groom rejoiceth over his bride, so will the Lord rejoice over Israel. The very land shall be called Beulah, or married. "Go," saith the prophet, "and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. I will bring you unto Zion. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord." Israel is "the married wife."2 How aptly to these words of the prophets do those also of Solomon apply, "Come with me from Lebanon my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana."3

The mountains of Amanus, as Strabo relates, extend from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. They formed the northern boundary of Syria, the northernmost of whose lands were those of Hamath and of the kingdom of Hadadezer on the Euphrates, within which was Berothah. They were thus from end to end the northern and natural boundary of the dominion of David and Solomon, as also of Syria, which they separated from Cilicia. Beir is distant, in a direct line, a hundred and thirtythree miles from the mouth of the Orontes, and touching the one, on the entrance into Hamath on the west, and bordering also on the east, with the other, the range of Amanus is nature's own barrier, which shuts in the land, and forms a boundary defined as any can be. Amanus, says Cotovicus, who himself looked from the top of it, (as we shall hereafter see,) extends for a great space like an overhanging wall, and separates Cilicia from Assyria-Amanus instar muri imminentissimi, per longissima spatia sese extendit et Ciliciam a 2 Isa. lvi. 1. 3 Song of Solomon, iii. 8.

1 Jer. iii. 12, 14, 17.

Syria disterminat. Such a noble Alpine barrier from the east side to the west side, is a worthy boundary of "the glorious land;" and it hems in at once all the land of the Canaanites, all the land of the Giblites, all the land of Hamath, and the ancient kingdom of Hadadezer, while the entrance into Hamath is its Scriptural witness on one side, and Berothah on the other. Fronting Mount Casius, near the base of which is Laodicea, in the land of the Arvadites, it forms the north end of that land; fronting also the wider valley of the Orontes in the interior, it forms the north end of the land of Hamath, and turns back its river, though long "rebellious," and reversed, and sends it at length direct towards the sea; while on the east it reaches towards the Euphrates, and a high mountain range passes that river above Bir, to which the Euphrates is navigable from the Persian Gulf. From that river to the uttermost sea, (or the extremity, may we not say, of the Mediterranean on the north, for there the Euphrates most nearly approaches it,) a mountain chain extends, which, though with separate branches, forms a continuous barrier. Of the Amanus and Rhosus, (or the Jawur Dagh and Akma Dagh,) Mr Ainsworth states, that "the two chains are nominally separated by the pass of Beïlán; but they are in reality continuous with one another. The Jawur Dagh attains a greater altitude than the Akma Dagh, the culminating points being to the north. The average elevation of the Akma Dagh is a little more than 5000 feet above the Mediterranean; that of the Jawur Dagh is from 5000 to 6000 feet." The pass of Beïlán, instead of being a valley with a navigable stream like that of the Orontes on the lip of the ocean, is 1584 feet above the Mediterranean.3 Here, then, at the termination of the plain of Phoeni

2

1 Cotaici Itin. p. 502. Ainsworth's Assyria, p. 313.

3 Ibid. note.

cia, and the land of Hamath, is a boundary which is as marked as that of the Nile; and the geographical features of the land unite with the Scriptural records, in proof that it is also a boundary along all the north end of the land, respecting which, as was said of that river, "there can be no dispute."

But if there could be any doubt or dispute, both might vanish at the word Amana, as written in the holy oracles, like many others, for a time to come. In prophetic vision, if not in fact, we believe assuredly the former,Zion's king could speak of looking, not alone, from the top of Amana. In either case, the conclusion is irresistible, that the land of Israel, intercepted by no other, was from thence in immediate view. And as Antioch was said to be the apex of Syria, the word Amana may crown the argument that the border of Israel is here.

Though that word occurs but once in Scripture, it is associated, as we have seen, with a figure common to the prophets, and which recurs again and again in the Old Testament and in the New, the significancy of which admits not of a doubt. And we are taught to look from what Israel is, to what Israel shall be, when the Lord shall be unto her a husband again.

"I will make her that halteth a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation, and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem." Solomon, in the full extent of his kingdom, and in all his glory, could not utter words that shall not be realized in greater glory then. And when the first dominion and the kingdom shall come to the daughter of

Jerusalem, and that city shall be called the throne of the Lord, and when she shall put on her beautiful garments, and be adorned like a bride for her husband,—who that has passed from Dan to the north end of Hamath, without touching a foot of ground that is not, according to the covenant, Israelitish soil, and sees the mountains of Amanus, with the sought-for entrance on the shores of the Mediterranean on the one end, and Berothah on the banks of the Euphrates on the other, can say that Israel's heritage does not reach to the natural frontier of Syria on the north? And although in past times biblical critics, groping darkly around the ancient limits, controverted the testimony of the heirs of the promise, and denied that the borders of Israel reach to Amanus, what power on earth can controvert the word, or frustrate the purpose of the Lord, when, as if himself declaring the difference between the ancient and everlasting borders of his people, He shall say to Israel, as her husband and her king, "Come with ME from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon, look with me from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon ?" Who can say, that in obeying the command, she would pass her proper borders, though Dan were left far behind; or look on any other land than her own between Amana and Lebanon? And who, beholding the mountain range, as it rises high like a bounding wall, may not conceive a literal significancy in the description of the land as a garden enclosed, as these everlasting hills await the time when the land shall be, as other prophets tell, like the garden of the Lord?

H

SECTION IV.

THE SOUTH BORDER.

Having passed far beyond Dan in search of the northern frontier, it is not at Beersheba that we are to look for that of the south. Yet here again the conflicting opinion has to be met, that Israel has no other boundaries than those of old; and the bounds that were set on the south, as those of the inheritance of the Israelites when they entered Canaan, have been held as identified with the utmost limits of the kingdom of Israel.

But not only did the sentence go forth against the Israelites, when they proved faithless in the covenant, and when they were slack to go in and possess the land, that the Lord would no more drive out their enemies before them, but their prescribed borders on their first entrance were not the same as those which the promises of God have set around their final and everlasting inheritance. Ammon and Moab, beyond Jordan and the Dead Sea, lay to the south of the trans-Jordanic tribes. Concerning the south boundary of the other tribes, it is thus written," The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, when ye come unto the land of Canaan, then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the SALT SEA eastward, and your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadeshbarnea," &c.'

1 Numb. xxxiv. 1-4.