Morning journal and courier., 1886-08-21
Scenes of Bible Story.


 Over thirty years ago, when two three Englishmen began the work of collecting in volume the knowledge then existing about the scenes of Bible history, they became very much impressed with the scantiness of the information they sought and the haphaz- ard manner in which it gathered. Out of their report on this subject grew the Pal estine exploration fund, which for twenty one years past has kept it's explorers ransack- ing the ruins of ancient civilization. The world owes to the work of this society, sup plemented by the fruitful labors Of its col leagues in Egypt and Assyria, the identifca- tion with more or less certainty of most of the important places mentioned In the Bible.
 These tireless explorers, with their spades and geological hammers, digging into an cient tombs and crumbled synagogues, map ping every ruin, exploring all the caverns and water courses, are bringing the stage upon which the drama of sacred history was enacted clearly before the eyes of modern students. It is precious boon to this gene ration that these new lights have been sup piled to illumine it's researches into the oreatest of books History cannot be stud fed intelligentlv without maps. The student of Europe in this country requires series of maps to enable him to understand the mo- mentous and numerous changes in political boundaries from the rise of Napoleon to the treaty of Berlin. So these recent researches in Bible lands are restoring to the maps most important information.
 We can now trace with large degree of certainty the route of the Exodus. We can correctly place on the map of Egypt in the eastern half of the delta the fertile land ot Goshen where Joseph bade his brethren dwell We know where the children of Is- ba PlthOm Pharaoh's command. We know, it is be- lieved, the exact spot where Jeremiah stood when the people listened to the fiery elo- quence of one of his prophecies. Not the least interesting of these researches IS the discovery just made by that very fortunate explorer Mir. Flinders Petrie, who last year unearthed Naukratis.
 In an arid waste, once rich, pastoral dis trict of the Nile delta, he has discovered the ruins of that very palace, built, the rec ords in its foundations show, by King Psam- metichus l., to which ''the remnant of Ju- dah' brought the daughters of King Zede- kiah after that unfortunate monarch had been led a mutilated captive to Babylon. These remains of royal palace, which have hitherto escaped the notice of Psychologists, are still known to the wandering Arabs as 'Sthe Castle of the Jews daughter" The proofs found by MT. Petrie seem conoluslvely to identify this place as the Tahpanhes ot scripture ana the fefuge or tue JeWish pan cesses. One of the interesting features of this discovery is the probable Identification of the very pavement of brickwork men toned in the forty third chapter of Jereml- ah. The prophet says;
 s.Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in rahpanhes saving, Take great stones in thine hand and hide them in nor. | tar in the patchwork which is at the entry of l Pharaohs house in Tahpanhes in the sight ot | the men of Judah; and say unto them: Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel;