which we inhabit is doomed to entire destruction. One of our distinguished poets thus describes, in sublime language, the solemn event-

"The cloud capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherits shall dissolve;

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a rack behind."

Far more sublime and solemn are the words of infallible Truth-"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up."

The fate of Palmyra has also been the fate of many other ancient eastern cities. Where now is proud and mighty Babylon-where populous Nineveh-where Tyre, with its merchant princes? Many other might also be added to the dismal catalogue. Two remain, and though but shadows, or skeletons, of what they once were, will always be regarded with interest and emotion, as being among the first cities mentioned in the Bible-Damascus and Jerusalem.

Well: all-all on earth is vanity! Happy they who through faith in Him who died to secure for them that high and glorious privilege, are made citizens of that city whose builder and maker is God. Its foundations are laid on the everlasting hills-its wall is great and high-its light is the out-beamings of the glory of God-and though there is no temple therein, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Happy they who, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, walk its golden streets in blissful company, under the delightful assurance that they shall go no more out!

"I SAID, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee."

GREAT Former of this various frame!
Our souls adore thine awful name;
And bow and tremble while we praise
The Ancient of eternal Days.

Thou, Lord! with unsurpris'd survey,
Saw'st nature rising yesterday;
And as to-morrow, shall thine eye.
See earth and stars in ruin lie.

Beyond an angel's vision bright,
Thou dwell'st in self-existent light;
Which shines with undiminish'd ray,
While suns and worlds in smoke decay.

Our days a transient period run,
And change with ev'ry circling sun;
And in the firmest state we boast,
A moth can crush us into dust.

But let the creatures fall around,
Let death consign us to the ground,
Let the last general flame arise
And melt the arches of the skies:

Calm as the summer's ocean, we
Can all the wreck of nature see,
While grace secures us an abode
Unshaken as the throne of God!

DODDRIDGE.

THE WATER BOTTLES OF THE EAST.

WITH what specious artifice did the ambassadors of the Gibeonites obtain a treaty of peace for their kingdom with Joshua. When he was nigh unto their country, as we read in the book of Joshua, the Gibeonites sent forth ambassadors to meet Joshua to obtain a treaty of peace from him. They dressed themselves for the occasion, put old clothing upon themselves and their beasts, covered themselves with dust, took a small quantity of dried and mouldy bread and provisions, and old water bottles (the water bottle here meant are bottles of skin, which are frequently mentioned in Holy writ) as if they were come from a far off country, and when they had come to the presence of Joshua, he asked them from whence they came, and they answered him-"From a very far

country thy servants are come, because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt. Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy : And these bottles of wine which we filled were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey."

In the East to this very day water and other liquors are carried and kept in skin bags, of which the construction is extremely simple; and thus we are enabled to illustrate by the present practices of a people in our own day, one of the customs so frequently referred to in the clear and familiar language of holy writ.

In making the bottles here described, the hide is stripped off entire, except at the openings where the head and feet of the animal have been cut off, these openings are sewed up, except one which is left as a spout and secured by a string removable at pleasure. During the time the skin is being prepared it is filled with hot sand to stretch it to its proper size, and the hides of different animals being used, as the sheep, the goat, or the kid, the bottles or bags are of different sizes, some scarcely larger than our ordinary 'bottles.

To travellers crossing the sandy deserts of the East, these bottles are of inestimable value to contain the water which it is so highly essential to carry with them, for they are not certain, when they arrive at their halting place for the night, whether they will be able to find water, and if it were not for their being supplied with a surplus quantity in their water bags, they would most probably perish. Bags of skin are

also used in Spain to carry wine from the vineyards to the places where it is sold, and the wine is very often observed to retain the flavour of the hides in which it has been transported.

Such bottles as those we have described are, of course, strongest when new. Our Saviour says to his disciples, “No man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles perish; but new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved." He meant leathern bottles, for when the bottles are new they are very elastic, and expand with the fermentation of the new wine, which takes place on being put into the bottles; but if it was put into old bottles, dry and hard, the wine would inevitably burst them, as their elasticity would be worn out. J. S. R.

Staleybridge.

HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

GENERAL OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE BIBLE ANSWered.

I. The partial distribution of the scriptures. The objectors say, if God had revealed his will, why did he confine it to so few? 1. The statement made is not true, for though the Bible is in the hands of but few comparatively, yet its contents have been more generally circulated than is commonly supposed. A great part of the Koran of Mohammed is taken from the Pentateuch, so that the Bible must have been accessible in the time of Mohammed. The origin of sacrificing to false gods was at first taken from the revelation of God, but gradually corrupted, from the sacrificing to the true God to sacrificing to idols: as