with every pagan and antichristian power. Borne onward in their march by the presence and promise of their exalted Leader, they will go on from conquering to conquer, till the conquest of the world has been achieved. Peace having been extended to her like a river, the glory of the Gentiles shall pour in like a flowing stream. Victory will succeed victory, and glory be heightened by glory, till, in the renovation of all things, the Son of Man shall be seen on the throne of majesty, creating the new heavens and the new earth. Then shall come to pass the saying :-"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land; wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls-SALVATION, and thy gates -PRAISE. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended."

Oh! it is gladdening to dwell, even in anticipation, on such a period and state of things. It is a blessed relief to retire within our own thoughts, from the din of controversy and the strife of party, and repose amid the stillness and the calm of the millennial age; but more blessed still, to look forward to that more glorious state, in which there shall be an everlasting absence of all that now distracts and divides the church;-in which there shall be a perfect rectitude of will, and harmony of feeling among all the redeemed ;-in which, clothed with the beauties of holiness, they shall walk in the light of God,-bask in the sunshine of his presence, and be filled with the joys of immortality. There shall be "no more sea.' All will be hushed into perfect repose. The first heaven and the first earth having passed away, there shall be a new heaven and a new earth ;-the new Jerusalem shall come down from God out of heaven, and the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and "he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.'

eyes; and there

[To be continued.]

A BILL OF MORTALITY.

[A Piece for the Season,-from the "Spectator."]

A Bill of Mortality is, in my opinion, an unanswerable argument for a Providence. How can we, without supposing ourselves under the constant care of a Supreme Being, give any possible account for that nice proportion which we find in every great city, between the deaths and the births of the inhabitants—and between the number of males and that of females who are brought into the world? What else could adjust, in so exact a manner, the recruits of every nation to its losses, and divide these new supplies of people into such equal bodies of both sexes? Chance could never hold the balance with so steady a hand. Were we not counted out by an intelligent Supervisor, we should sometimes be overcharged with multitudes, and at others waste away into a desert: we should be sometimes populus vivorum, a generation of males-and at others, a species of women. We may extend this consideration to every species of living creatures; and consider the whole animal world as an huge army, made up of an innumerable corps, whose quotas have been kept entire nearly five thousand years, in so wonderful a manner, that there is not probably a single species lost during this long tract of time. Could we have general bills of mortality of every kind of animal, or particular ones of every species in each continent and island, I would almost say, in every wood, marsh, or mountain, what astonishing instances would they be of that Providence which watches over all its works?

I have heard of a great man in the Romish church, who, upon reading those words in the 5th chapter of Genesis, " And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died; and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died; and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixtynine years, and he died”—immediately shut himself up in a convent, and retired from the world, as not thinking any thing in this life worth pursuing, which had not regard to another.

The truth is, there is nothing in history which is so improving to the reader, as those accounts which we meet with of the deaths of eminent persons, and of their behaviour in that dreadful season. I may also add, that there are no parts in history which affect and please the reader in so sensible a manner. The reason I take to be this, because there is no single circumstance in the story of any person which can possibly be the case of every one who reads it. A battle, or a triumph, are conjunctures in which not one man in a million is likely to be engaged; but when we see a person at the point of death, we cannot forbear being attentive to every thing he says or does, because we are sure, that, some time or other, we shall ourselves be in the same melancholy circumstances. The general, the statesman, or the philo

sopher, are, perhaps, characters which we may never act in; but the dying man is one whom, sooner or later, we shall certainly resemble.

In short I would have every one consider, that he is in this life nothing more than a passenger-and that he is not to set up his rest here, but to keep an attentive eye upon that state of being to which he approaches every moment, and which will be for ever fixed and permanent. This single consideration would be sufficient to extinguish the bitterness of hatred, the thirst of avarice, and the cruelty of

ambition.

I am very much pleased with the passage of Antiphanes, a very ancient poet, who lived near an hundred years before Socrates, which represents the life of man under this view:- "Be not grieved," says he," above measure for thy deceased friends. They are not dead, but have only finished that journey which it is necessary for every one of us to take. We ourselves must go to that great place of reception, in which they are all of them assembled and, in this general rendezvous of mankind, live together in another state of being."

I have taken notice of those beautiful metaphors in Scripture, where life is termed a pilgrimage, and those who pass through it are called strangers and sojourners upon earth. I shall conclude this with

a story which I have somewhere read in the Travels of Sir John Chardin; who, having told us that the inns which receive the caravans in Persia, and the eastern countries, are called by the name of caravansaries, gives us a relation to the following purpose :

"A dervise travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn, or caravansary. Having looked about him for some time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to repose himself upon it, after the manner of the eastern nations. He had not been long in this posture, before he was discovered by some of the guards, who asked him what was his business in that place? The dervise told them, he intended to take up his night's lodging in that caravansary. The guards let him know, in a very angry manner, that the house he was in, was not a caravansary, but the king's palace. It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during the debate; and, smiling at the mistake of the dervise, asked how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary? Sir,' said the dervise, give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two. Who were the persons that lodged in this house, when it was first built?' The king replied, his ancestors. ' And who,' said the dervise,' was the last person that lodged here?' The king replied,-his father. And who is it,' said the dervise, that lodges here at present?' The king told him that it was he himself. And who,' said the dervise,' will be here after you?' The king answered,-the young prince, his son.Ah, sir!' said the dervise, a house that changes its inhabitants so often, and receives such a perpetual succession of guests, is not a palace, but a caravansary.'

6

GEOLOGY AND REVELATION,

[By the Rev. ENOCH POND, D.D. Prof. of Theology in the Theological Seminary, Bangor.]

"THY WORD," saith the devout Psalmist, "is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." Other systems of doctrine and philosophy have had their day. They have arisen into notice,-have gathered around them abettors and followers,-have flourished for a time, and then passed into silence and forgetfulness. But not so the system of Divine revelation. This has stood the test of time, and will stand when time shall be no more. It has gathered strength from the assaults of enemies, and from all the forms of trial to which it has been subjected, and is as unchangeable and enduring as the throne of heaven. "The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever." "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”

Infidels have long hoped and predicted, that the investigations of science would invalidate the claims of Divine revelation. In this expectation, they have turned from one science to another, and have eagerly caught at any fact or appearance which could be tortured into a seeming accordance with their views. As might be expected, they have had their eye upon the researches of the geologist. They have anxiously followed him from steep to cavern, from mountain height to the deepest explored recesses of the earth, in confident expectation that something would be discovered which might be regarded as contradictory to revealed truth.

Geological investigations have not, indeed, been brought to a termination; nor is it likely that they will be, for a great while yet to come. Still enough has been discovered to entitle geology to be regarded as a science, and to lead to some very important general conclusions. My present object is to compare these conclusions, those of them which may be considered as established, with the teachings of the Bible; and to show, in the first place, that there is no discrepancy between the two; but, secondly, that, in many points, the former go to illustrate and support the latter.

The single point, in which there is so much as the appearance of discrepancy between the deductions of geology and the statements of Scripture, respects the age of this world, or the date of its creation. It is assumed by the objector, that the Scriptures make the age of the world to be something less than six thousand years,-that immediately previous to the creation of our first parents, the world itself was created out of nothing. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated by geologists, that the world has existed much more than six thousand years; that its existence dates back to a vastly remote period; that the placing of man upon it, is comparatively a recent event in its history. I need not go into the detail of proof, on which this geological conclusion is based. To my own mind it is perfectly satisfactory. I would as soon think of disputing the Copernican system of astronomy,

C

or the results of modern chemistry, as to the elementary constituents of what used themselves to be considered elements, as to call in question the deductions of geology respecting the great antiquity of the world. There is no accounting for numberless facts which meet us as we penetrate into the bowels of the earth, or walk upon its surface, but by supposing the earth itself to have existed for a very long periodperiod remotely anterior to the origin of our race.

Here then, it is said, is a manifest contradiction between the deductions of geology, and the declarations of Scripture. The teachings of the Bible are contradicted by plain matters of fact, and of course cannot be received as true.

But let us look at this subject again. Let us be sure that we understand some of the first verses in the Bible, before we declare them inconsistent with facts, and abandon the entire volume of inspiration as an imposture.

In attempting to explain the first chapter of Genesis, I shall not take the ground that this is mere human tradition, and no part of the revelation which God has given us. It is an unquestionable part of Divine revelation. We have as much reason to think this portion of Scripture inspired, as that inspiration may be predicated of any other part of the Bible.

Nor shall I take the ground that this chapter, and several which follow it, are a poetical mythus,-a fable, designed to convey moral instruction, under a seeming narration of facts. For the truth is, these chapters are not poetry, but simple prose. They are not a parable, but a plain narration of important facts;-facts, the truth of which is assumed in the subsequent parts of Scripture, and on the ground of which the most important doctrines are based.

Nor shall I take the ground that the term day, so frequently recurring in the first chapter of Genesis, signifies an epoch-an indefinitely long period of time. I think it signifies a literal day, including the evening and the morning-a period of twenty-four hours. This is the proper philological interpretation of the word, as here used; and we have no occasion, and as it seems to me no right, to lay it aside, for any less apposite and less usual sense.

I have said, that those who represent geology as inconsistent with Scripture, assume that the Scriptures make the entire age of the world to be something less than six thousand years. But have they any right to this assumption? Where is it said in Scripture, that the world we inhabit was made out of nothing, near the time of the creation of our first parents? Nowhere. "IN THE BEGINNING, God created the heavens and the earth." This is an independant, a most important, and I will add (considering the circumstances under which it was uttered) a most wonderful proposition,-announcing that, at some time -at some remote period of antiquity-God did create, did bring into existence, the heavens and the earth. At what time, in the lapse of eternal ages, this great event took place, we are not informed. What was the appearance or consistence of the earth, at its first creation, we are not informed. What changes it underwent-what forms of animal