bending. Never more than now were demanded those, who in all essential points, on all fundamental questions of doctrine and practice, are immovable, uncompromising. It is admitted, that the apostles were of this character. They obeyed God rather than man. It is admitted also that the circumstances amid which they stood, the work to which they were committed, required these robust properties. What obstacles they had to meet; what idolatries to breast; what sins to encounter ; venerable sins, legalized sins, religious sins; and all the power, learning, and influence of society, went to defend and uphold these sins, and to crush the intruders who dared to question their propriety. And what could they have done against such powers and perils, without those fixed, intense, and inflexible attributes of character, which they manifested, and which sustained them up to the hour of their victory, and their reward in heaven. The reformers were such men, Wiclif, Luther, Calvin and Knox. The puritans were such men; in matters of principle, rigid, indomitable, who would not swerve a hair to keep their heads. In all ages of the church they have been such men, who have made any signal encroachments upon the empire of sin. It has been done only by bold assault and uncompromising conflict.

Our position is, that the same rigorous elements of character are now demanded in those who are expected to lead the way in the warfare against sin; our proof is, that the enterprise to be achieved stands undiminished in its difficulties, and in certain respects, in its sacrifices and its perils. We are sensible that it is a favorite notion with some, that the world has grown better by being let alone; that opposition to holiness is subsiding, false religions are crumbling and falling by the weight of their own absurdities; in short, that every thing is getting ready for an easy and unresisted subjugation of it to the reign of God. Pleasing and amiable dreams; but very far from the fact.

It is more probable that there has been an augmentation of the hindrances, if not of the dangers, by these centuries of delay. We are constrained to believe that sins have become more extended, and more firmly intrenched, by the long and quiet sufferance of them; that the intellect of Satan, the author and finisher of all unbelief and mischief to our world, like all other created intellects, has increased in compass and strength by time and exercise; of course, that his six thousand years of labor and practice, in the work of temptation and death, have rear

ed him to the might and stature of a terrible opponent to the cause of truth and God. How plain, then, that men of an undaunted spirit are wanted for such a conflict; men who will plant themselves on principle and stay there till they die; men who will maintain an inflexible adherence to, and uncompromising utterance of the whole gospel, though it cost them their characters, their places, or their heads. Here is the point which has ever made and ever will make the greatest resistance and trouble; it is simply the holding to, and the preaching of the whole gospel. A part of the gospel is a very gentle and innocent thing. Carry it any where almost, and it will be well received. Go with the gospel to China, and make a few exceptions, and even the China man will bow assent. Make a few concessions to the Mussulman, and the Mussulman will say, "very good." Make a bow to the American, and the American will respond, "I will be a Christian, sir."

The truth is in respect to every unregenerate man on the face of the globe, there is a particular spot where the gospel, when brought snugly in contact, pinches and galls him most grievously; there is a particular point, where it comes most offensively across his track; and at this point, is the whole of his quarrel with God's revelations; at this point are marshalled all his passions and all his prejudices, and all his bitterness, and they boil and burn together. But just give up this point and he will be as quiet as a lamb. Peace may be obtained in this way, but no increase of purity, no extension of the kingdom of Christ. The world will be made christian, only by an inflexible maintenance, of all that, upon which God in the gospel insists, until the controversy is ended by the submission of the rebel. For this work may God raise up men, of a meek and prudent, at the same time of a bold, unblenching spirit, who will dare to assail idolatry in its most firmly intrenched lodgements; who will venture to rebuke and impugn sin in its most imposing strength and extension, in its refinement of aspect, respectableness of standing, and prescriptiveness of claim; in its alliance with wealth and learning, influence and interest.

We might here conclude and sum up all the qualifications of heart and intellect which have been named, in the single declaration, that the times demand a ministry thoroughly pervaded and imbued with the light and spirit of the Bible. This sentiment is presented in a clear and impressive attitude in the work before us. "The preacher in the pulpit," says Dr. Cox,

"and the pastor out of it, and the minister of Christ every where, should be the living personification of the whole contents of the inspired volume." Then indeed he will be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Drawing so bountifully from the divine source, he will be vigorously equipped for every difficult. enterprise, "thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Intimate and commingling fellowship with the word of God will foster a profound and glowing piety, will give acuteness and compass and practicalness to the intellect, will compact and rear up a resoluteness of spirit for the trying emergencies of duty. There lie the models to be studied and copied; there sleep the spirits to be resuscitated and brought back in renewed life and power upon the world. The world needs the like again. There are wanted as defenders of the faith, such men as John in greatness of conception, simplicity of utterance, in fidelity and mildness of spirit. Reprovers of high-handed wickedness like Peter; aggressors on the empire of pollution and death, like Paul, are wanted to impart a quicker predominance to the principles of purity and life. From no where else can they arise but from the Bible. They must be begotten and educated by the word of God. They sprang out of that book in the sixteenth century - the men that shook heaven, earth, and hell. Luther, Calvin, Zuingle were made by the Bible. The history of the church assures us, that just in proportion as the ministers and messengers of God have become incorporate in soul and spirit, thought and feeling, with the Bible, they have moved upon the world in renovating energy, and scattered, widely on their track, the gifts and blessings of redemption.

Never more than now, was there wanted a ministry, formed on the model, equipped in the armor, and imbued with the spirit and the power of the Bible. The rankness and rifeness of an organized infidelity, the numberless attitudes and aspects of beguiling error, the chilling and depressing influence of an almost unlimited worldliness, call for an energetic administration of the pure word of God. They must be men for this work who understand this word both experimentally and critically, who, like Edwards, have both their intellectual and spiritual being in the Bible; who love to range in that element of vigor, and dwell in that world of light and wonders. The Bible must be their field, their treasure, their habitation, their food, their atmosphere, their light and life. Wherever they go they will be strong and efficacious ministers. Let them be multiplied and

diffused and darkness will recede, and the reign of righteousness and truth be extended. Reading ministers, with great libraries, are not wanted, so much as thinking ministers, capable of taking the ideas direct from the living source, expert in thinking out the thoughts of God, who have an iron sinew of soul, and who do not turn pale every time a muscle is distended in mental toil, but who can go down into the dark places, and for hours together can dig and delve in the mine of truth, and bring up to the day huge masses, to be forged and burnished into weapons that shall be mighty through God to the pulling down of the strong holds of Satan.

ARTICLE V.

THE HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DELUGES COMPARED.

By Edward Hitchcock, Prof. of Chemistry and Nat. History, Amherst College.

SCARCELY any subject within the circle of human knowledge has elicited more discussion than the origin, nature and connection of the deluges of history, tradition, and geology. Though in fact one of the most difficult of all subjects, yet upon a superficial and prima facie view, it seems to be one of the easiest. History and tradition abound with examples of diluvial catastrophes, which are supposed to have happened in the earliest times. Equally prolific is geology in phenomena that appear to be mementos of similar events. Marine relics are scattered in profusion over all continents in the form of petrifactions. How natural for the believer in the Bible to refer all these facts to the deluge of Noah; and to regard them as incontestible evidence of that event! But when we come to look more narrowly at these facts, and study them thoroughly in all their relations, we find a multitude of difficulties starting up to perplex us, and the beautiful simplicity of the popular argument is destroyed. Yet multitudes have produced voluminous essays on the deluge, without even discovering that the ground beneath them was hollow. We tremble in attempting to discuss this subject, lest our present effort should only add another example

of a similar failure. We have got, however, too deeply interested in it to shrink from the effort.

1. Our first object will be to present a brief view of the historical deluges.

The Mosaic history of the deluge of Noah, being the account with which we wish to compare all others, may properly first claim our attention; though we need not present all the details here, since they are so familiar..

According to Blair's chronology, this deluge occurred 1656 years from the creation of man, or 2348 years before Christ. On Sunday, November 30th, Noah was commanded to enter the ark, taking with him his wife and three sons, with their wives. One week afterwards, on December 7th, it commenced a forty days' rain, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up; so that its waters rose over the land, until all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered, Fifteen cubits (22 feet,) upward did the waters prevail, (rise.) On Wednesday, May 6th, or 150 days after the deluge began, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat, or Armenia; the waters having begun to abate. They continued to decrease till Sunday, July 19th, when the tops of the mountains were visible. On the 15th of June, Noah sent forth a raven from the ark, which never returned. June 22nd, he sent forth a dove, which came back. Seven days afterwards, on June 29th, he despatched the dove again, to ascertain the state of the earth; and in the evening she returned with an olive-leaf in her mouth. After an interval of seven days, or July 6th, the dove was sent forth a third time, and returned no more. On the 23d of October, the waters were dried from off the earth; and on the 18th of December, Noah came out of the ark, built an altar, and offered sacrifice. So that this deluge continued a year and eighteen days.

Noah, on account of his piety, appears to have been warned of this flood 120 years before it happened; during which period, the divine forbearance waited upon the wicked, and Noah was employed in building the ark. Its length was 300 cubits, (450 feet;) its breadth 50 cubits, (75 feet;) and its height 30 cubits, (45 feet.) It was three stories in height, and had one window and one door in the side. Noah was commanded to bring into this ark of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort, male and female; both fowls, cattle, and creeping things. Also of every clean beast, that is, such as were clean by the