devised fables, but that the facts and circumstances of the Sacred record are powerfully corroborated by observation and experience, and, consequently, that the claims which it makes, and the truths which it declares, are entitled to our most earnest consideration.

"It is but reasonable to think," says Dr Wells, in the preface to his Historical Geography of the Old and New Testament, "that what the wisdom of God has judged fit to make part of his word, we may judge fit to make part of our study." One reason why the Scriptures have been so minute

in the mention of places and circumstances, may be to address that natural tendency in our minds to test the truth of what we read; and thus, by holding out so many points to which the test may be applied, to lead to a more careful examination of their contents--a more accurate comparison of these contents with ascertained facts-and, consequently, to a stronger conviction of the authenticity, and a deeper impression of the importance, of these Scriptures. We may be satisfied of the authority of revelation upon other grounds. But the minds of men are variously constituted, and liable to be variously affected. What affords strong confirmation to one, may not impress another so powerfully; and it is just one of the marks of Divine wisdom accompanying revelation, that it contains proofs suited to every capacity, and likely to affect different minds. There are few who could resist-if they would but candidly consider-the evidence arising from the accurate and unfailing correspondence between the notice taken of places in Scripture, and the actual state of these places, as made known by Geography and History. This correspondence is a countersigning of the Sacred record, which could not possibly be forged.

Now, the great outlines, and the general features of the countries which are described or alluded to in Scripture, can still be traced. This is more especially the case with the Holy Land. "The burning sun, the towering eagle, the barren fig-tree, all the poetry, all the pictures of Scripture, are still there. Every name commemorates a mystery, every grotto announces a prediction, every hill re-echoes the accents of a prophet." To use the language of Dr Russel (Palestine, p. 29), "The hills still stand round about Jerusalem as they stood in the days of David and of Solomon. The dew falls on Hermon, the cedars grow on Libanus, and Kishon, that ancient river, draws its stream from Tabor as in the times of old. The Sea of Galilee still presents the same natural accompaniments; the fig-tree springs up by the way-side, the sycamore spreads its branches, and the vines and olives still climb the sides of the mountains. The desolation which covered the Cities of the Plain is not less striking, at the present hour, than when Moses, with an inspired pen, recorded the judgment of God; the swellings of Jordan are not less regular in their rise than when the Hebrews first approached its banks; and he who goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho still incurs the greatest hazard of falling among thieves. There is, in fact, in the scenery and manners of Palestine, a perpetuity that accords well with the everlasting import of its historical records, and which enables us to identify, with the utmost readiness, the local imagery of every great transaction." But, perhaps, the evidence which arises from the correspondence and congruity between the actual state of places which have been only hypothetically and incidentally mentioned in Scripture, with what is there said of them, is more striking than the evidence which can be derived from those

places which have been the scenes of transactions which we reckon comparatively greater. What can be more natural and undesigned than the local and geographical allusions which occur throughout the narrative of Joseph ? Yet these are so true to nature that they continue to be recognised by travellers to this very day. "The sacred story of events transacted in the fields of Shechem," says Dr Clarke (Travels, vol. ii. 4to, p. 509), "from our earliest years is remembered with delight; but with the territory before our eyes where those events took place, and in the view of objects existing as they were described above three thousand years ago, the grateful impression kindles into ecstacy. Along the valley we beheld a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead,' as in the days of Reuben and Judah, with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh,' who would gladly have purchased another Joseph of his brethren, and conveyed him as a slave to some Potiphar in Egypt. Upon the hills around, flocks and herds were feeding as of old; nor, in the simple garb of the shepherds of Samaria, was there any thing repugnant to the notions we may entertain of the appearance presented by the sons of Jacob. It was, indeed, a scene to abstract and elevate the mind; and under emotions so called forth by every circumstance of powerful coincidence, a single moment seemed to concentrate whole ages of existence."

The same intelligent writer has remarked in reference to Jacob's Well, where our Lord held his conversation with the woman of Samaria (Travels, vol. ii. 4to, p. 516), that "the spot is so distinctly marked by the Evangelist, and so little liable to uncertainty, from the well itself, and the features of the country, that if no tradition existed for its identity, the site of it could hardly be mistaken. Perhaps no Christian scholar ever attentively read the fourth chapter of St John, without being struck with the numerous internal evidences of truth which crowd upon the mind in its perusal. Within so small a compass, it is impossible to find, in other writings, so many sources of reflection and of interest. Independently of its importance as a theological document, it concentrates so much information, that a volume might be filled with the illustrations it reflects upon the history of the Jews, and upon the geography of their country. All that can be gathered from Josephus on these subjects seems but as a comment to illustrate this chapter. The journey of our Lord from Judea into Galilee the cause of it—his passage through the territory of Samaria-his approach to the metropolis of that country-its name-his arrival at the Amorite field, which terminates the narrow valley of Sichem-the ancient custom of halting at a well-the female employment of drawing water--the disciples sent into the city for food, by which its situation out of the town is so obviously implied-the question of the woman, referring to existing prejudices which separated the Jews from the Samaritans-the depth of the well-the Oriental allusion contained in the