more perfectly the God who made the heavens and the earth.

Thus, as the knowledge of God ennobles, so idolatry degrades men.

In 1837, I was in the city of Philadelphia. Mr. Dunlap had just then brought over his famous Chinese Museum, consisting of an immense collection of various articles of use and curiosity. Among other things a collection of idols and paintings of gods-deformed, misshapen things. There was also a young man, about twenty-five years old, a native of China, present. He was highly educated, a man of good understanding, well informed, and a gentleman in his manners. He showed me various objects of curiosity. Among other things in the shop of a silk merchant, I observed on the counter a queer-looking ugly little image, and inquired what it was. He turned to it with much seriousness and even awe, and answered me, "That is the God which takes care of the shop." I continued the conversation, and soon found his ideas of the supreme being puerile, childish, impure, without moral beauty or influence, regarded without love, though with some fear.

This shows the reason why, though an ingenious, industrious, and learned people, their civilization has long ago become stationary, and their morals so very despicable and degraded. Such are all the idolators now on earth. The only effectual remedy is to send them the Bible in their own language. We need not despair of the conversion of the mighty empire of China, since the translation of the Bible into the language of her people, a language spoken by one third of the human race.

The great business consequently now of the Christian world, is to make known to all mankind the God who made heaven and earth. For this noble purpose, missionaries are found to leave their native countries, and hazard every danger; and we have reason to hope the time is not far distant, when "the knowledge of God shall fill the earth, as the waters fill the ocean."

CHAPTER V.

CREATION CONTINUED.

On the morning of the third day the earth was covered with waters, and probably the tops of some mountains may have appeared. The whole a mighty ocean, wild, waste, and desolate. Probably no life, either animal or vegetable, was there. All had perished in one fearful and tremendous convulsion.

God then separated the waters, and the dry land appeared. The whole earth now bears evidence of this amazing work. The basins, in which once rested great bodies of water, can now be traced on all the continents. The earth, on examination, is found to have a number of courses of rocks of different kinds, which appear as the bones of the earth, and serving as a strong foundation to sustain the waters; they are found nearly in the same order wherever they have been examined. To examine these rocks, and the minerals, metals, and precious

stones. contained in them, is the study and work of the geologist and mineralogist.

The studies of these men have been supposed, and indeed now are supposed, to be unfriendly to divine revelation in the Bible. Many divines are suspicious of the science, Christians tremble on account of the doubts thrown over the sources of their faith, and infidels glory in having found, as they pretend, a conclusive argument against the truth of God's word; but we hope the divine will boldly meet the subject, the Christian confide in his God, and infidels become ashamed of their folly.

True science will always be found consistent with the Bible, and adding new strength to the, testimony of a revelation from God. Let him go down into the bowels of the earth, and the remains of animals turned to stone, whose existence must have been long prior to the existence of man. We have admitted it. Well, what then? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and when these creatures were created, they were created by the God of the Bible. The single fact is, the fitting up this earth for the abode of man, and in this work there is manifestly the exertion of immense power and wisdom making the necessary preparation.

The question now very naturally arises, Did God, in this mighty work, employ means to effect his purposes? It appears very highly probable that he did.

Steam, the product of fire and water, as the most powerful agent known to man, and directed by the knowledge, wisdom, power, and goodness of God, was sufficient to effect the mightiest changes known on the earth, as observed in the separation of the waters.

To illustrate my meaning, the draining of certain parts of the state of New York is so very manifest, I cannot forbear to mention the facts briefly.

It appears plainly to every correct observer, that there was once a great salt lake above the highlands which, for convenience, we will call the Hudson Lake; and we will endeavor to trace its boundaries. We may commence the barrier at the Fishkill Mountains, and follow them along through Putnam to Quakerhill, Chestnut Ridge, Towerhill, West Mountain in the towns of Washington and Amenia, and so on through Columbia and Rensselaer, on the borders of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

In the range we find the Ta hanic and Hosick, and then, the Green Mountains in Vermont, and from the Green Mountains in Vermont