subterraneous fires which after the deluge were so deeply quenched or slacked as to afford no heat; and that now depending on solar influence alone, we have an alternation of heat and cold, of summer and winter, of seed time and harvest, by which change of the elements the stature of human life has been contracted from seven, eight, and nine hundred, to seventy, eighty, and ninety years?

Olympas. True, I have substantially, at different times, made such suggestions to some of you. The axis of the earth is inclined to the ecliptic 66 degrees; consequently it declines 23 from a perpendicular position to the plane of the ecliptic, or to the plane of its own orbit; and this gives us a variety of seasons; whereas if the axis of the earth were perpendicular to the plane of its own orbit round the sun, the following three consequences would be inevitable :

1. Its north and south poles would be always enlightened.

2. There would be no diversity of days and nights.

3. And we would have but one season throughout the year.

Such I think, was the antediluvian earth. Therefore, the health, vigour, and longevity of man -therefore, the plants and animals of all climates were then found in all the latitudes of human abode and, therefore, too, the great immorality of the human race after the fall, and previous to the deluge. So happy a climate, so perpetual a spring, so vigorous a constitution, so long a life, did not suit so fallen and so degraded a being as

man. The mildest climes, the most genial seasons, and the most fruitful soils, when combined, produce the most luxuriant crops of human follies, vices, and enormities. The temperate zones, the six months winter, and the six months summer, have, since the flood, been the abodes of the most exemplary charàcters, the regions of the most mental and moral vigour of our species, and will likely continue to be so till the millennial age shall have introduced a better order of things.

The flood changed the constitution of the earth, and probably did it chiefly by changing its position; by sinking, as it were, one of its poles 23 degrees towards the plane of its own orbit, and thus subjecting it to a continual alternation of cold and heat, from the extreme horrors of a northern winter, to the scorching heats of a tropical

summer.

Moses induces the belief that a radical and extensive change has pervaded the entire constitution of our devoted planet. The cataracts of heaven opened their stores of indignation, and the deep dark fountains of the great abyss were broken up to consummate its ruin. An ocean's flood was heaved from beneath over all its fertile valleys, sloping hills, and lofty mountains. The planet yawned as if bursting asunder to swallow down the untold millions of its infidel and atheistic inhabitants. The solid crust of the "rock-ribbed earth" was rent in pieces, while the solid stratas ascending from the beds of ancient oceans, gave mighty proof that Omnipotence had indignantly risen to assert the rights of its insulted majesty before an astonished universe. The former abodes

of men became the beds of new seas and oceans, while the channels of the ancient waters occasionally became the terra firma of a new world.

The sea-drenched earth, the miserable wreck of its ancient grandeur, chilled by its long submersion in this watery waste, became the cold and comparatively dreary abode of the new family of man. But Noah, soon as it became dry, reared an altar to the Lord, and presented a grateful offering to his Almighty Benefactor, who had safely piloted his unwieldy ship on a dark and shoreless ocean to a safe and comfortable anchorage in the cliffs of Ararat-where we shall leave him till our next lesson.

CONVERSATION VIII.

AFTER reading the eighth and ninth chapters a second time, the conversation was resumed.

Olympas. Tell me, Susan, how many human beings were saved in the Ark ?

Susan. Only eight: these were Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their four wives.

Olympas. Of the three sons of Noah who was the first born or eldest?

James. Shem, I presume, because he is always first named.

Olympas. Is that a scriptural rule, that that which is first named is first done, or the person first named is first born, Eliza?

Eliza. No: for Moses and Aaron prove that the most important and reputable frequently take precedence. Aaron was certainly three years older than Moses; yet Moses is always first named, because most honourable; and so in this case Shem is most certainly younger than Japheth, and yet he is always first named. This is also

true of Jacob and Esau.

Olympas. How do you prove, Reuben, that Shem was younger than Japheth?

Reuben. 1st. Because when Moses relates the families of these three, he begins with Japheth, chapter x., proceeds to Ham, and ends with Shem. 2nd. Because he calls Japheth the elder, chaps. x., xxi. He is said to be older than Shem. According to age it would read Japheth, Ham, and Shem.

K

Often the last in birth is first in rank: as Moses and Aaron, Jacob and Esau, Paul and Barnabas, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, &c.

Olympas. Is there any allusion to the salvation of Noah and his family in the New Covenant Scriptures, William ?

William. Peter says, baptism saves us as the ark in the deluge saved Noah.

Olympas. Perhaps you ought not to put the ark alone as the type, but the persons in the ark immersed in the deluge. The antitype, not of the ark so much as of the persons immersed in it. Baptism doth also now save us who have thus entered into the new covenant with Christ. Eight persons encased in a wooden chest, submerged in a world of waters, celestial and terrestrial, were indeed a good figure of those who enter into Christ and are immersed into his death. But does not Peter explain the salvation of which he speaks, Reuben?

Reuben. Yes, sir. "It is not," says he,' "the putting off the pollutions of the skin, or of legal defilement, but the answer of a good conscience towards God; through the resurrection of Christ."

Olympas. A good conscience is the effect, not the cause of remission; and baptism is but the means of obtaining it; baptism saves no farther than it secures to us a good conscience. But without remission of sins, or a release from guilt, no person can have a good conscience; and therefore no one is saved from the condemning power of sin, but through faith and obedience according to the stipulations of the New Institution. But,