Remembering gratefully, as all students should do, the immense literary value of the Bible, it is not without a pang¹ of regret that we are obliged to confess that its pages are so meagre of allusions² to the grandest of all the Almighty’s works—the encircling sea. Of course we cannot be surprised at this, seeing how scanty³ was the acquaintance with the sea enjoyed by ancient civilised peoples, to whom that exaggerated lake, the Mediterranean⁴, was the “Great Sea,” and for whom the River Oceanus was the margin⁵ of a boundless⁶ outer darkness. Yet in spite of this drawback, Old Testament⁷ allusions to the sea then known, few as they are, remain unsurpassable in literature, needing not to withdraw their claims to pre-eminence before such gems⁸ as “Ocean’s many-dimpled smile” or the “Wine-dark main” of the pagan poets. In number, too, though sparsely⁹ sprinkled, they far surpass those of the New Testament, which, were it not for one splendid exception, might almost be neglected as non-existent.