In the whole neighbourhood of this place ruins are still found which show that these parts were once thickly peopled, and in a high state of culture.

DORCAS (G. a seer, or gazelle; in Syriac, Tabitha), a pious and benevolent Christian woman of Joppa, whom Peter restored to life. His aid appears to have been requested in consequence of his having restored to health the palsied Eneas of the neighbour. ing town of Lydda. The consequence of these wonders was a great increase of believers along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

The picture of the grief occasioned by the death of Dorcas among the poor widows for whom, when in life, she had busied herself in making garments, is natural and touching; while it affords a good evidence that their benefactress was really dead. The restoration of Dorcas to life stands in intimate connection with the ensuing events, and thus affords a guarantee of its reality (Acts ix.).

DOTHAN (H. Custom), a place north of Sichem, near the great plain, not far from Jezreel and Bethsean,in a narrow pass through hills, a little south of the Sea of Gennesareth. Here Joseph found his brethren (Gen. xxxvii. 17), and the prophet smote the Syrians with blindness (2 Kings vi. 13). Eusebius and Jerome place it twelve miles north from Samaria.

DOUBT (L. duo, 'two'), is properly that state of mind in which a man halts or hesitates between two opinions, not knowing which is preferable. Such a state of mind is not characteristic of a primitive age, where simple and implicit faith, the ready faith of childhood, has ever prevailed; least of all is it likely to be found among the early Hebrews, whose kindling imagination, warm heart, and devoutness of soul, made them a nation of believers. Accordingly, in their literature, while it remained pure, no word signifying 'doubt' presents itself. It is not till we come to the times treated of in the book of Daniel, that we meet with a term (ketar) translated (Dan. v. 12-16) 'doubts,' the original meaning of which is given in the margin as knots; and Daniel is there characterised as 'a dissolver of doubts,' the phrase literally meaning one who undoes or unties knots. But the doubts or knots were 'knotty points,'' hard sentences,' a species of riddle, apothegms whose import was perhaps purposely involved in darkness, either as an exercise of ingenuity, or as a trial of skill. Doubt, signifying a state of hesitancy between two dissimilar opinions or views, is not applicable as descriptive of a condition of things external to the mindproblems, whose solution must be attempted in a variety of ways.

The intellect is the source of doubt; and among the Greeks, of whom intellectual

culture was the characteristic, doubt first assumed its proper existence. Accordingly, in the Greek of the New Testament we find three words rendered doubt. Of these, one, distadzo, signifies to be divided in two, to stand equally in relation to two opposites; as when of the eleven disciples who witnessed the ascension of Jesus, some, believing, wor shipped him, but some also doubted' (Matt. xxviii. 17; comp. Matt. xiv. 31). Sometimes doubt' is used in a wider sense, as denot ing hesitation or perplexity amid several possible cases. To describe this state of mind another word, diaporeo, is employed (Luke ix. 7; xxiv. 4. Acts 11. 12; v. 24; x. 17). In Matt. xxi. 21, we find a third term, diakrino, (whence our discern), signifying, originally, to discriminate, and hence to make nice distinctions, so that it comes to mean what we signify by refinements, hair - splitting, hair's-breadth distinctions, hypercriticism, a certain intellectual fastidi ousness which robs men of power in flattering them with being umpires of taste. These are undesirable qualities of mind-the 'wavering' of James (Jas. i. 6), characteristic of men too weak to form or hold an opinion, and therefore blamed by Paul as 'children tossed to and fro' (Ephes. iv. 14), Such an unhappy and powerless condition lies under the disapproval of Jesus Christ, who well knew that, far more than knowledge, faith is power' (Matthew xxi. 21. Mark xi. 23). Most remote, however, was Jesus, who no less mildly than ceaselessly bore with the ignorance, distrust, open disbelief and denial of his immediate followers, from blaming that uncertainty of mind which a faithful use of the means of information had not removed, and which, in its inevitable consequences of pain and weakness, was attended by severe penalties. As little would Paul approve of the use which is often ignorantly made of the words, 'He that doubts is damned,' so as to alarm the timid inquirer, make the bold hesitate, and throw around a certain set of opinions, 'framed by art and man's device' many centuries ago, and in ages of mental tyranny and darkness, the awful and terrific sanetions of endless burnings or immortal bliss. After such a manner Paul had not learned Christ; and the entire chapter whence these words are taken (Rom. xiv.), shows that the meaning ordinarily put upon them is a perversion. But, indeed, for the blameworthy practice of quoting words from Scripture apart from their connection, the abuse could never have prevailed; for the qualifying clause, if he eat,' shows that the apostle meant that if a man eat of food while he doubts whether he ought to eat of that food, he is condemned, since he does that which he suspects he should not do. The text, then, does not condemn doubting, but acting contrary to our convictions, whether

more or less clearly formed. But we incline strongly to some such import as that given in the margin-discerneth and putteth a difference between meats.' To discern or discriminate is, as we have said, the primary meaning of the term diakrino. This seems to be the meaning intended here. The whole chapter treats of distinctions in regard to food (1, 2); and the apostle concludes a very noble and comprehensive exhibition of religious liberty, by declaring that a person who, while he admitted the prevalent distinctions of meats, ate of any and all, as did others who denied these distinctions, was by the very act condemned; for whatever act is not of faith, that is, approved by conscience, is sinful.

However undesirable a state of mind, then, doubt may be; how important soever it is that faithful inquiry should lead to that full conviction which may, by being felt in the heart and acted on in the life, become a principle of action and a source of moral power; and though doubt does sometimes spring from an evil heart of unbelief' (Heb. iii. 12), and may perhaps in all cases denote a low spiritual condition-for the highest natures, as being nearest to God, have the fullest and the most loving faith in Him and in all goodness;-yet all doubt is not to be held blameworthy; for to doubt the tradition of men' may lead us to a clear knowledge of the commandments of God' (Matt. xv. 3, seq.); and no human being has, or can have, a right so to identify his opinions with absolute truth, as to be warranted in making the reception of them a condition of everlasting life. There are states of society in which doubt gives evidence of a higher and purer mental power than is generally prevalent. There are with individuals states of mind in which doubt is God's way out of darkness into marvellous light. In most cases of real conversion, doubt must precede belief. Doubt is to the soul what pain is to the body. It shows that there is something wrong, something unsound; and by the uneasiness which it occasions, it urges the patient to seek a remedy. The remedy is not supplied by harsh denunciations from without, or gained by self-condemnation; but by a manly course, by fearless inquiry in the love of truth, with prayer for light to its merciful Source, and in the devout confidence that nothing can be fatally bad but seeming to believe that which you doubt, or professing with the lips or in the conduct that which in your heart you deny. No one who knows how much life needs the support of fixed principles, would invite or welcome doubt; yet, with thousands, doubt has proved the portal to truth, and the most assured and the most operative faith has grown out of the investigations and the discipline of heart to which doubt

gave occasion. Not, then, without good reason did Wordsworth say. I raise

The song of thanks and praise For those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realised,

High instincts before which our mortal nature Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised!'

DOVE (T. taube, a dove,' probably connected with taufen, to dip;' so that the dove is by its name the dipper), a general name of the order of birds scientifically called Columbide, of which Palestine is known to possess eleven or twelve species. Egypt now, as did the Holy Land of old, abounds in doves. The villages of Syria and the neighbouring countries present dove-cotes to the eye of the traveller in great number, and vast flocks of wild doves make their appearance on the approach of harvest.

Doves were the only birds allowed to he offered in the temple sacrifices, the ordinances respecting which seem to have come down, in substance, to Moses from patriarchal times (Gen. xv. 9). It was the poor who were indulged with leave to offer doves; a provision, the considerate benignity of which may be learnt from what we have said of their multitudinousness (Lev. v. 7; xii. 6. Luke ii. 24). In order to furnish doves for sacrifice, dealers in them sat in the vicinity of the temple (Matt. xxi. 12), and the breeding of doves seems to have been practised from an early period (Is. lx. 8), though there existed in Palestine groves of wild doves (Ezek. vii. 16), which made their nests in clefts of the rocks (Jer. xlviii. 28. Cant. ii. 14), or, when pursued, sought refuge in the mountains (Ps. xi. 1). With the poets, the dove was an image of fleetness (Ps. lv. 6. Hos. xi. 11). 'Doves' eyes' were accounted very beautiful (Cant. i. 15; iv. 1). the choice imagery in Cant. v. 12:

Hence

'His eyes as of doves by the rivers of water,
Washed with milk and fitly set.'

In Psalm lxviii. 13, we find the sacred poet speaking of

'The wings of a dove covered with silver, And her feathers with yellow gold.' This is a graceful allusion to the silvery and golden hues that wild doves have around the neck, and which iridescently flash from their shoulders. The cooing of the dove, with its gentle and plaintive tones, has also furnished the poets with appropriate images (Is. xxxviii. 14; lix. 11). With our Lord the dove was a picture of innocence (Matt. x. 16).

In the general character of the dove as thus set forth, we find the reason why the descent of the spirit on our Lord should have been likened to a dove (Matt. ii. 16. Mark i. 10. Luke iii. 22. John i. 32). Luke expressly states, that this descent was 'in a

The sister art of Poetry has also availed itself of the dove in order to expound the promise of the Saviour-It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you' (John xvi. 7).

'Or if thou yet more knowledge crave,
Ask thine own heart, that willing slave
To all that works thee woe or harm;
Should'st thou not need some mighty charm
To win thee to thy Saviour's side,
Though he had deign'd with thee to bide?
The Spirit must stir the darkling deep,
The Dove must settle on the cross,
Else we should all sin on, or sleep
With Christ in sight, turning our gain to loss.'

In order that the reader may duly appreciate the fulness of meaning there was in the descent of the spirit in the shape of a dove, he must be apprised that the dove had in Syria, from very early times, been an object of worship, of which fact the evidence is full, clear, and decisive. Here, then, on the dedication of Jesus to his high office, idolatry is made to pay homage to the Son of God. Probably it was for a not dissimilar purpose that Moses chose the dove from all other birds as an offering to Jehovah; for no appeal, no argument, could be stronger than was made to Syrian idolaters, when they were thus made to see the sacred bird slain, and even eaten, day by day, under their own eyes. In the choice of the dove by Noah, when he wished to ascertain whether the waters of the flood had subsided, we see an evidence of the early spread of that veneration for the dove which led to its being worshipped; and we also discern a trace of the fact, that at a very early period the Easterns

were acquainted with the instinct which makes one species of the Columbida (the carrier- pigeon) useful in conveying intelligence from one part to another (Gen. viii. 8, 10; comp. Ps. Iv. 7)

DOWRY (G. from a root signifying to give'), something given on occasion of marriage. There are in English two words the same in origin, but dissimilar in meaning. I. Dowry, which is the portion that the wife brings her husband in marriage; II. Dower, the portion which a widow has of the lands of her husband after his decease.

Among the Israelites, dower, or dowry, was a price paid by the husband to the father, or a settlement made by the husband on the wife. Thus, Jacob served Laban seven years for Rachel (Gen. xxx. 18, seq.; comp. xxxi. 41. 1 Sam. xviii. 25. 2 Sam. iii. 14). The fixing of the price was sometimes in the hands of the father (Gen. xxxiv. 12; comp. Exod. xxii. 29): sometimes the sum was determined by law (Deut. xxii. 29). The price varied very much according to the peculiarities of the case, or the condition in life of the parties (Hos. iii. 2); but in a certain instance, fifty shekels of silver are appointed as a minimum (Deut. xxii. 29). More seldom were marriage presents made by the father to his daughter (1 Kings ix. 16. Josh. xv. 19). In Exod. xxii. 16, 17, we find two cases put-one in which the wife, the other in which the father, was to receive the money. Comp. Tobit vii. 14.

The custom of purchasing wives is widely spread in the East; and as it implies that women are in a low condition, so does it strongly operate to prevent them from rising much above the position of upper slaves to

their lordly, and often tyrannical, husbands. A still greater abuse prevails in some oriental lands, in which females are not only the suitors, but in some sense the purchasers. There seems to be an allusion to this usage in Isaiah iv. 1.

DRAGON (G.) presents us with a subject from which it is not easy to strip the various enrolments of fancy and fable, and get at the naked truth. In general, a dragon is a kind of winged serpent, a fabulous monster, of whose existence the belief was anciently spread far and wide. The prevalent exaggerations may have had for their original subject some species of serpent, such as great boas and python-serpents, which grow to an enormous size, and whose dimensions and formidable qualities fear may have largely amplified. In the East, however, it is certain, the dragon was held to be a most fearful monster, and, as such, received divine honours.

Our English term represents three Hebrew words which seem to be only variations of one form-tanneem. We find this first in Gen. i.21, rendered whales' in our version, and sea animals' by Wellbeloved, who in his Notes adds, 'probably those of the cetaceous kind.'

In

In all the other passages save two, the word is translated by dragon;' showing, probably, that our translators took it to mean, as they have rendered it in one of the two excepted instances (Lam. iv. 3), 'sea monsters.' Job vii. 12, the term is Englished by 'whale.' Herder thinks the crocodile was meant, as does Harmer. Another form (if in truth another) of the word presents notions which do not comport with the habits of either whales or crocodiles, being associated with owls (Is. xliii. 20) found in Jerusalem when laid waste (Jer. ix. 11), and other desolate places; and represented as snuffing up the wind (Jer. xiv. 6), and as wailing (Mic. i. 8). This term, however, Gesenius, Umbreit, and Noyes, translate jackal. The rendering seems to suit the remarkable passage in Job xxx. 29, where the man of Uz describes himself as being akin to 'dragons and owls,' by reason of the sad moanings which his grief caused him to utter. deeb, or jackal, is an animal between a dog and a fox, or a wolf and a fox, which abounds in deserts and solitudes, and makes a doleful cry in the night. Jackals live in herds of sometimes from two to three hundred strong, in which troops they rush by night down on

The

villages in search of food, which they find chiefly in corpses, giving good reason why tombs should be, as they are, protected against their depredations. Human beings, unless such as are weak and defenceless, they are shy to attack. Like foxes, they live in caves, particularly among ruins; whence, to say of a city that it shall become a den of dragons' (Jer. x. 22), is to threaten it with devastation.

Colonel H. Smith makes mention of a celestial dragon in Asia, generally denominated

Satan (see the article DEVIL), which, among other evil and seductive acts, is believed to attack the moon during an eclipse. Here, perhaps, is the origin of the serpent mentioned in Gen. iii. 1. It is, in all probability, connected with the great dragon' of Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2, passages that receive illustration from the fact, that in early apocryphal writings of the Christian church, dragon' is employed as a synonym for 'devil.

DREAMS (T. träume, 'dreams'), states of mind experienced during sleep, which are

attended by the feeling that the dreamer is awake. In early ages of the world dreams were held in high account, as giving clear and trustworthy intimations of coming events; it being thought, as Homer says, that they were from Jupiter. Hence in Scripture great events are made to turn on dreams and their interpretation. The dream of Joseph occasioned his deportation into Egypt; the dreams of the baker and the butler, interpreted by Joseph, prepared the way for his exaltation to the right hand of Pharaoh, whose dreams he expounded so as to secure the monarch's favour and receive from him a commission which, in the event, saved the lives of thousands, and effected in Egypt a complete social and political revolution (Gen. xxxvii. xl. xli.). Indeed, the whole of the patriarchal history hangs on the dreams of Joseph (comp. Judges vii. 13. Matt. xxvii. 19). Dreams were regarded as a means by which God made known his will to man (Gen. xx. 3; xxxi. 10, 24. 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. 1 Kings iii. 5). This instruction is set forth in beautiful phraseology in Job xxxiii. 15, seq. :

In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed;
Then he openeth the ears of men,
And impresseth on them admonition;
That he may turn man from his purpose,
And remove pride from man.

Thus he saveth his soul from the pit,

And his life from perishing by the sword.' Dreams, accompanied by visions, were employed for the enlightenment of the prophets (Numb. xii. 6. 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. Dan. vii. 4). The false prophets professed to have received divine instructions in dreams (Jer. xxiii. 25, 27); but their dreams were either false (32) or unfaithfully reported (28). Divine disclosures were, however, made in dreams, either by verbal instructions, warnings, and predictions (Gen. xx. 3, 6; xxviii. 13. 1 Sam. xxviii. 15), or by images and symbols (Gen. xxviii. 12; xxxvii. 7. Judg. vii. 13). In the latter case, the dream needed an interpreter. In consequence, expounders of dreams, who translated the imagery into ordinary thought and language (Judg. vii. 14), were much in request and highly estimated (Gen. xli. Dan. i. 17). Of especial celebrity were Chaldæan dream-expositors (Dan. ii. 2; iv. 3, seq.), but they were surpassed by Daniel (v. 12, seq.). In later times, the Essenes possessed high skill in this art (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 13, 3). The writings of Josephus show that in his day superstition on the subject of dreams had made great progress, and that a very absurd importance was ascribed to them. See especially Antiq. xvii. 6, 4.

It is no little remarkable that at a time when dreams had the greatest prevalence and authority in the Jewish mind, the Scriptures should cease to supply evidence of their being employed or sanctioned of God; for,

speaking in general terms, we may affirm that the New-Testament revelation knows little of dreams as a channel of instruction from God to man (comp. Matt. i. 20; ii. 12). This fact relieves the follower of Jesus from the neces sity of being solicitous as to the interpretation put by divines on the dreams recorded in the Old Scriptures, since, whatever opinion may prevail, it cannot enter as an essential element into his faith as a Christian. It is, however, beyond a question, that the persons spoken of as having dreams, and the narrators of the events, held the reality and trustworthiness of this method of instruetion. And in an early and simple age, before superstition had begun to abuse the best things and debase the purest, dreams may have been no unsuitable medium of communication between God and man. The solitude and deep silence of night have ever proved conducive to solemn thought; and solemn thought would easily body itself forth in images, words and acts, which would bear the deep impress of reality, especially to a mind seeking to commune with God, and conscious of being an object of the Divine regards. It seems an essential attribute of revelation that it should be spontaneous -that thoughts should appear on the tablet of the mind, graven as by the direct finger of God, apart from connection with previous mental states. Now this absence of causal connection which makes the essence of spontaneousness, is characteristic of dreams; the images of which come and go, we know not how, like forms cast by a magic lantern. Hence dreams would possess an essential attribute of inspiration. And if we wish to know how these dream-begotten ideas were in accordance with the Divine will, we have only to remember that the visions of the night are, especially on great and exciting occasions, a repetition, or a continuation, in a higher degree of intensity, of our waking thoughts, affections and desires; so that the prophet, whose soul had been raised and enlightened of God, would, when secluded by night and darkness from the world of sight and sense, under the influence of

'The glory and the freshness of a dream,' have views of truth both more clear, bright, full and impressive, than at any other time, seeing in an instant images and events which would fill days or years of ordinary time. To the dreamer, time has no hours, space no bounds. Hence intensity may characterise his visions.

A dream brings the thoughts and affections into one focus of burning light. But the intensity and the delight by which it is accompanied seem too high for earth, and to have the very attributes of the divine. Hence the good man's dreams are a realisation of his purest thoughts and loftiest aims; and the prophet's dream would prove true pro