the region indicated, which requires a location in the extreme S.W., possibly at the present water-pits call-
After an academical education in New York, he pur- sued his collegiate studies at Dickinson College. Car-
ed Themail (Robinson, i, 209), or rather the ruins just Hsle, Pennsylvania, at that time under the presidency north of them, and four miles south of Beer-sheba (Van 0f Dr. Mason, and, after graduating, entered the The- de Velde, Map). According to Schwarz (Palest, p. ological Seminary at Princeton in 1822. In 1825 he 113), it is identical with a hill (Jcbel Hassy, Van de I -was licensed by the New York Presbytery, and or- Velde, Memoir, p. 295) S. W. of Eleutheropolis, which \ dained to the ministry. After serving a year as naval he says is still called Bethulia ; but this lacks confirma- j chaplain at Savannah, he accepted the pastoral charge fcion, and is also too far north. j of the Reformed Protestant Dutch church at Rhinebeck,
Bethu'lia (or rather Betylua, BervXova, for the where he remained until 1830, when he was called as
Heb. rT&ina [Simonis, Churn. N. r.p.41] or n^W3 fe" t0 U?*' J™?, there*e wef to Philadelphia
.■'■■■'- J T (1834) as pastor ofthe Crown Street church. He resign-
for fiJPKWa, house of God Jehovah), a place men- ed his charge in &e latter city in 1849) and rernoved to
tioned only in the apocryphal book of Judith (iv, G; Brooklyn, where a new church was built expressly for
him, and in which he ministered until 1859, when illness compelled him to resign and spend a year in Europe. On his return he became associate pastor of Dr. Van Nest's church in New York, but, his strength continu- ing to decline, he was again compelled to go to Europe in search of health. On this tour he died at Florence, Italy, April 27, 1862, of congestion of the brain. Dr.
10, 11, 14 ; vii, 1, 3, C, 13, 20 ; viii, 3, 11 ; x, 6 19; xii. 7; xiii, 10; xv, 3, 6; xvi, 21, 23), of which it was the principal scene, and where its position is minutely described. It was near Dothaim (iv. 0), on a hill which overlooked (dirkvavn) the plain of Es- draelon (vi, 11, 13, 11: vii, 7, 10 ; xiii, 10), and com- manded the passes from that plain to the hill country of Manasseh i h
Holofernes abandoned the idea of taking it by attack and determined to reduce it by possessing himself of the two s|irine;s or wells (iriiyai) which were "under the city," in tin- valley at the foot of the eminence on which it was built, and from which the Inhabitants derived tJieir chief Bupply of water (vi, 11 ; vii, 7, 13, 2] i. Notwithstanding this detail, however, the iden- tilieation of the site of Bethulia has hitherto been so great a puzzle as to form an important argument
1 |, in a position so strong that Bethune was one of the leading men ofthe Reformed
Dutch Church. All the boards ofthe Church shared
bis sympathies and labors, but, in particular, he devo- ted himself to the service ofthe Board of Publication. He was of opinion that a sound religious literature, doctrinal as well as practical, was needed, and must be brought down to the means ofthe masses, and that treatises on special doctrines, which general societies could not publish, should be prepared and issued. To show his interest in this work, he made over to the
against the historical truth of the bopk of Judith (see board several of his own works of high character.
CeUarii No**, iii. 18, 4). See Judith. In the Mid- Though always a conservative m polities, he was a de-
dle Ages the name of Bethulia was given to "the termined opponent of slavery, and it was principally
Frank Mountain," bctweon Bethlehem and Jerusalem due to him that the General Synod declined receiving
BETII-ZECHAPJAH
191
BETOMASTHEM
the chassis of North Carolina into the body. "When ' Jamos Buchanan was elected president, Dr. Bethune -wrote a long letter to that gentleman, with whom he had close personal relations, imploring him, as he loved his country, and would prevent the calamity of a civil war, to use his great influence, when in the prcsiden- [ tial chair, to arrest the march of the slave power. Dr. Bethune was for many years one of the most distin- guished ornaments of the American pulpit. He was exceedingly effective, and always popular on the plat- form and before a lyceum ; but the place in which, above all others, he loved to appear, was the pulpit, and the themes on which he delighted to expatiate were the distinctive doctrines of the old theology of Scotland and Holland. As a writer he was luminous and vigorous, with a rare grace of style. His theo- j logical acquirements were large and solid, and his general culture rich and varied. As a belles-lettres scholar he had few superiors. Himself a poet, he had | rare critical taste, as was shown in his British Female Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices. He also edited "Walton's Complete Angler with a loving devo- tion. His works also include Lays of Love and Faith (12mo) ; Early Lost, Early Saved (Philad. 18mo) ; His- tory of a Penitent (18mo); Fruits of the Spirit (Philad. 8vo) ; Sermo7is (Philad. 1846, 12mo) ; Life of Mrs. Be- j thune (N. Y. 186,3, 12mo) : Lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism (N. Y. 1864, 2 vols. 12mo).