glorious prince, and we must be careful to distinguish the real sentiments of the sacred writers from those they assign to the various personages and characters whom they bring before us. Indeed, it would be a very great error and serious mistake to regard the Holy Spirit as endorsing all the utterances even of Job, which, along with those of his friends, are sometimes quoted as conveying the mind of the Spirit, notwithstanding the care which has been taken to guard us from any such impression.

The sacred writers, however, who designed to teach, not philosophy, but religion, usually express themselves in conformity with the notions which prevailed in the ages in which they wrote. Hence those references to the north, of which we have already spoken, as to a most distinguished point in the heavens. It is often mentioned as the seat of the whirlwind, the storm, and especially as the residence of the cherubim. Thus in Ezekiel's vision of the cherubim, the whole magnificent scene is described as coming from the north: 'I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north." And so in Zechariah's vision, the horses that came out of the mountains are represented as going, or returning, to the north as their place of rest, after having gone through the earth." These passages, with others of the like purport, show that the northern regions, and especially the mountains in the north, were regarded as the seat of striking and peculiar manifestations of the divine glory.

But as the north is the quarter of manifestation, so the south is the quarter of concealment. In the north God works, in the south He hides himself. To apprehend this in the fulness of its meaning, it is necessary to bear in mind that the south was to the ancients an unknown region. The deserts of Arabia indeed stretched away in that direction, and they were partially known, and there was some knowledge that the sea was beyond. But the regions farther to the south, if any land were there, were deemed to be entirely uninhabitable, as well as impassable, on account of the heat. To these hidden and

1 Ezek. i. 4.

2 Zech. vi. I-8.

unknown quarters, Job says that he now turned, after he had in vain explored every other quarter of the heavens in search of some manifestations of God. Yet here also his search was vain. God hid or concealed himself in the remote and inaccessible south, so that he could not approach Him.

Sixth Week-Sixth Day.

BURGLARY.-JOB XXIV. 16.

BURGLARY seems to have been one of the most ancient of the arts, but not one in which much improvement has been made. The Book of Job furnishes the earliest description in existence of a house-robbery. In this we have no account of bolts and locks being forced or picked by crowbars and jemmies, or of door-panels being cut out, but of the burglars digging through the walls of the house. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day-time.' This implies that the houses in Job's time and country were of such light structure or penetrable materials, as we still find in some countries, and which render the making of an opening in the wall the most easy mode of access to persons with evil intentions. The houses were probably of clay or mud, simply dried by the sun in the process of construction, and, therefore, easily dug through, although affording to the inmates adequate security from the weather. This was the type of a common eastern dwelling in the mind of a Roman. Hence the elder Pliny speculates that the Oriental took his first idea of an abode for himself and his family from the swallow, and, in imitation of his feathered instructor, made his first attempts with mud. Whatever we think of this, it is certain that the dwellings of the mass of the population, that is, of the poorer people, throughout Asia are still, as they have always been, of clay or mud. The dwellings which come within this class are of three principal sorts. The first, and frailest, is a framework of wicker hurdles thickly daubed over with mud. In a second and more

enduring structure, the walls are composed of successive layers of mud, each layer being left to dry before another is laid on. A still superior house frame is made with sun-dried bricks; that is, with cakes of trodden clay or mud, shaped in a mould and dried in the sun. Broken straw is usually mixed with these bricks in order to strengthen them; but the poorer people have little straw, if any, in their bricks or earthen mudcakes, which they employ for this purpose. It would be too expensive, straw being the provender of cattle.

There can be little doubt as to the fitness of this interpretation, for in the fourth chapter Eliphaz expressly alludes to 'houses of clay.'

Cottages of this construction are not peculiar to the East, though perhaps derived from thence. In Devon and Cornwall many very comfortable cottages are built of mud, after the very process which we have seen in use in the East. These are called 'cob-walls;' and many years ago there appeared in the Quarterly Review an ingenious paper tracing them to the Phoenicians. Inferior examples of the same kind of wall may be seen in the mud huts of the Irish cottier; and so near to London as Woking Common, there are many examples of huts built with mud by 'squatters,' and roofed with turf cut from the Common.

Not only the same kind of dwellings, but the same mode of breaking into them for plunder, still exists in the East,

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especially in India. The following passage from a work now but little known,1 will interest the reader. The cottages described are not exactly of the construction indicated; but the mud-built dwellings in India are penetrated in the same

manner.

The huts of the Bengalees afford no security against the attacks of robbers. They are built with light bamboo frames, covered with a kind of reed, bruised flat, and plaited into mats. The floors are generally raised about a foot or two from the ground by layers of clay beaten down. The thieves, who are denominated Sindeals or hole-cutters, easily undermine these floors from without, or cut holes through the mats, sufficiently large to admit their entering, and by these means carry away

property, generally to a very small amount. . . . In the earthen floor it is not uncommon for the Bengalee to bury in a clay vessel the little money or jewels he may possess; and sometimes the servants of the house give information of this to the dacoits. There are many instances of the dacoits having tortured the poor natives till they gave information of the place where the money was concealed. In one village in particular, which I entered immediately after a dacoity2 had been com

1 Observations on the Present Political State of India. By ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER. 2 vols. London, 1815.

2

mitted, I recollect being shown two stakes, with a shallow pit dug between them, over which they had suspended the master of the house, and had actually roasted him over a slow fire until he pointed out the place where his little treasure was hid. He persisted so long in concealing it, that very little life remained. He was only released on showing them a small hole in the wall, neatly plastered over with clay; from this they took all that he possessed, and he died the next day.'

Mr. Tytler adds, that 'so frequent in former times were the visits of these miscreants, that very few of the lower classes thought it worth their while to amass a little money; and even at the present day, all their little gains are immediately spent in poojahs (the worship of their idols), and other ostentatious ceremonies. This disposition has grown upon them; and it will be long before a sufficient confidence in our protection, and an encouragement to industry, will induce them to become independent, or to live otherwise than from day to day.'

We thus see how the insecurity of their little property may prevent a people from bettering their condition, by the careful conservation and use of their earnings. If they cannot with reasonable certainty calculate on the future enjoyment of their means, they will recklessly expend them as they accrue, upon the objects which please them most. This will occur from whatever cause such insecurity arises; but it is well to note that in this case it arises in a great measure from their dwellings being such as robbers can 'dig through in the night.'

Sixth Week-Seventh Day.

PROSPERITY REMEMBERED.-JOB XXIX.

It seems that, when Job had brought his discourse to the point which forms the close of the twenty-eighth chapter, he again paused to see if any of the friends were disposed to speak. But as none answered, he proceeded; for, at the beginning of the