gods, after their death. The Chinese account speaks of ten dynasties of superior beings, who ruled in their country a thousand years each, before the sky fell on the earth. It is not hard to see that this is only a different and a singular manner of relating the same facts. But why did-and do now-many of the seemingly learned choose to suppose that each father ended his race before the son began to live? It was for the purpose of stretching out the time, between the deluge and the creation, to ten thousand years. Moses informs us that each of these ten generations did extend near a thousand years; but he lets us know that a son and his father walked much of their earthly race together. The journey of each was long, but it was a simultaneous travel. For the purpose, if possible, of extending the earth's chronology beyond the dates of revelation, multitudes have taken partial extracts from hearsay records; and then, to prevent these fragments from agreeing with, or upholding the history they hate, have twisted them with labor and ingenuity-failing even then to construct a passable cavil against the truth. What is the reason of this strange hungering and thirsting after mean falsehood, rather than the wonders of glorious truth? It is because men love darkness rather than light. Those who had cast away all reverence for holy writ, as soon as some one said in their hearing that the Chinese record contradicted Moses, never seemed to inquire further. They asked not after any additional account; or if they were shown that all these heathen traditions were simply the truth, preserved in a dress more or less awkward, they were

silent; but they did not return to the place where they once stood. They continued scoffers at Christianity.

The author has been in the habit of conversing with unbelievers whenever he could obtain the privilege, during the last eighteen years. Having once been of their number, he has since felt for them a kindly solicitude, as he hopes, moving him, at a prudent opportunity, to speak of heavenly things, although at times even at the risk of their displeasure. He has found that certain items of history or tradition, such as might seem to militate against holy writ, they receive readily, and remember long. Out of the ten thousand facts of a different description, they treasure none. They seem either not to hear, or they understand slowly, or forget very soon. We have been naming some of the kind which secure their attention and their recollection. We will now notice such as they either

a few out of the mass of items, do not learn or do not hold.

CHAPTER IV.

FACTS SUCH AS UNBELIEVERS DO NOT LEARN.

UNDER this head it matters not where we begin. There is no necessity that we should quit the record already before us. If you will go to that opposer of Christianity who appeals loudly to the part of Chinese chronology already discussed, and ask him a few questions, you will find that part of Asiatic history with which he is utterly unacquainted. Ask him what he thinks, when the Chinese history speaks of Yao, their king, declaring that in his reign the sun stood so long above the horizon that it was feared the world would have been set on fire; and fixes the reign of Yao at a given date, which corresponds with the age of Joshua the son of Nun. See Stackhouse. You will find, in nine cases out of ten, the objector knows nothing of that part of the Chinese record. Out of the countless items of this character, which, if compiled, would fill so many cumbrous volumes, he has treasured scarcely one: his taste has not craved them with avidity, or he remembers not. We are not now speaking merely of the unlettered and the feeble-minded. This is true of the senator in legislative halls; of the minister plenipotentiary to foreign courts; of the man whose information seems to extend almost everywhere. Of the Bible, and of ancient literature connected with the Bible, he is

uninformed: the cause is his appetite for darkness rather than light. The Latin poet Ovid amuses the school-boy greatly, in his fanciful narrative of Phaeton's chariot. This heathen author tells us, that a day was once lost, and that the earth was in great danger from the intense heat of an unusual sun. It is true, that in attempting to account for this incident of peril and of wonder, the writer, as was his custom at all times, consulted only his imagination, and clothed it all with an active fancy. But our notice is somewhat attracted, when we find him mention Phaeton-who was a Canaanitish prince—and learn that the fable originated with the Phoenicians, the same people whom Joshua fought. If you ask an unbeliever of these incidents, or of the common tradition with early nations that a day was lost about the time when the volume of truth informs us that the sun hasted not to go down for the space of a whole day, you will find that he had never thought on these points: they are not of the character which he is inclined to notice.

Let not the young reader suppose for one moment, that if the many octavo volumes which might be made, were really filled by the compilation of such items and placed in his hands, this would constitute the evidence of Christianity. Far from it. These books would scarcely form an introduction to that entire subject. Such corroborative history or tra ditional fragments are mentioned here, because they serve to exhibit the fact, that man is inclined to the side of error without knowing it, in matters of religion. The way in which things have been and are

received, exhibits our disposition unequivocally; and it is so important that we know plainly, whether men by nature do or do not turn away from holy light, that we will pursue this branch of the subject a little further. The cases to be cited are merely referred to as examples, out of a multitude almost endless, which any one may notice who is much in the habit of exchanging sentiments with his fellow

men.