with the high hills of Edom semi-girdling the salt plain where the Israelites repeatedly overthrew their enemies; and to the N. was the calm and motionless sea, curtained with a purple mist; while many fathoms deep in the silent mud beneath it lay embedded the ruins of the ill-fated cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The glare of light was blinding to the eye, and the atmosphere difficult of respiration. No bird fanned with its wing the attenuated air through which the sun poured his scorching_rays upon the mysterious element on which we floated, and which alone, of all the works of its Maker, contains no living thing within it."-P. 310.

"We landed on the south side of the peninsula, near Wady Humeir, the most desolate spot upon which we had yet encamped. Some went up the ravine to escape from the stifling wind; others, driven back by the glare, returned to the boats and crouched under the awnings. One mounted spectacles to protect his eyes, but the metal became so heated that he was obliged to remove them. Our arms and the buttons on our coats became almost burning to the touch; and the inner folds of our garments were cooler than those exposed to the immediate contact of the wind. We bivouacked without tents, on a dry marsh, a few dead bushes round us, and some of the thorny nubk, and a tree bearing a red berry a short distance inland, with low canes on the margin of the sea. A short distance to the N. E., on the peninsula, we found fragments of an immense and very old millstone. The mill had, doubtless, been turned by a canal from the ravine, down which the water must flow copiously in the rainy season.

"At 5, finding the heat intolerable, we walked up the dry torrent-bed in search of water. Found two successive pools rather than a stream, with some minnows in them; the water, not yet stagnant, flowing from the upper to the lower pool.

“ Washed and bathed in one of the pools, but the relief was only momentary. In one instant after leaving the water the moisture on the surface evaporated, and left the skin dry, parched and stiff. Except the minnows in the pool, there was not a living thing stirring; but the hot wind swept moaning through the branches of the withered palm tree, and every bird and insect, if any there were, had sought shelter under the rocks.

66

Coming out from the ravine, the sight was a singular one. The wind had increased to a tempest; the two extremities and the western shore of the sea were curtained by a mist, on this side of a purple hue, on the other a yellow tinge; and the red and rayless sun, in the bronzed clouds, had the appearance it presents when looked upon through smoked glass. Thus may the heavens have appeared just before the Almighty in his wrath rained down fire upon the cities of the plain. Behind were the rugged crags of the mountains of Moab, the land of incest, enveloped in a cloud of dust, swept by the simoom from the great desert of Arabia.

"The heat rather increased than lessened after the sun went down. At 8, p. m., the thermometer was 106o five feet from the ground. At one foot from the latter it was 104°. We threw ourselves upon the parched, cracked earth, among dry stalks and canes, which would before have seemed insupportable from the heat.

"Some endeavoured to make a screen of one of the boats' awnings, but the fierce wind swept it over in an instant. It was more like the blast of a furnace than living air. At our feet was the sea, and on our right, through the thicket, we could distinguish the gleaming of the fires and hear the shouts from an Arab encampment.

"In the early part of the night there was scarce a moment that some one was not at the water-breakers; but the parching thirst could not be allayed, for, although there was no perceptible perspiration, the fluid was carried off

Behaviour of St. Paul to the Philippians and Colossians.

649

as fast as it was received into the system. At 9, the breakers were exhausted, and our last waking thought was water. In our disturbed and feverish slumbers we fancied the cool beverage purling down our parched and burning throats. The mosquitoes, as if their stings were envenomed by the heat, tormented us almost to madness, and we spent a miserable night, throughout which we were compelled to lie encumbered with our arms, while by turns we kept vigilant watch.

"We had spent the day in the glare of a Syrian sun, by the salt mountain of Usdum, in the hot blast of the sirocco, and were now bivouacked under the calcined cliffs of Moab. When the water was exhausted, all too weary to go for more, even if there were no danger of a surprise, we threw ourselves upon the ground, eyes smarting, skin burning, lips and tongue and throat parched and dry, and wrapped the first garment we could find around our heads to keep off the stifling blast; and, in our brief and broken slumbers, drank from ideal fountains."-P. 313, et seq.

The party remained twenty-two nights on the sea, and, as Captain Lynch informs us (p. 378), took accurate observations of every possible phenomenon in connection with it. In the absence of the results of these observations, we have not entered upon any discussion of disputed questions. Captain Lynch has at present added little to our knowledge of the lake, except some striking descriptions of scenery and climate, which we have accordingly placed before our readers. Should, however, the official Report of the expedition ever be made public, we hope that it will be written in a more brief and business-like style than the present specimen of Captain Lynch's authorcraft warrants us in expecting.

C.

THE BEHAVIOUR OF ST. PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS AND CORINTHIANS RESPECTIVELY, IN REGARD TO CONTRIBUTIONS FOR HIS SUPPORT, CONSIDERED AS FURNISHING AN INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE GENUINENESS OF THE EPISTLES IN WHICH IT IS RECORDED, AND AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS OWN PERSONAL CHARACTER.

ST. PAUL was a man of independent and generous mind. This is strikingly seen in his conduct towards the Christian societies which he established, in relation to their contributions for his support.

To such contributions he repeatedly declares that he considers the Christian teacher fully entitled (Gal. vi. 6; 1 Thess. ii. 6; 2 Thess. iii. 9); and in his first letter to the Corinthians (chap. ix.) he argues with irresistible power the right of those who "preach the gospel" to "live by the gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 14). Yet this right he appears in almost every instance to have forborne from exercising himself. In his address to the Ephesian elders (Acts xx. 33-35) he distinctly declares that he had supported himself during his residence among them entirely by his own labour, and had even contributed by it to the support of his companions. His letters to the Corinthians abound in assertions of his personal independence in this respect (1 Cor. iv. 12, ix. 12, 15—18; 2 Cor. xi. 7-12), and of his consequent sufferings (1 Cor. iv. 11, ix. 12; 2 Cor. xi. 27); and this entire independence he professes no less distinctly his determination to maintain (1 Cor. ix. 15-18; 2 Cor. xi. 9). So scrupulous is he in his care to keep himself free from all suspicion

650 in this respect, that when urging the Corinthians to liberal contributions for their poorer brethren in Judea, he expressly stipulates that, if he is to be the bearer of their liberality to Jerusalem, they should appoint trusty and approved persons to go with him (1 Cor. xvi. 4), and declares that on a like occasion he had hitherto been thus attended (2 Cor. viii. 19-21).

Behaviour of St. Paul to the Philippians and Colossians.

Now a hasty observer might conclude from these passages in the apostle's life and writings, that his independence was of a somewhat haughty, morose and selfish character, and that he made reference to the interests of the gospel (as many have done since his time) only as a cloak for his spiritual pride. In a word, it might be suggested with much appearance of plausibility, that he was too proud to lay himself under any obligation to others, too proud to accept a kindness at their hands.

But let us turn to the Epistle to the Philippians, and such a conjecture is immediately proved to be altogether unwarrantable. This Epistle teems throughout with expressions of warm and irrepressible emotions of gratitude, excited by the consciousness of specific obligations. At the very beginning of it (i. 7) we have (according to what is perhaps the correct rendering of the original) a general acknowledgment of this liberality of the Philippian Christians, concerning whom he writes, "Inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are joint contributors to the gift which I have received,” συγκοινωνους μου της χαριτος παντας ύμας όντας. In chap. ii. 25-30, he thankfully records the self-sacrificing zeal of Epaphroditus, who, though himself in an infirm state of health, had voluntarily undertaken to convey their contributions to the apostle at Rome, and supply their "lack of service" to him (ii. 30), caused as that had been entirely by their lack of opportunity (iv. 10). The Epistle closes with the warmest expressions of gratitude and affection (iv. 10-20). While the apostle still asserts his own often tested power of endurance, he withholds not the expression of his joy and thankfulness that their considerate and generous kindness had relieved him from the painful trial. He ascribes to them the exclusive honour of having contributed to his support on his first leaving Macedonia, reminds them that while he was still sojourning there they had more than once "sent unto his necessity," and that now their supply was most abundant, most generous, and, as such, an acceptable sacrifice also to God, in whose service the apostle was specially engaged. One expression in this burst of grateful emotion is remarkable. So penetrated is the apostle with a lively sense of his obligation to these generous friends, that he hesitates not to apply to their gift the very phrase which, in another Epistle (Eph. v. 2), he applies to the voluntary sacrifice of Christ himself, and this he does immediately after he had alleged that he did not value their gift as supplying his wants half so much as he valued it as an indication of their liberal Christian spirit; as though he would not on any account conclude with what might look like a slight or disparagement of their generosity, or an evasion of the grateful acknowledgment which it justly demanded at his hands.

Here, then, we have our apostle under two distinct manifestations of his character: first, in the determined assertion of his personal independence; secondly, in the grateful acknowledgment of his personal obli

Behaviour of St. Paul to the Philippians and Colossians.

651

gations. Are these two manifestations of character at variance, or do they in reality harmonize with each other? In order to reply satisfactorily to this question, we must consider the circumstances in which they were respectively exhibited. In other words, we must inquire, Why was the apostle so scrupulous in refusing to lay himself under any personal obligations to the Corinthians, while at the same time he was so full and cordial in his grateful acknowledgment of the personal obligations under which he had already laid himself to the Philippians? The answer to these inquiries will not only exhibit an undesigned yet striking coincidence, but also a most interesting and instructive phase of the great apostle's manly, disinterested and generous character.

Let us observe, first, the character and habits of the Corinthians. Let us remember the pride, luxuriousness and profligacy by which, as a people, they were distinguished. Let us call to mind that even among those who were avowed converts to Christianity, many still practised some of the grossest vices of their heathen state; while the best of them were vain, contentious, filled with party spirit, and anxious for the possession of miraculous gifts chiefly for the mere sake of display. Imagine such men as these patronizing the great apostle to the Gentiles. Imagine him submitting to receive personal favours at their hands. What must have been the consequence? As regards himself, that they would have treated him with an overbearing and contemptuous spirit-as regards the gospel, that they would have looked upon it as a mere cloak for his covetousness or ambition, or some other equally degrading form of selfishness. What, then, was clearly demanded of a man who had any just respect for himself? Plainly, that he should incur no personal obligations whatever to men of this character. And what was, as clearly, demanded of one to whom had been committed the defence and propagation of the gospel among them? Plainly, that he should in no degree or manner permit his labours in the cause of that gospel to be connected with the reception of gifts or payment at their hands. Selfrespect evidently combined, in this instance, with Christian fidelity and zeal, to demand the persevering rejection of every sort of contribution from such persons.

On the contrary, the Philippian Christians, though not without their occasional disagreements (iv. 2), seem to have been deeply penetrated with the kind and generous spirit of their new faith, and to have devoted themselves to the welfare of their beloved teacher with an unreserved and cordial affection. The heart of that teacher warms with answering gratitude and love to them. He rejoices in being their debtor; he delights in the obligations under which their kindness has laid him. He gives free course to the impulses of his own pure and generous soul, and shews by his example that genuine self-respect is at the farthest possible distance from selfishness or moroseness, and ever maintains an honourable alliance with generous and devoted respect and love for all who are worthy of its approval.

May Philippian Christians abound more and more in our churches, and may Christian teachers, in the faithful and independent discharge of the duties of their office, be enabled to rejoice, with the joy and gratitude of St. Paul, in a full, free and generous interchange with them of mutual services of kindness and love!

B. B.

HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.*

HERE is a work very laboriously compiled; the author has been very painstaking, yet by far the greater portion of the contents can, we should think, possess little interest to the general reader. With the members of this illustrious Society the case may be different, and they may peruse it as a sort of family history. The biographical sketches of the Presidents are of course the most pleasing portions of these volumes; and on the life of Sir Joseph Banks the author seems to have bestowed the greatest care. On the fair land of Italy first rose that intellectual sun of literature and science which is dispelling the clouds of ignorance and superstition. Her Petrarchs, Leonardo da Vincis, Galileos, &c., are among the pioneers and heralds of modern improvement. A great number of learned academies and societies were established in this old classic land, almost before other European nations were at all conscious of the new era that was dawning on the world. A chair of Grecian literature was founded by the Republic of Florence so early as 1360. In England, the Society of Antiquaries was founded by Archbishop Parker in 1572. The origin of the Royal Society, like that of many other illustrious institutions, is involved in some obscurity, but is probably to be referred to some period near 1660. A meeting of learned men, who were accustomed to assemble weekly for the discussion of scientific topics, may have led the way to the establishment of the Royal Society. Dr. Wallis, writing about 1696, thus expresses himself:

"About the year 1645, while I lived in London (at a time when by our civil wars academical studies were much interrupted in both our Universities), besides the conversation of divers eminent divines as to matters theological, I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy persons inquisitive into natural philosophy, and other parts of human learning, and particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy, or Experimental Philosophy. We did by agreements, divers of us, meet weekly in London, on a certain day, to treat and discourse of such affairs; of which number were Dr. John Wilkins (afterwards Bishop of Chester), Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Merret, Mr. Samuel Foster, then Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, Mr. Theodore Haak (a German then resident in London, who, I think, gave the first occasion and first suggested those meetings), and many others. Our business was (precluding

matters of theology and state affairs) to discourse of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto; as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and natural experiments, with the state of these studies as then cultivated at home and abroad." Vol. I. pp. 30, 31.

Such was the cradle of the Royal Society, and from such small beginnings has it grown to its world-wide reputation.

It was in the pages of the Philosophical Transactions, published by this Society, that Newton first gave his discoveries to the world; and afterwards he lent honour to the Society by continuing to be its President for twenty-four years, being the longest term of presidentship, with the exception of that of Sir Joseph Banks, which lasted for forty

History of the Royal Society, with Memoirs of the Presidents, compiled from authentic Documents. By Charles Richard Weld, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, &c. London-Parker, West Strand.