produced a flood over the whole earth, because the earth must have been involved for some time in the tail of the comet. 15th Period. The Will the earth undergo another change? The Bible distinctly declares it will. Apostle Peter says: "There shall be a day in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be melted with fervent heat. The earth, also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. This day is the great day of judgment, subsequent to which there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and there shall be no more sea," and the earth shall be fitted up as the abode of more perfect inhabitants. There are some facts to corroborate this surprising event. There are traditionary opinions among the nations on this subject. They say, as the earth has been destroyed by water, so hereafter it will be destroyed by fire. The Brahmins of India, and of Siam, universally hold this opinion. The Christian world all embrace the same sentiment founded on the Bible. There are many things to make this great event probable. The volcanoes prove an im mense heat operating in the earth, and some of them of the most amazing power. In the island of Iceland the mountain of Skaptar Jocul, some sixty years ago, had a most tremendous eruption which lasted nearly two years. In its fearful power it dried rivers, and filled their beds; it covered valleys five hundred feet deep; and spread a torrent of lava over the country from seven to fifteen miles in breadth, and forty to fifty in length, and from one to six hundred feet deep; it overwhelmed twenty villages, and destroyed one fifth of the population. In 1815 a volcano in the island of Sumbawa produced the most dreadful desolation. In an eruption of three months great tracts of land were buried in the lava, which as a liquid flood of fire fell on them; waste and destruction spread far around the island; and such were the terrible explosions, as to be heard over a range of fifteen hundred miles; and out of a population of twelve thousand only twenty-six survived. The mountain of Galangoon, in an eruption which took place seven years afterwards, by a deluge of water and scalding mud, destroyed one hundred and fourteen villages, and four thousand persons. These volcanoes are in Europe, Asia, Africa, and in North and been in If they South America, and may have once far greater number than they are now. were multiplied, and their explosions increased, by latent heat, and fire in the earth, how soon would the face of nature become a universal ruin. The materials of immense fires are everywhere abundant in the bowels of the earth. The vast bodies of different kinds of coal are, apparently, only waiting the igniting torch to burst in columns of flames. The surface itself is surprisingly combustible. If there should be an entire drought of several months, under the heat of the sun from above, and the interior heat of the earth, the-vegetable creation would be in a state to take fire from the least spark, and spread universal ruin. Whoever, in a dry season, has seen the forest, or prairies, on fire, may judge of the effect. Many of the swamps and bogs, during a long drought, would be inflammable, as very many of them are filled with peat. There appear little wanting at any time to produce the fearful exhibition of a world on fire, and elements melting with heat. After this the Lord will renew his work. [Is. lxv. ch. 17.] For behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come in mind. [Rev. This XXI. 5.] Behold I make all things new. earth more perfect than the one in which we dwell, shall be inherited by the meek; this world become the abode of the holy, just, and good. In this there is nothing inconsistent with the previous state of the earth. That the surface of the earth has been destroyed by fire is abundantly proved by the very numerous extinct volcanoes as well as those now existing. It appears that they were active during the earlier periods; at the time of the coal formation, and long subsequent. The action of extinct volcanoes are every where apparent on the earth. In Auvergne, in France, there is a great extinct volcano, which has excited great attention and interest. Near Clermont the volcanic appearances are very plain. Geologists, who have examined the subject closely, announce extinct volcanoes in Spain, particularly in Catalonia, Portugal, Germany on the Rhine, in Hungary, Styria, Palestine, and Italy. In Naples and Cumea, in two hundred miles square, there are sixty craters; and even Vesuvius is said to stand on a vast crater. To the east of Smyrna, in Asia Minor, there is a region called the burnt district, and Mount Ararat is an extinct volcano. Volcanic action is apparent in Palestine, in the valley of the Jordan, and in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea. The Island of Teneriffe is volcanic; the Western Continent has everywhere the marks of volcanic fires. The Rev. Mr. Parker, in his exploring tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, says: "However quiescent is the present state of these regions, yet almost the whole country west of the great dividing range of mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and from Queen Charlotte's Island on the north to California on the south, present a vast scene of igneous operations. We are compelled to believe that almost the whole has been a volcanic furnace. There are many regularly formed craters presenting themselves in cones or concave depressions found upon mountains and plains. That these volcanic fires had their operations in periods very remote is evident, from the nature and appearance of the soil." Humboldt pronounces all the mountainous parts of Quito, an area of 6,300 square miles, an immense volcano, now finding vent through different peaks. The whole of the Valley of Mexico exhibits everywhere the plainest indications of the violent action of vol |