CONVERSATION XIII

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THE eleventh chapter of Genesis being slowly, audibly, and emphatically read, Olympas thus began:

Tell me, Thomas, why became it necessary that human language should be shattered into so many dialects?

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Thomas. To break in pieces the power of the people as it reads, They have all one language, and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do."

Olympas. Unity of language is, then, a mighty power, not easily to be subdued. The strength of the heavenly city will in part consist in the unity of language of all its inhabitants. In the Millennium there will be but one language spoken in all the earth, according to some of the ancients; and that will be a portion of the social strength of the people of that day.

Reuben. Is that the meaning of the Greek verse at the bottom of the title of the Polumicrian Testament?

Olympas. You allude to, "Pollai men thneetois, gloottai, mia d'Athanatoisin."

Reuben. Yes.

Olympas. That refers to the celestial state, and simply means, Mortals speak many tongues-the immortals but one. The times indicate a return to one language Protestant England will send

her language and her religion to every land and nation under heaven, wheresoever her merchants seek for wealth or her soldiers fight for glory. The cupidity of her merchants traverses all the ends of the earth, and pioneers the way for her armies and her navies to subdue the idolators that oppose her interests or her honour; while her missionaries, with the Sword of the Spirit, follow in their train and assail the idolatries of her colonies, and prepare the way for their submission to the King of the world. This honour seems to await England and her language because of the prayers and devotion of a larger remnant of the faithful in her realms than is found in any country in the four quarters of the globe. But this is rather prophetic than didactic, and we shall proceed to the sequel of the chapter. Let us have, Eliza, the names of the antediluvian progenitors of the Messiah.

Eliza. Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.

Olympas. How old was Noah, James, the year of the flood?

James. Six hundred years.

Olympas. Sarah, how long from Adam to the flood?

Sarah. Sixteen hundred and fifty-six years. Olympas. Name the patriarchs from Noah to Abraham.

Sarah. Shem, Arphaxad, Salah, Heber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham.

Olympas. How many years from the flood to Abraham?

William. The flood occupied one year. Arphaxad was born two years after the flood; Salah,

thirty-five; Heber, in thirty more; Peleg, in thirty-four; Reuben, in thirty; and Serug, in thirty-two more: Nahor, in thirty more; and Terah, the father of Abraham, in twenty-nine years more. Hence Abraham's father was born just two hundred and twenty-two years after the flood; which, added to the one year the flood continued, and the sixteen hundred and fifty-six years before the flood, makes Terah's birth eighteen hundred and seventy-nine years from the creation. But I cannot tell how long after this it was before Abraham was born, because it is said, "Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abraham, Nahor, and Haran." But which of them was the firstborn I know not.

Olympas. Is not Abraham placed first, and does not that prove he was born first, according to a theory which proves that the fellowship should precede the breaking of the loaf, and the breaking of the loaf, the prayers, because narrated in that order, Acts ii. 42?

William. That theory is exploded from facts already stated in the narrative of Shem, Ham, and Japheth; for the sacred historians often place the most renowned persons first. And it is farther disproved from the fact now before us; for if Abraham was born seventy years after Terah his father, he was born in the year of the world 1949, fifty-nine years before the established chronology of the world!! Hence, if that theory be true, the world is counted almost three score years older than it is; and Jesus, instead of being born in the year of the world 4004, was born in 3944!

Olympas. You have certainly proved that Abraham was not the firstborn of Terah, or that

the world is sixty-six years younger than it is. We are then to choose between the theory in question and the popular chronology. How do you explain this matter, Thomas?

Thomas I confess I do not understand it. It will not help the matter to suppose that Abraham, Nahor, and Haran were all born at the same time, and therefore I am unable to expound it.

Olympas. Can any of you explain it ?-What! all silent! It is, indeed, a difficult passage. We usually expound it thus: Haran, the oldest son of Terah, died before his father; Terah then, and Abraham, with Lot, Haran's son, migrated towards Canaan and stopped in Haran, where Terah died at the age of two hundred and ninety-five years. After Terah died Abraham left Haran, at which time we are positively informed that he was seventy-five years old. This settles the point, demonstrating that Abraham was seventy-five years old when his father died, consequently he was born in the year of his father 130, and in that of the world 2009.

William. But, father, you differ from the popular age of the world one year; for all our Bibles make Abraham to have been born in the year of the world 2008.

Olympas. True; for they do not count the year of the flood. I do, when I compute with accuracy. We agree that the world was 1656 years old at the deluge; and we are positively told that Arphaxad was born two years after the flood. Well, the flood counted one year; and certainly Abraham was born in 2009, and not in 2008. This is something, indeed, in chronology, but it is not much as respects the meaning of Scripture.

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William. Allow me, father, to ask, How do you show for certain that Abraham left Haran just when his father died? Might he not, for all that Moses says, have lived some years in Haran before his migration?

Olympas. Whatever might be imagined from the narrative of Moses, we are freed from all dubiety by the declaration of Stephen, Acts vii. 4. His words are, When his father was dead he removed from Haran into the land of Canaan." This places the matter on a clear foundation. So much for Bible chronology, a subject which I hope to make you understand as we proceed-a subject, too, of much importance, though much neglected by students of the Bible. Having got the history correctly drawn from Adam to Abraham, we shall dismiss it for the present. Why did Abraham, Thomas, migrate from Haran after the death of his father?

Thomas. Because he was called by God to forsake his kindred and to become a pilgrim in a foreign land.

Olympas. How old was Abraham at this time, Sarah ?

Sarah. He was seventy-five years old.

Olympas. In what year of the world was this, James?

James. 2084.

Olympas. What, and how many promises were tendered to Abraham at this time, as inducements to obedience, Eliza?

Eliza. There were two at least-Abraham should become a great, mighty, and renowned nation; and that by a descendant of his all the families of the earth should be blessed. Besides