expression, "living water"—the history of the well, and the customs thereby illustrated the worship upon Mount Gerizim ;-all these occur within a few verses." They supply a species of evidence for the truth of the narrative which no candid mind can resist; and it is needless to remark, that this evidence receives much of its strength and clearness from that kind of knowledge which it is the province of Geography to communicate. In replying to the lawyer who tempted him with a captious question, our Saviour put the case of a certain man, who, in going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves. Now the same thing might have happened, or the scene might have been laid, in any other direction. But when we learn that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a very dangerous road, and that so many robberies and murders had been committed at a particular part of that road that it was called "The Place of Blood," we cannot help being struck with the truth and propriety of the case put by the Saviour. Nor is the force of this impression weakened when we learn that this road stiil retains its dangerous character, and that the fate of him who fell among thieves has been almost literally experienced by some recent travellers.—(See Sir Fred. Henniker's Visit to Egypt, &c. p. 285.) Illustrations of this kind might easily be multiplied; but there is another kind of illustration-less obvious, but not less striking and powerful when it is pointed out by which it may be shown how a knowledge of Scripture Geography may contribute to confirm our faith in the Divine authority of revelation. By the knowledge of Scripture Geography, we come to see that some of the transactions recorded in Scripture are utterly unaccountable upon the principles of human policy or prudence, and can only be explained by admitting that the persons concerned in these transactions were under the protection and guidance of supernatural power and wisdom. Take, as an example or illustration of this position, the conduct of Moses in leading up the Israelites from Egypt. On leaving the land of Goshen, there were two routes by which Moses might have reached the Promised Land. There was the direct route, by which he might have proceeded north-eastwards into Palestiue; but a strong objection to his taking this route lay in the fact, that the southern and nearest portion of the Promised Land was in possession of the Philistines-a warlike people, allied, it has been supposed, to the Shepherd tribes, who had so long oppressed the Israelites in Egypt. It was not to be expected that this people would allow themselves to be dispossessed without a struggle. The Israelites amounted to six hundred thousand men, besides women and children; but this immense host was an undisciplined crowd, dispirited by bondage, and utterly unfit for war. Accordingly, we read (Exod. xiii. 17), that this route was not adopted, "Lest the people should have repented when they saw war, and should have returned to Egypt." Egypt." The other route led the -Israelites south-eastwards into the Arabian Desert, and, after a long circuit, brought them to the borders of the Promised Land, at a great distance from the territories of the Philistines. The difficulty attending this route was the providing for the subsistence of such an immense multitude, who had left Egypt hastily and unprepared. Moses, who had fed the flocks of Jethro in some part of this country, must have been well aware that it afforded no adequate means of subsistence for so multitudinous a host as that of the Israelites. Yet this was the route which he adopted; and his doing so argues that he had confidence in a Power that could command the elements and resources of nature. The look of the country with which Geography presents us, is sufficient to satisfy us that no rational being would have attempted such an enterprise, unless he had placed dependence on Divine direction and support. Between the two routes, the choice of worldly policy would probably have been to prefer the chance of war to the certainty of starving-to risk an encounter with their ancient oppressors, rather than allow themselves to be entombed alive in a sandy desert. But this was not the course adopted by Moses. Nor was this all. Even after he had formed the resolution of marching south-eastwards, and had advanced as far as Etham, on the edge of the Wilderness, and was ready to plunge into its barren sands, he suddenly turned and marched his numerous host into a narrow defile, bounded by the Red Sea on one side, and by rugged mountains on the other. No rational being, acting solely upon his own views of policy, could ever have thought of such a course. It left no way of escape but that which was actually opened up, by the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. Had this not taken place, the whole host of Israel must have been cut off by their enemies. This was the natural calculation of Pharaoh, whom no miracles could convince. When he heard of this movement on the part of Moses, he is represented as saying that the Israelites were entangled in the land, and as concluding that they must fall an easy prey to his army. The Israelites themselves, when they saw the Egyptians marching after them, feared that they must all perish in the narrow defile into which Moses had led them. But Moses knew in whom he trusted. The Israelites marched through the deep in triumph; the Egyptians pursued and perished. Such was the effect of this and the other miracles which had been wrought in behalf of the Israelites, that, when they reached the borders of the Promised Land, comparatively little resistance was offered to their entrance, except by the Amalekites. Now the argument which in this way results from the conduct of Moses is altogether founded on the geography of the country through which he marched. It cannot be understood without some geographical knowledge of that country, and a very little knowledge of that kind is sufficient to show its strength. The argument derived from the completion of the "Prophecies going be d fore," is one of the strongest arguments for the Divine authority of revelation. It is an argument which may be brought forward in several ways. It was frequently appealed to by the Saviour in behalf of the truth of his mission; and he pointed to various prophecies of the Old Testament as fulfilled in him. His Apostles by the same argument "mightily convinced the Jews;" and we know that the Christian Apologists, a class of writers who flourished immediately subsequent to the times of the Apostles, made much use of the argument arising from the accomplishment of Prophecy. Now, whenever Prophecy has reference to the fate or circumstances of any particular country or place, the argument arising from it can only be clearly seen and strongly felt by means of the knowledge which Geography conveys. And there is no department of knowledge which of late years has received more valuable additions than the geographical knowledge which goes to illustrate the Scriptures. The long peace which has prevailed, and the extensive commerce which has been carrying on, have made us more familiar with the East. Those countries to which the Scriptures more immediately refer have been traversed in all directions, and our acquaintance with them has become much more accurate and complete. In this way the most ample and authentic materials for illustrating the Prophecies of Scripture have been accumulating. Indeed, the restless foot of the traveller is every day stumbling upon traces and traditions of the things which were spoken of by Moses and the Prophets; and the testimony which is given to the truth of these things is not the less striking and strong, that it is often an undesigned, and sometimes a reluctant, testimony. Many of those who have visited the countries and the places spoken of in Scripture, have been persons" who have discovered no intention of advocating, by their statements, the cause of revealed truth; and some of them have been obviously influenced by hostility to its claims. Yet in spite of these prejudices, and altogether unconsciously on their part, they have recorded the most express confirmation of the Scripture Prophecies, frequently employing in their descriptions the very language of inspiration, and bringing into view, though evidently without design, those features of the scene which form the precise picture painted in the visions of the prophet." The illustrations which the observation and researches of recent travellers have given to the Prophecies of Scripture, which describe the future state of particular nations, and the future aspect of particular countries, have been collected and arranged; and they furnish an amount of evidence* sufficient not only to satisfy every candid and inquiring mind, but also to bear down the doubts and prejudices of the infidel. Indeed, this geographical argument has been pronounced to be not only one of the most impregnable strongholds of Christian prophecy, but one of the most resistless See Keith on the Prophecies. and wide-ranging instruments of aggressive evidence. "There is no obscurity," says an intelligent critic," in the language of the Prophet. There is no variety of opinion with regard to the object in his view. There is no denying of the change which he predicts. There is no challenging of the witnesses who prove the facts of the case. The former glory of those regions and kingdoms is recorded by ancient heathen historians, who knew nothing of the fall foretold. Their present state is described by recent and often infidel travellers, who knew often as little of the predictions which they were verifying by their narratives. It is not a particular event which has passed away, or a particular character who has perished, for whose era we must search in the wide page of history, and of whose description we may find so many resemblances as to become perplexed in our application. The places and the people are named by the Prophet, and the state in which they now exist is matter of actual observation. The fulfilment of the prediction is thus inscribed upon a public monument, which every man who visits the countries in question may behold with his own eyes; and is expressed in a language so universally intelligible, that every man may be said to read it in his own tongue. To these scenes of Scripture Prophecy we may point with triumph, as to ocular demonstration; and say to the sceptical inquirer, in the words of the Evangelist, Come and see." Now, Scripture Geography is the guide which conducts us to these scenes, and unfolds the argument which they contain an argument which may powerfully contribute to the establishing of our faith, and the overcoming of the prejudices and objections of unbelievers. III. SCRIPTURE GEOGRAPHY ANOTHER RECOMMENDATION OF THE satisfaction which we feel, and the interest which we take, in becoming acquainted with the places and the countries where the events of which we read have happened, are much increased when these events are of a great and important kind-great, as displaying the powers of the human mind, and the energies of the human character or important, as affecting the happiness and improvement of human society. The eloquent passage of Dr Johnson, in vindication of such feelings and sympathies, is well known: "Far from me and my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. The man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force on the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." The passage, it is true, has reference to an actual visit to the places which have been the scenes of great events; and there can be no doubt that the traveller, who sees with his own eye and treads with his own foot such places, has greatly the advantage, in point of interest and feeling, over him who has merely a geographical acquaintance with them. "It is one thing to read the Iliad at Sigæum, and on the tumuli, or by the springs of Mount Ida above, and the plains, and rivers, and Archipelago around you; and another thing to trim your taper over it in a snug librarythis I know," said Lord Byron." Sed non cuivis contigit adire Corinthum." And next to an actual visit to the scenes of great and important events, is the knowledge which Geography affords. In aid of this knowledge, every thing has been eagerly sought which may serve to excite or interest our feelings. A worn-out coin, a broken urn, a mutilated statue, or a half-obliterated manuscript, is treasured up with religious care, when it can be shown to have reference to a people or a place celebrated in antiquity. Vetusti Moris, et antiquas testificantur opes. And although," with all these appliances and means to boot," it is not the "very form and pressure," but an indistinct and trembling shadow of a former age which can be gained, still that shadow is eagerly pursued. With what ardent and delighted enthusiasm does the classical scholar attempt, by the light of his midnight lamp, to trace a ground-plan of the ruins of Troy, and to follow the dim and uncertain lines which mark out the many turns in the adventurous warfare of the Greeks! His pale cheek is flushed, and his thin pulse quickened, when he reads of Plateæ or Thermopyla. And when the sceptre had departed from Greece, and was grasped by the firm hand of the Romans, the movements of that great people have been eagerly followed. The traces which they have left of themselves, and their dominion in other countries, have been carefully examined. The walls which they built to protect their insecure conquest of Britain have been minutely surveyed; and the remains of their different encampments and stations have been visited with an enthusiasm, sufficient to provoke and to justify the ridicule of the sober-minded. The baths, and aqueducts, and amphitheatres, which they left in Gaul, are still pointed out to an admiring posterity. The interest which has been felt in their fate has extended to the movements of their barbarian adversaries. The passage of Hannibal across the Alps, and the scene of the battle of Cannæ, have been anxiously explored. A similar, but far higher feeling, should lead us to take a like interest in the Geography of Scripture. The events which Scripture History records or refers to, are greatly more interesting than those of any other history. The labours of Hercules, the expedition of Jason, the wanderings of Ulysses, and the wooers of Penelope, are subjects which cannot repay the study and investigation which they have prompted; and almost compel one to exclaim, |