erbially unfaithful to their law; but as soon as oubles came upon them they began pertinaciously to adhere to some of the external requirements of their legislator, by which their identity as a people has been preserved, and now their number is as great as when they were first uprooted from their own soil. The lapse of ages cannot soften their peculiarities or wear away their national stamp. They are exposed to all influences, and all are alike inoperative. Other People with a change of climate have degenerated or improved, with a change of government have been thoroughly transformed; but climate,

! Commerce, art, and education must beat in vain against the rocky prejudices of the Jew. And where are they? Rather let us ask, Where are they mst? They are in the new world and in the old, and in every part of each. Not only are they in every country of Europe ; but visit the cheerless plains of Siberia, the Russian prison, and the descendants of Jacob are there! Penetrate into the Chinese empire—from which you were excluded till within a few years—and you will find that, for centuries, the descendants

f Jacob have been there. They have there as here their synagogues, and their congregations,

nd their Bible, corresponding with ours, though

and

when and how they entered the region, no historian can tell. Even go to Africa ; visit the borders of those regions in which it is said no European can live; pierce them as far as white men ever pierced them and returned, and you will see and hear of this self-same people around and beyond you! Wonder of wonders! who can account for it? Were they all over Europe alone, still it would be strange! Were they all over America only, still it would be strange! Were they all over Asia alone, their native continent, still it would be strange! But in Europe, Africa, Asia, and America are they dwelling; even on many of the isles of the deep. Observe, too, there is not a people on earth that have 80 strong attachments to their own land, and so intense a desire to dwell in it. They wowillp to ward Jerusalem, and the holy land to them is as it were the stepping-stono to paradise. More strongly bound to sueir religion than

any people, yet that religion is on account of their dispersion mutilated; and they have not, and as we believe never can havė, till they embrace Christ, either temple, or priest, or altar, or sacrifice.

And among these nations they have “not found rest for the sole of their feet.” In some

other

portions of the world they have now peace, but not in all; and till of late, perhaps preparatory to their conversion, they have found none. Their persecutions have been unceasing, intolerant. That Christians in the darker ages should have persecuted them as the crucifiers of Christ is not strange; but even the Mohammedan, and what is still more surprising the pagan, knowing nothing of their history, have given them no rest.

Actuated by the mild spirit and the sublime teachings of their Founder, whom the Jews put to death, without cause, the Christians have been the first to extend tolerance and friendship to the wandering children of Abraham ; and may we not hope that soon the veil which is on their hearts will be removed, and they, "looking on Him whom they have pierced,” may find forgiveness and peace, and once more return to Palestine, the joy of the whole earth, the converters of the world ?

The scroll of the future was unrolled by Moses, and what most astonishes us as history was by him related as prophecy. Has any sane man a right to deny his divine inspiration? But if that be acknowledged, it can be easily shown that a unity of design, and spirit, and origin, pervades the holy book: it must all be received as the word of God; and to bring this thought prominently out before you is the object of this book.

Perhaps no reader questions the inspiration and divinity of the Bible; but, alas! our faith is too traditional, and consequently too feeble

. Too many of us believe just because our fathers did, and taught us so; and we are inclined to think that if we do as well as our fathers did, all will be right. Now this depends altogether upon two things—whether our fathers did right, and whether we have no more light than they Go back far enough, and our ancestors were in the dark ages; and I doubt not some of them obeyed all the instruction they had, and were saved; but, thank God, we have more light. What saved them will not save us. come to the light, and learn as much as we can; but knowledge alone will not benefit us. It is not enough that we acknowledge the truth of the Bible—we must make it our sole dependence and guide.

We must

CHAPTER XIV.

BABYLON AND NINEVEH.

This volume would be incomplete without a brief view of the proof of the divine origin of the Bible, in the remarkable fulfilment of prophecy, in the history of the two great cities of Babylon and Nineveh, and in the verification of the Scriptural references to these cities, by the late and wonderful explorations of their long-concealed ruins.

Babylon was an immense city, situated on both sides of the River Euphrates, the metropolis of the Babylonio-Chaldean empire. Its foundation was laid, undoubtedly, by the building of the tower of Babel. Begun thus in iniquity, its history was a perpetuation of idolatry, violence, sensuality, and vice; and finally its name became a synonyme of corruption and rebellion against God.

Many of the heathen descriptions of it are so magnificent as to be considered by some exaggerated and fabulous; and yet it is doubtful