and physical science eventually prove but the same, in kind, as the wisdom of the wise men of Edom? And were they to perfect, in astronomy, navigation, and mechanics, what, according to Sir Isaac Newton, the Edomites began, what would the moulding of matter to their will avail them, as moral and accountable beings, if their own hearts were not conformed to the divine will; and what would all their labour be at last, but strength spent for nought? For were they to raise column above column, and again to hew a city out of the cliffs of the rock, let but such another word of that God, whom they seek not to know, go forth against it, and all their mechanical ingenuity and labour would just end in formingthat which Petra is, and which Rome itself is destined to be a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.' The experiment has already been made; it may well and wisely be trusted to, as much as those which mortals make; and it is set before us that, instead of provoking the Lord to far worse than its repetition in personal judgments against ourselves, we may be warned by the spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus, to hear and to obey the words of Himeven of Jesus, who delivereth from the wrath to come.' For how much greater than any degradation to which hewn but unfeeling rocks can be reduced, is that of a soul, which while in the body might have been formed anew after the image of an all holy God, and made meet for beholding His face in glory,-passing from spiritual darkness into a spiritual state, where all knowledge

of earthly things shall cease to be power,-where all the riches of this world shall cease to be gain,where the want of religious principles and of christian virtues shall leave the soul naked, as the bare and empty dwellings in the clefts of the rocks, where the thoughts of worldly wisdom, to which it was inured before, shall haunt it still, and be more unworthy and hateful occupants of the immortal spirit than are the owls amid the palaces of Edom, and where all those sinful passions, which rested on the things that were seen, shall be like unto the scorpions, that none can now scare away from among the wild vines, which are there entwined around the broken altars, where false gods were worshipped.

But as none that exalt themselves against the Lord shall prosper, but shall all be brought down, though their nest were as high as the eagle, so none that wait upon the Lord, and put their trust in him, shall ever be dismayed, but shall renew their strength and mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint: whatever their occupation be, they forget not their high calling. The more closely they see into the works of nature, the more carefully do they consider the operations of the hands of the great Architect of the universe. Whatever else they learn, they diligently search the scriptures, and ever find them full of true wisdom. The whole word of God is unto them as a well of water springing up unto eternal life; and unto them, in a higher sense than to the Israelites of old, there shal

come water by the way of Edom.' The literal prophec.es concerning it, like all scripture besides, will be profitable unto them for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And that from thence they may, through the grace of God, be thus furnished, now that the judgments of God have fallen on Edom, it behoves all who are called by the name of the Lord, who would account themselves his adopted children through Christ Jesus, and all who would not wish to be, like the Edomites, a people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever,' to consider seriously whether their piety towards God, and the deeds which they are doing in the body, be such as render a right answer to the appeal, which God made unto the priests as well as to the people of Israel, when he denounced His judgments against Edom,- If I be a Father, where is mine honour; and if I be a Master, where is my fear?'

·

CHAPTER VI.

Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt.

To a brief record of the creation, of the antediluvian world, and of the dispersion and different settlements of mankind after the deluge, the scriptures of the Old Testament add a history of the Hebrews for the space of fifteen hundred years, from the days of Abraham to the era of the last of the prophets. While the historical part of scripture thus traces, from its origin, the history of the world, the prophecies give a prospective view, which reaches to its end. And it is remarkable that profane history, ceasing to be fabulous, becomes clear and authentic about the very period when sacred history terminates, and when the fulfilment of those prophecies commences which refer to other nations besides the Jews.

Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, was, for many ages, a very extensive and populous city. Its walls are described by heathen historians as having been a hundred feet in height, sixty miles in compass, with fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high. This 'exceedingly great city' having repented at the preaching of Jonah, its destruction was averted for a time; but relapsing into iniquity, it was swept away, so that there are now but slight vestiges of it to be seen. The Assyrians grievously oppressed the Israelites, took Samaria,

and carried the ten tribes into captivity. (2 Kings xvii. 5, 6; xviii. 10-13, 34. Ezra iv. 2.) They took also all the fenced cities of Judah, and exacted a heavy tribute from the Jews. But the glory and the power of Assyria, and of its capital city, are departed; like that of the mighty host of Sennacherib, its king, when smitten, in a night, by an angel of the Lord.

A Greek historian, who repeatedly alludes to an ancient prophecy concerning it as known to the Ninevites, in describing the manner of its destruction, relates, that the Assyrian army was suddenly assaulted by the Medes in a time of festivity, when they had been supplied with much wine; and that, unable to resist the enemy, a great part of them were destroyed; that the river, having increased to an excessive and unexampled height, by heavy and long-continued rains, broke down a great extent of the wall, opened an entrance for the enemy, and overflowed the lower part of the city; that the king in his desperation, and deeming the prediction accomplished, heaped an immense funeral pile, and,having set fire to it, and to the palace, was himself consumed, together with his household and his wealth; and, finally, that the Medes, having taken the city, after a siege of three years, carried away many talents of silver and gold to Ecbatana. While they are drunken as drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.—With an overflowing flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof. The gates of the rivers shall be opened.Nineveh is of old, like a pool of water.-The gates