aware of a single statement in Scripture that is contradicted by any ascertained fact in either science or history. Let us take a single instance in point. The Old Testament declares that God created man in His own image' (Gen. i. 27), and the New Testament calls Adam a son of God' (Luke iii. 38), and adds that all men are God's 'offspring' (Acts xvii. 29). Now, though the findings of geology are not equally distinct, they all point, as we have seen, in exactly the same direction. Geology nowhere sanctions the doctrine of the transmutation of species, or that the higher types of organic life have, in the course of ages, been 'developed' out of the lower. No trace of such development can be found in the innumerable pages of her stony records. Her entire testimony is opposed to the impious theories of the modern infidel, who tries to show that man has been developed from the ape or the baboon, or that he is the lineal descendant of the gorilla-the most hideous and disgusting of all brutes. It is only when men are opposed in heart to God, and when, in consequence, their moral eye hopelessly squints, that they can so read the record of either Genesis or Geology.

The entire space of time intervening between the creation of man and the birth of Christ is usually divided by chronologists into six periods or ages. The first, extending from Adam to the general Deluge, is called the Antediluvian age; the second, from the Deluge to the call of Abraham, the Postdiluvian age; the third, from the call of Abraham to the Exodus, the Patriarchal age; the fourth, from the Exodus to the foundation of Solomon's Temple, the Critarchal (Judgeruling) age; the fifth, from the founding of the Temple to the Jewish Captivity, the Monarchal age; and the sixth, from the Captivity to the birth of Christ, the Hierarchal age. Each of these great periods has its own chronological difficulties, but those connected with the first three greatly exceed in magnitude those attaching to the others. The date when man first appeared on the earth, and the precise time when, owing to its multiplied iniquities, almost the entire race was swept away, are out of sight the hardest to determine in the entire field of chronology. With the exception of the Book of Genesis, we possess no authentic records of these events; and it so happens that even this invaluable document, full as it is of notes of time, conveys much less satisfactory information regarding the two grand events referred to than we could wish. That book comes down to us in three distinct forms the original Hebrew, the Samaritan, and the Greek or Septuagint translation; and these three, while closely agreeing in almost all other particulars, are amazingly divergent in everything connected with dates. According to the chronology of the Septuagint, Adam was created 5478 years before the Incarnation, and the Deluge occurred 2262 years there

after. According to our present Hebrew text, the former event took place B.C. 4004, and the latter, 1656 years afterwards. In other words, one edition of the Scriptures assigns to the human race an antiquity of more than 1400 years greater than the other, while it makes the period from Adam to the Flood 600 years longer These discrepancies are enormous, and make it perfectly obvious that either the one or the other copy, or both, have been seriously tampered with. Modern scholars are now generally of opinion that the serious charge of falsifying the sacred record lies at the door of those intrusted with the custody of the Hebrew Scriptures; and that, in order to refute their Christian opponents as to the predicted time of the appearance of the Messiah, they committed the fearful crime of changing the inspired records. It was an ancient tradition among the Jews that the world was destined to last for a period of seven millenniums, -the first six corresponding to the six days of creation, and the seventh to the Sabbath, or day of rest-and that previous to the last millennium the Messiah should appear in great power and glory. Traces of this tradition may be found in the vaticinations of the Sibylline oracles, and in the writings of the Greek theogonists and cosmogonists; and there can be little doubt that it found its way to the native country of the Magi, and prepared them, at the proper time, for the appearance of the star in the east. We have no doubt that the tradition had its firm foundation in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, which, at the time of our Lord's advent, were in exact harmony. The date of His birth perfectly agreed with the tradition, and thus a powerful argument was supplied to the Christians that the Desire of all nations' had actually come, and that it was He whom the Jewish rulers and priests had maliciously crucified. Seeing they were capable of perpetrating that unparalleled crime, they would hardly shrink from any other. Having already murdered the Son of God, they now resolved on mutilating His inspired word, in order to make the world believe that Jesus of Nazareth was not the promised Saviour, but an impostor who had appeared fourteen hundred years too soon. It is acknowledged by Biblical critics,' says Professor Wallace, in his admirable and exhaustive treatise, 'The True Age of the World' (Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1844), 'that all the copies of the present Hebrew text were taken from manuscripts of dates later than the ninth century, and that the striking uniformity which all the printed editions exhibit is to be attributed to the fact that they were all copied from the same coder.' Dr Hales also gives citations from Eusebius, from the Jewish Targums, and from other works, in which decided reference is made to the larger numbers as they anciently existed in the Hebrew. Mr Cunninghame, also, in his 'Dissertation on the Apocalypse,"

proves, on the authority of ancient Jewish tradition, that Adam was 230 years old when he begat Seth (and not 130 as in our Hebrew text). Consequently, by the argument ex uno disce omnes, we conclude that the whole of the antepaidogonian ages are correctly given in the Septuagint, and that the true extent of the Antediluvian age is 2262 years.' The changes introduced are, for the most part, curiously systematic, as will be at once perceived by comparing the Hebrew with the Septuagint, in regard to the ages of the Antediluvians at the birth of each eldest son :

Hebrew. 130 105 90 70 65 162 65 187 182 Septuagint, 230 205 190 170 165 162 165 187 188

It will be seen that in six cases the difference is exactly 100 years, and the result is that, according to the Hebrew, the Antediluvian age is shortened by six centuries.

In the second or Postdiluvian age, the result is precisely similar, as will be perceived at a glance by arranging the ten descents, from the Flood to Abraham (Gen. xi. 10-27), in parallel columns. The figures show the age of each patriarch at the birth of his firstborn son-first, in the Hebrew, and second, in the Septuagint :

Hebrew,. 35 0 30 34 30 32 30 29 70 75 Septuagint, 135 130 130 131 130 132 130 79 70 75

Here, again, there appear clear indications of design; for in six cases out of the ten, the age of each patriarch at the date of his eldest son's birth is, in the Hebrew, precisely 100 years less than in the Septuagint. What is still more extraordinary, the Hebrew entirely omits the name of Cainan II., thereby shortening the chronology to the extent of 130 years, though the genuineness of the Septuagint is fully attested by St. Luke in his genealogy of our Lord (Luke iii. 36). Lastly, the following table shows the discrepancies of the two texts with regard to the whole lives of the ten Postdiluvian patriarchs :

Hebrew, . 438 0 433 464 239 239 230 148 205 175 Septuagint, 538 460 433 404 339 339 330 208 205 175

An important consideration in favour of the Septuagint chronology is that, according to it, the decrease in the duration of human life after the Flood is far more natural and progressive than in the Hebrew, which exhibits great leaps between the different terms of the progression. Leibnitz's celebrated rule, natura non agit per sallum, is nowhere more applicable than here. There is a suitable proportion, moreover, in the Greek numbers, between the whole lives of the patriarchs (both before and after the Flood), and their ages at the birth of their eldest sons, which is wholly wanting in the Hebrew. In the period before the Flood, the average of the six antepaido. gonian ages is to the average of their entire lives in the ratio of 1 to 5 in the Greek, but only as 1 to 9 in the Hebrew. If these ratios be applied to the present average duration of human life, we find that, were the proportions

indicated by the Hebrew text to hold good, fathers would beget children at the age of eight years! but, according to the Greek, not sooner than at the age of fourteen. This argument grows in strength when we come to the Postdiluvian age; for there the Hebrew analogy would allow men now to become fathers at the age of seven, but the Septuagint not before the age of twenty-three.

Once more, the Hebrew text gives B.C. 2288 as the date of the universal Deluge, but the Septuagint B.C. 3216, or nearly a thousand years earlier. Now we cannot possibly accede the former as the true date, for we have the most indubitable monumental evidence to the contrary. Professor C. P. Smyth has shown, in his recently published Antiquity of Intellectual Man,' that the Great Pyramid of Jeezeh, the most ancient and stupendous of all existing monuments, was erected about the year B.C. 2170. Now, such a gigantic structure, on which, according to Herodotus, 109,00) men were engaged for 30 years could not possibly have been erected so early as 118 years after the Deluge, or (according to the same system of chronology) only 41 years after the dispersion of nations.

This Pyramid, moreover, in its unique and marvellous system of symbology, gives some very remarkable indications of the true date of the Deluge. These, as interpreted by the Scottish Astronomer-Royal, clearly point to a year close upon B.C. 2800 as the actual time of that grand catastrophe. The evidence, therefore, which this colossal monument supplies, while it confirms the general testimony of both the Hebrew text and the Septuagint, differs from each by only one-twelfth part of the whole time, either way-yet, precisely speaking, indicates a year that lies almost midway between the dates which they assign to that great era in the world's history. A doubt is consequently suggested, whether the chronology of the Septuagint has not, to some extent been tampered with, as well as that of the Hebrew, though in an opposite direction? We need scarcely inform our readers that many able chronologists, including Usher, Petavius, and Clinton, adduce many weighty arguments against the early chronology of the Greek Scriptures, without being in the least swayed by any evidence obtained from the Pyramid. At the same time, the Pyramid date of the Deluge approaches that of the Septuagint about a hundred years more closely than it does the date of the Hebrew text. Further investigations will, in all likelihood, confirm the testimony of this 'sign and wonder in the land of Egypt' (Jer. xxxii. 20), and render it more and more manifest that that unparalleled structure was intended from the beginning to be the grand standard for trying and correcting not only the confused metrologies of the nations, but also their equally vitiated chronologies.

Dr Richard Lepsius of Berlin, the most

In

learned and accomplished of all living Egypt ologists, has proved by a rigid comparison of the existing monuments, that the duration of the Egyptian monarchy prior to the exodus of the Israelites (an event which he places B.C. 1314) was 1115 years. According to this computation, Memphis was founded B.C. 2429, a date entirely agreeing with the date of the Flood as given by the Septuagint, but wholly inconsistent with it as given by the Hebrew, by Usher, and by our received text. this conclusion our own indefatigable William Osburn-whose varied learning and familiar acquaintance with the ancient monuments are not inferior to those of the illustrious German, and whose love of truth and reverence for the inspired record are immeasurably superior-substantially agrees (see his able and highly satisfactory treatise, entitled, 'The Monumental History of Egypt,' 2 vols. London, Trübner & Co., 1854). He also agrees with Lepsius in believing that the first migration into Egypt took place not more than 120 years prior to the building of Memphis and the founding of the Egyptian monarchy. No great interval can have separated this migration from the date of the confusion of tongues, and the consequent dispersion of the nations-events which, therefore, we may safely reckon as having occurred about B C. 2550. Osburn further shows (i. 377) that the call of Abraham, or rather his visit to Egypt, which must have occurred very soon thereafter, took place in the reign of Pharaoh Achthoes, the 24th or 25th king of that country, about 566 years after the first peopling of the land, and 446 years after the building of Memphis. This would make the call of Abraham-that grand date at which all human history really commences-to have occurred about B C. 1981. According to Usher, Abraham left Haran, on his way to Canaan, B.C. 1921; Joseph was carried into Egypt in 1728; Jacob, with his family, settled in Goshen in 1706; and the exodus took place in 1491. These dates do not differ very widely from those deduced from the monuments, which indicate that Abraham arrived in Egypt in the reign of Pharaoh Achthoes, of the 11th dynasty, about B.C. 1984; that Joseph was sold as a slave in the reign of Pharaoh Aphophis, a prince of the 16th dynasty, in 1791; that the immigration of the Israelites into the land took place in the reign of the same king, about 1769; and that they finally left the land in the reign of Sethos II. of the 19th dynasty, B.C. 1554. It thus appears that our received text is in perfect accordance with the monuments in assigning 430 years as the entire period between the giving of the promise to Abraham and the exit of his seed from the land of bondage. The two records are also in harmony in indicating that the 430 years are divided into two equal parts by the arrival of Jacob and his family in the Delta, each part having a duration of 215 years.

This result, especially when taken in connection with the above dates as they stand in the Septuagint, is of the greatest importance in fixing the chronology of the Old Testament, and in silencing the cavils of influential modera objectors. One serious difficulty, however, still remains a difficulty, indeed, which to many is all but insuperable. In Gen. xv. 13, God says to Abraham, 'Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them 400 years. Bett in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' The actual time was 430 years

(Ex. xii. 40, Gal. iii. 17), but the apparent discrepancy here is easily explained. The real difficulty is found in the words fourth generation.' Most expositors assume that this means the fourth generation from Jacob; and they adduce texts to show that, in certain well-known pedigrees, three names only appear during the 215 years of the actual sojura. There can be no doubt, however, that the passage quoted speaks of the fourth generation from Abraham, and not from Jacob. But even admitting that these generations are to be counted from Jacob, we ask how it is possible that, in three descents, seventy persons could have expanded into 600,000 fighting men, besides women, children, and old men, amounting in the aggregate to at least 4,000,000 souls! The thing is utterly ab surd, and, in short, could not be. Besides, it was not the men of the fourth descent from Jacob that left Egypt in the days of Moses, but those of the twentieth descent, as is evident from 1 Chron. vii. 20-27. In this interesting passage we have the full details of the genealogy of Joshua, the son of Nun, who belongs to the nineteenth descent from Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph, The house of Joseph doubtless enjoyed many facilities for preserving their pedigree-facilities that were denied to the other tribes-and hence we have all the links of the chain presented to our view; but about the same number of descents must have belonged to each of the other tribes, though, as is usual in such cases, only prominent persons are mentioned in their pedigrees when they happen to be cited. This extremely important passage, then, enables us at once to see how, in the course of 215 years, so small a number could have increased to such a mighty host. But then, what becomes of the words, in the fourth generation they shall come hither again"? We shall have no difficulty in explaining this; for generation' does not always signify descent-as, for example, Num. xxxii. 13, And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed.' Here 'generation' means simply all the souls then living. On account of Jehovah's dis

pleasure, the whole of the mighty host that left Egypt (above the age of twenty) were to perish in 40 years instead of 100 years, which would be the time required for all the adults then living to die a natural death. Let us take a simple illustration. In May, 1869, the Registrar-General of England estimated the population of the United Kingdom at 31,015,234. Some of these were infants of one hour's age, others were fully 100 years old; but in one hundred years hence, or a little more, not one person of those thirty-one millions will be alive; but fifty or sixty millions more will have come in their room. These, or some of them, will live another 100 years, and four such universal displacements will require 100 years, or four generations. The average life of man was much greater in the days of the patriarchs than now. Abraham lived 175 years, Isaac 180, Jacob 148, Joseph 110, Aaron 122, and Moses 120, and their mean age is 142 years. This is probably greatly above the general average of the men of their respective generations, for depravity shortens human life; yet we cannot suppose that it was less than 120 years. Four such generations would require 480 years. But the people actually entered Canaan 470 years after Abraham left it; and thus the word of the Lord was literally fulfilled. For this splendid result we are again mainly indebted to the admirable W. Osburn ( Monumental History of Egypt,' ii. 629), whose pious and learned labours cannot fail, ere long, to assume their proper place.

We cannot be expected here to discuss all the difficulties connected with New Testament chronology, for, however interesting in them. selves, they are insignificant when compared with those we encountered under the last chapter. There the discrepancies sometimes amount. ed to several centuries, whereas here they usually embrace only a very few years. By far the most important is the true date of our Lord's birth. This is the central point of human history-the grand era from which all other events are counted by Christian nations. Hence this era-when the Word became flesh,' and when the Creator eternally allied Himself to the creature-is significantly termed 'the fulness of time.' But just as we cannot determine that point in past eternity when God called the physical universe into existence; or that point in past time when living creatures first peopled the earth; or that greatly more recent date when God created man in His own image; or, finally, that other point, still future, when an angel shall swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no longer;'-so also we cannot determine, at least with undoubted accuracy, the precise time when the Word became flesh, and when our ruined species became linked, by indissoluble bonds, to the Eternal.

Proceeding on the assumption that the scriptures of the Old Testament presented a

general history of the world from the earliest age, the Jews set the example of constructing therefrom a complete system of chronology. Aided, as they believed, by credible tradition, Ezra and later authorities in Palestine, and the Hellenistic Jews of Alexandria, applied themselves to the task. Working in two distant and unfriendly bodies, these learned men, who employed in their occupation all the skill of their day, produced results of a dissimilar kind, and so gave a proof that the materials which lay before them were not without difficulties. Hence, however, arose the marked difference, in regard to the antediluvian age, between the Palestinian or Hebrew, and the Alexandrine or Greek chronology. The former is found in the Bib'e and the Samaritan Pentateuch; the latter in the Septuagint. On the following page will be found the numbers, taken from Bunsen.

The New Testament writers - closely following the example of Moses-give us two distinct genealogies of our Lord (Matt. i. 1-16; Luke iii. 23-38), the one being his lineage through Joseph, his supposed father, and the other his real pedigree through Mary. These genealogies sufficiently determine the order of time in which the Desire of all nations' appeared, but they do not fix the precise year. As the genealogy given by Matthew was specially meant for Jewish readers, it begins with Abraham, their renowned ancestor; while that of Luke, whose main purpose was to show that Jesus is the kinsman of the entire race, is extended backward to Adam, who is emphatically styled the son of God.' Matthew appends a very curious summary to his genealogy, apparently for mnemonic purposes: So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.' This remarkable summary, besides being helpful to the memory, is eminently suggestive; for here the God of Israel is represented as marching gloriously through the ages in stately, measured steps, disposing at pleasure of all events in Israel's history, and, through Israel, of the fortunes of all mankind. It will be perceived that the passage does not refer to all past time, but simply to Israel's past; not to the five thousand years that bad already elapsed of human history, but to the two thousand years that had elapsed since God singled out one family from among all the families of our species to be a peculiar people unto Himself. Here God is seen descending from heaven to earth, and the precise spot which His feet first touch is UR OF THE CHALDEES, the native city of him who is, ere long, honoured with the appellation of 'the friend of God.' 'Arise,' said God, 'get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, unto a land that I will show thee;

and I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and in thee and thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed' (Gen. xii. 1-3). Subsequently he greatly enlarges this promise by adding, And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God' (Gen. xvii. 7, 8). These exceeding great and precious promises are afterwards solemnly confirmed by an oath, when Abraham by selfsacrificing obedience has demonstrated the vitality of his faith. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven, the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand

which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice (Gen. xxii. 15-18). We give these passages at length, because they constitute Israel's titledeeds to the land out of which he has, for a time, been ejected, and because the time is approaching when the original charter will speak for itself.

The inspired apostle next sees the Ancient of days beginning to walk down, in solemn tread, athwart the centuries. His feet first meet the ground at HEBRON-where Abraham once purchased a field and a cave in which to deposit the sacred remains of his beloved Sarah, thus affording to his posterity a new ground of hope that at a future day they would obtain possession of the entire land -and at the moment that the man after God's own heart is being crowned king of the covenant people. This stupendous step embraces a period of 866 years, or, according to the authentic pedigree from which the apostle is quoting, it embraced fourteen generations'