mingled with sweat; but there are no wellauthenticated instances in which blood has exuded from the frame in the way that is termed bloody sweat,' as a result of mental torture. Others have taken the words metaphorically. We say-'Weep tears of blood :' in the same way, 'to sweat blood' may have come into use. The description appears to be, not of a scientific, but a popular character; for, though Luke was a physician, he did not therefore cease to be liable to the errors of his day. His inspiration did not extend to physiological subjects. Sir Thomas Brown, a physician, remarks that 'a sober and regulated astrology' in medicine is not to be rejected or condemned. Among popular misconceptions, it is still common to think, that blood is parted with,- for instance in what is called 'spitting blood,' when, in strictness of speech, nothing takes place worthy of the name. But as, before the channels and functions of the blood were rightly known, it was thought that blood might be wept, so also was it believed that blood might be exuded; and, in consequence, an unusually copious and profuse perspiration, such as often attends on mental distress, may popularly have been described as 'sweat like drops of blood.' It was, as Theophy. lact expressly states, a proverbial usage in ancient times to say of those who were engaged in great labours, that they sweat blood; and Luke appears to have attempted to guard himself against being taken literally in the peculiar wording which he employs, - 'and his sweat was as it were drops of blood,'the drops were large and thick like globules of blood. The same writer (Acts ix. 18), intending to describe, in a striking manner, Paul's restoration to sight, popularly affirms,-"There fell from his eyes as it had been scales;' the same word in the original being used for as it were,' and 'as it had been.'

In order to form a correct conception of the state of our Lord's mind just prior to his death, the accounts furnished by all the evangelists must be put together and studied. In John's Gospel (xvii. xviii.), the utmost self-possession, self-forgetfulness, and mental calm, are indirectly pourtrayed; so that the agony could not have been of long continuance, nor have had permanent effects. It seems, indeed, to have been a sudden convulsion of a highly sensitive and severely tried frame, instinctively shrinking back from the tomb, and from mockery, insult, torture; and from the still more appalling fear, lest the great work should fail at the last through any inevitable infirmity on the part of the sufferer. In this life-and-death struggle, however, Jesus sought strength in prayer, and was heard on account of his piety (Heb. v. 7); so that he henceforward went through his trials to the last in entire and unruffled composure of mind.

This grotto lies in the Garden of Gethesemane. It is deep and high; and divided into two cavities by a sort of subterranean portal. There are also several altars sculptured in the rock. This sanctuary, the work of nature, has not been disfigured by so many artificial ornaments as some other sanctuaries. The vault, the floor, and the walls, are of the rock itself; distilling, like tears, the cavernous humidity of the earth which envelopes it. There is above each altar, in pieces of leather, painted flesh colour, and of the natural size, a bad representation of the scene of the agony of Christ, with angels, that present him with the chalice of death. Were these bad figures, which disturb those that the pious imagination loves to create in the shadow of this empty cavern, destroyed; and were the tearful eyes of the visitor allowed to mount freely, without the obstruction of sensible images, towards the thought of Him of whom the spot is so painfully commemorative, this grotto would be the most impressive relic of the hills of Zion; but man cannot help more or less spoiling whatever ignorance bids him put his hand to.

AGRICULTURE (L. the tillage of the ground) in the East still remains what it was in ancient times: we shall therefore begin this article with a brief account of agriculture as it is now carried on.

The plough, in Western Asia, even at the present day, is ordinarily of the most simple construction, utterly unfit for the strong clay lands of our own country, and applicable only to light or sandy soils. Even these it penetrates but to a small depth, and rather tears up and throws aside, than cuts and destroys, the weeds and roots which it meets with in its course. The animals employed are, for the most part, oxen; rarely horses or mules. They have a rough kind of yoke on their necks, to which the plough is fastened, the two arms of which are held by the workman, who also carries in his hand a long pointed stick, with which be goads and directs the cattle. Behind the ploughman

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comes a boy, with a hoe or mattock, to complete the preparation of the soil, by breaking the clods and removing weeds. On this rough tillage there generally follows an abundant harvest. Dung is for the most part used only for producing what we should term hot-bed plants, such as artichokes, melons, &c. The ordinary grains are wheat and barley, which, in favourable spots, are of a very large and fine kind. The stalks grow, in such places, to so great a height, as to hide a man on horseback. Harvest is a season, as of abundance so of hilarity. Song lightens the labour-song, led by a single voice, the burden of which is repeated in chorus. The work of mowing is speedily despatched. The corn being conveyed to the granary, the grain is obtained by treading on the stalks, when the chaff is separated from the wheat by being shaken with a fork, and tossed about till it is quite pure. If requisite, a sieve is also employed. The meal is got by grinding, which is done in handmills by women and slaves, when they have first removed any small stones, or bits of earth, that may remain. The straw is used as fodder for oxen and horses.

In the earliest mode of life presented in the Bible, we find agriculture and the care of cattle the sole business. Adam's children, Abel and Cain, are the originators and representatives of these two pursuits (Gen. iv. 2). The care of cattle is in the hands of the favourite son, Abel; agriculture is prosecuted by Cain, who fell under God's displeasure. This representation is in entire keeping with the habits of nomad life which the primeval race pursued, and with what reason and analogy would lead us to expect. It may safely be assumed, that food was procured in the easiest way. Primarily, this way was to use the spontaneous productions of nature, whether offered in the vegetable or the animal world; but, as soon as some specific care became necessary, the keeping of flocks and herds was clearly the most obvious and the least costly mode of procuring subsistence. Agriculture, even in the East, is a comparatively laborious process, and one that does not afford the needful supply of food till after much delay and various manipulations. The agricultural is an advanced state of civilisation, and could have been reached only by slow degrees, which would be retarded the rather because the business of working the ground is little in unison with the Arab's love of ease, liberty, and independence. Accordingly, in the patriarchal age, the care of cattle held the predominance, and that to such an extent, that famine, even in so naturally productive a land as Canaan, was repeatedly endured. In progress of

time, men began to feel that agriculture was the only sure source of sustenance; and, in Egypt, the Israelites received important lessons in the successful tillage of the soil.

Moses, accordingly, with characteristic wisdom, because he knew that a nomad could not be a highly civilised people, and because his people were now prepared for the civilised and civilising pursuits of agriculture, also because he was aware that these pursuits alone could furnish a constant supply of food, resolved to make agriculture the foundation of his civil and religious institutions. Yet the shepherd's life always held a high rank in the estimation and the practice of the Hebrews; and, in truth, Palestine afforded great facilities, as much for the one as for the other mode of existence (Prov. xxvii. 23-27).

While the reflex influence of later times is probably to be seen in Gen. ii. 15, and while, as we have intimated, the patriarchs were nomad chiefs, yet they were by no means unacquainted with agriculture (Gen. xxvi. 12; xxxvii. 7); a fact which might have been safely inferred from the comparatively high degree of culture which their history displays. But agriculture did not receive full attention till Moses came, and provided each Hebrew with his own estate, which was to be for ever inalienable (Lev. xxv. 10, seq. 23. Numb. xxvi. 53; xxxiii. 54). This division of the land, as it is the only just and safe one, so is it the only one that rests on divine authority. A state having such an arrangement for its basis, could not permit its members to fall into a condition of permanent slavery; and the extreme of poverty, as well as the destructive evils of pauperism, were to a great extent unknown.

The choice of an agricultural constitution, on the part of Moses, had also this advantage, that it effectually served one great instrumental purpose which he had in view; namely, the severing of his people from the idolatrous nations into the midst of whom they were going, and by whom they would unavoidably, and for many ages, be sur rounded. The country, too, was eminently fitted to give scope and opportunity to the resources of agriculture. Its position on the globe is such as to secure a full supply of heat, while the proximity of the Mediterranean Sea tends to mitigate its fervours. Lebanon covered the land from the cold winds of the north. Other hills gave shelter, and formed warm vales; while they themselves afforded pasturage for cattle, and, by means of terraces, soil for culture under different degrees of heat. A large river runs through the length of the land, and is fed by many tributary streams; other rivulets cut Palestine from east to west, flowing from the hills into the Mediterranean. The rocky (limestone) nature of the land gave an abundance of fountains and brooks. The dews are heavy. Rain falls plentifully in the opening and in the decline of the year. these advantages contributed to make Isaac's wish a reality:-'God give thee of the dew

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of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine' (Gen. xxvii. 28; comp. Deut. viii. 7, seq.). No real objection to this account can be drawn from the actual condition of Palestine. Its civil history accounts for its actual unproductiveness. The sword is a bad substitute for the plough. Tyranny and oppression inevitably produce a desert. It was a nation of freemen that, under Mosaism, made the entire land a garden. A nation of bondmen could do no other than make it and keep it barren and desolate. Yet, wherever due care is now applied, ample proofs are given that the Land of Promise might again produce the richest rewards of human labour.

Supported by law, and esteemed among the people, agriculture was successfully prosecuted. From being a secondary (Job i. 14), it rose to be the chief pursuit, and great support of life. It is the main object of care to the virtuous woman,' the graphic account of whose engagements shows a union of agricultural with manufacturing operations, not dissimilar to that which used to prevail in the manufacturing districts of England (Prov. xxxi. 10, seq.). As population grew, so increased both the necessity for, and the application to, agriculture. The hero Gideon is found threshing, by the angel of the Lord (Judg. vi. 11). Even after his election to the regal office, Saul is represented as 'coming after the herd out of the field' (1 Sam. xi. 5). Elisha is ploughing with twelve yoke before him, and he with the twelfth, when Elijah cast his mantle upon him (1 Kings xix. 19). King Uzziah had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains; husbandmen also, and vine-dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel ; for he loved husbandry' (2 Chron. xxvi. 10). The Babylonish captivity did not destroy this love in the nation; and unusual diligence was employed by the people, on their return, to repair the evils occasioned by a neglect of seventy years. How thoroughly the Jewish mind was imbued with thoughts and images borrowed from the culture of the soil, may be learnt from the teachings of our Lord, many of whose most striking, pertinent, and beautiful figures are hence taken (Mark iv.).

As in all the practical arts, so in husbandry, the Hebrews were a practical people; and their knowledge and skill were purely the result of a lengthened experience, transmitted from age to age by that strong bond of tradition which unites successive generations in oriental nations. Accordingly, the knowledge which the Hebrews had obtained in the lowlands of Egypt, their descendants applied on the plains of Canaan, such as Esdraelon, Sharon, Jericho; and while the villages were richly cultivated, the hills were made productive, not only of pasture, and of the olive and the vine, but, in a measure, of corn as well: so in Ps. lxxii. 16, corn is found on the top of

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the mountains' (comp. Ezek. xxxvi. 8, 9). In order to render these capable of successful cultivation, terraces were formed along and up their sides, having hedges and walls to sustain the soil, and arrest the rain (Isa. v. 2-6).

Land was divided by acres. An acre was roughly measured by what a yoke or pair of oxen could plough in a day (1 Sam. xiv. 14). The Hebrews employed manure, consisting of the ashes of burnt stubble (Isa. v. 24; xlvii. 14. Joel ii. 5) and of dung (2 Kings ix. 37. Jer. ix. 22. Luke xiv. 35). The ordinary implements were the plough, the harrow, the spade, the hoe, the sickle, and the pitchfork. An Egyptian painting describes what was probably the ancient Hebrew plough: it consists of a share, curving upwards to the left hand of the ploughman, who holds it by a hole in its upper end, the lower end has an arrow-headed termination for cutting the soil: in his right hand the man has a long whip, for driving the two oxen which draw the plough. Immediately in front of the oxen walks a man, holding in one hand a bag, and with the other, casting straight before him the seed, which is thus turned in and covered by the plough in probably its second passage over the land. The same picture exhibits a man cutting off the heads of corn with a sharptoothed sickle, the handle and blade of which are set at a small angle, the blade curving up and going out beyond the handle, and so ending in a point. Another painting represents a plough, the share of which is held by the ploughman, with two hands; and from the share runs a pole up to a transverse beam, which comes under the neck of the animals, and acts, with the aid of ropes, as a yoke. The animals employed are an ox and an ass, a union which was forbidden by the law of Moses, probably because of the difference of strength, tread, and habits of the two, by which the greater labour would be thrown on the weaker back, to say nothing of the unseemliness of using together animals so dissimilar in appearance as well as in qualities. The striking remark of Samson-'If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle'-shows, by its obviously proverbial character, that oxen were chiefly employed at the plough (Deut. xv. 19. Amos vi. 12): a goad was used for driving (Judg. iii. 31). Though the soil of Palestine contains a great deal of clay and marl, in various proportions, yet the prevalence of heat over moisture renders it easily penetrable and fit for tillage by simply constructed instruments. They were, however, mostly of iron, and required for use to be sharpened from time to time (1 Sam. xiii. 20). In Isa. xxviii. 24, seq. the chief operations of husbandry are set forth. Of the principal grains, the Hebrews cultivated wheat, barley, and spelt. The soil was favourable also for pulse, such as lentils and beans. Flax and

cummin, garlic and cucumbers, were grown. Seeds of divers kinds might not be sown together (Deut. xxii. 9). The produce was so abundant that Palestine became an exporting country. Solomon bought timber of his friend Hiram, with twenty thousand measures of wheat for food, and twenty measures of pure oil, year by year (1 Kings v. 11. Ezek. xxvii. 17). For the winter, fruit sowing took place, a short time after the autumnal equinox, in October and November, when the early rains had moistened and prepared the soil; sowing for the summer fruit took place in January, but mostly in February, when the spring began. The harvest had its commencement in April. These customs still remain substantially the same. Our Lord intimates that the produce was sometimes so much as a hundred fold (Matt. xiii. 23), which is confirmed by other passages. Isaac received a hundred fold (Gen. xxvi. 12). As the Babylonians, the Israelites seem to have sown their seed in furrows or lines, wide apart, which would give full scope to the productiveness of the separate seeds. Agriculture was patronised and furthered by the laws which related to possession, the year of jubilee, landmarks, &c. Nor could there be any great disadvantage to the cultivator in the laws which gave privileges to the poor, such as plucking ears on passing through a field of corn, and the rights of gleaning, in a country which was so prolific, and in which, at least at the first, there were so few poor, who could also easily obtain employment at harvest season.

AGRIPPA (G. born with difficulty) was a son of Herod Agrippa I. 'Herod the king' of Acts xii. 1 and 23, on which account he was called Herod the Younger or II. He was the last king of Judea, and lived till after the destruction of Jerusalem. In Acts xxv. 13, it is this prince who comes with Bernice to Cæsarea, to salute Festus; in xxvi. gives Paul a hearing; in ver. 28, declares,' Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;' and, ver. 31, 32, adds, 'This man doeth nothing worthy of death or bonds: he might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cæsar.'

Agrippa was not more than seventeen years of age when his father and predecessor died; and it was only after a time, and by degrees, that he was permitted by the Romans to become king. He laboured to adorn Jerusalem and other cities. In consequence of his conduct, particularly of his arbitrarily appointing and deposing high priests, he was not esteemed by the Jews. When the last war against the Romans broke out, he took part with the enemies of his country. He died in the seventieth year of his age, the fifty-first of his reign, and the third year of the Emperor Trajan.

Was it in a mocking or a serious mood that Agrippa said to Paul,-'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian'? Unbelief,

feeling that this confession was a signal tes timony to the gospel, has tried to make the words appear to be ironical. If this be so, the fact is a discredit to Agrippa, and to Heathenism. The occasion did not excuse, much less justify, a spirit of levity or scorn. The evidence, however, of one who was present decides adversely to this supposition; for Paul himself, as appears by his answer, most clearly took the words of the monarch as spoken seriously. Nor can any one who has studied the writings and character of Paul, feel any wonder, that powers such as his should have struck and shaken Agrippa's heart, and inclined him, at least momentarily, in favour even of the cause of one who stood accused before him. Such is the majesty of religion, when pure and undefiled. No durable effect, however, was to be expected. Near him sat Bernice, his sister, with whom he is suspected of having had an incestuous connection. The Heathenism in whose lap, at the court of Claudius, Agrippa had been educated, treated the whole affair as a piece of fanaticism, by the mouth of the Roman Festus; and taking counsel of these persons, and yielding to these influences, Agrippa sank back into congenial indifference, gave his heart to its old flatteries, and left the court a friend of Festus, a paramour of Bernice, and a slave of the world. How many other almost Christians have fallen in a similar manner!

There is no reason to wonder, that, under such a prince, and in the corrupt and degenerate state of the public character, Judea was finally vanquished by the Romans. Agrippa II. found the greater part of the country in their possession, under procurators. Of these there were the following in the time of Agrippa; namely, C. Fadus, T. Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, Festus, Albinus, and lastly, G. Florus; nearly all of whom came into conflict with the Jews, whose risings became more and more frequent, which the Roman power and party had difficulty to suppress. Armed bands made the hills into strong holds, and, as was convenient, infested the lower country. At last, the Romans seem to have provoked an insurrection. Florus purposely outraged the national feelings, and the fatal war commenced. Even the moderate party, with the high priest Ananias at their head, declared in favour of opposition to the common enemy; and a regular war was undertaken, with a view to obtain national independence. But soon the zealots gained the upper hand, when extravagance, disunion, and disorder, prevailed on the part of the Jews, till, at length, Jerusalem was taken, and the conquest completed, after a million of Israelites had been sacrificed, as much owing to internal dissension and consequent weakness, as to the skill and courage of the victors.

AGUE (L. to drive, shake) is connected in the English Bible with the term burning

'the burning ague' (Lev. xxvi. 16). There is no separate word in the Hebrew for burning; the noun rendered ague denotes to burn; and in a passage of similar import in Deut. xxviii. 22, the same word is translated simply 'fever.' This rendering is the more correct; for the original does not refer to the cold fits which are connected with intermittent fever, and give it popularly the name of ague, but to the fiery and wasting heat of such a fever as the typhus (from the Greek, to burn), with the root meaning of which our present Hebrew word is intimately allied. The description given of this burning ague' shows its nature that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.'

AGUR (H. a collector), son of Jakeh, who spoke the words of the prophecy found in Prov. xxx.

Jerome held that Agur was a symbolical name for Solomon: but that monarch is described as the son of David; Agur, as the son of Jakeh.

AHAB (H. father's brother. A.M. 4641; A.C. 907; V. 918), seventh king of Israel, son of Omri, reigned twenty-one years (918 -897). He did evil above all that were before him; took to wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him; he reared an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and made a grove for the idolatrous worship (1 Kings xvi. 29-33). He oppressed the prophets of Jehovah, and supported four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of the grove, all of whom ate at the queen's table (1 Kings xviii. 4, 19). He was punished for his idolatry with a sore famine (1 Kings xvii. 1; xviii. 2); and was wroth against Elijah, who had foretold the punish ment (1 Kings xviii. 17). He made war with Benhadad, king of Syria, in three campaigns: in the first and second, which were defensive, he was successful; in the third, which was of fensive, he was defeated and slain (1 Kings xx.-xxii.). He had caused Naboth to be put to death, because he refused to let him have his vineyard; for which crime Elijah prophesied against him-'In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood.' He repented: the threatened evil was in consequence postponed (xxi.). He was misled by four hundred false prophets, in opposition to the counsel of Micaiah, to engage in the war, which led to his death at Ramoth-gilead. He was buried at Samaria, and one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour' (xxii. 38). His seventy sons, with Jezebel his wife, were all destroyed (2 Kings ix. x.).

Evil in this world is never found to stand alone: its presence, always under the wise and benign providence of God, calls its opposite, good, into active energy. So Ahab

and Jezebel are the occasion of our knowledge of the sublime virtues of Elijah. And if the perusal of the misdeeds of the former is offensive and painful, not less decidedly instructive and elevating is the study of the noble features of character displayed by the latter (1 Kings xix.-xxi.). The episode of Naboth's vineyard (xxi.) is one of those instances of striking and impressive reality, which assure us, while reading the Bible, that we have before us a transcript from actual life-passages whose truth an impartial reader can no more doubt, than he can doubt the sincerity of his infant's smile, or a tried friend's trustworthiness.

In

Ahab's vices are those of weakness. himself incapable of good, and unable to do well, he was led by his wicked and idolatrous wife, and presents to all ages a painful evidence, that weakness of character is nearly allied to baseness.

AHASUERUS, the title of several MedoPersian princes found in the Bible, which appears to be a general designation for such kings, applied to individuals, as Pharaoh and Agag, in the Old Testament; and Shah, Pasha, and Khan, among modern oriental nations. The name seems also to be an imperfect imitation of the Persian word, which is represented by the term Xerxes. Hebrew form of the name corresponds more nearly with the original Persian, whence it is taken. So far as can be ascertained, Ahasuerus denotes a wise or holy king.

The

In Dan. ix. 1, the person so named was the father of the Median Darius; in other words, Astyages, king of the Medes, and father of Cyaxares II. (Dan. v. 31).

The Ahasuerus mentioned in Esra iv. 6 is probably Cambyses, who reigned from the year 529 (A.C.), in all seven years and five months, and is described as of a severe and passionate temper.

The prince with whom Esther was connected (Esth. i. 1) is considered to be Xerxes (486-465,A.C.); whose known character well corresponds with the implications and narratives found in the book of Esther, in regard to Ahasuerus.

In the Apocrypha (Tob. xiv. 15), Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus are mentioned as conquerors of Nineveh. Nabopolassar and Cyaxares are intended.

AHAZ (H. one that takes and plunders. A.M. 4811; A.C. 737; V. 742), twelfth king of Judah, was son of Jotham. He was twenty years old when he began to reign. He reigned sixteen years. He diverged from the way of David to idolatry, walking in the way of the kings of Israel; he even made his children to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the Heathen, and sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came