The word _Elohim_, as an appellation of Deity, appears to have been in use before the Hebrews had attained a national existence. That _Jehovah_ is specifically the God of the Hebrews is clear, from the fact that the heathen deities never receive this name; they are always spoken of as _Elohim_. Both the pronunciation and the etymological derivation of the word _Jehovah_ are matters of critical controversy. The Jews of later periods from religious awe abstained from pronouncing it, and whenever it occurred in reading, substituted the word _Adonai_ (my Lord); and it is now generally believed that the sublinear vowel signs attached to the Hebrew tetragrammaton _Jhvh_ belong to the substituted word. Many believe Jahveh to be the original pronunciation. The Hebrew root of the word is believed to be the verb _havah_ or _hayah_, to be; hence its meaning throughout the Scriptures, “the Being,” or “the Everlasting.” GOD IN SHAKSPEARE. Michelet (_Jeanne d’Arc_,) speaking of English literature, says that it is “_Sceptique, judaique, satanique_.” In a note he says, “I do not recollect to have seen the word §God§ in Shakspeare. If it is there at all, it is there very rarely, by chance, and without a shadow of religious sentiment.” Mrs. Cowden Clarke, by means of her admirable _Concordance to Shakspeare_, enables us to weigh the truth of this eminent French writer’s remark. The word §God§ occurs in Shakspeare upwards of _one thousand times_, and the word heaven, which is so frequently substituted for the word §God§—more especially in the historical plays—occurs about _eight hundred times_. In the Holy Scriptures, according to Cruden, it occurs about eight hundred times. It is true that the word often occurs in Shakspeare without a reverential sentiment; but M. Michelet says it never occurs with a religious feeling (_un sentiment religieux_.) This statement is almost as erroneous as that regarding the absence of the word. It would be easy for an English scholar to produce from Shakspeare more passages indicative of deep religious feeling than are to be found in any French writer whatever. THE PARSEE, JEW, AND CHRISTIAN. A Jew entered a Parsee temple, and beheld the sacred fire. “What!” said he to the priest, “do you worship the fire?” “Not the fire,” answered the priest: “it is to us an emblem of the sun, and of his genial heat.” “Do you then worship the sun as your god?” asked the Jew. “Know ye not that this luminary also is but a work of that Almighty Creator?” “We know it,” replied the priest: “but the uncultivated man requires a sensible sign, in order to form a conception of the Most High. And is not the sun the incomprehensible source of light, an image of that invisible being who blesses and preserves all things?”