the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. The mountains ascend, the valleys descend unto the place which thou hast founded for them." Psalm civ, 6-8. Numerous allusions in Job, Proverbs, and the prophets, no less than minute description, show the presence and inspiration of that Intelligence that was before the mountains were brought forth. The shells and marine debris of the Andes and Himalayas were recently regarded as evidences of a deluge; now, as proof that these very heights were once "covered with the deep as with a garment."

How exactly has that order in which the Scripture enumerates the introduction of tender grass, herb, tree, moving creature that hath life in water, bird, great reptiles, beast of the earth, cattle, man, been confirmed by the reading of the tombstones of those ages.

Serres insists that the Newtonian theory of the vibratory nature of light is acknowledged, if not taught, in the Bible. He quotes passages which he imagines (that is the word) confirmatory of the statement. The German translation of Luther favors his idea more than the English of King James; but he omits the proper consideration of the only passage which is based on this scientific truth. Discoveries of science have shown some of the supposed poetical figures of the Bible to be naked facts: for example, commentators gravely tell us that "morning stars" mean angels in the passage, "When the morning stars sang together." Job xxxviii, 7. Does not science teach the deeper and clearer truth that stars do sing? Poets who cull their brightest gems from the Golconda of God's word have often alluded to it:

And wheresoever, in his rich creation,

Sweet music breathes, in wave or bird or soul; 'Tis but the faint and far reverberation

Of that grand tune to which the planets roll.

Shakspeare, by a seeming inspiration, says:

There's not the smallest orb that thou beholdest,
But in his motion like an angel sings;

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim,

Such harmony is in immortal souls:

But while this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in we cannot hear it.

Let science now show that this is a fact. Musical tones are made by vibrations of air. High tones by many vibrations in a given time, low tones by few. The lowest tone the human ear can distinguish is made by 16.5 vibrations per second. If they be less, the ear detects each vibration. The eye sees a circle of light made by whirling a single point of fire at the rate of ten times a second. So the ear takes a constant sound by the repetition of single sounds 16.5 times a second. Tones run up the scale, or are increased in pitch by the increase of vibration. When sixteen thousand vibrations a second have been reached, the shrill high tone dies out in silence. Let it not be supposed that sound dies out at that point; but that "while this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close us in we cannot hear it." Some ears can hear longer than others.

Now observe, light is caused by vibrations as well as sound. These vibrations, different for each color of light, have been made evident to the eye, have been counted: two rays of light falling on the same spot have been made to produce darkness, as two sources of sound can be made to produce silence. These vibrations must sing. Take off "this muddy vesture of decay," quicken spiritual sense, and divine harmony, star born, is heard pouring through the universe. Every world creates eddies, every cloud softens, every sun according to its color pours into the grand tide of song. "The Lord rejoices in his works." Not only did the stars sing in the morning, but they are continually Singing as they shine,

The hand that made us is divine.

The Bible speaks of space as illimitable-never regards the heavenly bodies as animate-never falls into the error of the old astronomers in regard to the number of stars. Hipparchus puts that number at one thousand and twenty-two, Ptolemy one thousand and twenty-six; but the Bible regards them as the sand which is by the sea-shore, innumerable. It is God's high prerogative alone to tell the "number of the stars."

Allusion is distinctly made to the grandest relation existing among the stars. The greatest discovery of the mind of man is unquestionably that the Pleiades are the center of the revolving systems of the worlds. It reduces the sun to a planet, the planets to satellites, and the whole solar system to a very mi

nute and secondary affair. But it inexpressibly enlarges man's thought, and magnifies the power of God. God convinced Job of weakness by asking if he could control the influence of the Pleiades, that reach thirty-four million times the distance from us to the sun, and exert absolute control over that body, which "rejoices as a strong man to run a race." And not only that body, but "innumerable" others. Overwhelming question! No wonder Job was humbled. It is the idea of the sun's motion in space, and not a supposed motion round the earth, that God means when he says, "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it." Psalm xix, 6.

The aberrations of speculative philosophy, founded on insufficient data, concerning the original unity or variety of man, have nearly come to a close. The Bible declaration is being adopted. Science is teaching universal brotherhood.* One original language, and that not developed from half-uttered grunts, is seen to be the true conclusion. "If we were to be guided by the mere intersection of linguistic paths, and independently of all reference to the scriptural record, we should still be led to fix on the plains of Shinar as the focus from which the various lines had radiated." Such is the testimony of Sir H. Rawlinson.† The recent origin of man is provedConfucius confuted, Moses confirmed.

One point more. Not in the past, but present and future. There is no fact more clearly established than that the center of the earth is a molten mass, that rocks can melt; that a volcano is not the result of a burning Enceledus heaving in agony, but a chimney of the central fire. "Out of the earth cometh bread, but at the same time underneath it turns itself as fire." Job xxviii, 5. "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord." Psalm xcvii, 5. The very "elements shall melt with fervent heat." 2 Peter iii, 12.

Besides these special points of confirmation, we believe the general significance of science favors the teaching of the Bible. How few real geologists are infidel? "The undevout astronomer is mad." Lieut. Lynch says (Narrative, p. 253) his party began the exploration of the Dead Sea indifferent and skeptical; closed it with a profound and universal conviction of the * In this agree Blumenbach, Haller, Cuvier, Dr. Pritchard, and Max Müller. + Journal of Royal Arctic Society, vol. xv, part 2, page 232.

truth of the Scripture record. It is the flippant philosopher in his study, not the explorer of earth or space, with a reputation to achieve rather than phenomena to observe, fascinated with his own conceptions, rather than awed by the marvelous works of God, that disbelieves the Record. The deductions of chemistry and botany render belief in a resurrection easy, and a new heaven and earth a demonstrated possibility. All states of motion and of rest declare the universal law of gravitation, and so every deduction of all science unites to establish this great truth-there is a God: such a God as the Scripture delineates, as far as it delineates at all, and certainly incomprehensible beyond. Bridgewater Treatises are feeble and short expressions of that man's idea of God who has intelligently looked into heaven, earth, self. One immortal work on "Analogy" has been written, but it only gathers a few among the many hints whereby God's works declare God.

He that passes over this vast field of evidence can but feel, at the close of the review, that, important as it is, the character and standing of the Bible must not be made dependent on it. It is not on its value as a history, or a system of chronology, that its claims are based. Did every record of every dead and living nation unitedly declare its perfect historical accuracy, it would not be priceless to man did it not have a moral and divine character. This moral and divine character must be substantiated in ways other than by coincidence with profane authors. It stops in the sphere of Herodotus, if its evidence stops there, and mankind stops there too. Still this evidence is necessary. Men reasonably demand of a book claiming perfection a perfect chain of evidence. This kind takes captive the master-minds in the various departments of science, and leads them on to its higher meaning. That a book could originate in rude ages, and hold its place of power as the sovereign arbitrator of the highest thought among the most cultivated intellects of the most cultivated age, always contributing more to that cultivation of intellect than everything else, is an authentication of its divineness most recent and potent. Though the Bible be established as truthful history, though its claim to antecedent infallible knowledge be supported, yet its promises of divine indwelling and personal advantage must be vindicated by its author and itself alone.

Recent confirmations are not wanting here. Not in dead and buried Nineveh, but in living hearts are they found; not in the limits of an ancient city, but in millions of new-born souls in every waking land.

The order of these unfolding confirmations seems providential. Geology received its right direction from Werner, near the close of the eighteenth century. Thereby the opening chapter of Genesis was elucidated. The land that Abraham visited, where Joseph dwelt, and whence the Israelites went out, next yielded its treasures; thus Israel's servitude and providential exodus were confirmed; Assyria and Babylon, in proper order, added their important confirmations to the after periods of the Old Testament, science and fulfilled prophecy meanwhile filling up what history left blank. Then, crowning the whole, came that world-wide Pentecost of 1857, that, spreading through every language and nation and tongue under heaven, sets its seal of divine authentication on the supernatural declarations and personal promises of the New. Unutterable peace and a conscious spiritual presence are certifying to millions of hearts that God is true, and the Bible his word. The questions of the future are questions of degrees, and not of systems; for the Word of God "standeth sure."

ART. VII.-ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN METHODIST PULPIT.

Annals of the American Methodist Pulpit; or, Commemorative Notices of Distinguished Clergymen of the Methodist Denomination in the United States, from its Commencement to the close of the year 1855. With an Historical Introduction. By WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 8vo., pp. 846. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers.

DR. SPRAGUE'S commemorative volumes are well received. They are not only intrinsically excellent, but admirably adapted both to supply a deeply-felt public want and to minister to the edification of the American Churches. The volume now before us is the seventh in the series. Of the preceding, volumes first and second are devoted to Trinitarian Congregational Clergymen; third and fourth to Presbyterian; fifth to Episcopalian;