desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech-owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read; no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate; for my mouth, it hath commanded, and his spirit, it hath gathered them."

Ezekiel (xxxv. 7.) speaks in the same stra'n ;

"Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth."

And in Jeremiah, in Obadiah, in Joel, in Malachi, and in Amos, are similar predictions, foretelling the ruin of Edom, and the utter desolation which should overtake her, and employing, in these revelations of the visions of the Holy One, the boldest figures of Eastern imagery. These oracular denunciations against Edom were uttered by some of the prophets in connexion with similar menaces against Tyre and Sidon, foreboding some great and coming change in the commerce of the world, which should lead desolation in its train. Speaking of Edom the prophet Ezekiel says (xxxv. 4), "I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate ;" and of Tyre (xxvii. 27), "Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise,. . . . . and all thy men of war that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin ;" and against Sidon he also utters similar prophetic curses, though with less force and precision. And all have been accomplished. The great highway between the Eastern and the Western world was ages ago broken up, the commerce which had enriched the cities of Edom, and of Tyre and Sidon, diverted into other channels, and these marts of wealth and business made desolate; and, at the end of more than twenty centuries, the ruins of these places attest the awful judgments of the Almighty. We can speak from personal observation of Tyre and Sidon, and can testify, that human imagination can conceive nothing more miserable and desolate, than the sites which these proud capitals once occupied.

Mr. Stephens says, it was upon the Nile he first thought of visiting Idumæa, and that his attention was directed to the comments of Mr. Keith, in his "Evidence of the Truth of

the Christian Religion, derived from the Prophecies," upon the denunciations against that region, and upon their literal accomplishment. As has happened to many other worthy men, the sin of our author came from his knowledge. Had not the learned commentator told him he could not enter Edom, it is not probable he would have made the attempt; and he would then have lost the most interesting part of his journey, and his readers the most interesting part of his book. But we shall let him speak for himself.

"The English friends, with whom I had dined at Thebes, first suggested to me this route, referring me to Keith on the Prophecies, in which, after showing with great clearness and force the fulfilment of prophecy after. prophecy, as illustrated by the writings and reports of travellers, the learned divine enlarges upon the prophecy of Isaiah, against the land of Idumea, None shall pass through thee for ever and ever '; and proves, by abundant references to the works of modern travellers, that, though several have crossed its borders, none have ever passed through it. Burckhardt, he says, made the nearest approach to this achievement; but, by reference to the geographical boundaries, he maintains, that Burckhardt did not pass through the land of Edom; and so strenuously does the learned divine insist upon the fulfilment of the prophecy to its utmost extent, as to contend, that, if Burckhardt did pass through the land of Edom, he died in consequence of the hardships he suffered upon the journey.'

In a note to the subsequent page, Mr. Stephens refers to a continuation of the same views by Mr. Keith, who says, that

"Sir Frederick Henneker, in his notes dated from Mount Sinai, states, that Seetzen, in a paper pasted against the wall, notifies his having penetrated the country in a direct line, between the Dead Sea and Mount Sinai (through Idumæa), a route never before accomplished.' In a note to the same edition, the learned divine says, 'Not even the cases of two individuals, Burckhardt and Seetzen, can be stated, as at all opposed to the literal interpretations of the prophecies. Seetzen did indeed pass through Idumæa, and Burckhardt traversed a considerable part of it; but the former met his death not long after the completion of his journey through Idumæa, (he died at Akaba, supposed to have been poisoned,) the latter never recovered from the effects of the hardships and privations which he suffered there, and, without even commencing the exclusive design he had in view, viz. to explore the interior of Africa, to which his journeyings in Asia were merely intended as preparatory,

he died at Cairo. Neither of them lived to return to Europe. I will cut off from Mount Seir him that passeth out and him that returneth. I did not mean to brave prophecy; I had already learned to regard the words of the inspired penman with an interest I never felt before; and evidence I already had of the sure fulfilment of their predictions; I should have considered it daring and impious to place myself in the way of a still impending curse. But I did not go so far as the learned commentator; and to me the words of the prophet seemed sufficiently verified, in the total breaking up of the route, then travelled as the great highway from Jerusalem to the Red Sea and India, and the general and probably eternal desolation that reigns in Edom.'

The exposition given by Mr. Stephens of this prophecy will no doubt appear to our readers to be the true one. But he seems to have had occasional misgivings, between the literal and the rational construction of the prophetic passages, recorded against Edom, apparently fluctuating between the honor of a first discoverer and the danger of martyrdom. "Meantime," he says, "so nervous and desponding had I become, that the words of the prophet, in regard to the land of Idumæa, 'None shall pass through it for ever and ever,' struck upon my heart like a funeral knell," and he almost looked upon himself as rash and impious, in undertaking what might be considered a defiance of the prophetic denunciations, inspired by God himself. And, after the journey was happily accomplished, he remarks, "Having regard to what I have already said, in reference to the interpretation of the prophecy, 'None shall pass through it for ever and ever,' I can only say, I have passed through the land of Edom." The fact is not to be doubted; and it is equally true of thousands, who have pursued this route, since the accomplishment of the denunciations, and before Mr. Stephens traversed it.

We feel disposed to shrive the penitent, without subjecting him to a heavy penance.

And if he will follow us in a few observations, we trust the conscience of the Christian may be relieved, while the traveller may yet applaud himself for his enterprise, without apprehension lest a future commentator may arise, and, in his zeal for literal interpretation, trace some untoward calamity (which Providence avert from the author) to this passage through Edom; as Mr. Keith has traced the deaths of the enterprising Seetzen and Burckhardt to the same undertaking.

It would appear from the remarks of Mr. Stephens, that Keith contends for the most literal accomplishment of these prophecies. Nothing can be more injudicious. We recommend to the expositor an observation of Bishop Watson, upon the subject, in his "Apology for the Bible." Paine, as well as other irreligious writers before him, had contended for their literal interpretation, and had impeached the authenticity. of one of the prophecies relating to Egypt, because its strict fulfilment was irreconcilable with the tenor of history. To this the English prelate answers, "And surely you do not expect a literal accomplishment of an hyperbolical expression, denoting great desolation; importing, that the trade of Egypt, which was carried on then, as at present, by caravans, by the foot of man and beast, should be annihilated?"

There are no portions of the Word of God, whose illustration requires a more chastened judgment, than the sublime but mysterious revelations of the declared purpose of the Almighty, concerning events of coming time. The veil of futurity is partially raised, but "shadows and darkness" still rest upon the view. It is not for the gratification of an idle curiosity, that the spirit of inspiration was given to chosen ones of old, and that its visions beyond the boundary, which separates the present from the future, have come down to us. The past is the province of experience and history. The present, the sphere of immediate action. But the future is wisely withheld from us, that we may pursue our course without presumption or despondency. But, to the end of affording living and perpetual evidence of the truth of the great plan of Christian redemption, some leading events in the history of the world were foretold; too darkly, indeed, to be aided or counteracted by any human agency, influenced by these predictions, but with sufficient precision to apply them, after their occurrence, to the promises and threatenings of judgment and mercy. Their application to the past is a legitimate field of biblical and historical criticism; and wise and learned men have rendered valuable service to the cause of truth by devoting themselves to this department of Scripture illustration.

But let no Christian resort to the Word of God as the curious heathen resorted to Delphi. When visiting that rocky hill, with the ridges of Parnassus impending over us, and the