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about 2,000 years before Christ, and that from every part of Assyria a multitude of inscriptions have been deciphered, which confirm in the minutest details the pages of Scripture, and explain many passages hitherto obscure.

These readings are particularly interesting as to the signification and derivation of names, and also as to "The earliest connection of the Chaldees and Indians, and the Babylonian mythology; the ethnology and geography of the Assyrians; the historical records, all are illustrated; in every case, there is an entire agreement with the Bible. The lecturer inferred, from his studies, that the Book of Job belonged to a time about 700 before Christ. In the inscriptions there is a period of nearly a thousand years, without mention of Judea, but during that period, there was no inducement for intercourse between the Assyrians and the Jews. The visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon was verified. So, the wars between Sennacherib and Hezekiah. There were four distinct captivities of the Jews. Some inscriptions referred to the time of Nebuchadnezzar; others threw light on the existence and actions of Belshazzar, who was joint king with his father, Minus, and who shut himself up in Nineveh."

CHAPTER IV.

POINTS TO BE PROVEN.

"Look through the world which all about you lies,
The noisy town, its common, daily life,

Flushed with coarse passions, hot with selfish strife,
The crowded street, the dens of VICE and WANT,
The gilded halls where Pride and Fashion flaunt,
And from their mingled threads, the grave, the gay,
Weave, if you will, the Epic of to-day."

1. We hope to be able to show as this wonderful roll is unfolded before us, that we should be thankful to the Jews for their Megilloth Esther. It is a true history of persons and events in a remarkable period of the Church of God. The adversaries of Revelation delight in pressing the objection that our Sacred Writings contain contradictions. The argument is this: An account or story, say they, is not to be believed, the narrators of which give contradictory statements about it; the sacred writers give contradictory accounts of some of the things of which they write; therefore they are not to be believed at all. Now the same argument applied to Xerxes, Cyrus, or Alexander, would prove that such men never lived. Archbishop Whately has applied the argument with great force in his "Historic Doubts,"

concerning Napolean Bonaparte. The argument stands thus: A story is not to be believed, whose reporters do not agree in their statements concerning it: the historians of the life of Napoleon do not agree in their reports: therefore, the story of his life is not to be believed. The same process of argumentation would prove there never was such a battle as that of Bunker (Breed's) Hill, nor of New Orleans, for some of the historians of the wars and of the times of the actors in these battles, have omitted to mention them at all, or have made contradictory statements concerning them. It is not agreed, for instance, whether cotton bales were used by General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans or not. This argument would prove that no such persons as Washington or Jackson ever lived.

It is the more important to attend, also, to the fact that our position is very different from that of the heathen. The inquiry that naturally arises in the mind of a Chinaman, or of any Pagan, when Christianity is proposed to him, is not, What are the objections to Christianity? but, Why should I receive it? The very reverse is the ordinary process among ourselves. Being brought up in a Christian country, and not unfrequently without inquiring into the reasons of our faith -in fact, without being stimulated to seek for reasons for believing it, till we find it controverted; and when it is controverted, then we find ourselves answering objections to, rather than seeking for evidences in support of Christianity. This is manifestly giving the opponents of Revelation a great advantage. For it is plain. that a child can ask a question that seven wise men cannot answer, or propose a difficulty concerning some

OBJECTIONS NOT CONCLUSIVE.

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familiar thing that a score of philosophers cannot explain. It is not necessary to be able to solve satisfactorily all the objections that are alleged against the doctrines of Revelation, before we receive it as the Word of God. This would be as if a man must be a natural philosopher, and skillful enough to explain the process of breathing and all the apparatus made therefor before he could inhale the air; or be able to analyze his bread and explain the whole process of eating and of digestion and assimilation before he should be allowed to eat. And surely this is a process but few will be able to realize. The true view of this point is, that there may be truth-truth supported by irreffragable arguments, and yet, at the same time, be obnoxious to apparent objections, numerous, plausible and by no means easily answered. Dr. Johnson has stated

this point in this way: "There are," says he,

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objections against a plenum and objections against a vacuum ; but one of them must be true. And sensible men, really desirous of discovering truth, will perceive that reason directs them to examine, first, the argument in favor of that side of the question where the first presumption of truth appears." The case, then, stands in the manner following: We have books which we call Sacred. The first thing is to examine their authority and the evidences that support it. Then we may hear objections; but if the proofs that the Bible is the Word of God are sufficient, then, even if there are objections not easy if at all susceptible of solution, still we are bound to receive it as the Word of God. When the Gospel was first preached, Jews and Gentiles de

manded to know on what grounds its claims rested.* They asked themselves, each one, Why should I embrace it? Not what are the objections to it? So in regard to the Bible, we believe the difficulties are greatly overstated. The objections are magnified. Many of them are only apparent. Patience, candor and intelligence may remove them, or explain them. But, if not, we have reasons for believing the Bible to be the Word of God, in spite of all the objections to it that its opponents have ever been able to produce. And as reasonable, accountable beings, we are bound to hold to it as the Word of God, until we are furnished with something better.

The

Where books and newspapers are not generally circulated, the people are much under the influence of oral teachings. In older times, among all nations, story tellers were an influential class of instructors. people of the East have always been remarkably fond of story telling. The Arabian Nights, Persian tales of Genii, and all their literature is proof of this. The chief points of Abraham's life, and of Isaac and Jacob, of Joseph and Moses, and of Joshua, David and Solomon, live on their lips to this day. The names are sometimes changed altogether, and generally a little modified, and Ishmael and Esau are usually made greater heroes than Isaac and Jacob; and many a weary evening is beguiled away in the Arab's tent by the story of Hebrew patriarchs and kings. Rebekah's marriage with the son of the great Shiekh, Abou Ibrahim, El Halil, and the story of Joseph, of Daniel,

* Whately, in several of his very able works, and Dr. Hawkins, in his work on Tradition, have some excellent thoughts on this subject, and presented much more fully than can be done here.

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