while the language of revelation was growing up to needed perfection, and, in fact, until the volume itself was closed" and sealed. Then, as to physical constitution and character, Palestine contained within itself all that the purpose in view required. It is neither fiction nor extravagance to call this land a microcosm-a little world in itself, embracing everything which in the thought of the Creator would be needed in developing this language of the kingdom of heaven. Nor is it easy to see how the end sought could have been reached at all without just such a land, furnished and fitted up as this was by the overruling providence of God. All were needed-mountain and valley, hill and plain, lake and river, sea and sky, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, trees, shrubs, and flowers, beasts and birds, men and women, tribes and nations, governments and religions, false and true, and other things innumerable; none of which could be spared.1

Think, if you can, of a Bible with all these left out, or others essentially different substituted in their place a Bible without patriarch or pilgrimage, with no bondage in Egypt, or deliverance therefrom, no Red Sea, no Sinai with its miracles, no wilderness of wandering with all the included scenes and associated incidents; without a Jordan with Canaan over against it, or a Dead Sea with Sodom beneath it; no Moriah with its temple, no Zion with palaces, nor Hinnom below, with the fire and worm that never die. Whence could have come our divine songs and psalms, if the sacred poets had lived in a land without mountain or valley, where were no plains covered over with corn, no fields clothed with green, no hills planted with the olive, the fig, and the vine? All are needed, and all do good service, from the oaks of Bashan and the cedars of Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. We can

1 The writer must not be understood to assert, or imply, that it would have been impossible for Infinite Wisdom to hold spiritual converse with man at all, without these Palestinian appliances. It is very far from his thought thus to limit the Almighty. Nothing more is intended, here or elsewhere, than that, without these, or some other equivalent external and physical arrangements, no such revelation as that which we now have was practicable.

dispense with none of them. The tiny mustard-seed has its moral, and lilies their lessons. Thorns and thistles utter admonitions, and revive sad memories. These, and thousands of other things, like or unlike them, furnish the stuff out of which our spiritual language is manufactured. The sheep and the fold, the shepherd and his dog, the ass and his owner, the ox and his goad, the camel and his burden, the horse with neck clothed with thunder; lions that roar, wolves that raven, foxes that destroy, harts panting for water-brooks, and roes feeding among lilies, doves in their windows, sparrows on the house-top, storks in the heavens, eagles hasting to the prey; things great and small; the busy bee improving each shining hour, and the careful ant laying up store in harvest-nothing too large to serve, too small to aid. These are merely random specimens out of a world of rich materials; but we must not forget that they are all found in this land where the dialect of God's spiritual kingdom was to be taught and spoken.

Again, if the social, civil, and religious condition of the people who were associated with these external phenomena had been essentially different from that of the Hebrews and their neighbors, the result required could not have been worked out, at least not in the form in which we now have it. Not to multiply examples unduly, suppose there had been no heathen in their borders with idols to corrupt, no enemies to fear and resist, no Philistines, no Midianites, nor Canaanites in the land; or, to vary the inquiry, if there had been no temple, altar, priest, sacrifice, fast, or feast, or solemn assembly, or if the customs and occupations of the people had been other than they were, and there had been no shepherd on the mountains, no plowing and no sowing, no seed-time nor harvest, no reaper with his sickle, and no summer threshing-floor with useless chaff; no vineyard, nor vine-dresser with pruning-hook, no vintage, no wine-press; if there had sailed over Galilee no boat, and no fisherman had cast net into that lovely sea; if there had been no weaver with his shuttle and loom, no refiner with his furnace,

no smith with his forge, no potter with his wheel; or to change the inquiry once more-had there been no warrior with bow and battle-axe, sword and shield, no fierce horseman, no jumping chariot, no bloody battles, no slaughtered victims, no prisons, chains, or captive slaves-nothing, in short, in all the land to mar and destroy-no floods to drown, no famine to consume, no earthquake to terrify and overwhelm, no pestilence to desolate, no rust to corrupt, moth to eat, locusts to lay waste, scorpion to sting, serpent to bite, and it is supposable that the biblical writers might have been born and bred in some such peaceful Arcadia; but then would it not have been utterly impossible for them to have either invented, understood, or used such a religious language as we now actually possess? Enough has been said to establish our position that there have been designedly gathered into this land of Palestine all the manifold agents and agencies which divine wisdom foresaw would be needed for the development of man's spiritual language. Let us deal reverently, therefore, with it. Thoughtless traveller! walk softly over those acres once trodden by the feet of patriarchs, prophets, and sacred poets, and, most of all, by the Son of God himself. Put off the soiled sandal of worldliness and sin as you enter this consecrated domain. There is design in this grouping of mountains and plains and deserts, lakes and rivers, with all their vegetable and animal inhabitants, and their marvellous and miraculous incidents and phenomena. These things were not the result of blind chance were not merely natural, but beyond and above that, we see in them the supernatural and the divine. Do you doubt? Then take your Bible, and make the following simple experiment. Erase from its narratives, its prophecies, its parables and proverbs, sermons and songs, all that has a manifest connection with, and necessary basis in, this land, and then see how much of a revelation will remain. Or, attempt to fill up these erasures by other names, narratives, and symbols, and see what it will come to. Take the Psalter, and, after striking out all the thoughts, words, imagery, and

poetic phrases whose natural basis is in this land, produce, if you are able to do it, "a book of praise for the service of song in the house of the Lord." The mere idea is absurd.

One other remark of a general nature may be needed to avoid mistake. It may be objected to this line of argument, that, if the dialect of the kingdom of heaven is so largely dependent upon, and derived from, things found only or chiefly in Palestine, then the ability to comprehend it will be in exact proportion to the individual's acquaintance with this country and its phenomena. To place all on a fair equality in this respect it would seem to be necessary that this microcosm should be transported, as a sort of handspecimen, to all other countries.

We may admit, and do at once, that this objection is not altogether imaginary, but still the difficulty is not insurmountable in any case, and will be found quite limited in actual experience. It had been foreseen and provided for by divine wisdom. The collections and grouping together of all the natural elements necessary for the end required were so marvellously numerous and diversified, and of such a peculiar character, that this hand-specimen can in reality, for all practical purposes, be transferred to any country and studied by all people. The apparent exceptions are so few that they need not enter into the account; and therefore we do not hesitate to repeat the declaration that a spiritual nomenclature has been actually developed, in this home of the Bible, adequate to the wants of the whole human race, and available to all.

In claiming for Palestine the high distinction of being the divinely chosen centre and home of revelation, we of course do not exclude from all participation in this work, the neighboring countries. Indeed the student is often obliged to resort to them for explanation and illustration of words, phrases, and things, whose origin was outside of Palestine. Moreover, it is of essential importance to ascertain and keep in mind the peculiar history and circumstances of the writers and actors whose works we are studying. Thus Moses, for

example, was born and bred in Egypt, and yet spent a large part of his life in the desert, and hence in the valley of the Nile, and in the wilderness of wandering, is to be found the explanation of many of the thoughts, figures, and allusions in the Pentateuch, and, perhaps, of a few even of his sacred symbols and typical institutions. And so too, the marvellous machinery, and gorgeous imagery of Ezekiel's visions may have been borrowed from or suggested by the architectural and artistic creations which the prophet had seen on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. The same considerations apply to the author of the Apocalypse, and to nearly all the biblical writers. Familiarity with such things would inevitably influence their language, and hence the necessity of becoming acquainted with them.

But, lest we be led too far away from our specific study, and into fields of questionable speculation, we must return at once to the book itself whose language we are seeking to illustrate.

In carrying forward our study from general considerations to particular examples, taken for the present from the poetry of the Bible, more is demanded than merely to show that our spiritual vocabulary has been largely enriched from this source. This is too obvious to need either proof or illustration. The church has, in fact, transferred the entire Psalter bodily into her bosom; and without it her children would scarcely know how to conduct the devotions either of the closet, the family altar, or the public worship of the sanctuary. But this of itself does not establish our proposition. It must be further shown that this poetic dialect is essentially Palestinian, having its natural basis in this land of the Bible. This is the exact point to be made and illustrated. It is not at all necessary, however, to maintain that the elements of poetry, the phenomena upon which its existence and culture depend, are confined to this country. The raw material out of which it is woven exists in all lands, and for certain varieties of poetry it may be found elsewhere more abundant, and in higher perfection than here. But what we attempt