The reader, directing his eye across the map, may thus point out for himself the bounding line along the south side of Israel's inheritance. Though not essential to our subject, the remark may here be pardonable, that, while upon the north a mountain range, rising like a lofty wall, divides the inheritance of Israel from the land of the Gentiles, and sets a most conspicuous barrier between them, nothing but an ideal line, though well defined, passes along the open southern frontier. But, unlike the other, that line separates between none but the seed of Abraham; and the Lord has not placed a mountainous barrier or any other there. The covenant has respect to the time when Hagar's son shall be brought back to Abraham's house —the household of the faithful-though not to Israel's peculiar heritage. The children of the bond-woman, in bondage no longer, shall rejoice together with the free. Kedar and Nebaioth were sons of Ishmael. And concerning Israel, when returned unto their God, and to the land which He hath given them, it is said, "All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee; they shall come up acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory." When the promise was given, that the everlasting covenant would be established with Isaac, it was not in vain that Abraham prayed unto God,-" O that Ishmael may live before thee!" For the answer was given, with "As for Ishmael I have heard thee. Behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation." The promise of the Lord was not forgotten, though Hagar and her son, race. -types of their descendants through many ages—were cast out to wander in the wilderness. The Arabs boast of their descent from Ishmael, as do the Israelites of theirs from Jacob. Abraham was their common father; and as descended from him they all are brethren. Hitherto the fate of the Arab has been strikingly prophetic, as was the character of Ishmael, as given by the angel of the Lord before his birth,—a wild man, whose hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him. But the prophetic word did not stop with the enunciation of the character of his wild and warlike A blessing follows it, more in consonance with the blessing of the Lord on Ishmael. The continued independence of his descendants, marked as it has been, instead of being, as heretofore accounted, the sole completion of the promise, may prove but secondary, as preparatory to its full accomplishment, when the very words, in which the blessing to both the sons of Abraham shall themselves tell, in the simplicity of truth, their full significancy, and even as Israel's seed shall possess the land, Ishmael's-their wildness and their wanderings ceased, and the desert itself a desert no more-shall DWELL in the presence of their brethren.1 And thus it is, we may warrantably say, that on the south border, where they meet, there is no barrier between them-no physical obstacle in the way, when all moral obstacles shall be removed, to hinder the flocks of Nebaioth and of Kedar from going freely-without either a mountain range or a stream to be passed, as on the other sides-as an offering unto the Lord, into the land of Israel. That the brotherly covenant was broken between Jacob and Esau, the desolation of Edom shall tell for ever. But that it never 1 Gen. xvi. 12. was broken between Isaac and Ishmael, the free ingress and egress to each other's lands, may be as enduring a memorial. When Abraham dwelt in Mesopotamia, God said unto him, Get thee into a land that I will show thee. He heard, believed, and went. When Isaac's name, a year before his birth, was told him by the Lord, and the promise made with him, the pitying father pled for the son he already had, and whom he loved: and Ishmael too was blessed-the prayer was heard that he might live before the Lord. Abraham, in sending Hagar away, took bread and a bottle of water, and put it on her shoulder. Thus she departed, and going southward, wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.1 Her seed, according to the word of the angel, has multiplied exceedingly, that it cannot be numbered for multitude.2 Abraham himself individually has a blessing in the covenant, distinct from the promise of the inheritance to his seed; and spiritual blessings, not limited to any race, but branching forth in rich fruitfulness to all, are also involved in it, as they formed its final end. Of these it is not our present province to speak. But standing on the southern portion of Israel, between the families of Abraham's two sons, as they shall yet be seen by a world blessed in the seed of Isaac, who so blind as not to perceive how rich is the promise to faith and the answer to prayer? The river of Egypt to the sea, its shores to the entrance into Hamath, the Amanian mountains rising like a wall, and extending from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, that great river, the Persian Gulf, into which it flows, the Arabian Sea, and the Red Sea, enclose the united territory of the two sons of Abraham, which forms no mean part of the habitable globe. No region can be more definitely marked than that which thus pertains, by covenanted title, to the seed of Isaac, and that which pertains in actual possession, as Arabia does, to the seed of Ishmael. SECTION V. THE EAST BORDER. The only question farther to be resolved respecting the borders of the promised land, is that concerning the respective boundaries on the east, of these two families. of Abraham. Were the northern and southern borders of Israel truly ascertained, those on the east, like those on the west, formed not of land but of water, either a great river or the sea, would be easily determined. The heritage of Jacob, as oft repeated in the original covenant, extends from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates; and also, on the north, from the Euphrates to the uttermost sea. That great river from Berothah, or the extremity of the land in which it stands, necessarily forms the boundary on the east. This is not only expressed in the promise, but has been manifested in fact. David, whose throne shall be established for ever, recovered the borders of his kingdom on the Euphrates; and Solomon, who also reigned over all Israel, maintained a supremacy and sovereignty over all the kings on the east of the Euphrates. If the heart of that monarch, who once was wise, because in faith he asked for wisdom, had been stedfast in the covenant, and had not departed from the Lord, his kingdom would not have been rent in the hands of his son, as was the gar ment of Jeroboam, by the prophet of the Lord. But from his history, and that of his father David, it plainly appears that whenever a gleam of hope broke in upon the dark and evil days, that summed up the history of an else rebellious race, in which the covenant was shrouded from view, no other borders were recognised by these two kings, who alone reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel, than the Lord had assigned, whether from the shores of the Red Sea to the entrance into Hamath, or from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates; and they rested not from maintaining their dominion, till all the kings on that side of the Euphrates owned their sovereignty. The east border necessarily commences where it first comes in contact with the north on that river, and it can terminate only at the eastern extremity of the south border. How far it ascended the Euphrates we have already seen; and its point of contact with that of the south, alone remains to be shown. Let a line be drawn from the Nile in a straight line, east and west, setting the bounds by the Red Sea, and it will be apparent, that, whether the Gulf of Suez, or the Elanitic Gulf, be only touched, the south-eastern border of the land of promise is not reached till the Euphrates pours its streams into the Persian Gulf. After describing the north border, Ezekiel adds, And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, FROM THE BORDER TO THE EAST SEA. And this is the east side. It is too late, we trust, to tell the reader, as commentators of great name have said, that the east sea is the Dead Sea, because it lies to the east of Jerusalem. Were there any truth in this, the previous pages would be the record of a dream, and "the breadth of Imma |