These principles afford the key to passages in Scripture often misunderstood and misrepresented. The statements in the Bible bearing upon science are not systematic, or technical; they are inciden tal, fragmentary, and popular. We can interpret them all in accordance with true systems of science ; but we could not construct a complete system out of them. The sacred writers set forth incidentally some of the leading facts of geographical science.
1. The form of the Earth. —In one or two pas sages the tnte form of the earth appears to be indicated. Thus, in Is. xl. 22, He sitteth upon the circle (am) of the earth ' (also Prov. viii. 27). Rosenmilller (Biblical Geography), Kalisch (on Genesis), Gesenius (Thesaurus), and others, have concluded from a collection of sublime images from the Hebrew poets, that they believed the earth to be circular, rising out of surrounding ocean, and having the heavens spread over it as a canopy. They have argued that, because the sacred writers speak of the rising' and setting' of the sun, the foundations' of the earth, the ' of heaven, of Jerusalem being in the midst of the nations, they could have known nothing of the very rudi ments of geography. Now such reasoning as this is opposed to all canons of sound criticism. If the writings of our own poets were dealt with in a similar manner, what would be the result? 2. The cara'inal points. —Isaiah terms them the four corners (nin)z) of the earth ' (xii. 1); Jeremiah, the four quarters 011yp) of the heaven ' (xlix. 36). The east is Dip, before,' or in front of ;' because the person is repre sented as facing the east. The west is then "Irllg, 6behind ;' also C24, the sea,' because the sea was on the west of Palestine. The south was ivri, the right ;' also Zn, the dry.' The north was C;ittzt=l, the left.' 3. The division of the earth hit° land and sea.— This is indicated in Gen. i. to. The ocean, con taining great monsters, is often referred to ; as in Ps. civ. 25, 26 ; Job xli. t. Continents and isiands arc distinguished, Esther x. ; Gen. x. 5 ; Ps. lxxii. to; Is. lxvi. 19.
4. The great physical features of mountains, valleys, and deserts.—The mountains of Ararat, Lebanon, and Sinai, are specified ; the valleys of Lebanon, and the Jordan; the great and terrible wilderness' (Dent. i. 19).
5. The difference of clinzates.—job speaks of cold out of the north ' (xxxvii. 9); and the heat of the south is alluded to by Job (xxxvii. 17), and by Luke (xii. 55).
6. The cradle of mankind was Central Asia.— The situation of Paradise is not known, but there can be no doubt as to the spot where the family of Noah settled after the• flood. The ruins of Babylon still exist (Gen. xi.) ; and the seats of the great primeval kingdoms have recently been iden tified (Gen. x.; See Layard's Nineveh, etc.; Lof•
tus, Chaldeva, etc.) 7. The division of mankind into three branches, and the colonization of the various countries of the earth by them. —The loth chapter of Genesis shews what a clear and comprehensive view Moses obtained, under Divine teaching, of thc political geography and history of the whole ancient world. Thc great advances recently made in ethnography and comparative philology illustrate at once the completeness and the accuracy of the masterly sketch given by the Hebrew Lawgiver (See Mul ler's Science of language ; Rawlinson's Heroda tus). The seven families of the Japhethites who peopled Europe and Northern Asia have been iden tified (Kalisch on Gen. x.) Ham is the ancestor of all the southern nations of the ancient world. The numerous tribes that spring from him have found a name in history (Kalisch, /. c.) The Shemites were concentrated in Western Asia, chiefly between the Euphrates and the Mediter ranean.
In the whole compass of ancient literature there is nothing to be compared with the loth chapter of Genesis. The most extensive research in the world's earliest history, and among its earliest monuments, and the most scientific investigation of the peculiarities of its modern nations and lan guages, alike form illustrative commentaries upon that remarkable passage (See Bochart's Geogr. Sac.; Kenrick's Phcenicia ; Vaux's Nineveh and Persepol s ; Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians ; and especially Rawlinson's Herodotus).
The Bible also abounds in topographical details regarding Palestine and the countries adjoining. These are, in many instances, minute and singu larly gmphic. Sacred geography may be said to embrace the whole world. It belongs, however, especially to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy ; while its main interest is con centrated on Palestine and the Peninsula of Sinai (Stanley, S. and P., x.) Those Oriental travellers and residents who have had the fullest opportuni ties of judging, and who have become distin guished for their powers of accurate observation, have repeatedly testified to the faithfulness of Bible descriptions, and the minute accuracy of Bible topography (See Robinson, B. R., preface ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, dedication ; Stanley, S. and P.; Thomson, The Land and the Book, preface). The writer of tbis article can bear per sonal testimony to the same facts ; and as he has visited nearly every known Scripture site in Syria and Palestine, and most of those in Asia Minor and Europe, he can speak with some degree of confidence. For fulness of detail in topography, for graphic sketches of scenery, for minute accu racy in the description of natural products, pecu liarities of climate, and manners and customs, no history, ancient or modern, can be compared with the Bible.