"And from Jerusalem, and from Idumæa, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him." Mark iii. 8.

SIDON, the more ancient, though the less celebrated of the two famous places referred to in the text, was one of the oldest cities of Phoenicia, on the sea-coast of which it was situated, near to where Beyroot now stands. It was called, even in Joshua's time, Great Sidon, Josh. 19. 28, and Isaiah and Ezekiel refer to its extensive traffic, Isa. xxiii. 2; Ezek. xxvii. 8. Its modern name is Saide, but it is now a place of little consequence, and its importance as a seaport has ceased since the commodious harbour which it once possessed, became, as it now is, nearly choked up with sand.

Tyre was a colony of Sidon, and is called, in consequence, by Isaiah, "the daughter of Sidon,"

Isa. xxiii. 12. Its original position was on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, about midway between Egypt and Asia Minor, on the north-west sea-border of Palestine. At a later period, an island which lay about half a mile from the shore, was fortified and embellished, so that it became the more important part of Tyre. After its erection, the city on the mainland was distinguished as Ancient Tyre. When Alexander the Great, however, laid siege to Tyre, finding it impossible to overcome the island city in any other way, he constructed a mole, stretching from the mainland towards it, and so converted the island into a peninsula, by means of which his soldiers were able to reach the town, and destroy it by fire. This mole was built of the ruins of Ancient Tyre, which were cast into the sea for that purpose. So entirely was the destruction of the original city effected, in the course of this employment of its dismantled buildings, that its exact site cannot now be identified.

No city has furnished more striking illustration of the exact fulfilment of prophecy, than Tyre. Eleven centuries before the birth of Christ, its inhabitants were famous for their skill. David and Solomon both obtained the assistance of the Tyrians, in the construction of their palaces, and of the temple, 2 Sam. v. 11; 1 Kings v. 6. Ezekiel, referring to Tyre, speaks of the "multitude of wares of its making,' Ezekiel xxvii. 16; and Isaiah alludes to it as the "crowning city, whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth," Isaiah xxiii. 8.

From profane historians, also, we learn of the reputation in which Tyre was held all over the ancient world. No king considered himself properly adorned, unless he were clad in a robe of Tyrian purple. Colonies were sent from the prosperous city in many

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directions, and her fleets reached even little-known Britain, in the course of their adventurous rovings. Utter destruction, however, was the doom of Tyre, as the reward of her sins and hostility to Israel. The desolation of the "merchant city" was foretold, with great particularity, by Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, and Joel, both as to the special offences of the Tyrians, and the mode in which the downfall of their palaces should occur. The casting of ancient Tyre into the sea, the devastation of the island city by force, the total disappearance of both, and the occupation of their sites by fishermen, making them " a place to spread nets upon," were all predicted, besides other particulars, and have all come to pass. Every traveller bears testimony to the fulfilment of the divine decree against Tyre, "Thou shalt be no though thou be sought, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God," Ezek. xxvi. 21.

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more:

THE following Engraving represents ruins visited by Mr. Buckingham, supposed to be remains of the city, and, as well as that of Sidon, is one of the numerous illustrations of Nelson's edition of Matthew Henry's Commentary now in the course of publication.

Capernaum was situated on the northern side of the sea of Galilee, not far from the entrance of the Jordan into that lake. It cannot have been a large town, but it was a populous and prosperous place in the time of Christ. It appears to have been connected, to some extent, with the fishing in the sea of Galilee, perhaps as supplying a market for the fish caught in the lake; and it shared, besides, in the traffic carried on between Tyre, Sidon, Damascus, and other places on the north, and Jerusalem and Arabia on the south. Capernaum is one of the towns most frequently

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mentioned in the gospels. Christ, after his defeat of the murderous attempt of the people of Nazareth to cast him from the brow of a hill, Luke iv. 29, retired to Capernaum, and made it his abode: it was called, in consequence, "his own city," Matt. ix. 1. Simon Peter, Andrew, and probably others of the twelve, resided in it after their call to the apostleship; and it is, with great probability, supposed that our Lord dwelt in Peter's house, Mat viii, 14. The miracle which he wrought upon Simon's mother-in-law, must have made him a peculiarly acceptable guest to the latter's family, Matt. viii. 15. Christ frequently preached in the synagogue of Capernaum, Mark i. 21, Luke iv. 31; and performed in that town some of his most remarkable miracles, Matt. viii. 5, Mark v. 22, John iv, 47. But on the great majority of the people," the mighty works which were done" made no abiding impression, and our Lord in consequence pronounced on Capernaum the solemn doom recorded in Matt. xi. 23.

So completely has the desolation foretold by the Saviour come to pass, that no one can now tell where exactly the guilty city stood. Dr. Robinson, perhaps our greatest authority on Bible geography, made careful search for the ruins of Capernaum, in the fertile plain on the western side of the sea of Galilee, called anciently the land of Gennesareth. Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes a brook or fountain, which he calls Capharnaum, as watering this plain. He does not mention the town; but as the references to it in Scripture show that it must have lain in the land of Gennesareth, it has been reasonably enough supposed that this fountain took its name from the town, and was near it. There are now two fountains in the locality referred to. One of these, called "Ain et Tin," from a great fig-tree which overhangs it, and situated near the northern extremity of the plain, not far from the lake, Dr. Robinson conceives to have