were all made "after the pattern" of the tabernacle "shewed him in the mount."

11. THE NAME OF THE FIRST IS PISON: THAT IS IT WHICH COMPASSETH THE WHOLE LAND OF HAVILAH, WHERE THERE IS GOLD;

12. AND THE GOLD OF THAT LAND IS GOOD: THERE IS BDELLIUM AND THE ONYX-STONE.

If the four rivers collectively, are to be regarded in correspondence with the various "fours" pointed out in the above mysterious imagery, it can hardly be but that each particular river, having an individual name and characteristics, has its own especial correspondence and counterpart in each set or class of symbols. To speak then, first, of the four winds of heaven or quarters of the sky; the north, the east, the west, and the south; let us enquire with which of these quarters the first river, Pison, may seem to correspond.

Now Tigris and Euphrates, well known

rivers, flow from the supposed site of Eden, to speak generally, in a southeasterly direction. But Tigris is pointed out in the text as flowing "toward the east," and does in fact, as long as it keeps separate from Euphrates, flow to the eastward of that river. It may therefore well be taken, in the text, to represent a river flowing from Paradise toward the east, while Euphrates, flowing into the same southern sea with it, will naturally stand for a river toward the south.

The other two rivers it is less easy to identify, even if they still exist upon earth after the great changes of the flood. Gihon is sometimes spoken of by early writers as the Nile; but, if this idea be correct, the Nile must have formerly flowed in a very different course from its present, and through countries very unlike in geographical position and character to its actual Egyptian bed. But we

may, perhaps, receive this statement, as far as it can be made to correspond with what is said of the two known rivers: as far, that is, as to suppose that Gihon was a river of the same great class with Tigris and Euphrates, which emptied itself into the Mediterranean; flowing, therefore, from Paradise toward the west, as did Tigris to the east, and Euphrates to the south. This leaves no direction for Pison, or Phison, but the north: and, we may well conceive that, by it was meant some great stream flowing from Eden northward, probably to empty itself into the Caspian, a northern sea when compared with the Mediterranean, and still more so, with regard to that Persian gulf which receives the blended waters of Tigris and Euphrates. The Pison has indeed, by some, been recognised in the Araxes, which in its other name, Phasis, bears an appellation, in some degree, resembling

that by which it is here mentioned. In Pison, then, we may trace a figure of the flood of Divine grace making its way even in the mystical north, even in the region farthest from the sun when he shineth in his strength, the quarter of the heavens in which he never appears, but which, even when he traverses it, as at midnight, neither feels the fervour of his rays nor gladdens in his light. In that moral region, do they spiritually dwell, who have had opportunities of learning God's will, and of being guided into His paths, and have not availed themselves of them; who have rejected the light offered to their acceptance, and suffered it to become to them, darkness. Such, as a nation, were the Jews, when the first of the evangelists, St. Matthew, wrote his Gospel for their especial profit. In rejecting Christ, they had virtually rejected even Moses in whom they trusted, and

the law which he had given them. They had sinned against the light which they had; and they were therefore, in spirit, already gone into that "north country' of exile, into which, pursuant to the voice of prophecy, they were soon to be literally driven. The word "Pison" signifies change or enlargement of mouth, or countenance; and may well describe, either the change of aspect, thoughts, and way of life wrought upon the individuals who under these unpromising circumstances, were brought to receive the glad tidings of salvation, or the new song of praise and joy thereby put into their mouths. Doubtless, even in this quarter, even in this apparently unpromising region, the flood of Divine grace has washed a land possessing much "gold;" a land whence many a jewel, more precious than "bdellium and the onyx-stone" has been brought into the