128 



ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



3. A icnow-.edge of the manners and customs, 

 climate and seasons, arts and sciences of the 

 Eastern nations, is essentially requisite, in many 

 instances, in order to understand the allusions of 

 the sacred writers, and the meaning of various 

 portions of Scripture. For example, when an 

 untutored reader peruses the account given in 

 the Evangelists of the cure of the paralytic who 

 was carried by four men on a bed, and who, find 

 ing it impossible to pass through the throng, as 

 cended to the top of the house in which Jesus 

 was, and let him down bed and all, &quot; through 

 the tiling,&quot; into the very room where he was 

 sitting he is apt to entertain a very confused 

 and erroneous idea of the circumstances of the 

 case, when his attention is directed solely to the 

 mode of building in this country. But, when he 

 is informed, that the houses in the country of 

 Judea were low-built and flat-roofed, and sur 

 rounded with a parapet breast-high, that there 

 was a ladder or pair of stairs which led to the 

 top of the house from the outside, and a trap-door 

 or hatchway in the middle of the roof he will 

 soon acquire a clear idea of the circumstances 

 stated in this and other parts of the Evangelical 

 history, and of the ease with which the paralytic 

 man might be conveyed to the top of the build 

 ing and let down through the roof. The same 

 facts likewise illustrate the circumstance of 

 Peter s going to the top of the house to pray, and 

 the custom of making proclamations from the 

 house-tops, to which there are several allusions 

 in Scripture. A knowledge of the weather and 

 seasons of Judea, is frequently of use to illustrate 

 the force of certain expressions of the sacred wri 

 ters. It may seem to us nothing extraordinary 

 that there should be &quot; thunder and rain in har 

 vest,&quot; or in the months of June and July, when 

 Samuel said, &quot; Is it not wheat harvest to day ? 

 1 will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thun 

 der and rain.&quot;* But Jerome, who lived in Ju 

 dea many years, says, it never rained there at 

 that season ; so that the thunder and rain which 

 happened at the intercession of Samuel were 

 truly miraculous, and as such, &quot; the people greatly 

 feared the Lord and Samuel.&quot; Again, in Luke 

 xii. 65, it is said, &quot; When ye see the south wind 

 blow, ye say there will be heat, and it cometh to 

 pass.&quot; In our climate, where the south wind sel 

 dom blows, this may not be always the case. But 

 in Syria, Egypt, Judea and the adjacent coun 

 tries, the effect here mentioned is striking and 



ratus to the History of the Bible,&quot; has been left out, 

 without any reason being: assigned for the omission. 

 Tn other respects the original work appears to be 

 complete. Bishop Gleig s improvements consist 

 chiefly in bringing forward the discoveries of modern 

 science for the purpose of elucidating certain Scrip 

 tural facts, and repelling the objections of infidels- 

 arid in vnrious dissertations on some of the leading 

 doctrines and historical facts of revelation, which 

 toirn valuable additions to the original work of 

 &quot;vikhouse. See also Home s Introduction, &c. 

 17. 



uniform. When the south wind begins to blow, 

 the sky becomes dark and heavy, the air grev 

 and thick, and the whole atmosphere assumes a. 

 most alarming aspect. The heat produced by 

 these southern winds has been compared to that 

 of a huge oven, at the moment of drawing out 

 the bread, and to that of a flame blown upon the 

 face of a person standing near the fire that ex 

 cites it. 



Thousands of illustrations of Sacred Scripture 

 may be derived from such sources; and he who 

 is unacquainted with them must remain a stran 

 ger to the beauties of the style of the inspired 

 writers, and to the precise meaning of many 

 portions both of the historical and the prophetical 

 writings. The manners and customs of the East 

 ern nations have remained nearly the same for 

 several thousand years ; so that those which are 

 found existing in the present day are exactly, or 

 nearly the same, as those which prevailed in the 

 times when the books of the Old and New Testa 

 ments were written. Modern oriental travellers, 

 in their descriptions of the arts, sciences and 

 manners of the East, have furnished us with a 

 mass of invaluable materials for the elucidation of 

 holy writ, and they have proved, in many cases, 

 unintentionally, better commentators than the 

 most profound critics and philologists. Many of 

 their insulated remarks of this kind have lately 

 been classified and arranged by various writers, 

 particularly by Harmer, in his &quot; Observations,&quot; 

 Burder in his &quot; Oriental Customs,&quot; Paxton in 

 his &quot; Illustrations,&quot; and Taylor, the late learned 

 editor of the new editions of Calmet s Dictionary, 

 in his Fragmenta, appended to ihat work, 

 which contains an immense number of such 

 observations, illustrated with a great variety of 

 engravings. 



4. An acquaintance with Ancient Geography, 

 especially that part of it which relates to the 

 Eastern countries, would enable a person to pe 

 ruse many portions of Scripture with much greater 

 interest and intelligence, than if he were alto 

 gether ignorant of this branch of knowledge. In 

 the history of the Old Testament, and in the 

 Prophetical writings, there are frequent references 

 and allusions to Mesopotamia, Idumea, Egypt, 

 Assyria, Chaldea, Arabia, Ethiopia, Lybia 

 Parthia, Scythia, Persia, and other countries 

 to the cities of Jerusalem, Babylon, Nineveh, 

 Damascus, Tadmor, Tyre, Sidon, &c. to the 

 great Sea, or the Mediterranean, the Deqd Sea, 

 the Sea of Tiberias, the Red Sea the isles of 

 Chittim, Cyprus, Crete, Melita the rivers Jor. 

 dan, Kishon, Jabbok, Euphrates, Hiddekel, Pi- 

 son, Ulai, Abana, Pharpar, &c. Now, a know 

 ledge of the positions of such places with respect 

 to the country of Judea, their relative situations 

 with regard to each other, and of the outlines o&amp;lt; 

 their history, and of the warlike achievements 

 and commerce of their inhabitants is frequent 

 ly necessary, in order to attain a clear and com 



