the same event.

A representation of one of these is

given in page 28. suprà.

The emperor Adrian erected a city on part of the former site of Jerusalem, which he called Ælia Capitolina: it was afterwards greatly enlarged and beautified by Constantine the Great, who restored its antient name. During that emperor's reign, the Jews made various efforts to rebuild their temple, which however were always frustrated; nor did better success attend the attempt made A. D. 363, by the apostate emperor Julian. An earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, compelled the workmen to abandon their design.

From the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans to the present time, that city has remained, for the most part, in a state of ruin and desolation; "and has never been under the government of the Jews themselves, but oppressed and broken down by a`succession of foreign masters the Romans, the Saracens, the Franks, the Mamelukes, and last by the Turks, to whom it is still subject. It is not therefore only in the history of Josephus, and in other antient writers, that we are to look for the accomplishment of our Lord's predictions:- we see them verified at this moment before our eyes, in the desolated state of the once celebrated city and temple of Jerusalem, and in the present condition of the Jewish people, not collected together into any one country, into one political society, and under one form of government, but dispersed, over every region of the globe, and every where treated with contumely and scorn." (Bp. Porteus.)

Mount Tabor, as seen from the Plain of Esdraelon.

CHAPTER II.

THE surface of the Holy Land being diversified with mountains and plains, its CLIMATE varies in different places; though in general it is more settled than in our more western countries. Generally speaking, the atmosphere is mild; the summers are commonly dry, and extremely hot: intensely hot days, however, are frequently succeeded by intensely cold nights; and it is to these sudden vicissitudes, and their consequent effects on the human frame, that Jacob refers, when he says that in the day the DROUGHT consumed him, and the FROST by night. (Gen. xxxi. 40.)

Six several SEASONS of the natural year are indicated in Gen. viii. 22. viz. seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter; and as agriculture constituted the principal employment of the Jews, we are informed by the rabbinical writers, that they adopted the same di

vision of seasons, with reference to their rural work. These divisions also exist among the Arabs to this day.

1. SEED-TIME Comprised the latter half of the Jewish month Tisri, the whole of Marchesvan, and the former half of Kisleu or Chisleu, that is, from the beginning of October to the beginning of December. During this season the weather is various, very often misty, cloudy, with mizzling or pouring rain.

2. WINTER included the latter half of Chisleu, the whole of Tebeth, and the former part of Shebeth, that is, from the beginning of December to the beginning of February. In this season, snows rarely fall, except on the mountains, but they seldom continue a whole day; the ice is thin, and melts as soon as the sun ascends above the horizon. As the season advances, the north wind and the cold, especially on the lofty mountains, which are now covered with snow, is intensely severe, and sometimes even fatal: the cold is frequently so piercing, that persons born in our climate can scarcely endure it. The cold, however, varies in the degree of its severity, according to the local situation of the country.

3. The COLD SEASON comprises the latter half of Shebeth, the whole of Adar, and the former half of Nisan, from the beginning of February to the beginning of April. At the commencement of this season, the weather is cold, but it gradually becomes warm and even hot, particularly in the plain of Jericho. Thunder, lightning, and hail are frequent. Vegetable nature now revives; the almond tree blossoms, and the gardens assume a delightful appearance. Barley is ripe at Jericho, though but little wheat is in the ear.

4. The HARVEST includes the latter half of Nisan, the whole of Jyar (or Zif), and the former half of Sivan, that is, from the beginning of April to the beginning of June. In the plain of Jericho the heat of the sun is excessive, though in other parts of Palestine the weather is most

delightful; and on the sea-coast the heat is tempered by morning and evening breezes from the sea.

5. The SUMMER comprehends the latter half of Sivan, the whole of Thammuz, and the former half of Ab, that is, from the beginning of June to the beginning of August. The heat of the weather increases, and the nights are so warm that the inhabitants sleep on their house-tops in the open air.

6. The HOT SEASON includes the latter half of Ab, the whole of Elul, and the former half of Tisri, that is, from the beginning of August to the beginning of October. During the chief part of this season the heat is intense, though less so at Jerusalem than in the plain of Jericho : there is no cold, not even in the night, so that travellers pass whole nights in the open air without inconvenience. Lebanon is for the most part free from snow, except in the caverns and defiles where the sun cannot penetrate.

During the hot season, it is not uncommon in the East Indies for persons to die suddenly, in consequence of the extreme heat of the solar rays (whence the necessity of being carried in a palanquin). This is now commonly termed a coup-de-soleil, or stroke of the sun. The son of the woman of Shunem appears to have died in consequence of a coup-de-soleil (2 Kings iv. 19, 20.); to which there is an allusion in Psalm cxxi, 2.

Rain falls but rarely, except in autumn and spring; but its absence is partly supplied by the very copious dews which fall during the night. The early or autumnal rains and the latter or spring rains are absolutely necessary to the support of vegetation, and were consequently objects greatly desired by the Israelites and Jews. The early rains generally fall about the beginning of November, when they usually ploughed their lands and sowed their corn; and the latter rains fall sometimes towards the middle and sometimes towards the close of April; that is, a short time before they gathered in their harvest. These rains, however, were always

chilly (Ezra x. 9. and Song ii. 11.), and often preceded by whirlwinds (2 Kings iii. 16, 17.) that raised such quantities of sand as to darken the sky, or, in the words of the sacred historian, to make the heavens black with clouds and wind. (1 Kings xviii. 45.) In the figurative language of the Scripture, these whirlwinds are termed the command and the word of God (Psalm cxlvii. 15. 18.); and as they are sometimes fatal to travellers who are overwhelmed in the deserts, the rapidity of their advance is elegantly employed by Solomon to show the certainty as well as the suddenness of that destruction which will befall the impenitently wicked. (Prov. i. 27.) The rains descend in Palestine with great violence; and as whole villages in the east are constructed only with palmbranches, mud, and tiles baked in the sun, (perhaps corresponding to and explanatory of the untempered mortar noticed in Ezek. xiii. 11.) these rains not unfrequently dissolve the cement, such as it is, and the houses fall to the ground. To these effects our Lord probably alludes in Matt. vii. 25-27. Very small clouds are likewise the forerunners of violent storms and hurricanes in the east as well as in the west: they rise like a man's hand, (1 Kings xviii. 44.) until the whole sky becomes black with rain, which descends in torrents. In our Lord's time, this phenomenon seems to have become a certain prognostic of wet weather. See Luke xii. 54.

In consequence of the paucity of showers in the east, WATER is an article of great importance to the inhabitants. Hence, in Lot's estimation, it was a principal recommendation of the plain of Jordan that it was well watered every where (Gen. xiii. 10.): and the same advantage continued in later ages to be enjoyed by the Israelites, whose country was intersected by numerous brooks and streams.

Although RIVERS are frequently mentioned in the sacred writings, yet, strictly speaking, the only river in the Holy Land is the Jordan, which is sometimes designated