3. ASSURANCE OF HOPE (Heb. vi. 11). The phrase means a firm expectation that God will grant us the complete enjoyment of what he has promised.

ASTAROTH. (See ASHTAROTH.)

ASTROLOGERS (Dan. ii. 27)—a class of men who pretended to foretell future events by observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. The science of astrology is said to have originated in Chaldea, and in that country it was practised universally. A learned caste, styled Chaldeans " even by the inhabitants of Babylon, seem especially to have excelled in it. It was practised even in England at a late period; and Horace alludes to it as prevalent at Rome, under the title of "Babylonian numbers." (See BABYLON.)

filled the world. Its philosophers, poets, orators, and historians, have been the wonder of all times. We turn with delighted fancy to the ACADEMY of Plato, the LYCEUM of Aristotle, or the PORCH of Zeno-to the forum where Demosthenes harangued the people, or the theatre where the dramas of Sophocles instructed and thrilled the critical and susceptible audience. In short, Athens was distinguished not only for political importance and military power, but for the eloquence, literature, and refinement of its inhabitants. The accounts of Athens contained in the Acts, as to its inquisitiveness and idolatry, are filled up by pagan historians. Ælian called it the altar of Greece-Petronius affirmed that a god was more easily and readily found in it than a Many other authors testify that it was wholly given to idolatry," and that its inhabitants were not only "too superstitious," or greatly given to the worship of the gods, but were also notorious gossips, lounging newsmongers, spending their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." It is said that Athens contained 300 places of gossip. The shops of surgeons and barbers were the most famed resorts for gathering and retailing news. This natural propensity was so gross as to provoke not only the castigation of foreign writers, but also the ridicule and satire of their own poets and philosophers.

ASUPPIM, HOUSE OF (1 Chr. xxvi. 15)-man. some one of the apartments of the temple where the stores were kept or the elders assembled.

ATAD. (See ABEL-MIZRAIM.) ATHALIAH-remembered of Jehovah (2 Ki. xi. 1)-the mother of Ahaziah. Ahab, king of Israel, was her father, and her mother was the notorious Jezebel. She married Joram or Jehoram, king of Judah. The sacred biographer gives her a most odious and revolting character. She advised her own son in his wickedness; and after Jehu had slain him (see AHAZIAH), she resolved to destroy the children of her husband by his former wives, and then take the throne of Judah. But Jehosheba, a half-sister of Ahaziah, secured Joash, one of the children and heirs, and secreted him and his nurse for six years. In the seventh year, everything being prepared for the purpose, Joash, the young prince, was brought out and placed on the throne. Attracted by the crowd of people who had assembled to witness the ceremony, and unsuspicious of the cause, Athaliah hastened to the temple. When the populace had assembled, and when she saw the young king on the throne, and heard the shouts of the people, and found that all her ambitious designs were likely to be defeated, she rent her clothes and cried out, "Treason, Treason," hoping probably to rally a party in favour of her interests. But she was too late. The priest commanded her to be removed from the temple, and she was put to death.

ATHENS city of Minerva (Acts xvii. 15)the capital of Attica in Greece, situated on the Saronic Gulf, 46 miles east of Corinth and 5 miles from the coast. Its three harbours-the Pyraeus, Munychia, and Phalerus, and the broad long walls by which they were joined to the city are often alluded to in Grecian history. The architectural beauty of the city, especially of its temples, has commanded the admiration of all succeeding ages. Athens, by her commercial enterprise, collected the richest productions of surrounding countries. Her citizens were proud of their metropolis, and often bled for its defence; yet the great proportion of the inhabitants were slaves, doomed to hopeless drudgery.

The intellectual fame of Athens has also

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The city was "built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil." The limestone rock on which Athens stands supplied the ordinary material for its buildings, and also from many of its quarries the marble for its nobler structures. The plain is bounded by ranges of hills on the north-west by Mount Parnes, on the south-east by Mount Hymettus, and on the north-east by Mount Pentelicus, out of which rises the higher pinnacles of Lycabettus, looking upon the city as Arthur's seat upon Edinburgh. About a mile south-west from it, and in the city, there rose the Acropolis, not unlike Stirling castle in the upper valley of the Forth. West of it was a smaller rock, the Areopagus or scene of judgment-the council meeting in the open air on its south-eastern summit, and sitting on benches hewn out in the rock, which form three sides of a quadrangle. To the southwest, and about a quarter of a mile from it, there was another and lower eminence, the Pnyx, the place of the great popular assemblies

also held in the open air under the deep blue of a Grecian sky-with its bema or stone block on which the orator stood and addressed the crowd, which gathered in a semicircular area of 12,000 square yards before him, and where Solon, Demosthenes, and Pericles often spoke to the assembled "men of Athens." Paul visited it about A. D. 52, and found the people sunk in idolatry and idleness. He preached there, and took occasion to reprove their superstitions, for which he was summoned before the Areopagus (Acts xvii. 16-23). (See AREOPAGUS.)

When brought to Mars-hill the apostle thus commences- Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious "—or,

rather, "ye carry your reverence for the gods | monuments, every available ledge laden with farther than most." The phrase, "too superstitious," as implying blame, is an unfortunate translation. The apostle appeals simply to the fact, and not to its character. He only uttered a commonplace, for the Athenians were noted among the other Grecian peoples for this propensity. They had pre-eminence in the scrupulous and unlimited attention paid by them to the national worship. The inspired orator alludes simply to this notorious circumstance, but neither smiles at it in compliment nor frowns upon it in censure. The implication is, that he came to guide and rectify this tendency of the Athenian mind. It had outcropped in every possible way, and given a multiform expression to itself in sculpture and masonry; but his mission was to turn it into the true course, and lead it to the knowledge of the one, pure, invisible, infinite, eternal, and loving Spirit.

Standing where the apostle did, he saw his words verified all around him. Above him was a temple of Mars, from whom the hill took its name; and near him was the subterranean sanctuary of the Eumenides or Furies, but usually called by the first title, from the same feeling which led the old Scottish people to name the fairies the "good folk," though they were a waspish and capricious race. The forum he had left was studded with statues, the altar of the twelve gods being in its centre, and the temple of Venus at its eastern end, while on all sides of it were deified heroes of the old mythology. Behind him was the Pnyx sacred to Jove, and before him was the Acropolis, its sides and summit covered with religious

its shrine or image, its platforms filled with sculptured groups of gods in various forms and attitudes; on its northern extremity the Erectheum, with its enclosures and its presiding deities; the cave of Pan and Apollo, with its sacred fountain not far from its base, and adjoining it the sanctuary of Aglaurus; and the Parthenon, crowning the whole, the central glory of the scene; while opposite the magnificent Propylæa, and formed out of the trophies of Marathon, was the gigantic bronze statue of the goddess herself, with spear and shield-the name-mother of the city, and its great protector. In the north-west quarter was the temple of Theseus, and in the opposite direction was that of Jupiter Olympius. A temple of Ceres was close to the Pompeium, in which were kept the robes and vases for the religious processions; and a temple of the divine mother was near to the great council-house, in which also were shrines and altars. There were shrines, too, at the principal gates. The altar of Prometheus was within the groves of the Academy; and the Lyceum, with its tall plane trees, was dedicated to Apollo. There were also the Pythium and the Delphinium, characteristic names of temples, with those of Euclea, of Castor and Pollux, and of Serapis. Every street, in short, had some object or scene of devotion; every view was bounded and fringed with fanes and idols.

ATONEMENT (Lev. iv. 20; Rom. v. 11). The word is evidently thus formed-AT-ONEMENT. When two enemies are reconciled, and are made to be at-one-the means by which they were pacified, or their state of harmony,

is an at-one-ment. In this original and old | speculations of men to destroy or modify this English sense the word is used by Shakespeare:

B

BAAL, or BEL (1 Ki. xviii. 21; Isa. xlvi. | out the British islands. There were various 1)--the supreme god of Phoenicia and Syria, and originally the name by which several nations of the East worshipped the sun. The

BAALAH. (See KIRJATH.)

as

BAAL-BERITH-Baal of the covenant (Judg. viii. 32)-worshipped by the men of Shechem. BAAL-GAD-Baal of fortune or destiny (Josh. xi. 17; xii. 7; Judg. iii. 3)—a city in the valley of Lebanon, supposed to have been under mount Hermon, and probably the same BAAL-HERMON (1 Chr. v. 23). A comparison of the passages in which this place is named would incline us to the opinion that it was situated somewhere in the northern limit of Joshua's conquest; all the country from it to Hamath, including Anti-Lebanon, remaining unconquered.

BAAL-HAMON-lord of multitude-a place where Solomon had a large vineyard (Song viii. 11).

BAAL-HAZOR-lord of a village-a place by the city of Ephraim (2 Sam. xiii. 23).

BAAL-MEON-lord of habitation (Num. xxxii. 38; Ezek. xxv. 9)- -a city of the tribe of Reuben, called also Beth-meon (Jer. xlviii. 23), and Beth-baal-meon (Josh. xiii. 17).

BAAL-PEOR (Ps. cvi. 28)-Baal worshipped at Peor. The worship connected with this false divinity was of the most openly licentious nature. "They went to Baal-peor," says Hosea, "and separated themselves unto that shame."

usurped the throne, which he held for twentyfour years. To secure himself against any disturbance from the family of Jeroboam, he caused them all to be put to death. By this cruel act he undesignedly fulfilled the prophecy respecting Jeroboam's posterity (1 Ki. xiv. 10). Baasha followed in the wicked ways of Jeroboam, and was visited with the most fearful judgments of God. The warning he received of the consequences of his conduct (1 Ki. xvi. 1-5) did not induce him to forsake his evil course. His reign was filled with war and treachery, and his family and relatives were cut off, according to the prediction (1 Ki. xvi. 9, 11). (See Asa.)

BABEL (TOWER OF)-confusion (Gen. xi. 4-9) -was built in the plain of Shinar, by the descendants of Noah, to serve as a national rallying point, and thus to secure their union, concentrate their feelings and interests, and prevent their dispersion. Their design was that the whole world should be one vast kingdom, and that Babel should be its capital or chief city. This seems evidently to have been the design of the "builders." It has been sometimes thought that they raised the colossal structure as a place of refuge to the top of which they might ascend, should the earth be visited by another flood. But why, if such BAAL-PERAZIM-lord of breaches (2 Sam. v. was their purpose, did they found the tower 20)-a place in the valley of Rephaim, a few "on a plain," and not take advantage of the miles south-west of Jerusalem, where David additional elevation afforded by some of the conquered the Philistines. The name in the lofty mountains? There was deep impiety in original is significant of this victory; and hence the attempt-there might be idolatrous purthe allusion in Isa. xxviii. 21. poses connected with it but the main design BAAL-SHALISHA-a place near mount Eph-is expressly declared in these words, "lest we raim (2 Ki. iv. 42).

BAAL-TAMAR-lord of the palm tree-a place near Gibeah in Benjamin (Judg. xx. 33). BAAL-ZEBUB. (See BEELZEBUB.) BAAL-ZEPHON (Exod. xiv. 2, 9; Num. xxxiii. 7)-a station of the Israelites at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, corresponding to Suez, where there was a temple for the worship of Baal. Bruce supposed it to be the name of a lighthouse or signal station, at the north entrance of the bay, as the Hebrew word zephon means north.

be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Their object was then to thwart the divine purpose in peopling the world, by the dispersion of successive colonies from the original seats of mankind, and to erect a mighty empire whose centre and metropolis was to be this gigantic edifice and the city around it. But this tower was left unfinished, and cannot be identified with any existing ruins. Their vain and presumptuous design was frustrated by the miraculous interposition of God, who confounded their language, so that it was impossible for them to understand each other's speech.

BAANAH (2 Sam. iv. 2)-one of the sons of Rimmon, and an officer in the army of Ishbosheth, Saul's son. In company with his No course could more effectually secure the brother Rechab, he entered the house of Ish-dispersion of men than the confusion of tongues. bosheth at noonday, and stabbed him as he Comparative philology leaves us in no doubt was lying upon the bed. Taking the head of that one language originally prevailed-the their victim with them, they fled to David at mother of all existing dialects; and that only Hebron, supposing that he would reward them by such a miracle as happened at Babel could liberally for the head of such an enemy; but so many forms of speech have been so early in so far from it, he was indignant at their cruel existence as history attests. The sudden and and cowardly conduct, and forthwith caused perplexing visitation, breaking up social interthem to be slain, their hands and feet to be cut course, and deranging all the ordinary operaoff, and their bodies to be publicly suspended tions of life, making the words of one man over the pool at Hebron. unintelligible to his neighbour, and so loosening the bonds of society, must have convinced its victims that this startling confusion was the work of an angry God. So they parted from necessity, and planted themselves over the world-spreading into Africa, and reaching over into the vast continents of America. The

BAASHA (1 Ki. xv. 16) was the son of Ahijah, and commander-in-chief of a portion of the army of Israel. When Nadab, king of Israel, was besieging Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, Baasha formed a conspiracy against him and murdered him, and immediately