gress of the earth's people, despite the abortive efforts of blind inquisitors to retard their advancement.

On

Pure religion is not the antagonist of science. the contrary, they are twin sisters; for science is the expounder of God's handy-work written in the vast volume of creation, and free enquiry is the medium for its record.

Science and religion unite in demonstrating the wisdom of God, and in inculcating on his reasoning creatures the mode by which they can best acquit themselves of their duty towards him.

The date of man's existence on our earth as a being of intelligence is an unsolved problem. If our acquaintance with his age had no better established authority than that of written record, we should pronounce the early specimens of humanity as beings of a very low order; for to them we are indebted for the erroneous conceptions of the character of the Deity, introduced into the sacred writings. We have authority, however, for asserting that man was distinguished by acquirements of considerable eminence anterior to the dates of Scripture. The liberal sciences were cultivated with success; and the paramount excellence which distinguishes ancient works of skill, testifies to the existence of an era of high artistic merit. The people of the East may, perhaps, be said to stand unrivalled in the achievement of works of singular beauty in sculpture, in architecture, and, perhaps, in painting.

That this high degree of culture exhausted itself in the misconception of the character of the Omnipotent, must be ascribed to the teachings of a designing priesthood, who, to consolidate their power over the

rude multitude, not only prostrated themselves before the personification of gods of human device, but assumed an oracular command for the practice of a code of sacerdotal law, opposed to the wholesome exercise of the mental faculties, and destructive of the beneficent and intelligent design for which the Creator intellectually endowed his creatures.

The history of Asiatic magnificence and of Asiatic power has, therefore, no other record than in the remains of the wonderful productions of its people. Many ages of close application and of vigorous effort were needed for the development of their grandeur, and as many more for its recession and gradual decline. The era of their glory was on the wane when the thread of eastern narrative is taken up by Scripture. It must be considered to commence with the biographical history of Abraham; for, anterior to his date, the sacred record contents itself with the mere recital of the names of men of fabulous ages (Genesis 5). The scriptural authority fixes the date for the appearance of this chosen reformer at an epoch not more remote than that of nine generations from Noah (Genesis x. 10-27). Abraham abandoned his country and his kindred (Genesis xii. 1); and his migration must be considered as the commencement of the transfer of human intelligence from the declining East to the untried West. We purpose to draw our authority on every possible occasion from the written scriptural record, and to avoid the Hebrew traditions unless for the purposes of elucidation. It is, therefore, with hesitation, but not without probability, that we demur to the nearness of Abraham's relationship to Noah; for reform was already a talismanic word, whose

influence had been felt two hundred years anterior to Abraham.

The merit of reform appertains to an ancestor of Abraham, of the name of Eber or Heber, who was descended from Shem through four generations, Shem being designated "the father of all the children of Eber" (Gen. x. 21). Eber was the first dissenter from Chaldean error. He is supposed to have repudiated Polytheism; for, in his honour, the reformers of his family were known as the children of Eber, who adopted the name of Ebrews or Hebrews. The scriptural narrative informs us, the life of Noah was prolonged for 350 years after the flood (Gen. ix. 28). Shem was his first-born son, and Eber was removed from Shem by four generations (Gen. x. 24). If Eber was the reformer of Chaldean error, the religion of Noah rapidly underwent a transition to Polytheism, since it needed reform in four generations. Noah was then living, and his life was extended to several generations posterior to that of Eber.

In reading the records of early Scripture, the reader will deem it his duty to bear in memory their figurative character, which possesses the property of departing from reality, and of dressing natural events in the illusions of the imagination. Ordinary occurrences are made to assume a supernatural form, and to pass current for miraculous events, on which the superstructure of a religious system was founded. In illustration of the hyperbolisms which characterize the Hebrew writings, two or three examples from sacred Writ will suffice in this place. It will hereafter be our duty to unfold from the scriptural history, the particular incidents in the order in which the events occur.

First Example.

The sacred cosmogony asserts that "God made man in his own image, after his likeness." One of the fictions of remote antiquity consisted in ascribing to the person of the supreme God, an envelopment within the folds of humanity-a theory to which the priest, the poet, and the painter, contributed their united support. According to them, man was a type of the material presence of the gods; and Moses, travelling in their steps, has asserted, that "God made man in his own image, after his likeness."

This theory has been disproved by an authority far higher than that of Moses. The teaching of the Son of Man testifies, that "God is a spirit, and that all who worship him, must worship him in spirit." It seems strange, therefore, that a system which recognizes the great master for its teacher, virtually abandons its sublime teachings, to adhere to those of one whom it was the purport of his ministry to supplant.

The subject will claim a further comment in the commencement of the pentateuchal history. A very few words will here suffice to demonstrate the monstrousness of the assertion, that man is a type of the image of God. Three awful attributes appertain to the person of the Supreme Being. The two first are his Omnipotence and his Omniscience. The third is his Omnipresence. The image of God, therefore, is personified by his Omnipresence, which pervades the immensity of space, the vastness of whose volume is inconceivable by the limited faculties of man. The small portion of space situated between the earth and the sun amounts to 95,000,000 of miles, every atom of which is pervaded by the Omnipresence, or, in other

words, by the image of God. The Mosaic theogony reduces these awe-inspiring proportions to the microscopic atom of mortality, named man, and then presumptuously moulds him in the image of his maker, after his likeness, which image and likeness forthwith descended in a direct line through eighteen generations to Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew race.

ample.

The exodus of the Hebrew people was Second Ex- effected at the instigation of Moses, by means of a secret and successful insurrection of the Hebrew bondmen, who entered the Egyptian houses by night, and slaughtered their oppressors. To avoid mistaking the houses of their friends by the Hebrew warriors, Moses commanded the Hebrew doors to be marked with blood. This glorious enterprise is termed the Passover, and the figurative language of the East represents it as the act of the destroying angel, sent expressly on an errand of death to the Egyptians, with orders to pass over the doors of the Hebrews. But the hyperbole explains itself by the mark on the doors; for a celestial messenger sent on an errand of destruction to the Egyptians, would not need the Hebrew doors to be labelled or ticketed to guide him in the performance of his duty.

ample.

The passage of the Red Sea was effected Third Ex- by the Hebrews at a ford about a mile in breadth. This ford is well known, and is practicable to this day, when the water, acted upon by the wind from the shore, has ebbed; but it is dangerous when the land-wind ceases and the water returns. The Hebrews had fortunately crossed with low water, and in the impetuosity of pursuit, their enemies fol