changes made by the Romans in the general divisions of Greece proper and Macedonia, where they affixed the ancient names to provinces and regions of far different limits; we may well suppose, that it is not the mere common reader who can accompany the sacred writers in their geographical details, or follow the great apostle of the Gentiles in his various journies.

Our information on these topics is to be gleaned, principally, from the treatises of Strabo and Ptolemy, and from the passing notices of contemporary Roman historians, and occasionally of Cicero and other writers; but especially, as it regards Palestine, from the works of Josephus. These furnish, indeed, but scanty materials; but they are all we have; and, taken in connexion with the facts derived from the New Testament, they enable us in most cases to come at satisfactory conclusions. The physical geography is best learned from the observations of modern travellers. Palestine is becoming every year more and more accessible; and the light which has been thrown upon its natural features by the reports of Seetzen, Burckhardt, Leigh, the American missionaries, and recently by Dr Jowett, and in the delightful Letters from the East,' has contributed much to impart spirit and interest to our conceptions of the scenery so often alluded to in the Bible.

The New Testament, as well as the Old, is, in its costume, a national book; national not only in the references, which it makes to the history and geography of the Jews, but also in those frequent allusions, which it contains to the manners and customs of the people; to their dress, their meals, their hospitality, their modes of salutation and habits of social intercourse, their houses, their agriculture, and above all, to the rites and ceremonies of their religion, which exercised an influence over their whole lives and conduct. The ancestors of the nation were wandering nomades, without fixed habitation; and their descendants, when they came out of Egypt, appear to have possessed a similar character, and to have closely resembled those Arabian tribes, which still roam, in the true spirit of oriental liberty, over the dreary deserts on the east and south of Palestine. Many customs the Hebrews had in common with those tribes; as, for instance, the rights of the Goël or avenger of blood, which are still found existing in the East in all their ancient strength, and which Moses was not able to abolish, but only to modify by the appointment of cities of refuge. But the national character of the Hebrews was framed and fixed by the institutions of their great legislator; their religion, or its external requirements and prohibitions, pervaded every part of the daily occupations and intercourse of domestic and private life. They were to be a peculiar people, consecrated to God, and beloved of Heaven. Their institutions excluded them from all connexion with surrounding nations; and when in the lapse of time they mingled with the inhabitants of other countries, in the pursuits of commerce, or as the subjects of foreign dominion, still it was as the clean with the unclean, as the holy with the unholy. They neither ate nor drank with them, nor contracted alliances of friendship. Dispersed among all nations, they were yet separate from all nations. They stood aloof in their pride from all the world, as to this day they stand aloof.

It is needless to remark, that the character of the Jews, and their manners and customs, must be studied principally in the books of the Old Testament. There we have spread before us the original of all their institutions, the very code of legislation, which, in a great degree, formed their character, and established their national peculiarities. Interwoven as the precepts of their Scriptures were with the very texture of their thoughts and feelings, it is only by rendering ourselves familiar with those Scriptures, that we can at all enter into those thoughts and feelings, and comprehend the lofty pride and bitter prejudices of the Jew. Moreover, the religion of the New Testament is founded on that of the Old. Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them; not to repeal, but to establish them with higher sanctions and more powerful motives. Hence, the New Testament is the image of the Old, in precept, in doctrine, in illustration, in language, and expression; it is built upon it, and forms part of the same structure. The former could not be understood without the latter; it would be unintelligible, both in language and in doctrine. Presented to the world in a later age, it naturally wears a different dress; the costume, indeed, is mostly Grecian; while the body, soul, and spirit, are altogether Hebrew.

In this connexion we would again advert to the study of the Hebrew language. We have already urged, in general terms, the cultivation of an acquaintance with the Scriptures in their original tongues; and have spoken of a knowledge of the Hebrew as essential to the accurate comprehension of the philology of the New Testament. But we would speak of it here, as one of the means of acquiring a familiarity with the genius and

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character of the Jewish people, and of becoming imbued with oriental spirit; without out which it is apparent that the New Testament cannot be fully understood. We hold it to be almost an axiom, that the genius of a nation cannot be thoroughly comprehended and felt, without an adequate acquaintance with their vernacular tongue. It is this which constitutes one of their chief peculiarities. The language of every people contains words and phrases and modes of construction and expression, springing out of and adapted to their individual characteristics and exigencies; and which, when once introduced and fixed, exercise a controlling power in moulding and fashioning trains of thought and emotion in the plastic minds of the rising generation. The various languages of the earth are the channels through which the thoughts and feelings and passions of the different nations have burst forth upon the world; and to form a correct estimate of the peculiarities of those thoughts and feelings, of those traits which make them what they are, and render them national in their character, they must be viewed as they roll onward in those channels which they have formed for themselves. Demosthenes or Chatham could never have been eloquent in the language of France; nor could the gallantry and gracefulness of France find utterance in the unwieldy phraseology of Germany.

We would not assert, with the emperor Charles the Fifth, that the learning of a new language is the acquisition of another sense; but we have always felt that it was like the acquaintance of a new friend, imparting to us new ideas, and giving us new notions of life and manners. If we may speak from experience, we know of no process which exercises such an expansive power upon the mind, as the study of a language. It is turning over for us a new leaf in the book of human nature, and bringing us acquainted with the modes in which another nation thinks and feels. Besides, the literature of a people, which is only the embodying of their intellectual habits in form and expression, and which is shaped by their circumstances and characteristic traits, can never be accurately viewed through the medium of any language but its own; it can never be transfused into the speech of another country; or if the attempt be made, yet, like the native of a different clime, although it strive to speak another tongue, the features and costume evince at once its foreign birth. The literature of the Jews is in the Hebrew Bible; and if, as most of our readers are aware, it is impossible successfully to transplant into our own language the literary works of contemporary modern nations; how much more groundless is the hope, that this should ever be done, with full success, in regard to the books of a people so remote in time, so unlike ourselves in all that gives individuality to nations, so distinct and marked in all that pertains to character and genius, so unexampled in the circumstances both of their glory and their fall.

But the claims of the Hebrew, and the treasures which it unfolds, would seem of themselves sufficient to stimulate inquiry and enchain attention. The most ancient of languages of which we have any records, distinguished for a simplicity unimitated and inimitable, and exhibiting forms of words and constructions perfectly dissimilar to all the occidental tongues and enstamped with the genius of oriental conception, it presents to the philologist a wide and fertile field, on which to employ his powers and gratify his predilections. Nor are the rewards which it proffers to the man of taste less rich or less important. If it be merit in a narrative, to place the scenes described before the very eye of him who reads, then have the Hebrew narratives this merit. We are present and mingle in the very scenes. We associate with the actors, we converse with them, we feel with and for them. They are to us like intimate acquaintances; they are ever in our thoughts, and objects of our present solicitude. If it be the province of poetry, to awaken in us thrilling emotions; to melt our souls in tenderness, or rouse them to lofty and impetuous feeling; to soothe our hearts by bland associations and images of loveliness, or enkindle within them high and holy aspirations; then does the poetry of the Hebrews take rank above all other poetry. The plaintive simplicity of the royal Psalmist, the sprightliness and beautiful imagery of the sons of Korah, the abrupt and energetic majesty of Isaiah, the exquisite tenderness and pathos of him who lamented over Zion, and the sublime and fervid flights of Nahum and Habakkuk, are without parallel in all that Greece or Rome can exhibit of beauty, or majesty, or pathos. But we forbear. These are but fruits and flowers which spring up by the way, and with which we may regale our languid senses. The object at which we aim lies far beyond; and the Hebrew, with all its attractions, is but an instrument, through which we are to arrive at a higher knowledge of divine truth.

We have spoken of the influence of the Jewish religion upon the writers of the New Testament, and of the intimate relation which their works bear to the books of the Jewish Canon. We might now go on to speak of the philosophy which then prevailed, and to which the inspired penmen have made frequent allusions; and we might point out how far this philosophy exerted an influence on the religious views of that age, or on those more peculiar ones which are developed in the New Testament. But we must content ourselves with simply remarking, that it has ever been the fate of religion, when brought into contact with philosophy, to be subjected to fanciful speculations and metaphysical reasonings, which have distorted her features and arrayed her in fantastic garments, widely different from the simplicity and grace of her primeval character. Religion has uniformly been the sufferer by the unhallowed connexion; and very rarely has it been her lot to elevate or direct the aims and principles of philosophy. The three great sects of the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadduces, and Essenes, made their religion altogether dependant on their different philosophical opinions, in regard to which they were at irreconcilable enmity. Their separate views are given with some particularity by Josephus. Traces also of the Greek philosophy are visible in the apocryphal book of Wisdom; and the influence of it could not yet have passed away in the age of the apostles. The use of the term Logos by John presents a problem which has never yet been fully solved; and in whatever way it may ultimately be determined, it is obvious that the question embraces the whole range of Platonic philosophy; as well that taught by the distinguished founder himself, as that which flourished in the schools of his successors, the new Platonists of Alexandria.

Thus far have we attempted to specify some of the fundamental principles, and main branches of investigation, on which the appropriate interpretation and lexicography of the New Testament must necessarily rest. If we have at all succeeded in placing before the minds of our readers our conceptions of the extent and importance of the subject, and of the magnitude of the responsibility connected with it, we shall not have labored in vain. The cause of truth is great and will prevail; but it must be at the expense of great efforts, great perseverance, and great sacrifices. Whoever would sit down to make himself familiar with the Bible, and to know all that is to be known respecting it, must make this the grand purpose of his life; and even then he will find that 'wearisome days and nights are ap

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