is nothing else like it. With greater reason might the splendid astronomical discoveries of Kepler and others, down to the present time, be termed successful guesses, because they had facts sufficient to prevent very wild guessing, while the sacred writer saw nothing of the occurrences stated, and of course had no facts; and yet discoveries are constantly developing the fact that the writer had a marvelous insight into the work of creation. If he was a mere man, then Deity guided his pen.

The partiality which is shown for the literal interpretation of the word day, is perhaps natural, as the creation of every thing in six ordinary days is supposed to exhibit in a higher degree the power of God. But this is a mistake incident to finite minds. To execute a work in accordance with established laws, using what we call secondary agencies, advancing, step by step, through long periods to the great consummation, is quite as much an act of God as if the whole were performed in a moment. The slow changes which are now taking place in the earth-so slow that centuries are necessary to interpret them-accomplished through the agency of physical forces, are as truly and literally God's acts as those which spoke matter into being. We do greatly err and deceive ourselves by allowing laws to usurp in our minds the place of the Lawgiver, when they are but modes in which He operates, and always imply His personal presence. Many reject this view as belittling to God; because it represents Him as always at work, and, of course, enjoying no dignified leisure! Rest for the weak and the weary is indeed sweet; but rest for God! Shame on thee, O man, that thou shouldst måke thyself the standard for thy Deity! The Divine Being did complete His great work of preparing the earth for man in six periods, and thus taught to man the necessity of repose for him on every returning seventh day. But it is a very grave error to reason from ourselves back to Deity, and thus make our nature and our necessities the standard of His. We thus reduce the Supreme to our own level, and remove from our contemplation that exalted standard which ever solicits the mind onward and upward. Indeed, the human mind never reaches its loftiest conceptions till it ceases to dismiss the Almighty unceremoniously from His works, and constantly recognizes in them the measured tread of His footsteps, unceasing, unfaltering, from eternity to eternity.

Whatever interpretation of the word day may be finally adopted, it will not affect our recognition of the Divine agency in creation. The operations are not less important or sublime by being prolonged through unnumbered ages. By admitting a long period to properly represent each day's progress, there is developed a correspondence between the two histories of the earth-one from Genesis, the other from Geology-which, to say the least, is very remarkable; and the wonder deepens when it is considered that the statements are phenomenal, though the events were witnessed only by the Divine Being. Will it be thought strange if the great generalizations of modern times in regard to the formation of planets and changes in them, should be found to be embodied substantially in Genesis? And will the statement be thought strange that Geology, amid all the follies imposed on her by friends and foes, is slowly, but with giant strength, constructing an argument for the Divine Authorship of the Bible, which will leave little or nothing to be desired? The moral argument in behalf of Revelation is already complete. The purity and sublimity of its doctrines and laws, the response which every Christian heart utters to its truths, are proofs invulnerable to every assault. They can not be strengthened, except by the intellect becoming stronger and the affections purer, so as to apprehend the truths more clearly. The only weak point in the evidence now is on the scientific and historical side. In clearing up these points, it is hoped, this article may afford some aid, by inculcating true views of the nature of the scientific statements in the Bible, and by supplying a general rule for their interpretation. The application of this rule would have saved the Church of Rome from a blot she can never wipe out. She not only set her authority above Scripture, but above Science; and refused to refer questions in the latter to the only umpire which could settle them, and denied to the great book of Nature the privilege to speak for itself. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, Bruno, a Dominican, taught the doctrine of a plurality of worlds and the rotation of the earth on its axis; and, when charged with heresy, defended himself on the ground that the Scriptures were not designed to teach science but morals only. His defense itself was pronounced a heresy, and for these and other opinions he was burned at Rome in February, 1600.

Twice, in the first thirty-three years of the seventeenth century, was Galileo compelled to abjure the heliocentric system of astronomy. Both of these distinguished men saw the truth that the Bible was not intended to teach Science, but they failed to perceive that phenomenal language was its glory, not its shame, and that the Scriptures could not properly, or even possibly, use any other upon scientific subjects.

If the position taken in this article be true, then explanations of scientific topics, phenomenally expressed, must be sought for in the Natural World. The explanations, whatever they may be, partial or complete, fixed in their terms or changing with every advance in knowledge, can not affect the phenomenal language of the Bible. Its mode of statement throws it entirely out of the field of dispute concerning secondary causes of scientific phenomena. Its phenomenal language lifts the Book, as to its Science, above all the changes through which the earth and its inhabitants may pass. Science may advance the faster the better for the Bible-or it may decline, but its aspect, as presented in the Word, shall still abide in all its simplicity and beauty.

We have no apology to make for its phenomenal statements, but demand for them that homage which all candid minds yield to great excellences. The Bible is not only acquitted of imperfection, but stands credited, by the use of this language, with a profound knowledge of the mental constitution of man, of its law of progress, and of the future history of the race.

The time is, perhaps, not far distant when the work of defense shall be closed; when all minds, dazzled by the light which gleams from its pages, shall yield an affectionate or forced assent to its claims, and when no human being will have the effrontery to step forth and challenge the character of that blessed Book.

ART. II.-The Borrowing of Jewels from the Egyptians.

THERE are three passages in the Scriptures-two of them prospective, and the third historic-in which this transaction is referred to; and as we propose to discuss the subject somewhat extensively, it is proper that they should be fully cited at the outset. They are the following:

1. Jehovah, in appointing Moses as his Legate to Pharaoh, says to him," And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters: and ye shall spoil the Egyptians."-Exod. iii: 19, 22.

2. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one. plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people."-Exod. xi: 1-3.

3. "And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh, that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians: and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron, by night, and said, Rise up, and get ye forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go,

Also take your flocks and

serve the LORD, as ye have said. your herds, as ye have said, and be gone: and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes, upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment; and the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required, and they spoiled the Egyptians.”—Exod. xii: 28-36.*

The Psalmist also refers to the same matter, as follows: "He smote also all the first-born in their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them forth also with silver and gold; and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed; for the fear of them fell upon them.”. Ps. cv: 36-38.

We have not the requisite facilities for tracing out and ascertaining precisely the meaning of our term borrow, at the time when our present translation of the Scriptures was made. The word is derived from the Saxon borgian, but the latitude of its usage, at the time referred to, is not sufficiently known to us to warrant our expressing an opinion thereupon; though we find the Hebrew term, which is thus rendered, in the forecited passages, translated by "Aske," in the previously existing Geneva Bible; and also in Barker's Bible, which was published in 1615. The terms could hardly have been considered equivalent. And whatever the then existing reasons, which may have induced our translators to prefer the former term, their course in so doing appears to us as unaccountable, as the ren

*The word translated jewels, in these passages, is a term of much more general signification. It is often rendered "vessel." "The vessel of a potter"Ps. ii: 9; Jer. xix: 11. Vessel of earth-Levit. xi: 33. Vessels of the templeEzra, i: 7; and even sailing vessel, "vessels of bulrushes"-Is. xviii: 2. It often is used also in the sense of instruments. Instruments of death, Ps. vii: 14. Instruments of wrath, Is. xiii: 5. Instruments of music, 2 Chron. xxxiv: 12.. Harp instrument, Ps. lxxi: 22 (rendered Psaltery). Also furniture, (rendered stuff), Gen. xxxi: 87, and xlv: 20. Also weapons of hunting and of war, Gen. xxvii: 3, and Judges, xviii: 11, 16. In the forecited passages from Exodus, Gesenius renders it "vessels of gold and silver."