feeding the five thousand, and to a subsequent similar one. However, the various great actions of a similar character, thus repeated before them, seem at last to have had a proper effect, since, on an occasion not long after, they boldly and clearly made their profession of faith in Jesus, as the Christ. “_A lonely place._”――The word _desert_, which is the adjective given in this passage, in the common English version, (Matthew xiv. 13, 15, Mark vi. 31, 32, 35, Luke ix. 10, 12,) does not convey to the reader, the true idea of the character of the place. The Greek word Ερημος (_eremos_) does not in the passages just quoted, mean “_desert_,” in our modern sense of that English word, which always conveys the idea of “desolation,” “wildness” and “barrenness,” as well as “solitude.” But the Greek word by no means implied these darker characteristics. The primary, uniform idea of the word is, “_lonely_,” “_solitary_,” and so little does it imply “barrenness,” that it is applied to lands, rich, fertile and pleasant, a connection, of course, perfectly inconsistent with our ideas of a _desert_ place. Schleusner gives the idea very fairly under Ερημια, (_eremia_,) a derivative of this word. “Notat locum aliquem vel tractum terrae, non tam _incultum_ et _horridum_, quam minus habitabilem, ――_solitudinem_,――locum vacuum quidem ab hominibus, _pascuis_ tamen et _agris abundantem_, et _arboribus obsitum_.” “It means a place or tract of land, not so much uncultivated and wild, as it does one thinly inhabited,――a solitude, a place empty of men indeed, yet rich in pastures and fields, and planted with trees.” But after giving this very clear and satisfactory account of the derivative, he immediately after gives to the primitive itself, the primary meaning “_desertus, desolatus, vastus, devastatus_,” and refers to passages where the word is applied to ruined cities; but in every one of those passages, the true idea is that above given as the meaning, “stripped of inhabitants,” and not “desolated” or “laid waste.” Hedericus gives this as the first meaning, “_desertus, solus, solitarius, inhabitatus_.” Schneider also fully expresses it, in German, by “_einsam_,” (_lonely, solitary_,) in which he is followed by Passow, his improver, and by Donnegan, his English translator. Jones and Pickering, also give it thus. Bretschneider and Wahl, in their New Testament Lexicons, have given a just and proper classification of the meanings. The word “_desert_” came into our English translation, by the minute verbal adherence of the translators to the Vulgate or Latin version, where the word is expressed by “_desertum_” probably enough because _desertus_, in Latin, does not mean _desert_ in English, nor any thing like it, but simply “lonely,” “uninhabited;”――in short, it has the force of the English participle, “_deserted_,” and not of the