Weekly Trinity journal., 1872-07-20
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THE LAND OF OPuHR.

| ne gOlu OF Ophlr y w nat visions
of untold wealth and more than regal
splendor are awakened in our minds by
these familiar words, which have come
down to us from the days Of the great
king" of Israel We think of the glores
Of the temple, the altar of gold, the table
Of gold, 1.-THE candlesticks Of pure gold,
| five on the right side and five on the left,
! before the oracle, with the flowers, and
the lamps, ana the tongs of gold" In
the royal palace the same costly metal
ghttered everywhere-on the great throne
of ivory, which was overlaid with pure
gold" in all the vessels Of the house,
and even in the armory, which contained
two hundred targets and three hundred
shields, all of beaten gold.
This gold was from Ophir. But where
was Ophirf 1t is a question about which
scholars have differed very widely. Some
have found the place in the south of Ara
bia, others in India, others on the East
ern coast of Africa. The eminent Ger
man geographer, Dir. Petermann, of
Gotha, holds the latter opinion and in
letter just published he announces the in
teresting fact that "the true locality OF
the land Ophir Of the Bible has just been
discovered. For some time there have
been rumors of vast structures, evidently
the work of civilized men, standing de-
serted and in ruins in Southeastern Az
RIGA. Atlast an enterprislng German
traveller, Carl Mauch, has succeeded ip
reaching them, At place called Zim-
bayer, about hundred and sixty miles
west of Sotala harbor, he came upon ru-
ined walls of great extent, some of which
are thirty feet high and fifteen feet thick,
Il tower and other similar struc lures
They are built Of hewn granite, without
mortar, style which indicates their
great antiquity. The country around
them abounds in gold, and the natives
believe them to have been built by white
men, in very ancient times. This, DR..
Petermann thinks, was the veritabe
Ophir from which the naves of Solomon
and Hiram brought the abundance, OF
gold wherewith Phnnicia and Judea
were enriched in their days.
But is it not likely that the name Ophir
bad wider significance than Dir. Peter
mann supposes ? There were no gold
mines in those days. The ancicnts knew
nothing Of quartz-crushng; all their
gold was obtained in the form of dust,
and to gain any large quantity of this it
must be collected over very extensive
region. Now, from the earliest times un-
til the days of Australia and California,
the whole of Africa has been, before all
other regions, the "land Of gold. One
part Of the western border has long borne
the name Of the Gold Coast. English
guneas, it is well known, were so called
because they were coined of gold from
Guinea. The eastern coast is equally
rich. The traders Of every maritime ma
ton, from the Phnnicians and Arubians
to the Portuguese and the English, have
trafickcd for the precious dust at the
mouth Of every river which flows from
that mysterious inland region
Where Afrc's sunny fountains
Roll down O'er golden sands.
Is anything to be learned from the
word Ophr itselfP Phpncan sailors
manned the ships Of solomon which
made the voyage to the land so designa-
ted, and from them tho Hebrews doubt
less learned its name. Other Ph@nicians
settled at Carthage, on the northern coast
of Africa, From these the Romans
probably obtained the word "Aler,"
meaning African, from which the Latin
word Africa is derived. "Ater," as
pronounced by the Romans, probably
differed very little from "0phir," as
pronounced by the Hebrews. Both were
doubtless derived from the same Ph@ni-
ciun word, which must therefore have
meant Africa.
If this reasoning is correct, the land Of
Ophir" was simply the continent Of Az
rica, then, as now, the inexhaustibo
source of gold. The ruins just discover
ed by the German traveller may have
been one Of the principal trading stations
Of the Phmnicians in that land +; and
when we read that the navies Of Hiram
that brought gold from Ophir, brought
also "great plenty" Of precious stones,
we cannot but be reminded of the fact
that these wly-found ruins are very
near the rich diamond fields of South Af-
rica. Thus every discovery in science
or history, when rightly understood, be-
comes a confirmation or the Scriptural
narrative, and brings the singular accu-
raey Of "the Book" into clearer light.
prur urnninth l. nhnnt u tnkn iho