and in some parts of Northern Europe. Mallett says: | burnt-offerings, at which alone all victims were to be slain. "We find here and there, in Denmark, Sweden, and Nor- Thus, sacrifice was presented for the whole nation by the way, in the middle of a plain, or upon some little hill, priests in behalf of the people. In the first instance this altars, around which they assembled to offer sacrifices and was constructed with wood, covered with brass; and it to assist at other religious ceremonies. The greater part followed the ark so long as it was migratory. But when of these altars are raised upon a little hill, either natural Solomon built the temple, he placed a stone altar, with a or artificial. Three long pieces of rock, set upright, serve brazen hearth in the court before it. The Jews had two as a basis for a great flat stone, which forms the table of the other altars: one appropriated solely to the burning of inaltar. There is commonly a cavity under the altar. cense, and hence called "the altar of incense;" the other called "the altar of shewbread," because loaves were placed upon it and changed every Sabbath.

On the giving of the law, the right of raising altars was no longer common to men; but there was only an altar of

THE SUCCESSION OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.

THE name of this great man belongs to Biblical Literature | who is supposed by Cardinal Baronius to have been Dionot only by virtue of his being the successor of Pantanus, nysius, bishop of Corinth, but who is more likely to have the true founder and first president of the Catechetical been Athenagoras. Another he describes as from ColeSchool of Alexandria, an institution established expressly for the promotion of the scientific study of the Word of God, but also because under his name there is still partially extant a work which has some right to be regarded as the earliest attempt at a comprehensive commentary upon the entire Scriptures. He was, besides, the teacher of the illustrious Origen, whose achievements as a biblical scholar are known to all the world.

Syria. A third was an Egyptian to whom he attached himself while travelling in Magna Græcia or Lower Italy. Baronius, certainly without ground, suggests here the name of Theophilus of Antioch. The fourth was an Assyrian whom he picked up in Eastern Asia. It has been conjectured, not without some plausibility, that this may have been either Tatian or his contemporary, the equally learned and heretically inclined Syrian Christian, Bardesanes. He even took up with a fifth master, whom he describes as of Jewish descent, and as met with in Palestine, before he finally settled at Alexandria, and put himself under the teaching of Pantænus, whom he styles the best and wisest man he had ever met with. According to the Chevalier Bunsen, the new edition of whose famous work, "Hippolytus and his Age," just published, contains an interesting sketch of Clement, he succeeded his illustrious instructor as catechetical teacher of divinity about the beginning of the episcoA.D. 190. Clement filled the chair till about A.D. 202, when, owing to the great persecution in the tenth year of the emperor Septimius Severus, he was compelled to quit the city. Reinkens, in a recent monograph on this Christian father, has proved that he never returned thither. He was still alive in A.D. 213, and must have been travelling in Palestine at that time, since it was in this year that Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, furnished him with letters of recommendation to the bishop and congregation at Antioch, in Syria. Even at this early period, as Neander remarks, many Christians, especially ecclesiastics (and we know that Clement was a presbyter of the Alexandrian church) were accustomed to travel in the Holy Land, partly to feast their eyes with the sight of the places rendered sacred by religious associations, and partly for the benefit derivable from a more familiar knowledge of that country in the elucidation of the Scriptures. Alexander himself was one of Clement's pupils, and a man of great learning. He is never to be mentioned but with respect, as having been the founder of the first Christian library of any extent-a library to which Clement himself, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, with many others, were immensely indebted. The good bishop commends his old master to the Antiochian Christians as a man of singular virtue and tried faith.

Alexandria was not, as some have erroneously supposed, the birthplace of our Clement, but only the scene of those useful labours by which he rose to such a high pitch of eminence. According to the better accounts, he was born at Athens, where it is possible he may also have become acquainted with Christianity, and experienced the new birth. There was a flourishing Christian church there, of which the converted philosopher Athenagoras was a leading member about A.D. 170-180, and if we suppose that it was by him that Clement was won from the ranks of Gen-pate of Demetrius, who was bishop of Alexandria from about tile philosophy to faith in the Redeemer, this would perhaps account for the certainly incorrect tradition handed down by Philip of Sida, which connects Athenagoras with the Alexandrian Catechetical School. Be this as it may, we know from Clement himself that he was originally a pagan, since he expressly classes himself with those who had abandoned the sinful service of idols for faith in Jesus, and had received from Him the forgiveness of their sins. He says, moreover, in a fragment preserved by Eusebius, that he had convinced himself of the truth of the Christian revelation by free inquiry, after having acquired an extensive knowledge of the various religious systems, and the philosophy of divine things known at his time in the cultivated world. It is commonly assumed that he was a Platonist before his conversion, on account of the supposed Platonic cast of his thinking in general after he became a Christian, as shown in his extant writings. But the latest researches render it probable that he was rather an Aristotelian, or, at at least, that it was from the school of the Stagirite that he borrowed most largely the elements of his philosophical creed. Of his Christian instructors he refers to several, although to none by name, with the exception of Pantanus, of whom, according to a passage in Eusebius, he made express mention in a portion of his works now lost. As well after as before his transition to Christianity he seems to have travelled much, and to have been at great pains to seek the society of eminent evangelical teachers in different parts of the world. He tells us that he had imbibed the apostolic doctrine from the lips of various distinguished One was an Ionian with whom he met in Greece,

men.

Three works of considerable extent from the pen of Clement have happily been preserved entire. These are the Protreptikos," or "Awakening Call to the Inquiring but as yet Unbelieving Gentile;" the "Pædagogos or Schoolmaster," an ethical piece addressed to the aspiring candidates for baptism who were under catechetical instruction; and the

"Stromateis, or Coloured Carpets, Tapestry," as the word means, which was meant for educated Christians in general. "They form," says Neander, "a connected series, since his starting point is the idea that the divine teacher of mankind, the Logos (or personal Word of God) first conducts the rude heathen, sunk in sin and idolatry, to the faith; then progressively reforms their lives by moral precepts, and finally elevates those who have undergone this moral purification to the profounder knowledge of divine things, which Clement calls the Gnosis. Thus the Logos appears first exhorting sinners to repentance, and converting the heathen to the faith (the Protreptikos); then as forming the life and conduct of the converted by his discipline (the Pædagogos, Pedagogue, or Schoolmaster); and, finally, as a teacher of the Gnosis to those who are purified. This fundamental idea is the guiding clue to his three works which still remain-the apologetic, or awakening; the ethical, or pedagogic; and the one containing the elements of the Gnosis, or the Stromata. Clement was not a man of systematic mind. Many heterogeneous elements and ideas, which he had received in his various intercourse with different minds, were brought together in him-a fact which occasionally becomes evident in his Stromata, and which must have been still more evinced in his lost work, the Hypotyposes, if Photius rightly apprehended him. By occasional lightning flashes of mind, he operated, without doubt, to excite the minds of his disciples and readers, as we see particularly in the instance of Origen. Many fragmentary ideas sketched with masterly power, and containing the germs of a thorough systematic theological system, lie scattered in his works, amidst a profusion of vain and hollow speculations. As regards his Stromata, it was his express design in this work, as he testifies in many places, to bring together a chaotic assemblage of truth and error out of the Greek philosophers and the systems of the Christian sects, in connexion with fragments of the true Gnosis. Each reader was to find out for himself what suited his case; it was his aim to excite rather than to teach; and he often purposely only hinted at the truth where he might fear to give offence to the believers who were as yet incapable of comprehending these ideas. The eighth book of this work is wanting; for the fragment of dialectical investigations which at present appears under the name of the eighth book of the Stromata, evidently does not belong to this work. As early as the times of Photius the eighth book was already lost."

from the Oriental Valentinian Doctrine," which have been preserved amongst the writings of Clement.

We add Neander's remarks upon the fourth great work of Clement, styled the " Hypotyposes," mentioned in the foregoing extract, because this is the work of which we have already spoken as strictly belonging to biblical science, and because those remarks give a convenient summary of what till very recently was known upon the subject. "We have to regret," the great church historian goes on to say, "the loss of the Hypotyposes of Clement, in which he probably gave samples of doctrinal investigations and expositions on the principles of the (orthodox) Alexandrian Gnosis. Fragments of this work, consisting of short expositions of some of the catholic epistles, which have come down to us in the Latin translation, perhaps also the fragment of the Prophetical Selections belong to this class. From the larger work it was customary to make extracts on particular parts of the sacred Scriptures for common use, and several of these abstracts have been preserved to our times, which have contributed, with other causes, to the loss of the complete work." Neander then proceeds to observe, with reference to another fragmentary portion of Clement's extant remains, that there is a degree of mystery about the "Extracts from the writings of Theodotus, and

Happily, the obscurity in which the literary question respecting the Hypotyposes of Clement has hitherto been involved is now beginning to be cleared up. In the first edition of his "Hippolytus," the Chevalier Bunsen gave the learned world a pledge that he would ere long reconstruct the skeleton of this fragmentary mastodon. In the new edition he has, we rejoice to say, triumphantly redeemed his pledge. What is now printed as the eighth book of Clement's Stromata, but which has long been acknowledged by critics to form no part of that work, is now restored by the Chevalier to its proper place, and shown to constitute the Introduction to the Hypoty poses. This latter treatise was intended for the use of the advanced theological student, and aimed to furnish a complete system of Biblical Theology. Clement's ambition was to unfold the entire teaching of the Scriptures and to demonstrate its reasonableness. Accordingly, the work opened with an exposition of the principles of the Aristotelian logic, with some admixture of Stoic opinions. Then followed (still in the first book of the Hypotyposes) the metaphysical demonstration of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, especially of the doctrine concerning the Logos, in opposition to Theodotus the Currier, a heretical teacher belonging to Clement's own time, and to the Valentinian Gnostics. Here, then, came in the above-mentioned extracts from Theodotus and the writers of the Oriental Valentinian school, with Clement's own remarks in refutation of their systems. Clement's own doctrine of the Logos appeared to the Catholic theologians of later times far from being strictly orthodox, and Photius in particular, in his brief account of the Hypotyposes (which he had read in its complete form), denounces it with great energy. The Chevalier Bunsen is equally zealous in vindicating Clement from the charge, although he freely admits that it is impossible to reconcile the Alexandrian father's views with the Nicene standard. To us it seems very possible that Clement may have been hampered by his philosophical system, so as not to have been able to apprehend in its full simplicity the revealed truth upon the subject. But then, on the other hand, the doctrinal formulas of the Nicene and later councils were by no means free from the same taint of human scholasticism. Thus much appears certain, that Clement maintained the proper divinity of the Word, and was as far removed from Arianism as he was from the Nicene theology. Any further remarks upon the topic are alien from our purpose. It more concerns us to observe that in the conclusion of the first book of the Hypotyposes Clement entered at once, according to the Chevalier, upon his summary exposition of the Old Testament, and that it is to this portion of the treatise we are to assign the extant "Prophetical Selections." It thus appears that a very considerable portion of the first book of this supposed lost work of Clement has providentially been preserved. The scope of the whole is avowed in the very outset, in a fine passage which shows that Clement's purpose was nothing less than to establish the Christian faith upon so firm a basis of solid demonstration that it could not be shaken by the assaults of scepticism. "Even the most ancient philosophers," he says, were not driven to doubt and despair; how should we, who adhere to that really true philosophy (Christianity), and whom the Scripture expres-ly bids to seek in order that we may find? For it is only the personal ambition and empty love of dispute among the modern philosophers which end in useless babbling; and the barbarian philosophy (heresy) which is always stirring up contention. Christ says, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; ask, and it shall be given you.' That reasoning, therefore, which institutes an inquiry by means The word means: Sketchings, shadowings forth, general of queries and answers, knocks at the door of truth in con

outlines.

formity with the phenomena, and when that which obstructą

the search is cleared away, a scientific insight is acquired | Gnostics, or scientific and erudite Christians." We see from by the mind. To those I think who knock thus, that which this passage that, by aiming at the character of a Gnostic, is sought for is opened, and to those who thus put questions he did not pretend, as the heretical Gnostics too frequently to the Scriptures, is granted by God that to which they did, to set himself up proudly as a judge above the Bible, aspire, namely, the gift of that knowledge (Gnosis) which receiving what he pleased and rejecting the rest of its comes from God, and which in reality beams forth in a ra- teaching. On the contrary, it was only by a profounder tional manner through the logical inquiry. It is impossible to study of the Book of God, and by a more sedulous obedience find without having sought, or to seek without investigating to its holy truths and salutary precepts than ordinary, that thoroughly, or to investigate thoroughly without opening a man, according to Clement, could attain to the dignity of and unfolding, bringing clearly to light that which is sought a true Gnostic. The Gnostic with him meant the Christian for; nor, again, having gone through the whole investiga- endowed richly with the gift of spiritual knowledge (which tion, to fail of gaining finally the prize, which is the scien- is the translation of the Greek word Gnosis, whence the tific knowledge of what in reality is. No: he who has name Gnostic is derived) in the sense of the Apostle Paul. sought may find, and whoever is not fancying that he "The Gnostic," he says, " is one who has grown gray in the knows already, may seek. Then, carried along by the study of the Holy Scriptures, and whose life is nothing else mind's longing to find what is good, he seeks meekly, with- than a series of works and of words, corresponding with the out love of strife and without ambition, asking and answer- transmitted teaching of our Lord."-It is only for such an ing, and besides considering that itself which is treated. ardent, devout, and consistent student, that the Bible geneFor it is fit that we conduct our inquiries strictly adhering rates a deep knowledge of Divine things, because it is he not only to the Divine writings, but also to the common only who brings to them the believing recipient sense. mode of reasoning, so that our discussions may be conducted" Where this is wanting," he argues, "the Scriptures apwithin the limits of utility. It is a different place and a dif-pear unfruitful. This inner sense, however," he contends, ferent crowd which awaits the tumultuous people and the" is not sufficient of itself to deduce from the sacred books vain disputations of the agora (market-place). He who loves the truths they contain, to unfold these truths in all their and knows truth must be peaceful, and in his inquiries pro- bearings, and to form them into an organic whole, as well ceed through the medium of conclusive scientific proof to as to defend them against the objections of pagans and rational knowledge (Gnosis) without self-love, but loving heretics, and to apply them to everything hitherto presented truth." to man's faculty of knowledge."

66

Besides the works of which we have already spoken, there is still extant, from the pen of Clement, a "Discourse on the question, Who amongst the rich will be saved ?" According to Photius, this piece formed in some MSS. of Clement the eighth book of the Stromateis, or at least a portion of it. Several treatises of Clement are mentioned partly by himself in his extant writings, and partly by other ancient authors, which are now lost. Amongst them were a tract on Easter, a polemical work against Judaism, and some ethical productions. Upon the whole, however, we have to congratulate ourselves, that the three principal labours of his useful and learned pen have been handed down nearly or quite entire, and that we still possess considerable portions of the fourth.

The remaining books of the Hypotyposes (eight in all) seem to have been entirely devoted to the annotations upon Scripture. The second finished those on the Old Testament. The third embraced the commentary on the four Gospels; the fourth, that upon the Romans and First Corinthians; the fifth, Second Corinthians; the sixth, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and First and Second Thessalonians; the seventh, Hebrews and Acts; and the eighth, the brief annotations on the Catholic Epistles, a Latin translation of which, made by Cassiodorus, has been preserved. We are not to suppose that Clement gave in his Hypotyposes a continuous commentary on the books of Scripture precisely in the modern sense. He only illustrated, seriatim, strings of passages taken from each book of the Bible, according as they seemed to present to him opportunities for theological remark, or for displaying his skill in that peculiar style of allegorical and mystical interpretation, which THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES.-The great antiquity of Babel was so much in vogue at Alexandria. The Chevalier or Babylon is established by the fact, that Nimrod was its Bunsen, highly as he thinks of Clement considered in the chief. It formed a centre, from which population proceeded in light of a Christian philosopher, ranks him very low as an all directions. The Dispersion is, in the style of the author, expositor. "Invaluable," he says, as are even the poor described as an act of God, and as meant to confound their remains of the exegetical portion of the Hypotyposes, for language or speech. Like other acts of the Creator, it is minthe sake of the historical information they furnish, they are gled with supreme wisdom and beneficence. Thus, if man for the most part utterly worthless in their exegesis." And had used only one language, there would in all probability certainly it must be acknowledged that there is some justice have arisen among them only one poet of the description styled in this complaint. The principal value of Clement's com- epic. He having occupied the field both of illustration and of fame, all others would have been discouraged. There might mentary is this, that it suggested the idea of an exposition have been a Greek Homer, but there would have been no of the whole Bible, and was an honest though very defective Latin Virgil. Or, take the case in reference to modern times. attempt at its realisation. It must be granted, too, that England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, or France, might have had Clement was very much more moderate in his resort to the one great writer of that description, but the first would have allegorical method than his pupil Origen and some others. prevented competition to others, the language being the same; He cherished a profound reverence for the Holy Scriptures whereas the human mind has been exerted and improved in a as the source of all spiritual truth, and sincerely desired to high degree by the variety of similar exertions resulting from bow with humility and faith to the sovereign authority of the variety of languages. The principle might be illustrated the Word of God. "We rely not on men," he says, "who by reference to various departments of intellectual exertion. merely give us their opinions, over against which we, in Thus, it has been said, that the extraordinary eminence of Sir like manner, may set our own. But if it is not enough Isaac Newton discouraged for a time in England mathematical merely to give our opinion, if it is necessary to prove what studies, because it was felt that all must be eclipsed by his renown. Language itself being the chief organ of intellect, we affirm, we do not wait for the testimony of men, but and thereby a most valuable interpreter of its constitution, is at prove it by the Word of the Lord, which is the most certain once an important instrument in active life, and a subject for of all arguments, or rather the only one-the form of know- profound investigation; but the principles on which it is ing whereby those who have barely tasted of the Scriptures formed could never have been very competently understood become believers, and those who have made greater pro- without the existence of a variety of languages. Forsyth's gress, and become accurately acquainted with the truth, are | Observations.

GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND.

INTRODUCTION.

WHEN the God of glory appeared to the patriarch Abraham in Mesopotamia, He spake to him and said "Get thee out of thy country unto the LAND that I will show thee."

Then was first made known the Divine purpose to constitute the Hebrew race a peculiar people, who should be the recipients and depositories of Revelation, which for many long ages they were most exclusively to retain for their own spiritual advancement, and then to publish and diffuse for the enlightenment and salvation of mankind throughout the whole earth.

That his chosen people might be the efficient instruments of his pleasure, it was necessary that they should occupy a country adapted, in its external features, its internal resources, and its central position, to that policy of isolation which should, as it were, for many centuries, condense the successive revelations of God's will to men within very narrow territorial bounds; and that should then, as by a law of expansion, burst forth upon the great nations of antiquity on every side.

thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass."*

Such was the land which the sons of Abraham inherited—a land in which Jehovah blessed them, and where they were trained to become blessings to mankind. The statutes and judgments which Moses taught them they were to remember and practise; for, said he, "this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely, this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?"t

The position which Palestine held with reference to the world at large became apparent, in its historical individuality, at an early period. Though surrounded on all sides by the capitals of the most flourishing and civilised nations, yet the country, with its temple-city, was little affected by the active operations of its neighbours; deserts and sea rendering it of difficult access in those times, and the rocks, ravines, and hills, that guarded its frontiers, proving a competent barrier a district but moderately against such small temptations as endowed by nature, and poor withal, could hold out to foreigners. Thus, by perseveringly cultivating its poor soil, which, however, amply remunerated the labour bestowed upon it, and by always falling back on its own patriarchal centre, there being no navigable rivers leading to the sea, nor other channels encouraging external commerce, the people of Israel were enabled to complete their internal development independently, and thus to arrive at a high degree of compactness. This it was competent to perform through what nature had portioned out to it-an insulated position on the globe. This it was destined to perform by reason of its having kept itself undefiled by the heathen rites and idolatry of its immediate neighbours, from the time of Abraham, during 1,500 years at the least, until Palestine had gone through the part it had to act as the home of one people, until it had fulfilled its prescribed mission, exactly on that spot of our planet that was now to take its rank the spiritual home of all the nations of the earth. For, when the time of the fulfilment of the law was come, and when the isolation of Palestine had been put an end to by its incorporation with the great Roman empire, the paths towards every nation, to the Occident as well as the Orient, were at once thrown open for the Gospel; and the very dispersion of the people, hitherto the most compact of all, consequent upon the destruction of Jerusalem, was instrumental in making those paths more practicable. "This union of the most striking contrasts, as to relative position on the globe-a most secluded retirement, along with the facilities for a most universal communication with every one of those nations that were foremost in civilization in ancient times (through the medium of trade and languages, by sea and land), with the Arabian, Indian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Armenian, as well as with the Greek and Roman elements of civilization; in the common central space of all these territories, yet not affected by them; in their common historical focus, yet not kindled by their beams-this union is what constitutes the characteristic individuality of the Promised Land destined from the beginning to be the home of the chosen people."

wide reputation; its nature illustrates its history, its physical phenomena explain the language of its inspired prophets and apostles, and its peaceful hallowed scenes are indelibly impressed on the sanctified imagination of every believer. Wherever Christianity may be preached, or Christian communities planted, there Immanuel's land will be held in everlasting remembrance as the birthplace of the Saviour and the cradle of that holy religion which is destined to elevate and bless mankind. In fact, the most beautiful, exalted, and beneficial reminiscences of the active life of our Lord are associated with the mountains and valleys, the rivers and lakes of this Holy Land. "Here flowed the sacred streams at which he received the heavenly call to his mighty Here lay the desert to which he work of blessing the world. retired from the din of the world, in order to hold communion with himself as to the objects of his high undertaking, and the methods of its execution. Here towered those majestic hills, on whose solitary heights he found, in prayer to God, that sacred refreshment which his soul required after the labours and distractions of the day. Here spread out that fair lake on whose charming shores he loved to wander; from which he called the simple and unlearned fishermen and tax-gatherers, whom he had chosen as his associates, and where, surrounded by hungry multitudes, he dispensed to them the bread of life. Here were the roads on which were brought to him countless crowds of suffering people to be cured of their bodily infirmities. Here stood the towns, villages, and hamlets, in whose synagogues he taught, and where he enjoyed the rare pleasure of loving and confiding intercourse with those who felt and confessed the purity of his soul. Here, too, was the great, popular, and splendid metropolis of Judea, whose proud inhabitants spurned the wisdom of the lowly Prophet of Galilee, and at last brought upon themselves the guilt of a most horrible judicial murder; and from which, also, beamed forth the radiance of that world-enlightening Gospel, which illuminated the dark places of the earth."

In the articles which will follow this introduction, the intimate connection which subsists between the physical aspects and the historical events of the Holy Land will be marked in an historico-geographical account of Palestine, divided into those periods which will best elucidate the sacred narrative.

When questions of local interest arise, we shall discuss them at greater length in articles upon Sacred Topography, but in this series we propose to supply the reader with brief and popular views of what may be called the political and physical geography of Palestine under the successive administrations of religion and government with which it was blessed.

HEBREW VERSE.

BESIDES those kinds of Hebrew versification which we have mentioned, it has been supposed there were fixed measures of time or quantity, as among the Greeks and Romans; so that every line should be of equal length of measure, whatever were the number of syllables.

In opposition to this opinion it is alleged, that a language so ancient could not have the length or shortness of its syllables so fixed, as to render this kind of verse very general. On the other hand, it has been stated, that several ancient authors, whose testimony and opinion ought not to be disregarded, have assigned this kind of verse to several sacred compositions.

When, however, the fulness of the times arrived, and that light was to lighten the Gentiles, which had hitherto only shone Josephus affirms of some particular hymns, that they were in the dwelling-places of Israel, it was found that the geographical position of Palestine was as favourable to the diffusion of written in metres similar to those of the Greeks and Romans. In Christianity as it had been to the preservation of the older reve-the second book of his Antiquities, he expressly states, that the lations of the patriarchs and prophets. For, while it was shut in by the waters of the Mediterranean on the west, and by the sands of Arabia on the east, yet it formed what Ritter calls "an elevated and somewhat cool isthmus or land-bridge," and so a natural link of communication between the two countries to the north and the south of it. From the table-land of Armenia to the lowland of Egypt, from the banks of the Euphrates to those of the Nile, there was a highway prepared beforehand for those heralds of salvation who were entrusted by the Lord with the great commission to preach the Gospel to every creature.

Song of Moses, after passing through the Red Sea, was composed
in hexameters. In his fourth book of Antiquities, he states, that
the sacred song in the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy,
was also written in hexameter verses. And, in the seventh of
the same work, he states of David, that, being freed from war,
and enjoying the blessings of a profound peace, he composed
songs and hymns to God, of several sorts of metres, some of which
were trimeters and some pentameters. Philo Judæus states, in
Such
his book "De Contempl." that Hebrew poetry had metres.
also is the statement of Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, and Isidore.
Independently of the natural inclination to express the scnti-

On these accounts Palestine, though in itself one of the smallest and least attractive districts of the old world, has acquired a world-ments of poetry in measure, music disposes to measures of different

kinds. The Hebrews, it must also be remembered, had lived long in Egypt, the nursery of all the arts which embellish life; and Moses himself was acquainted with all the learning of the