come old and lose their vegetation, the sun, which constantly beams upon them, burns and reduces them to ashes. I have seen many of them entirely him, it seems, as long as she could, but fearing he would die in her arms, she cast him under a shrub, just to screen him from the scorching sun, and went to a distance to spare her eyes the ag-burnt. The other smaller plants have onizing sight of his dissolution. The anguish of such a situation can be better imagined than described. In this our temperate climate, surrounded as we are with perpetual verdure and with every object that can delight the eye, we can scarcely conceive the horrors encountered by the hapless traveller when crossing the trackless sands, and exposed to all the ardours of a vertical sun. The most recent as well as the most graphic description of a desert, which admirably illustrates the present passage, is that given by the enterprising traveller, M. Belzoni, whose researches have contributed so much to the elucidation of the Sacred Writings. Speaking of a desert crossed by him in Upper Egypt, on the western side of the Red Sea, and which is parallel with the great desert traversed by the Israelites on the eastern side of that sea, he says, 'It is difficult to form a correct idea of a desert, without having been in one it is an endless plain of sand and stones, sometimes intermixed with mountains of all sizes and heights, without roads or shelter, without any sort of produce for food. The few scattered trees and shrubs of thorns, that only appear when the rainy season leaves some moisture, barely serve to feed wild animals, and a few birds. Every thing is left to nature; the wandering inhabitants do not care to cultivate even these few plants, and when there is no more of them in one place they go to another. When these trees be no sooner risen out of the earth than they are dried up, and all take the col· our of straw, with the exception of the plant harrack; this falls off before it is dry. Generally speaking, in a desert, there are few springs of water, some of them at the distance of four, six, and eight days' journey from one another: and not all of sweet water: on the contrary, it is generally salt or bitter; so that if the thirsty traveller drinks of it, it increases his thirst, and he suffers more than before. But, when the calamity happens, that the next well, which is so anxiously sought for, is found dry, the misery of such a situation cannot be well described. The camels, which afford the only means of escape, are so thirsty that they cannot proceed to another well: and, if the travellers kill them, to extract the little liquid which remains in their stomachs, they themselves cannot advance any farther. The situation must be dreadful, and admits of no resource. Many perish victims of the most horrible thirst. It is then that the value of a cup of water is really felt. He that has a zenzabia of it is the richest of all. In such a case there is no distinction. If the master has none, the servant will not give it to him; for very few are the instances where a man will voluntarily lose his life to save that of another, particularly in a caravan in the desert, where people are strangers to each other. What a situation for a man, though a rich one, perhaps the owner of all the caravans! He is dy- | sometimes, perhaps generally, convey ing for a cup of water-no one gives iting the idea of a somewhat rough and to him-he offers all he possesses-no forcible projection, yet in this and sevone hears him-they are all dying-eral other instances has undoubtedly though by walking a few hours farther the import of a gentle depositing, laythey might be saved. If the camels ing down, or suffering to repose. Thus are lying down, and cannot be made to Ps. 55. 22, Cast (7) thy burden rise, no one has strength to walk; only upon the Lord;' i. e. cause or suffer he that has a glass of that precious to lie. Jer. 38. 11, 'Let them down liquor lives to walk a mile farther, and, (3) by cords into the dungeon perhaps, dies too. If the voyages on to Jeremiah;' which expresses not a seas are dangerous, so are those in the violent but a gentle demission. deserts. At sea, the provisions very often fail; in the desert it is worse: at sea, storms are met with; in the desert there cannot be a greater storm than to find a dry well: at sea, one meets with pirates-we escape-we surrender -we die; in the desert they rob the traveller of all his property and water; they let him live, perhaps, but what a life!-to die the most barbarous and agonizing death. In short, to be thirsty in a desert, without water, exposed to the burning sun without shelter, and no hopes of finding either, is the most terrible situation that a man can be placed in, and one of the greatest sufferings that a human being can sustain: the eyes grow inflamed; the tongue and lips swell; a hollow sound is heard in the ears, which brings on deafness, and the brains appear to grow thick and inflamed: all these feelings arise from the want of a little water. If unfortunately any one falls sick on the road, there is no alternative; he must endure the fatigue of travelling on a camel, which is troublesome even to healthy people, or he must be left behind on the sand, without any assistance, and remain so till a slow death come to relieve him. What horror! No one remains with him, not even his old and faithful servant; no one will stay and die with him; all pity his fate, but no one will be his companion.' (Belzoni's Narrat. pp. 341-343.)¶ She cast the child. Heb. tashlek. The original term, though 16. Sat her down over against him, a good way off, &c. A more finished picture of distress it would be difficult to adduce. The bitter cries and flowing tears of the afflicted mother, with the groans of her famishing son, are heard, and seen, and felt in a manner as though we were present. Had there been any ear to hear, any eye to pity, or any hand to help the sufferers, their cries and tears might have been mingled with hope; but as far as human aid was concerned, their condition was apparently desperate. But in God the fatherless and the friendless find mercy. Lost in the wilderness, outcast from society, ready to perish with hunger and thirst, they meet with the notice of Him who feeds the ravens, and without whom not a sparrow falleth to the ground.-For a vivid description of a heart-rending scene of suffering in the desert very nearly resembling this, see Scripture Illustrations,' p. 29.-T As it were a bow-shot. 'This,' says Mr. Roberts, 'is a common figure of speech in their ancient writings-'The distance of an arrow-so far as the arrow flies.' The common way of measuring a short distance is to say, It is a call off;' i. e. so far as a man's voice can reach. How far is he off?' O, not more than three calls;' i. e. were three men stationed within the reach of each other's voices, the voice of the one farthest off would reach to that distance.' 6 17. God heard the voice of the lad, Although it is no where expressly said 17 And God heard the voice of the lad: and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand: for w I will make him a great nation. u Ex. 3. 7. w ver. 13. A 19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water: and she went filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. 20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. x Num. 22. 31. 2 Kings 6. 17, 18, 20. Luke 24. 16, 31. y ch. 28. 15. & 39. 2, 3, 21. z ch. 16. 12. 18. Hold him in thine hand. Heb. strengthen thine hand upon him. Assist and support him; do not desert him, but afford every necessary aid. Thus by a similar usage Is. 42. 6, 'I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand (Heb. 775 will strengthen upon thine hand), and will keep thee.' Comp. Note on Josh. 1. 5. 19. God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. Not that she had hitherto lacked the use of the outward organs of sight, but the well of water had up to this time escaped her notice, and its locality was now unexpectedly made known to her. Thus of the disciples, Luke 24. 31, 'And their eyes were opened, and they knew him ;' previous to which it is said, 'their eyes were that Ishmael put forth his voice either in sobs or groans, yet it is very conceiva ble that he did. Such a supposition, however, is not necessarily required by the purport of the language. His suffering and perishing condition had in itself a' voice' which called loudly upon the divine compassion, and which God could hear, even though we suppose the lad to have been so overcome with hunger, thirst, and weariness, as to be incapable of any vocal utterance. voice with the sacred writers is sometimes equivalent to a meaning, scope, or purport. Thus Ex. 4. 8, 'If they will not believe thee, nor hearken to the voice of the first sign;' i. e. regard the meaning or drift. Ps. 19. 3, 'There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard;' i. e. where their purport is not intelligible. In like man-holden that they should not know him.' ner God may be said in this case to have heard the voice of the lad in as far as he regarded the import of his condition, and pitied and purposed to relieve him. -The Angel of God called, &c. That is, the uncreated Angel; the Angel-Jehovah ; the same who appeared to Hagar on a former occasion. Gen. 16. 7. —¶ God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Heb. DUNT UN in that where he is; i. e. not merely in the place, but in the condition, in which he is; he hath heard his voice in observing and compassionating the afflictive circumstances to which he is reduced. Thus too it is said Num. 22. 31, that The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way;' i. e. he was enabled to see what he had not observed before. By a like metaphorical idiom to open or uncover the ear, (Heb.) 1 Sam. 9. 15. 2 Sam. 7. 27, is to disclose something to any one. 20. God was with the lad. That is prospered him; blessed him in temporal respects. It is a genuine oriental phrase for favouring one and crowning him with prosperity and success in his undertaking. Chal.' And the Word of the Lord was for the help of the 21 And he dwelt in the wilder-a took him a wife out of the land ness of Paran: and his mother of Egypt. a ch. 24. 4. child.' See Note on Josh. 3. 7. Dwell in the wilderness, and became an archer. Not only an adept at the use of the bow and arrow in hunting, but also employing this as his principal weapon on those occasions when, according to the prediction, ch. 16. 12, his 'hand began to be against every man, and every man's hand against him.' The term unquestionably denotes warlike character and practices. It is but another mode of saying that he began to be distinguished for lawless predatory habits, as his descendants have always been. His expulsion from his father's house, and the way of life into which it forced him, would naturally tend to increase any inherent fero-a; the triangle measuring, from its city of temper he may have possessed, and to form and fix that character which was given of him by the Angel before he was born. God brings his predictions to pass, not always, nor generally, by miraculous means, but by the operation and concurrence of natural causes. It would seem that he gradually brought himself to bear, and finally to prefer, that way of living which had at first been obtruded upon him by the strong hand of necessity; and thus the prophecy entered upon its incipient fulfilment. Now all the great external deserts mentioned in the Bible form, collectively, the northern part of this great desertbelt of Arabia. Let us then call this | northern portion of the belt one desert. It forms by far the widest portion of the whole belt. For the sake of clearness, we may take as its southern boundary the thirtieth parallel of latitude, from the head of the Red Sea (at Suez) to the head of the Persian Gulf, being a line measuring about seven hundred miles. On this line, as a base, the desert extends northward in a triangular figure, the eastern side of which is formed by the Euphrates, and the western by Egypt, Palestine, and Syr 21. In the wilderness of Paran. 'This is one part of that great desert (external to Canaan) which it will be useful to consider as a whole, to assist in giving an idea of the connection of such of its parts as are mentioned under different names in the Scriptures. For this purpose we must figure the Arabían peninsula as an elevated tableland, encircled by a belt of flat, arid, and sandy ground. The only exception is on the southern coast, where a wall of lofty and wild rocks forms an inclosing rampart to Arabia Felix. base to its apex, about three hundred and fifty miles. But these dimensions limit the proportions of the actual desert, which encroaches considerably in different parts beyond the limits which, for the sake of a general view, we have assigned. This being understood, all the deserts of the Scripture, except those in Canaan itself, or the peninsula、 of Sinai, are included within this great desert. Indeed, the deserts of Sinai are but extensions of the same desert. The principal extent of this desert, that is, all that lies east or southeast of Canaan, is called by way of eminence, The Desert.' The other deserts are crowded into the western corner of the triangle, having Palestine and the Mediterranean on the north, the peninsula of Sinai on the south, Egypt on the west, and on the east joining the great desert, of which it is but a portion. This corner of the triangle contains 'the wilderness of Shur,' 'the wilderness of Paran,' 'the wilderness of Zin' (not Sin), and 'the wilderness of Edom.' But the two last do not appear to be any other than different names for the 22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his b ch. 20. 2. & 26. 26. host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest: c ch. 26. 28. yet, in this matter, subject himself so entirely to the will of his mother. It is a striking instance of the fixedness of oriental customs. whole or part of the wilderness of Paran. Thus, then, we reduce the deserts of this part to two, Shur, and Paran. Shur is mentioned in the Note to ch. 16. 7. The desert of Paran, 22. It came to pass at that time, &c. which still retains its ancient name, ex- The mention of the present incident tends southward from Palestine into seems to be introduced here for the the peninsula of Sinai. It is bounded purpose of informing us how it was, on the west by the desert of Shur, and that after a roving and unsettled life of on the east by the gulf of Akaba and sixty years, Abraham was at length by the valley (El Ghor and El Araba) favoured with somewhat of a long periwhich extends between that gulf and od of rest. It was indeed the will of the Dead Sea. The reports of modern Heaven that his lot in the main, even travellers have only made us acquaint- to the close of life, should be that of a ed with the southern portion of this sojourner and a pilgrim, but in the desert; that is, the part which is in or country of Abimelech he is blessed for borders on the peninsula of Sinai. a longer time than usual, with a tranFrom the comparison of their accounts, quil abode. This was a well-timed it seems to be a dreary and desolate re- comfort, coming as it did not long after gion, with a soil sometimes sandy, and the banishment of Ishmael and Hagar, at other times calcareous, strewed with and affording him the opportunity to loose pebbles and flints. The uniform-devote himself more leisurely to the ity of its surface is broken by various rearing of that son in whom not only chains of hills, and by numerous ra- his own but the hopes of the world were vines and glens, as well as by the beds centered. In regard to the conduct of of winter torrents, in which, from the Abimelech on this occasion, we may inequality of the surface, the rain-water observe (1.) The motive which induced collects and gives birth to a vegetation this friendly request; he 'saw that of low shrubs. Coloquintida grows God was with him.' Probably the abundantly in such situations, and is news of the extraordinary birth of Isaac collected by the Arabs for domestic and and of the various incidents which had medicinal uses.' Pict. Bible. His grown out of it, had reached the court mother took him a wife. The business of Abimelech and become a topic of of marriage in the East is generally conversation. This,' he would permanaged by the parents, and more es- haps say to himself, is a great man, pecially by the mother. She makes and a great family, and will become a the selections of partners for her chil- great nation; the blessing of heaven dren, and arranges all the preliming attends him. It is our wisdom thereries, except the settlement of the dow⚫ fore to take the earliest opportunity to ry, which is left to the father. It put ourselves on good terms with him.' shews a peculiar deference to estab-In proposing this he was acting more lished usages that one living so wild for his interest than he was aware of a life as Ishmael, one who was em- for God in blessing Abraham had promphatically a son of the desert, shouldised to 'bless them that blessed him, |