28 INTRODUCTION. 



even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 

 hold me.' 



How much interest, too, would this opinion, if entertained 

 by the Jews, add to the sentiment in the 46th Psalm, 



The writer, in the fulness of his confidence in God, as a 

 strong and sure refuge in the time of trouble, declares that he 

 will trust securely in him, though the earth be shaken, and 

 the mountains overthrown by the mighty heavings of the deep. 



c God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 

 trouble ; therefore will not we fear, though the earth be re- 

 moved, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of 

 the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 

 though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.' 



Such an exposition, whether it be strictly correct or not,, 

 does most surely discover new beauties in these passages ; and 

 in all these and in all other cases, we have this reflection ob- 

 viously presenting itself, that the difference of view, between 

 them and us, which such investigations disclose, always re- 

 lates to points merely of human knowledge. We never find 

 them countenancing the least erroneous opinion, on any of the 

 principles or truths of divine revelation. 



But, notwithstanding the benefits to be derived from an 

 acquaintance with the state of general knowledge, among the 

 Jews, and of their ordinary habits of thinking, the value of 

 such kind of information, to the reader of the Bible at the 

 present day, is still more clearly and strikingly seen, in cases 

 where our ideas of the most common and familiar objects are 

 different from theirs. We all of us are apt to think, and 

 young persons especially are, that the places and occurrences 

 of which we read in the Bible, are too remote in distance and 

 time, to make any clear and vivid impressions upon the mind. 

 But the great difficulty is, in regarding the scene, and the 

 natural objects of Scripture History, as not susceptible of the 

 same distinct and tangible apprehension, as we may have of 

 objects and scenes immediately around us, here. 



Take, for example, the Scripture allusions to the shep- 

 herd and his flock. Perhaps there are no objects, in the 

 whole Animal Kingdom, which furnish so many beautiful 

 and affecting illustrations, as the sheep and the fold. The 

 shepherd, the sheep, and the lambs are the sources of illustra- 

 tion, from the beginning to the end of the Bible. And yet 

 how much of the force and beauty of many of them is lost, by 

 a want of acquaintance with the custom of the time, in rela 

 tion to them. 



