BREAD AT POMPEII 1,790 YEARS OLD.

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they could reason, and think, and feel as we do. Here, then, we have an example of a creature undergoing a change by which it passes from a lower to a higher state of existence; may it not be used to illustrate the change which takes place with good people at death? The body in which they lived so long is left behind, but the soul goes to heaven, where in the presence of God and the Society of angels, it dwells in unutterable blessedness; and it is probable that such are the conditions under which the departed exist, that they cannot communicate with us, and we cannot communicate with them, though they may be near to us. But after a little while the time of our change must come too, and we shall close our eyes on this world, and open them on the glories of the spiritual state. But are we getting ready for this? Remember it is only the good who can be happy in the spirit world. Those who love and serve God on earth will dwell with him in heaven. Read Revelation vii. 9-17.

BREAD AT POMPEII 1,790 YEARS OLD.

WHAT, bread 1,790 years old! How can this be? We have heard of wheat about 3,000 years old, found along with a mummy in Egypt; and we are informed that this old wheat was sown, sprung up, and brought forth a harvest of wheat quite as good, as fresh, and as full of life and vigour as the wheat of the present year. This was wonderful enough, for who could have thought that wheat could have preserved its vitality and fructifying power for 3,000 years, a period during which mighty empires have risen, culminated, and fallen. But as for bread, which grows mouldy in a few days, how could this be preserved for a period of nearly 1,800 years? Well, my young friends, we must explain the thing. That bread is not quite fit to be eaten now; it is baked rather too hard; it has too thick a crust; it has been subject to unusual heat. The bread we speak of was lately found in an oven amid the ruins of an ancient city.

At the time when our Lord was upon earth, there was a fine city called Pompeii, situated near the burning mountain Vesuvius in Italy. It was then in its splendour, adorned with palaces, monuments, and many noble buildings, and crowded with a busy population. But in the year 79, only forty-six years after our Saviour's death, this city was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius. The flames darted up to heaven, the burning ashes were thrown in massive clouds, and fell on the earth for many miles round, and the melted lava flowed like a burning river down the sides of the trembling mountain, and the fiery streams flowed on until they reached Pompeii, and overwhelmed the city in a deluge of fire, burying its buildings in one common mass of ruins. But in the year 1755 some excavations were made, when lo! the ancient city

was discovered. Since then, more extensive excavations have been made; whole streets and squares have been opened out. Numerous houses have been found with their charred furniture, vessels, ornaments, and even libraries as well as the remains of human beings, showing the state of things just as they were when the moment of destruction came. And a short time ago a house, on being examined, presented an oven, closed with an iron door, on opening which a batch of eighty-one loaves, put in nearly 1,800 years ago, and now somewhat overbaked, was discovered, and even the large iron shovel with which they were neatly laid in rows. The loaves were but slightly overbaked by the lava heat, having been protected by a quantity of ashes covering the door. There is no baker's mark on the loaves; they are circular, about nine inches in diameter, rather flat, and indented (evidently with the baker's elbows) in the centre, and are slightly raised at the sides; and divided by deep lines, radiating from the centre in eight segments. They are now of a deep brown colour, and hard, but very light. In the same shop were found 561 bronze and fifty-two silver coins. A mill with a great deal of corn in excellent preservation has been discovered.

How true is it that "When wicked men say, Peace, peace! sudden destruction cometh upon them." Pompeii was a wicked place, and, like Sodom and Gomorrah, it was suddenly scathed by Divine vengeance.

QUERY 1.-WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE DAYS OF THE WEEK?

ANSWER.-The [origin of the week of seven days is of God, for he appointed it. If man had appointed a similar division of time he would not have fixed upon a term of seven days but ten, that being the number of his fingers and toes, and that being the revolving number in all his calculations; and that was the number fixed upon by the French infidels when they tried to get rid of the Bible, but their efforts were in vain. We find the division of time into weeks in the very earliest ages, because it was in the earliest times that God ordained it. The first day after man's creation was the Sabbath, and thenceforward every seventh day was the

Sabbath, throughout the whole period of the patriarchal and the Jewish dispensation. Hence the ever-recurring week of seven

days.

The names of the days of the week, however, are different in different nations. Ours are derived from our Saxon ancestors, and are named mostly after heathen gods; two of them, however, are named after the two chief luminaries of the world-the sun and Thus:

the moon.

Thus the names express their own meaning. Sunday was so called in honour of the sun; Monday, in honour of the moon; Tuesday, in honour of Tuesco, a mythic or real personage famous in war, corresponding with the Roman Mars; Wednesday, in honour of Woden; Thursday, in honour of Thor, a famous deity corresponding with the Roman Jupiter; Friday, in honour of a female deity called Friga, and corresponding with the Roman Venus; Saturday, in honour of the god Seater, corresponding with the Roman Saturn.

The names of the days with the French and the Germans indicate for the most part a similar origin; and imply, as indeed history proves, that all these and similar nations, were idolaters before they were Christians. Our friends the Quakers refuse to use these heathen names for the days of the week, because of their idolatrous origin, and they call them by their numbers-first day, second day, third day, &c.; this is undoubtedly the most ancient mode, and it is that used in Holy Scripture.

QUERY 2.-IF THE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION WAS TAUGHT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, HOW WAS IT THAT NICODEMUS, A PROFESSED TEACHER OF GOD'S WORD, COULD BE SO IGNORANT OF IT?

I have

In John iii. 3 the doctrine of regeneration is taught. not found a passage in the Old Testament where this doctrine appears to be taught; and the amazement which seems to have seized

Nicodemus, and the ignorance which he as a public teacher manifested, when Christ affirmed the necessity of being born again, are very strange-strange, indeed, if the doctrine were contained in the Old Testament. And yet it appears that this doctrine had never been taught (a thing I cannot understand), or it was entirely forgotten; or was it taught in some of their rites and forms? An answer will greatly oblige your humble and ignorant servant,

JOHN SMALL.

ANSWER. However strange it may appear for Nicodemus not to understand the doctrine of regeneration, it would be yet more extraordinary if the Old Testament did not teach it. Only think of the Scriptures being given to teach men how to get to heaven, and yet never teaching them the very thing that was essential for it. The Old Testament is full of this doctrine. It is taught by precept, illustrated by figure, held forth by promise, enforced by authority, sighed for in prayer, proved by example, and rejoiced in as the happy estate of the righteous. There is indeed, no language in the New Testament more plainly and strongly descriptive of regeneration than that which is found in the Old Testament. Circumcision and regeneration in both the Old and New Testaments are terms interchangeable. Hence, because believers are renewed, they are said to be of the true "circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. iii. 3). "For he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Rom. ii. 28, 29). And Moses in his day earnestly exhorted Israel, saying, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart" (Deut. x. 16). And hence, too, the gracious promise, "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart" (Deut. xxx. 6).

In both the Old and New Testament regeneration is called washing and cleansing. Hence believers are said to be saved according to God's mercy by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus iii. 5). And so David prays, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Ps. li. 7). Regeneration means a " new birth," or 66 being born again," as in our Lord's words to Nicode

mus; and David prayed for this new birth. For, referring to his first birth, he cries out against his nature as unclean : "Behold,

I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;" and therefore in the next breath he prays for a new nature, to be wrought in him by a new creation : "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. li. 5, 10). Here we have both a renovation and a new creation prayed for by David in one and the same passage, and this because his old nature was born a sinful one. Hence, too, in language equally strong, God says, in Ezekiel, he will give to those who seek him a new heart; that he will take away the heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh; that he will write his law in their hearts, and put his Holy Spirit within them (Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, and Jer. xxxi. 33). This is a great and glorious change, a complete renovation, and in exact accordance with Paul, who, speaking of the regenerate man, says, "He is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. v. 17). Indeed, the language as well as the sense of the Old Testament is so conformable with the New Testament, that even the word "born" is used to denote the change effected in human nature by the grace of God. Hence, in Ps. lxxxvii., God, when numbering his regenerated sons in Zion, says of them, "This and that man was born in her." And for the encouragement of the Church, when agonizing in prayer for the conversion of souls, it is said, "As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children; and the rapid conversion of the Gentiles is foretold as "a nation being born at once" (Isa. lxvi. 7, 8). All these and many other passages clearly show how identical in doctrine and language are the Old and New Testament Scriptures in teaching the doctrine of regeneration.

The ignorance of Nicodemus on this subject is accounted for by his being himself at the time in an unconverted state, and therefore, like Saul of Tarsus, like the Jewish priests and scribes in general, and like thousands of teachers in the present daywho are blind leaders of the blind; "for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. ii. 14).

Dear reader, do you know this truth? Do you know it experimentally? Do you know it experimentally NOW, JUST NOW? If not, you are assuredly in dreadful peril!