covers that period of history which with other nations is called fabulous, and which is merged in the regions of fabrication and conjecture. There are no ages of uncertainty here-no regions of fable-no chasm. From the first dawn of the creation down to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, the entire period is filled. up with events, the effects of which are widely extended over the earth and are visible to the present hour.

There are multitudes of facts and phenomena, both in the natural and moral world that never could be accounted for but for the Mosaic history; while a slight acquaintance with that history shows us how exactly it is accordant with the existing state of things both in the physical and moral creation. The creation of the material universe, about which so much has been written by wise men, and than which nothing is more indicative of folly, is here given so succinctly and so philosophically that all the quibbles of infidelity, and all the researches of natural science, instead of invalidating, have only served to strengthen and confirm our confidence that the narrator was supernaturally taught of God.

The ancient account of the creation of the world among the Chaldeans was, that there was a time when all was water and darkness, and in these were contained the original elements of all future existence; that a woman was the great presiding mind; that Belus clove her asunder, and formed earth of the one part, and heaven of the other; that he divided the darkness, separated earth from heaven, and arranged the order of the universe; that he ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, to mix the blood which flowed from the wound with earth, and of this mixed mass to form men and animals; and after this he framed the stars and planets, and thus finished the production of all things. This account is indeed sufficiently ridiculous, and yet is it the sober narrative of Berosus, who was a priest in the temple of Belus at Babylon, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and was the Author of the history of Chaldea. The Phoenician Theogony of Sanconiathan is still more ludicrous, and too absurd to be narrated in an intelligent assembly; but may be found in Eusebius, and Winder's History of Knowledge.' The Egyptian account as

given by Diodorus Siculus, was that all beings originally existed in a chaotic state; that the sun and stars were formed by the continual agitation of the air ascending upwards; that the gross and earthy matter sunk below, and was gradually made hard by the heat of the sun; that animals were created from the heat and moisture, and eventually perpetuated, each, its own species. And what was the Theogony of the Greeks -the learned Greeks? I may not utter it for its debasing impurities. Compared with these, and others such as these, how simple, how rational the narrative of Moses. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!" Here is a cause equal to the wonderful effect, while every view of the effect leads to adoring admiration of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the mighty Author.

The formation of man too with all his full-grown powers of body and of mind-primeval rectitude, federal character and fall the promised Saviour and his predicted victories-the patriarchal age the deluge the foundation of the new world -the settlement of the mother country-the division of the earth-the confusion of tongues, and the dispersion-the early settlement of Egypt-the rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire, even to the names of all its successive Princes from the first to the last the origin, peculiarities and overthrow of the Hebrew State-the progress and decline of Canaan, Persia, and Media, are all familiar topics of biblical history. Ancient cities too -Thebes, the No-Ammi of Nahum-Nineveh, Jerusalem, Babylon, with all that rendered them the wonders of the world, would be traced to the remote darkness of the fabulous age but for the Old Testament. The only authentic history of these remote events and kingdoms is in the Pentateuch and in the Prophets. Before the days of Moses there were no historical records either in Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, Chaldea, or Greece. No other historian has lived at so remote a period as the exodus from Egypt. Dr. Winder shows, at considerable length, that Moses is the only man who had any considerable materials for Egyptian history; as the ancient learning of Egypt must have been chiefly lost by the excision of the first born and the disasters of the Red sea. Since the priests, the

more common depositories of learning, usually attended in their wars, the people who were left behind must have been chiefly the common people; so that for a long time after this disaster, Egypt was involved in ignorance and darkness; nor is this nation subsequently mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures until the reign of Solomon. "Moses was the father of history." Infidels have affirmed, there were astronomical calculations in Babylon that reached back to a period much farther than the Mosaic history; which therefore, if true, invalidate the entire account given by Moses. This assertion has received a very conclusive refutation from the astronomical calculations of Bedford. But there is a fact stated by Gillies, in his history of Greece, that confirms the calculations of Bedford. This historian states, that after the conquest of Babylon by Alexander, he "eagerly demanded the astronomical calculations that had been carefully preserved in that ancient capitol about nineteen centuries. By the order of Alexander they were faithfully transcribed and transmitted to Aristotle," who was the preceptor of this Prince. And "they re-mounted to twentytwo hundred and thirty-four years beyond the Christian era,' a period not even so remote as the deluge. There is no history that can be so safely relied on, or that is so ancient as the Mosaic history. Every other attempt at history until the reigns of David and Solomon is but a mass of shapeless rearranged tradition, as corrupt as it is fabulous. Long after this time indeed, the pages of writers esteemed the most authentic, are disfigured by absurd and disgusting fictions. This defect in the annals of earlier times must be everywhere and deeply felt, if we exclude the information obtained from the Bible. There only is the deficiency supplied. Sanconiathan, Berosus, Ctesias, and Manetho are the oldest human historians; but "Moses was five hundred years before the first, and more than a thousand before the last."

It deserves also to be remembered that the chronology of the Bible is definite. The most authentic ancient historians abound with chronological inconsistencies. Sir Isaac Newton has clearly detected great errors in the system of pagan chronology

by bringing his powerful mind to the study of the Bible. The authors of profane history are greatly indebted in this particular to the chronology of the Scriptures. By a careful comparison of its history with its prophecies, a standard is formed by which the chronological errors of pagan historians have been rectified, and the order of a great multitude of dates and events satisfactorily determined. Nor is the facility of doing this at all diminished by the discrepancy between the chronology of the Hebrew and Samaritan text and the Septuagint. Geography and chronology have been well called the "two eyes of history.' Nor can our notions of history be otherwise than exceedingly confused where the series of events does not lie before us in the due and proper order of time.

What adds peculiar interest to the historical notices of the Scriptures is that they are so replete with instruction on the great and important subject of efficient and final causes, as well as moral causes generally. They bring forward in bold relief the superintendent and all-governing providence of the Most High:-as in the history of Joseph, the revolt of the ten tribes, and the books of Esther and Daniel. They exhibit a luminous picture of the human character in every age and country with which they are conversant:—as in the history of the antediluvian world and the entire history of the Jewish nation. They present a history of the divine purposes and the divine government, and every where illustrate the great truth, that "there is a God that judgeth in the earth," and that he "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." They furnish a history of the church for more than four thousand years. They present as their great subject the all-absorbing work of Redemption. They have an object which they never lose sight of; a cause to which they are always subservient; principles which are developed with some new accession of strength and beauty on every page; a Hero not of mortal nature, whom they every where honour; a deity, not of the poet's creation, whom they worship with a pure ritual, and to whom they ascribe eternal praise.

1 For information on this subject, see the different Encyclopedias, Bedford's Chronology, and Winder.

Nor need we hesitate in saying, that no work possesses such literary merit generally and that has equal claims to be considered as the standard of a polished and useful literature. The characteristic style of the Bible is, that it is always adapted to the subjects of which it speaks. A chaste, terse, nervous diction distinguishes all its compositions. It is strongly marked by its simplicity, its strength, and often its unrivalled sublimity and beauty. Its words and figures, though not a few of the latter are altogether new, and probably never would have been thought of except by the inspired mind who conceived them, and are even symbolical and hieroglyphic, when once presented, are seen and felt to accord with the familiar conceptions of men. Its manner of writing with regard to the choice and arrangement of words, is at all times dignified and serious, and at a great remove from the pomp and parade of artificial ornament. Everywhere we see that its great object is to inculcate truth, and that it uses words only to clothe and render impressive the thoughts it would convey. There is both rhetoric and inspiration in the Bible; but amid all the boldness and felicity of its inventions, there is no overdoing—no making the most of every thing-no needless comment but every thing is plain, concise, and unaffectedly simple.

In the historical compositions of the Scriptures we have the most simple, natural, affecting, and well told narratives in the world. Witness the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his family-the recapitulations in Deuteronomy-the narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah-the story of the Saviour's trial and crucifixion, and the life of the apostle Paul. For fidelity I and impartiality, for unvarnished truth, for the choice of its matter, its unity, its concise and graphic descriptions of character, and above all its usefulness, the historical parts of the Bible are without a parallel. No critic can say of them, They are too monotonous-too wordy—or too uniformly stately, tragical, and emphatic. The characters walk and breathe. They are nature and nothing but nature. By a single stroke of the pencil you often have their portrait. You see them. You hear them. Every scene in which you behold them is a fit subject for the painter. And does it not deserve remark,