in the surroundings to distract their attention, or lead their minds from the true worship.

The so-called Sinaitic Inscriptions, more properly the Serbalitic, have been adduced in favor of Serbal as being the mount of God. These are found in great abundance about this mountain, and in all the west and north-west approaches, especially in the Wady Mukkateb or written valley, north-west of Serbal. These are not found at all on the peaks of Horeb or Sinai, nor to the eastward of them, but appear to belong exclusively to Serbal, or to the route taken by pilgrims from Suez to this mountain. The name Serbal is from the Arabic word Sereb and the Phoenician Baal, which signify the Palmgrove of Baal, from a group of palm trees at the foot of the mount, and from the worship of Baal the sun-god. There are five principal summits of the mountain, which appear to have been dedicated each to one of the five planets as then known. Karl Ritter says on this matter: "The fine, bold, rugged, hardly accessible rocky peaks, which crown the summit in so royal a form, seem better fitted for the five pyramidal thrones of the five great planets, than for the seat of the one God; for the other two of the seven planetary deities, the sun and moon, had undoubtedly their own special sanctuaries in the Serbal itself and the immediate neighborhood." Erdkunde, Band xiv.

From the latest investigations made by Professor Tuch, of Leipzig (in the Zeitschrift des Morgeul Gesellse, p. 136), these inscriptions seem to have been made in part by an ancient Arabie tribe, the Tawarah, who inhabited the western part of the peninsula and around the northern shore of the isthmus of Suez; but there is also reason to believe that pilgrims came from Egypt, and that there are traces of this star-worship in that country: for all these inscriptions are accompanied by what seemed to many travelers crosses, and therefore led them to think that they were of Christian origin, but which, as is now admitted, is not the case. A passage in Amos v: 26, throws much light on this subject: "Ye have borne the tent of your king, and the chime of your idols, and the star of your gods, which ye made for yourselves." The word in the Syriac signifies the planet Saturn, and the Arabic equivalent, kaiwanun, has the same meaning. This planet represents the

devil, or the malignant spiritual power, which was constantly sought to be propitiated by the heathen of the districts around the gulf of Suez. The original of the word, signifying star, seems to be found in the Ethiopic, showing a connection in its employment between the idolatry of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians. The inference from this passage in Amos is, that the former had, during their march toward Sinai, part of the way by the common route taken by the heathen pilgrims from Suez, engaged in the star-worship, which had its chief center at Serbal. These Serbalitic inscriptions, as deciphered by Beer and Tuch, are merely the records of the names of such pilgrims as have visited these localities, accompanied by a short salutation, and preceded or succeeded by a +, or character such as has been adopted from the Arabic Astrology to designate a planet. That this is not the Christian cross is plain, because the inscriptions invariably record the names of heathen, none of them, save such as are unquestionably of a late date, being exceptions. So that instead of referring this to the cross of the Christian pilgrim, which can not be without distortion, the above offers a natural explanation according to the facts of the case.

VI. Sustenance of the Israelites in the Desert.

It is not proposed to account by natural means how so large a company was sustained for the length of time they remained in the vicinity of Sinai. For the miraculous preservation is accepted as an undoubted fact, and we can easily see reasons why such a barren locality was chosen, since it would teach the Israelites dependence on God, and through this bring them near to Him. But there are some matters connected with their subsistence which it is well to refer to. The Israelites undoubtedly had immense flocks and herds when they left Egypt; but unless the Sinaitic peninsula was immeasurably more fertile then than now, or they too sustained by miraculous power, of which we have no account, they could not have survived long. It is true that they might have been scattered far and wide through the narrow valleys, as some suppose, and there have obtained a scanty support; but it is not likely that they would have felt safe in separating far, if that could be in the bounds of the whole peninsula, in the face of hostile nations. Nor was this consistent with their unity as a people,

which was necessary to their instruction in the Law. Nor would it permit the subsequent services of the tabernacle, or the order of the encampments, that they should be greatly scattered. Again: It is not likely, as before stated, that they had numerous flocks remaining when they so greatly desired the flesh-pots of Egypt, and to meet this desire the quails were sent. For had they possessed the very kind of animals which supply the food they desired, why should that earnest longing have been manifested? It is probable, then, that they had either lost their flocks by starvation, or had consumed them for food-probably both causes operated-very soon after leaving Egypt. That their flocks and herds were comparatively few may be inferred from the smallness of their offerings, Numbers vii. 87-88; for the sanctification of the tabernacle, in comparison with those offered when Solomon dedicated the temple. 1 Kings, viii. 63.

An attempt has been made to identify the manna wherewith Israel was fed, with the modern gum of commerce, produced from the shrub Tamarix Gallica mannifera. This gum exudes from the branches and twigs of the tree in consequence of the puncture of an insect, the Coccus manniparus, and becomes inspissated, hanging in small semi-transparent globules. But it is impossible for this to be the same, whether we hold to the rationalistic or miraculous view. For, admitting it to be the same, the amount furnished is wholly inadequate, since not more than 600 pounds is produced in a year in the whole peninsula; while the shrubs in the camp only, must have afforded at least 3,000,000 pounds per day to feed the people, at their ordinary enumeration. Hence the natural explanation is reduced to an absurdity, and miraculous power must be resorted to for aid. But, again: the character of the modern manna does not agree with that described in the Exodus; for it is found in small drops or globules, and only under, or upon, the shrubs from which it exudes. But the manna of Scripture was "found upon the face of the desert; the people gathered it, ground it in mills and beat it in a mortar, or cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it"—all which is impossible with the modern article; for it is a gum and would neither admit of grinding in mills or pounding in mortars. Nor would it bake into cakes, for heat instead of hardening, renders it liquid.

But still further: the true manna, if kept over night, decomposed, stank, and bred worms; while this may be kept for years without any perceptible change. Schubert (in his Reise, I, 345, quoted by Kurtz), says on the general subject: "If this insect-manna formed the entire nourishment of the hosts of Israel in the desert, they were greatly to be pitied. It contains absolutely none of those substances which are indispensably necessary for the daily nourishment and support of the animal frame, and in which worms of decomposition could be generated. ***** I agree, therefore, with K. von Raumer, in the opinion that the angels' food, the manna from heaven, was not the same as the manna produced by lice and chafers."

It is true that many persons have maintained the identity, and that it may be adduced as an evidence that the modern manna, properly so called, is not found outside the peninsula. But this does not by any means prove their identity; for many localities bear specific productions, and the natural manna of Sinai doubtless took its name from the supposed resemblance to the supernatural bread from heaven. Nor does it settle the question that Josephus espouses its identity; for there was none of the true manna when he lived; since the little pot of manna had long agó disappeared, together with the holy of holies of the first temple. And, in conclusion, all must admit that it gives a degrading conception to the many references to the bread from heaven, which on the supposition of the identity would not be true, if we think of it merely as a gum flowing from a shrub in consequence of the puncture of an insect, and destroys the parallel so often instituted by our Lord between his body given as the bread for the soul of the believer, while passing through the wilderness of life, and the bread which God sent down from above to nourish Israel during the journey in the Desert.

ART. VII.-Imputation and Original Sin.

PART III.—Continued.)

(TESTIMONIES CONTINUED.)

XXXV. JOHN FORBES, Professor of Theology, in Aberdeen,

1593-1648.

We have sufficiently referred to this learned and holy man in No. XXIX, in connection with Vossius. In his Theologia Moralis, lib. 10, cap. 6, sect. 9, he thus refers to the principle on which antecedent imputation is based:

"For as it is impossible that God should be the author of sin, so, also, it is impossible that he did create or should have created man in the beginning, possessed of a fleshy concupiscence contrary to reason. * * * * * For such concupiscence is morally evil of itself, and naturally hateful to God; and, therefore, as he is the revenger (ultor) of it he can not be its author. Man is the cause of the whole of this evil to himself, by the voluntary transgression of the Divine precept."

XXXVI. J. CLOPPENBURG, Professor at Franeker, 1597—1652. In his Altera Tomus, pp. 150, 151, he says:

"In the ancient covenant of works before the fall, the first man (being conjoined with Eve and they being made one flesh) was bound not only for himself, but for all his natural posterity, as the root of the human race propagated from these two. This appears from the calamitous result, because our first parents have not only themselves fallen, but so as that they have drawn with them the ruin of the whole human race." "There is, therefore, plainly, according to the mind of the Apostle, a two-fold original sin in all the natural descendants of Adam. 1. The first sin of man imputed. 2. Then that hereditary spiritual poverty, by which all who are propagated from Adam are spiritually dead in sins."

XXXVII. J. MESTREZATIUS, 1592-1657.

This great and good man has ever ranked among the first theologians of the Reformed Church of France. His family were of Verona, in Italy, and were very eminent; and on account of their religion, emigrated to Geneva, where he was born. When but eighteen years of age he was offered a Professorship of Philosophy, but declined to accept it. He studied