Truth of Scripture.

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we have undertaken to write this Essay. We do not pretend to greater learning in the Scriptures, or to a more profound knowledge of them than other persons, but we have had the advantage of travelling in the lands, and of beholding many of the scenes described in the sacred writings, and have enjoyed the privilege of being able to devote more time to the careful examination of these countries than most modern travellers; and thus many points connected with topography which would necessarily escape the reader who is personally unacquainted with the country, have become of deep interest to us. Indeed it is not too much to say, that to the student of the geography of the Holy Land, every single name has a new and real interest; and even those long chapters of names which are so wearisome to the general reader, are studied with delight.

Before visiting these countries we never could have conceived what numerous and powerful testimonies would each day be forthcoming to the truth of the Scriptures. Compare the country, the people, their language, their customs, carefully with the history of the country and its people three thousand years ago, and at every page such proofs, internal and external, are laid before us of the integrity of the account, that we can require no stronger vouchers for the truth of the sacred writings.*

We shall devote the following pages chiefly to the description of the country east of Jordan, which was originally peopled by that remarkable race the Rephaim. We shall trace as far as we are able, by collecting the different notices we have of them in the Old Testament, their history and the history of their country; we shall tell of the cities which they built, and which were subsequently taken by the Israelites from their king Og; and we shall tell how in the present day large towns and cities of stone are still standing, many of them so perfect that they, might again be inhabited in that very country, and which answer exactly to the account given of the cities of the Rephaim in the early Scriptures; and we shall, lastly, point out in how remarkable a manner the prophecy has been carried out with regard to the whole of that country, which was spoken two thousand five hundred years ago by Jeremiah.

We shall now commence by a short description of the

* Perhaps it would be difficult to find any other case in which so many examples of undesigned coincidences are perpetually recurring, as in the comparison between different portions of Scripture with each other, and with the country, at the present day.

country in which the descendants of Noah were settled not long after the Flood, and from which those tribes came who peopled Palestine and the lands near it.

From the high mountain range in the south of Armenia, which forms a portion of the territory of Kurdistân, and from nearly the same part of the range, two great rivers take their rise. For some distance they make their way through rocky country; but as they approach the vast plain which lies to the south of the mountains of Kurdistân, and gradually escape from the wild rocks which fettered them, they appear as two broad streams; and as they penetrate farther into the plain, each making its way towards the same point, and each endeavouring, as it were, to rival the other in importance, they acquire so broad a bed, and compass so much land ere they reach the sea, that they are justly entitled to be placed among the great rivers of Asia.

Shortly before they actually reach the sea, their courses, which had been gradually approaching more and more to each other, actually become one. At one degree north of the Persian Gulf these two great rivers meet, and flow the remaining short distance together. The land between the sources of these rivers and their junction, is thus nearly an island, and may well be termed, as it has been termed from time immemorial, 'the land within the rivers,' or Mesopotamia.

The greater part of this land is a vast plain, interrupted now and then by slight undulations of the ground, and out of which a few solitary hills are seen to rise; but occasionally higher mountains, and even mountain ranges appear. The most remarkable of these is situated in the heart of Mesopotamia, and known by the name of Jebel Sinjar. From this range, and from most of these mountains, tributary streams flow down to the two great rivers. It was somewhere in Mesopotamia that our first parents originally dwelt, but the exact position of the 'Garden of Eden' has long been, and still is, much disputed. In the Mosaic account the names of four rivers are mentioned as watering the Garden; but of the four rivers we recognise only two, the Tigris and the Euphrates, while the remaining two, the Pishon and the Gihon, may have been smaller streams, which, taking their source from one of the hills, or chain of hills, which we before mentioned as arising out of the plain of Mesopotamia, flowed in a circuitous course until they met the great rivers.

Admitting this supposition to be the correct one, we may not despair of one day being really able to determine the exact position of Eden, as conceived by the writer of the Book of Genesis. Much of Mesopotamia remains unex

plored, and many rivers may exist, and some do exist, of whose names we are ignorant or uncertain, and perhaps among these we may yet find the long-lost Gihon and the long-lost Pishon.

But some have not limited Paradise to so small a tract; they have extended it westwards to the Nile, and eastwards far into Persia.

If their conjectures be right, half of Western Asia was comprised within the limits of Eden, and Jerusalem and Tehran are alike standing within the bounds of ancient Paradise. For ourselves, we have always been inclined to believe in the first theory, because so many facts mentioned with regard to the physical geography of the Eden of Holy Scripture apply to the modern Mesopotamia, and although we cannot reconcile everything with the account given in the Book of Genesis, we can well be satisfied if many of the leading features agree; nor could we expect more than this, when we consider the great changes which that country must necessarily have undergone since the first commencement of the history of the human race.

It was again within this country that the descendants of Noah established themselves after the flood, and thus a second time Mesopotamia became the dwelling-place of all mankind. Their country they called the Land of Shinar, a name which is perhaps preserved in the form of Sinjar, which is applied to a chain of mountains in the interior of Mesopotamia.

This Land of Shinar was, without doubt, very fruitful, and only needed some cultivation to make it render a far greater supply than its population at that time needed. As the people increased more land would be cultivated, and many centuries might elapse ere they should be obliged to emigrate. The Almighty, foreseeing how long a time it would be in this manner before the different parts of the earth became peopled, perhaps warned certain of them, as He did in the case of Abram some centuries later, that they should leave the land they now occupied and go to another, which He promised to give them. It seems as if the people disregarded the Divine command, and disbelieved God's promises; but fearing at the same time that He might separate them by force, feeling convinced that He had the power to do so, yet doubting in the extent of his power, they determined to thwart, as they thought, any attempt He might make to scatter them abroad, and build a tower so high that from all parts, however distant, it might be visible, and thus, they imagined, a beacon would be raised which would always guide them back to their original country. That their great sin consisted in

disobeying the command of God seems the most probable view of the case, although the sacred historian does not mention such a command. As in some other instances in the Old Testament, a great sin had evidently been committed from the severe punishment which we see brought upon those who committed it, although in the sacred narrative, here and elsewhere, the full account only of the punishment is given.

At this time, according to the Mosaic narrative, all men spoke one language. They were permitted to make some progress in their work of building a tower, and then they learned in a remarkable way how utterly foolish they had been in supposing that they could oppose the will of God. Their speech became confounded, and different parties of them spoke different dialects.

The difference between these speeches may not have been very great, but quite sufficient to prevent them from understanding each other; and this, together with the awe which such a phenomenon must have occasioned, induced them to part, and perhaps now they hoped, by a tardy submission to his will, to appease the wrath of God.

Now, while they lived in Shinar, they must have gained some knowledge of the country westwards of the Euphrates. A people in their primitive state must have devoted themselves much to hunting, and in their hunting expeditions they frequently would be led some way from the river. They would then discover that, except in the rainy season, no water was to be found in all that broad plain, and that, excepting the fragrant shrubs which seem to have been providentially placed there to supply the camel with food during its passage across the Desert, not an herb grew there. To these people the Desert was indeed a vast sea, whose limits they knew not, and which they probably imagined to extend for ever in a westerly direction. It required the genius of a Columbus almost to surmise that, if a man were to continue in a westerly direction for a certain number of days, he would find mountains and springs, and rich land, and fruit trees and grass.

In all instances of emigration on a large scale people must be guided in a great measure by the geographical features of the country through which they have to pass. In no instance would a route be more clearly thus dependent upon the conformation of the country than in the present one. East of the Tigris and west of the Euphrates the whole land was desert, and, even to those well acquainted with the country, impassable, except in the winter months; so the course of the

Emigration from Shinar.

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rivers must necessarily have been the course likewise of these emigrants out of Shinar.

We may imagine them in their panic forming into parties and starting off in opposite directions; one party might go down the Euphrates to its junction with the Tigris, and so reach the Persian Gulf; there, again, they would separate, some desiring to follow the eastern, others the western shore of the sea. Of these last portions of Arabia were peopled, and from them came those people who crossed the Straits of Bab-elMandab, and formed a settlement in Ethiopia; and thence, gradually working their way northwards, came into Egypt, and colonized the Valley of the Nile. These were of the descendants of Ham.

Another party might ascend the Tigris, and, gaining the mountains of Armenia, would thence stretch across Northern Asia to Europe.

Another party we will suppose to follow the Euphrates in the contrary direction to the course of the stream. Their journey would be long and wearisome; day by day the same objects, with little variation, presented themselves; now and then, indeed, a low hill on their right hand or on their left would break a little the monotony of the journey, by enticing some of the horsemen to ride across the plain to it in order to gain from the summit some farther knowledge of the country before them. Many a time would these messengers come back and report that, so far as the eye could reach, nothing but a waste could be descried.

Each day we may fancy our travellers becoming more dejected, and more anxious with regard to the future. When, at a sudden bend of the river, and far away to the south-west, several mountain tops appeared, in a moment all eyes were upon them, and a short time afterwards a small detachment might be seen leaving the caravan, and striding rapidly on their dromedaries towards these peaks. As they approached, the hills gradually appeared to rise, until at last, when very near them, they reached a spot which must indeed have rejoiced their hearts;—from under the mountains there suddenly bursts forth a full-grown river, which, after flowing nearly four miles, and making a fruitful garden in the Desert, again seeks the ground, and is never more seen. By its course grow many palms, which are alike welcome, on account of the refreshing shade which their fan-like branches throw, and for their fruit. This time, the report of the 'spies' no doubt induced many to quit the Euphrates, and form a settlement at the beautiful oasis; and there was laid the foundation of Tadmor in the Wilderness,' the lovely City of Palms. But only a small party