V. Scriptural Allusions to Geological Facts. — (Con- densed from Pattison, ut sup. p. 10.5-108.) The sacred writers make frequent references to the physical phe- nomena of the earth beneath. Are such references in accordance with the fiicts established liy subsequent researches and the observation of travellers, or do the latter convict the former of ignorance and error.' The question is the more iniportiuit as the materials of tlie eartli are not treated conrentinnall// in the Scriptures, but naturally. In speaking of the sand on the sea-
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shore, one writer alludes to it as a barrier placed by God against the encroachments of ocean, another as an illustration of tlie countless host of the Philistines, a third as representative of the multitude of God's peo- j)le. Far different and more ada])ted to universal use is this than the employment of one object always to express one and the same idea, as in the symbolic pic- ture-writing of the Egyptians and Assyrians, and as is the usage in much of the literature of the East. Free- dom of language, if not of thouglit, is unknown where every object is used as a conventional sign, always ap- pi'opriated to one lixed sentiment. We sliall find inci- dental accordances between the facts and the record in regard to all things capable of such veritication. Take, for instance, the references to stone as an illustration.
The patriarchs and Israelites are frequently direct- ed to build an altar; the injunction to form it of un- hewn stones will be found given where rocks abound ; the permission to make it of earth refers to districts in which we now find that stone cannot readih' be pro- cured. The numerous instances given of the setting up of commemorative stones in Palestine by the Isra- elites could not have occurred in the reckless plains of the Euphrates. See Stone. The geological trav- eller can readil)- understand the perfect congruitj^ of the p'icture which .v.presents the armj' of the Philis- tines encamped on one hill, the bands of Israel on the opposite slope, and a brawling brook in the valley be- tween, to which David descended, and from its water- worn pebbles selected five for his sling, smoothed and sharpened by the stream.
The mention of slime for mortar, and brick for stone, in the Babylonian plains (Gen. xi, 3), in Egypt (Exod. i, 11), and again bj' the Euphrates during the captiv- itj' (Nah. iii, 14) ; and of bitumen in the vale of Sid- dim (Gen. xiv, 10), equally corresponds with the pres- ent geological character of the regions referred to.
The frecjuent occurrence of rocks and broken ground in Syria is the groundwork of much of the scenery re- flected in the general language of Scripture writers, and of manjMucidents in the history. This accurately accords with the actual physical character of the land itself.
The representations of scenery are so minute in some cases — for instance, the rocky defile in Gibeah, 1 Sam. xiv, 4 — that it becomes cjuite easy for travellers to test the fidelity of the writer. To this kind of crit- icism the Bible is more exposed than any other book, owing to its variety in time and place ; and it need hardly be said that it has escaped not onl}^ unscathed, but illustrious, from tlie trial. The peninsula of Sinai is nowhere formally geographically descrilied in the Bible; but from the record of events alleged to have taken place there, we infer that it was a mountainous district, full of barren, rugged rocks, towering into peaks, and cleft by deep, dry valleys. Lalmrde, and the numerous tribe of Oriental travellers, in descril)ing the surface scenery, bring before us evidence of the peculiarly appropriate terms in which Scripture alludes to this region. One of the latest travellers thus writes : " Soon after this we came to an immense plain of hard rocks. The mountains which bounded it v.ere truly magnificent: their numerous summits seemed not so much peaks as spikes, or tall spires of rocks. The whole scene is one of the most magnificent desolation and unniingled terror" (II. Bonar, Desert of Sinai).
So, in the limestones, there exist now caverns which are the verilications of the cave of Machpelah, of Adul- lam, and others, liy showing the occurrence of strata in which the requisite phenomena are found ; while the water-supph' of the whole countrj- at present is an ac- curate reflection of the scriptural account of wells and streams. The language of David and of the prophet Isaiah could only have been eniplo}-ed by persons fa- mili.ir with the need of irrigation, and its modes, pe- culiar to the countries to which the}' profess to belong. How vividly were the mountains of the Holy Land
impressed upon the minds of the principal writers of the Bible ! There are about three hundred distinct references in Scripture to mountains ; a glance at a good phj'sical map of the region will show the corre- spondence between the statements of the record and the facts of the earth's surface in the districts referred to.
Were a student shut up in a cell, without any other channel of knowledge than the Word, he might con- struct a physical geography of the East wiiich would contain all the leading features of that remarkable portion of the globe. The river of Egypt, with its fertile plains, the stony desert, the rock}' Sinai, the hills of Judaea, the rivers and lakes, the mountain chains, and the Great Sea, would all fall into their proper places on his ideal map.