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PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.

FOR

NOR several years the plates of this work were supposed to have been destroyed. But through the effective energy of the author's widow they have been found and prepared with some important additions for renewed circulation. It is not claimed that for general interest it will stand beside Dean Stanley's "Jewish Church," but that for compendiousness, for simple, earnest, truthful exposition, for candor to both Jew and Gentile, for convenience in handling and carriage, for usefulness to the Bible student setting out in his search of the Scriptures, for study in day and Sunday schools of the early sacred history of the world, for beauty of typography and manufacture, it is not excelled. It is particularly valuable by reason of the ten new Charts giving in outline the Chronology of Hebrew history, forming an indispensable means of review, prepared by Professor J. T. Benedict, of New York, for class use. There are also in this NEW EDITION a Map of Palestine in the time of Christ, and a full-page Cut showing the sectional plan of the Temple.

1875.

Copyright, 1879, by A. S. Barnes & Co.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

ABRAHAM MILLS;

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

THE history of every thing that pertains to the Ancients, is fraught with the deepest interest to all intelligent minds. The lessons of instruction which it imparts, assuming, as they, in no inconsiderable degree, do, the attributes of experience, are, perhaps, more durable than any others that we receive. Imagination carries us back to the period at which the events that we are contemplating occurred; and as the mind becomes, by the influence of ideal presence, identified with them, the scenes with which they are connected pass, in apparent reality, before our view. If this be true in regard to the history of the Grecians, the Romans, and other profane nations of antiquity, how peculiarly true must it be in regard to the ANCIENT HEBREWs. Here no darkness or uncertainty veils the mind respecting the truth of what is recorded; but every thing stands out in bold relief: characters are exhibited as they were transactions are recorded as they occurred : vice is uniformly detected and punished; and virtue, recognized and rewarded. JEHOVAH himself is the judge; and of the justness of His decisions, no question can properly arise.

In composing the present work, the author has

had these thoughts constantly in his mind; and he has, therefore, aimed, after drawing a general sketch of the history of the world from the creation to the call of Abraham, to give a simple and unambitious narrative of all that transpired in connection with the history of the Hebrews, from the latter event, to the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. To do this the more successfully, he has availed himself of all the aid that he could derive from former writers on the same subject; but his principal guide, as far as its narrative extends, has been the Old Testament Scriptures themselves. That narrative closes, however, nearly five hundred years before the final downfall of the Hebrew nation; but, fortunately, we are favored with the continuation of their history, in the authentic, though uninspired, narratives of Josephus of Jerusalem, and Philo of Alexandria. The author has endeavored, throughout the whole work, to blend the most solemn and impressive lessons of instruction, with the pleasures and advantages of historical information; and if this end shall be found to have been attained, the object had in view will be realized. To the public, and especially to the religious public, he here presents the result of his labors-conscious that the success of the work must entirely depend upon its intrinsic merits.

NEW YORK,

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