THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND.

PATRIARCHS, KINGS AND KINGDOMS.

PALESTINE UNDER PAGAN KINGS.

The picture which introduces these pages was drawn from a scene under
the sceptre of the first monarch mentioned in the Bible.

A comparatively unimportant prince, the "King of Sodom," whose small and
wicked realm Jehovah destroyed by fire and brimstone, is mentioned.

But the empire of the Pharaohs of Egypt, was large, rich, and
magnificent. And it is a singular thing, that of this nation, and all
others of antiquity, excepting what the Scriptures contain, the early
history is little known. A great German historian, Dr. Von Rotteck,
truly writes: "The principal trait that distinguishes the first period
of the ancient world is its obscurity."

The general belief is, that the founders of Egypt went from Ethiopia,
and the Ethiopians from East India or South Arabia.

"Where did the Indiamen have their origin?" you may ask; but no man can
certainly answer. That all races sprang from Adam we have no doubt, but
the lines of descent and emigration the wisest student of the past
cannot follow.

The living oracles, in brief statements, give us nearly all the reliable
accounts we have of the early history of the "Land of the Nile," as
Egypt was called. In them we learn that while the "chosen people of
God," the only nation whose annals of growth in the number of its
population and its civilization, has been handed down to us, was no more
than a tribe of wandering shepherds under Abraham, Egypt was the home of
art, and a garden of agricultural products.

And yet the very nomades, who roamed over the uncultivated plains, like
the Aborigines of this new world, have preserved the best records of the
early condition of that ancient and wonderful empire, whose origin is
lost in the distance and darkness of Pagan antiquities.

It seems, from the tenth chapter of Genesis, that Egypt was settled by
the descendants of Noah, through Ham, his second son.

The next reference made to this remarkable country is in the twelfth
chapter, where we are told of Abraham's visit there. Again, in the
twenty-first chapter, is recorded the marriage of Ishmael to an Egyptian
woman. In chapter twenty-ninth is related the story of Joseph's
captivity and career in the capital of the Pagan monarchy. He was the
twelfth son of Jacob, and one of Rachel's two boys--lovely in his
youthful character, and the idol of his father. During a period of
repose in