complete analogy to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The name "Arvad" signifies "a wandering, as of animals which have broken the yoke.' The love of freedom is a natural virtue only to be found in the higher races of mankind, and it is strong in the Irish Celts; nevertheless, the "wandering" which arises from breaking a yoke may betoken a restless, or even a rebellious spirit. The Irish, for many years, have been leaving their own land and emigrating to the United States and other portions of the globe, to the number of several millions. Again, as Arvad was peopled by emigrants from Zidon and Tyre, so also has Ireland been peopled, in the northern province of Ulster, from Scotland; and in the south by emigrants from the southern nations of Europe; which accounts for the distinctive character of the inhabitants of the north and south of Ireland. The Celtic race in the south of Ireland have a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish blood in their veins, and historically we read of immigrants in early times from Greece. Hence, there may exist a spiritual affinity, as well as similar characteristics in disposition, between Ireland and Greece, and this we have reason to believe is the case. The men of Arvad also served with the army of Tyre, as it is written, "The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers : they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect" (Ezek. xxvii. 11).

England has long been indebted both to Scotland and to Ireland for some of her greatest military heroes. Scotland with her brave Highlanders has long been celebrated as a martial nation, and for patriotic adherence to its ancient customs and clanship. The Irish, as tradition tells us, are a fighting race, and are ever, as it were, ready to hang their shields on the walls of Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 10), and being insular, they have also vindicated their character as "mariners" (Ezek. xxvii. 8) or seafaring men. The Emerald Isle, however, has also been noted for her eloquent sons, in diplomacy, at the Bar, and in the Church.

The army of Tyre is referred to by way of parenthesis, and the feature that seemed most prominent was that it was composed of mercenaries, among whom were the names Persia, Lud (Lydia), Phut (Lybia), and Arvad. As regards the army of the United Kingdom, it is small, and seems to be the only thing disproportionate to her imperial position and responsibilities. Napoleon said of the British infantry that it was the best in Europe, but that it was a fortunate thing that their number was so small. The British nation is more commercial than military; we do not go to war from sentiment, nor for the love of glory like the Gaul, nor for ambition, nor for territorial aggrandizement.

To associate places with the British army and her feudatories were a hopeless task, for it would involve the majority of her Colonies, and they are far more numerous than the countries whence the mercenaries of Tyre were drawn ; but this grand distinction exists, that our army is not gathered by conscription nor composed of foreigners nor mercenaries, but entirely of free subjects of the British Empire.

In the late war with the Boers, our Colonies, far and wide, gave abundant evidence of their loyalty to the Mother-country, when they voluntarily sprang to arms to maintain her supremacy in South Africa.

"The regular forces of the British Empire, including those at home, in the Colonies, and in India, only number 344,074 officers and men, so that the smallness of her army, in comparison with the great standing armies of foreign powers, forms another point of the parallelism between ancient Tyre and England. By the latest returns (1904) the whole effective force, including army reserve, militia, yeomanry, and volunteers, amount to 680,000 officers and men.

May the Lord hasten the time when, under the rule of the Prince of Peace, men (6 shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, (when) nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isa. ii. 4 ; Mic. iv. 3).

CHAPTER V.

THE COLONIES OF TYRE AND THOSE OF ENGLAND.

"The multitude of Egypt

nations."-EZEK. xxxii. 18.

T

Appropriate Scripture: EZEK. Xxvii. 12–36.

HE twenty-seventh chapter of the Book of Ezekiel is unique and full of human interest, but it is one that might seem, at first sight, to possess little spiritual value or instruction. And yet, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. iii. 16). It is this variety which enhances the sublime revelations and human adaptability of the Bible. It reveals the omnipotent and creative power of God, His nature, His character, His purpose and His great salvation; it treats of the deepest mysteries, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation; it gives an outline of the history of creation from the beginning to the end of all things; it discloses the origin of man, and relates his fall; it sets forth his redemption through Jesus Christ, and reveals man's ultimate glorification in the Kingdom of God. Holy Scripture abounds not only in prophecies, in poetry, in sublime imagery, in devotional and plaintive outbursts of the struggling soul; but also in features which appear more unspiritual and barren, in genealogies, in historical and ethnological records, and in topographical and geographical descriptions. These latter are the items which stamp the Bible as an historic record, and prove its genuineness, confuting

the idea of collusion and imposture. For as the inscriptions on the stones and tablets lately excavated in Assyria, Palestine, and Egypt have confirmed the truth of the historical statements of the Holy Scriptureseven when the Biblical account seemed inconsistent with secular records-so this constant interweaving of history with well-known places, marks the Bible as a trustworthy authority, which becomes strengthened by numerous undesigned coincidences and confirmations. Some of the topographical allusions to Palestine in this sacred book (e.g., Judg. xxi. 19) can be verified to this hour, and Mr. Murray opens his guide-book for Syria and Palestine with this sentence: "The Bible is the best handbook for Palestine; the present work is only intended to be a companion to it." Of late, the stones have been "crying out" and bearing their witness to the truth of the Old Testament as in the case of the Hittites, of Lachish and Gezer in Palestine, and of Tell Amarna in Egypt, as well as in numerous other instances.1 Hence, the Bible is not, as some term it, merely a sentimental book, nor one wholly taken up with spiritual truth; for whilst it is a book about God, and is the WORD OF GOD, treating of the next world and its future glories; it is also a book about men, with their various characters, temptations, failings, sins and reformations; and it does not ignore the geographical and historical aspects of the countries with which its writers or actors were brought in contact. Looking at Holy Scripture as one harmonious unity and connected with the whole race of mankind, it will be seen that every part dovetails together, and that its great variety is essential to its superhuman and divine character.

The portion of the Book of Ezekiel now under consideration is, from the nature of the case, geographical, and its exposition will be facilitated by tracing the places upon the adjoining map. Its study involves the review of

I See also Marturia, or the Testimony of Ancient Monuments in the British Muscum to the Historical Accuracy of Holy Scripture, p. 2. D. Hobbs & Co., Glasgow.

the Tyrian colonies, and of the commercial geography of the nations connected with Tyre, of which some thirty-eight places are mentioned in this xxviith chapter. They resolve themselves into three groups. The first group of the places named is associated with the ships of Tyre; the second group has reference to her army; the third group is connected indirectly with her colonies and settlements, and with her exports, but principally with her imports (Ezek. xxvii. 5–11).

Having in the previous chapter considered the first and second of these groups, we now proceed to describe the colonies of Tyre; and subsequently to discuss her great commerce which was bound up with her world-wide colonies (Ezek. xxvii. 12-25).

I. The COLONIAL EXPANSION of ancient Tyre deserves emphasis, both because of its unique character and because it offers such a marked analogy to modern England in her colonial empire.

The successful planting of colonies is not an universal characteristic of all nations, for some races do not possess the faculty of colonization. That the art of establishing colonies (or perhaps what might, in some cases, be more correctly termed settlements), was possessed in such an unrivalled degree by ancient Tyre so many hundred years before Christ, in what might be termed the dawn of civilization, is a noteworthy fact. The same feature was reproduced in Carthage, which was a colony or daughter of Tyre. Nevertheless, an important difference existed in the character of the establishments of the mother and the daughter, especially as seen in Iberia.

"The Carthaginians combined with their commercial projects large schemes of conquest and empire. . . . But the foreign settlements of Tyre and Zidon were formed with views purely commercial.

"The most ancient Phoenician colonies were Utica, nearly on the northernmost point of the coast of Africa, and, in the same gulf (now called the Gulf of Tunis), was Carthage. Gades, or Gadeira, in Tartessus, was on the south-western coast of Spain. . . . How well the site