sacred writings. It is not possible then, that they have been materially changed. They have been the same unadulterated record to all past generations, so that we may say, in the language of the text, "One generation shall praise thy works to another.”

LECTURE II.

A BRIEF AND GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE BIBLE.

SO THEY READ IN THE BOOK, IN THE LAW OF GOD DISTINCTLY, AND GAVE THE SENSE, AND CAUSED THEM TO UNDERSTAND THE READING.- -Neh. 8: 8.

The book, the law of God, was the five books of Moses. The expression may now be applied to the entire Bible. They gave the sense, that is, they translated it from Hebrew to Chaldee, which latter language the Jews had learned in Babylon. They caused the people to understand the reading, that is, they so paraphrased, and commented upon the original text, as to bring its true sense to the comprehension of the most ordinary minds.

The text, therefore, is suggestive of all connected with the Bible, as respects its nature and its meaning.

We may embrace the subject of our lecture in the question; What is the Bible?

The Bible consists of two volumes called the Old and New Testaments. They contain 66 distinct books, 39 of which belong to the Old, and 27 to the New Testament. It contains in English, 1189 chapters, 31,173 verses, 773,692 words and 3,567,180 letters. The Old Testament was divided into chapters by Hugo Caro A. D. 1240, into verses by Mordecai Nathan A. D. 1445, and the words

and letters were carefully numbered by the Massorites about the sixteenth century.

The following table, showing how many times each letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, is used in the Bible, may not be

Thus it appears that in the Hebrew Old Testament there

are just 815,140 letters.

Horne says that the Massorites "noted the verses where something was supposed to be forgotten; the words which they believed to be changed; the letters which they deemed to be superfluous; the repetitions of the same verses; the different reading of the words which are redundant or defective; the number of times that the same word is found at the beginning, middle, or end of a verse; the different significations of the same word; the agreement or conjunction of one word with another; what letters are pronounced, and what are inverted, together with such as hang perpendicular, and they took the number of each, for the Jews cherish the sacred books with such reverence, that they make a scruple of changing the situation of a letter which is evidently misplaced; supposing that some mystery has occasioned the alteration. They have likewise recorded which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch, and which is

the middle clause of each book." Thus God has overruled the superstitions of these Jews for the preservation of his word uncorrupt. How utterly impossible it must have been for any essential change to have been made in the Old Testament, since this work of the Massorites.

2. The time covered by the Bible was about 4000 years. It gives a history of the world for about 2000 years, then the history of the Jewish nation 1100 years, and lastly a history of Christianity for 60 years. No book is so ancient. No book covers so much ground. All heathern books that profess to refer back to a time as remote as the days of Moses, are but a tissue of fabulous absurdities.

3. The place where most of the Bible was written, and where the people dwelt, who preserved it, is called by a variety of names, such as Palestine, Canaan, Promised land, Holy land, and the land. Many other countries are, however, referred to in the Old Testament, all except Egypt being situated on the Western borders of the continent of Asia. In the New Testament copious allusions are made to more Westerly countries. Palestine abounded with mountains, plains, valleys, rivers and lakes. The climate is medium, not extremely hot, or cold-though snow and ice, as well as rain and heat, are there known. The vine, the olive, the fig tree, the sycamore tree, the almond tree, the palm tree, the terebinth tree or pine, (called, in our Bible, oak,) the mulberry tree, the cedar tree-just that kind of vegetation which is the most extensively scattered over the earth, abounded in Palestine. And so the animals, both wild and domestic, were of those species that abound over the widest extent of the earth's territory. Now as the lan

guage of a people represents the ideas that surround them, we can imagine no place on the face of the globe where the Bible could have been written in language so well adapted to the mind of the race. average

4. The persons who wrote the Bible were chiefly Israelites, so called, because they descended from Israel or Jacob. Of these there were twelve tribes, named from his twelve sons, of which the tribe of Judah was predominant. After the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, Judah and Benjamin united, were the chosen people of God, and the prophets all figured amongst them. It is supposed by some that Job was a native of Idumea. It is not probable that he was a Jew.

5. The authors of the Bible, were men of various occupations and endowments-kings, priests, shepherds, physicians, tax gatherers and fishermen; males and females contributed to the composition of the Bible. Some are more intelligent than others, and we see it in their writings; and most clearly does each one exhibit his peculiar intellectual traits and disposition. Each one wrote in a style peculiar to himself. Though each one was inspired of God, yet like heaven's own light, the inspiration received a tinge from the medium through which it shone. This was, however, no false tinge, since the medium was pure. Holy men, we are told, wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

6. The language in which the Old Testament was written, was the Hebrew. A part of Daniel, however, from chapter 2d, 4th verse, to the end of chapter 7th; and Ezra, from chapter 4th, 8th verse, to chapter 6th, 18th verse;