to furnish hold for vegetation, and these vegetables had not grown and decayed again and again, thus adding to the depth of the soil. Such work had not even commenced. He tells us that on some part of that mountain, near the foot, if you will sink a pit, you must pass through seven different strata of lava, with two feet soil between each one. Upon the supposition that two thousand years are requisite for the increase of earth just named, he asks how seven different layers could be formed in less than fourteen thousand years. The chronology of Moses makes the world not half that old. The Englishman was jocular at this discovery; and his admirers were delighted at what seemed to them a confutation of the book of heaven. How many thousands through Europe renounced their belief of Revelation with this discovery for their prop, the author of this treatise is unable even to conjecture. It seems that many parts of Europe almost rang at the news of the analogical theory. True, the traveller only conjectured that he had found the lava mentioned by the ancient writer; but no matter, supposition only was strong enough to rivet their unbelief. The author has conversed with those in America, and on her western plains, who would declare they believed not a word of the Bible, because there was no soil on a stratum of lava, which, in all probability, had been there long. Another learned Englishman, an admirer of the books of Moses, wrote to those who seemed to joy so greatly in their new system. He told them that, inasmuch as they seemed fond of arguing from analogies, he would give them an additional one. He reminded them that the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were covered up by the eruption, in which the elder Pliney lost his life, near seventeen hundred years since. Those cities have lately

been discovered; and in digging down to search their streets, six different strata of lava are passed through, with two feet earth between each one. And the famous Watson tells them, that if six different soils near Vesuvius could be formed in seventeen hundred years, perhaps seven might be made elsewhere in five thousand years. Might we not suppose, that those who had renounced their belief of Christianity, after reading some conjectures concerning Etna, would have resumed their faith as soon as these Vesuvian facts were placed before them? No, it was not so. It was easy to descend, but they never reascended. Men love darkness rather than light. Thousands who snatched after the objection, with joyful avidity, never read the confutation. They never inquired after an answer. Those who read, were afterwards silent, but remained unaltered. A lawyer who stood so high with his fellow-citizens, for worth and intelligence, that he filled many offices of trust, had his credence of the sacred page shaken by reading the suppositious system, built on the surface of Etna's lava streams. He took the book to a friend, to show him what reason we have for casting off our reverence for the Bible. This friend turned over a few pages of the book, where this same traveller, after telling how many eruptions sometimes happen in the course of a month, goes on to narrate the following history, which is here presented substantially, and as exactly as recollection will permit.

The traveller gives us to understand that a small tract, or section of country, on the side of the mountain (perhaps the ancient Hybla).had, because of its extreme luxuriance, been called in the language of the vicinity, (Mel Passi,) the Honey Land. The red stream from the crater above overran it, and left it a spectacle of naked

dreariness. It was then called, in derision, (Mal Passi,) the Mean Land. After a time there was another eruption. Before the lava flows it is usual for an immense cloud of ashes to ascend, and to be carried to a great distance, sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another. These ashes, Brydone states, fell several feet in depth over the surface of this ruined country; and being impregnated with the Alkaline salts, as soon as rained on, they rot, and form one of the richest soils in the world. The Mean Land, he states, soon resumed its ancient fertility, and is now called (Bel Passi) the Beautiful Land. The lawyer was asked if his difficulties were in any way obviated by this rapidity of change from soil to nakedness, and from nudity to soil again, narrated by the same original discoverer of the whole theory. He answered in the negative, and continued to cast obstinately away the book of God. Thousands of cases happen continually, where the individual is as readily and as speedily turned into the path of infidelity, and when once there, continues to track it with invincible pertinacity. Men (without knowing it) love darkness rather than light.

EXAMPLE II.— When some travellers in Asia wrote back that the Chinese record made the world many thousand years older than the Mosaic history does, how it rejoiced a host of listeners! Oh, how they clapped their hands! We thought, said they, that the Bible was a fabrication, unworthy of belief. If any wrote, or said to those who were thus becoming scoffers at Revelation,-" Do not be too hasty in your conclusions: how can you tell but that national vanity may have had some share in exciting those who speak of their Celestial Empire, to claim a spurious antiquity ?" they turned away, or closed their ears with satisfied confidence.

They seemed to wish for no farther information.

After a time, some additional items were published from Chinese history, such as the following: They tell the name of their first king, which would sound in the ear of some as a corruption of the word Noah. The time they assign for his reign corresponds with the age of Noah. They speak of this king as being without father; of his mother being encircled with the rainbow ; of his preserving seven clean animals to sacrifice to the Great Spirit; that, in his day, the sky fell on the earth, and destroyed the race of men, &c. &c. When we remember that the waters of the sky did days of Noah; that Noah was the first of the post diluvian race, and thus without father; that the rainbow is interestingly connected with his history; that he did take into the ark clean animals by sevens, part of which were offered in sacrifice: we begin to discover, that the Chinese account is nothing, more or less, than a blotted copy of the truth. (See Stackhouse's History of the Bible.)

do this in the

We gather from Moses that, between the creation and the deluge, there were ten generations of men, surpassing us greatly in longevity. It would be no tortured inference to suppose them vastly our superiors, both in strength and stature. This kind of men, the heathen, in ages past, were in the habit of calling gods, after their death. The Chinese account speaks of ten dynasties of superior beings, who ruled in their country a thousand years each, before the sky fell upon the earth. It is not hard to see that this is only a different, and a singular manner of relating the same facts. But why did (and do now) many of the seemingly learned, choose to suppose that each father ended his race before the son began to live? It was for the purpose of stretching out the time, be

tween the deluge and the creation, to ten thousand years. Moses informs us that each of these ten generations did extend near a thousand years; but he lets us know that a son and his father, walked much of their earthly race together. The journey of each was long; but it was a simultaneous travel. For the purpose (if possible) of extending the chronology of earth beyond the dates of Revelation, multitudes have taken partial extracts from hearsay records; and then, to prevent these fragments from agreeing with, or upholding the history they hate, have twisted them with labour and ingenuity; failing even then, to construct a passable cavil against the truth! What is the reason of this strange hungering and thirsting after little falsehood, rather than the wonders of glorious truth? It is because men love darkness rather than light. Those who had cast away all reverence for Holy Writ, as soon as some one said in their hearing that the Chinese Record contradicted Moses, never seemed to inquire further. They asked not after any additional account; or if they were shown that all these heathen traditions were simply the truth, preserved in a dress more or less awkward; they were silent; but they did not return to the place where they once stood. They continued scoffers at Christianity.

The author has been in the habit of conversing with unbelievers, whenever he could obtain the privilege, during the last eighteen years. Having once been of their number, he has since felt for them a kindly solicitude, (as he hopes,) moving him, at a prudent opportunity, to speak of heavenly things, although, at times, even at the risk of their displeasure. He has found that certain items of history or tradition, such as might seem to militate against Holy Writ, they receive readily, and remember long. Out of the ten thousand facts of a different de