PREFACE. THE completion of the first Volume of "The Home Friend" affords a favourable occasion for restating the reasons which were given for its publication, and for a reviewal of the course which has been followed in it to ask whether the former were sufficiently cogent; and to inquire whether the latter can be justified or approved of. As to the former, it may be best to refer to an address very widely circulated, in which it is said that "It has been intimated to the Society by some of its friends, that a weekly publication might be advantageously added to those which the Society ordinarily publishes. "It is believed that a work conveying both instruction and amusement, sold at a moderate price, would excite the interest of a large class of readers, and that its publication at fixed and brief intervals would sustain that interest. Besides, it might occupy the place, or counteract the tendency of other works, some of which are positively mischievous, and few of them altogether free from objection. "To effect this purpose, it has been determined to publish a weekly miscellany under the title of The Home Friend.' "On the subject of Morals and Religion, no extracts will be admitted which have not received the sanction of the Society, after vigilant examination by its Committees. "The Home Friend' will contain articles partly original and partly selected from the works which treat of Art and Science, the History of Man, and Natural History in general, and of Christian Knowledge; and copious extracts from those narratives which, with fictitious names and incidents, convey to the mind, in the most pleasing manner, lessons of meekness, love, and charity." This extract contains what " The Home Friend" was intended to be; a reference to the index which accompanies this volume will show whether the intention has been, or has not been, carried out. The reader will have seen how numerous are the articles under the head"Nineveh:" these have been taken from a very recent work, "Assyria," written by Mr. Gosse, and published by the Society. The Biblical critic recognises in the discovery of the inscriptions and monuments of this great city of three days' journey, an important link of the chain of evidence to the truth of Scripture; he welcomes them as illustrative of manners and customs; and as setting at rest chronological doubts. The ordinary reader sees in them the fulfilment of prophecy; with admiration he observes the veil of twenty-five centuries withdrawn, exposing the ruin which Isaiah denounced; and beholds on its walls the pictures which Ezekiel has so glowingly described. Are not things like these worth knowing? Ought we not to be thankful that, at a price which makes it attainable by the humblest man, the tenant of the lowliest cottage, the Society can publish a work which a century ago could only be purchased by the opulent few, and be read by the learned in public libraries? Much attention has been paid to the works of creation, and to the wonders of nature: these may impress themselves upon a mind which would close every avenue to direct religious instruction; while to those, who from their youth have loved their Creator, these proofs of his power, his wisdom, and his mercy, always afford a delightful source of holy contemplation. Finally, whatever be the labour bestowed upon this little work, it will be amply repaid, if it assist, even in the smallest degree, the removal from the minds of any of our countrymen of that fearful darkness, the darkness of ignorance, which renders the uncultivated intellect unfit to receive Christian knowledge. Prejudices may be overcome; unbelief may be reasoned with; but utter ignorance defeats every means of making men wiser and better. The Editor thanks his many correspondents for their advice, nay, even for their censure: his aim will be to justify the confidence the Committee have reposed in him. December 1852. NOTICE. It is hoped that "The Home Friend" will be found very useful to clergymen, for distribution among their poorer parishioners, and also a welcome addition to lending libraries. The work is published in Numbers, Parts, and Volumes; each Number contains 24 Pages; a Part contains 4 Numbers; a Volume 26 Numbers. THE HOME FRIEND; A WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY, BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, No. 1.] [PRICE 1d. THE Country of the Hebrews has been known under different appellations. It was termed the Land of Canaan, from Canaan the son of Ham, whose posterity had possession of it. It was afterwards named Palestine, from the people called by the Hebrews Philistines, and by the Greeks and Romans Palestines. It is spoken of in Scripture as the Land of Promise, in reference to the promise which the Almighty gave to Abraham; as the Land of Israel, from the Israelites becoming masters of it; and subsequently as Judæa, from the tribe of Judah being the most considerable of Lf the twelve; ultimately being sanctified by the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, it has received the name of the Holy Land. At the period of our VOL. I. B Saviour's coming, it was divided into three provinces; namely, Judæa, Galilee, and Samaria. In extent, the country may be calculated at one hundred and fifty miles in length, and eighty in breadth. This sacred spot has been emphatically described in the sacred volume as a pastoral country, "flowing with milk and honey." If we look to its geographical boundaries, it appears to be protected on all sides by seas and deserts, so as to prevent its inhabitants falling an easy conquest to the great monarchies which were successively permitted to subjugate the civilized world. If we consider that the Hebrews, for great and mysterious purposes, were destined to be kept a peculiar people, the choice of this land for their residence was singularly marked by wisdom. The commerce of their shores was limited, and the mountainous surface of their country prevented them from congregating in large cities; their institutions were consequently less liable than those of regions more accessible, to be corrupted by the examples of strangers. Of all places on the face of the globe, Judæa, and the portions of Asia by which it is surrounded, unquestionably claim a superiority in point of interest. This spot is that "glory of all lands," on which the greatest scenes of antiquity were acted. It was in this quarter that the Most High placed his once favoured people, the Jews,-that revelations were delivered to the prophets, and those oracles of truth communicated which shall endure for ever. Here, again, the most glorious and stupendous manifestation of Divine love was accomplished, by the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the anointed Son of God; here were the foundations of Christianity laid, and the first churches planted.-See RAE WILSON'S Travels, vol. i. pp. 161, 162. "One seldom sees a country overrun with hills in the manner this is. In general they are not in ranges, but more or less isolated, and of a picturesque form. Few of them approach to the character of mountains, save Carmel, and the Quarantina,* the shores of the lakes, and those which bound the valley of the Jordan. To account for the existence of so large a population in the promised land, the numerous hills must have been entirely cultivated; at present, their appearance on the sides and summits is, for the most part, bare and rocky. In old time they were probably formed into terraces, as is now seen on the few cultivated ones, where the vine, olive, and fig-tree flourish."-CARNE'S Eastern Letters, p. 296. "The country promised to the posterity of the patriarchs was to be the 'glory of all lands; a land flowing with milk and honey.' Under the sway of the Canaanites, amidst all their wickedness, it brought forth in such abundance, that the spies sent forward by Moses were constrained at their return to say concerning it, 'It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.' In the time of David the population must have amounted to several millions, as the men able to bear arms were numbered, at the lowest computation, and after an imperfect census, at 1,300,000. In the time of Jehoshaphat the men of war, in Judah alone, amounted to 1,060,000. Josephus tells us that at one celebration of the Passover, in the reign of Nero, there were present at Jerusalem 2,700,000 persons.' "In authentic history we meet with no country so happy as the promised land in the most prosperous periods of its existence; and had the people been faithful to... their God, there would have been realized amongst them all that the imagination has fabled of the golden age. The spot 6 * A precipitous mountain near Jericho, rising, an almost perpendicular wall of rock, twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the plain. |