but the two turtle doves or young pigeons. Oh, let nothing be done, among the followers of such a lowly Saviour, for ostentation or vain glory!

The "two birds," mentioned Lev. xiv. 4-7, 49-53, for the cleansing of leprous persons or a leprous house, in all probility were of the dove kind, for we do not know that any other were accepted in sacrifice.

2. The first mention of the dove in scripture is in the interesting narrative (already referred to under the article Raven p. 259.) of Noah sending out these winged messengers to ascertain whether the waters were abated. The dove, a bird of swift and strong wing, accustomed to light and feed on the ground, and to return home every evening from the most distant excursions, was selected as a more faithful messenger than the carnivorous raven; and indeed there was nothing to tempt her to be faithless, as she fed not on carrion, but on grains and vegetables, which had not as yet made their appearance.

She was sent out three times. From her first expedition she speedily returned, finding no rest for the sole of her foot, and the waters presenting to her a desolate and terrific appearance. After seven days Noah sent her out a second time, when she returned with an olive leaf plucked off; whereby Noah perceived that the waters must have considerably abated, and sunk below the tops of the trees. How cheering must these indications have been to the imprisoned tenants of the ark! Hence it is that the olive branch

has ever been regarded as the forerunner of peace, and emblem of prosperity. At the end of another seven days, the dove, being sent out again, returned no more; from which Noah conjectured that the earth was so far drained as to afford sustenance for birds and fowls: he therefore removed the covering of the ark, which probably gave many of them liberty to fly out.

3. The standard of the dove was used as a military ensign among several nations; this probably arose from its having been considered among the heathens a divine bird, and connected with the histories of their fabulous deities. To this, it is probable, the psalmist alludes, Psalm lxviii. 13; a passage which is otherwise very obscure. But if the dove be considered as the sacred standard of the enemies of Israel, to see that cast down and trampled upon by the Israelites, might well occasion the hasty, terrified, and disgraceful retreats alluded to in the connexion, ver. 12-14.

As the Assyrians were ancient worshippers of the dove, it is extremely probable that they made it their standard: this, if admitted, will account for the references of the prophet Jeremiah to the "sword of the dove," by which terror and desolation were spread through the land of Israel at a subsequent period of its history, see Jer. xxv. 38. xlvi. 16. l. 16.

4. The name of dove was given to women of the greatest beauty in the East; hence, of Job's daughters, who were pre-eminently fair, the eldest was named

Jemima, from the Arabic name of a dove, Job xlii. 14. A resemblance to the eyes of the dove, which have a peculiar expression of meekness, tenderness, and constancy, is considered a distinguishing mark of female loveliness. Comparisons of beauty are also taken from the elegance of its form and the beauty of its plumage; these allusions are very frequent in the Song of Solomon, where the most admiring and endearing expressions are reciprocally used between Christ and his Church, Cant. i. 15. ii. 14. iv. 1. v. 12. vi. 9. Where such allusions occur, let it be remembered that they allude to moral, not to personal, beauty; to the dignity, glory, and holiness of the Redeemer, and his unchanging love to his church; and to the purity, meekness, and steadfast affection and devotedness to her Lord, which the church is enabled to manifest.

5. The dove has ever been considered an emblem of innocence, meekness, and constancy; and to these characteristics, reference is made in the above passages, especially Cant. vi. 9. as also in the New Testament, where our Lord exhorts his followers to be wise as serpents, and "harmless as doves," Matt. x. 16.

6. The dove, from the circumstance already alluded to in connexion with Noah, as well as from its gentle and inoffensive nature, is considered the harbinger of peace. No individual or people, sending a message of defiance or a threat of war, would send it by a dove, with an olive-branch in her mouth where this appears, it is always considered

as the symbol of good-will, peace, and reconciliation. It was thus the blessed Redeemer came, not to condemn, but to save the world: it was thus the attendant angels, at his birth, proclaimed "glad tidings of great joy to all people, glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good will towards men:" it is thus the ministers of the gospel are the heralds of peace; and thus that every consistent christian exemplifies in his temper and conversation this lovely spirit of peace.

7. Doves are remarkable for the swiftness and perseverance of their flight; thus they both hasten and secure their escape from the evil that pursues them other birds, it has been observed, become weary with flying, and alight upon a rock or tree to recruit their strength, and are taken; but the dove, when she is fatigued, alternately rests on one wing, and flies with the other; and by this means escapes from the swiftest pursuers, and gains her distant covert.To this the psalmist affectingly alludes, when, wearied with the treachery and oppression of man, he exclaims, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest; I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest," Psalm lv. 7. To this highly poetical sentiment, Dr. Watts has given a turn as admirably pious:

Oh were I like a feather'd dove,
And innocence had wings,
I'd fly, and make a long remove
From all these restless things.

Let me to some wild desert go,
And find a peaceful home;
Where storms of malice never blow,
Temptations never come.

Vain hopes, and vain inventions all,
To 'scape the rage of hell!
The mighty God on whom I call,
Can save me here as well.

A godly man is always pained and distressed when circumstances compel him to hold intercourse with the worldly and profane: he is not at home in their society, any more than the timid dove, of pure and gentle habits, could be, in the society of unclean and greedy birds of prey. When duty calls him into the world to mingle with such as these, the good man prays to be kept, by the power of God, from the evil, that is not his choice, but his affliction. No sooner is the call of duty answered, than, like the dove, he flies away to the retreats of purity and peace; like the apostles, "being let go, he returns to his own company," Acts iv. 23. And by the way, this is no mean test of the genuineness of our piety -the choice of our associates. The dove was never known to associate by choice with ravens or sparrows; nor the consistent Christian with the gay, the trifling, the irreligious, "the men of the world, which have their portion in this life." He is by choice " a companion of all them that fear God, and of them that keep his precepts."

8. In allusion to the tender regard with which