Eliza. On the day of Pentecost, God gave the gift of tongues to the Apostles, that they might gather the nations into one fold that had been scattered by the confusion of speech at the building of Babel. God can therefore make many languages a blessing after they have been a curse, and therefore I think the more languages we now learn the better, that we may converse and commune with more of the family of man.

Thomas, I have found a new argument for the truth and authenticity of the Bible in the eleventh chapter of Genesis. It is this: It gives a proper reason for what no infidel can explain.

All

animals on earth have a language of their own. Every species has its own dialect, and they understand one another. Birds and beasts of the same species, brought together from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe, understand one another. But "lands intersected by a narrow frith" understand not each other. Dialects interposed make enemies of nations, who else "like kindred drops had mingled into one." The true definition of a Barbarian is one that speaks an unknown tongue. Now why is it that man, the master spirit too of language is so babelized and confounded that he and his dog can parley with each other more fluently and intelligibly than he and his neighbour that lives across the river? This is a mystery— an anomaly which no infidel can explain without the fact that Moses records.

Olympas. The fact of the confusion of language is undeniable, and the cause, as you say, is inexplicable from all the lights of philosophy. It is therefore of the order of miracles, and a miracle must be assumed or believed in the case. The

sceptic, you mean, assumes one, and the Christian believes on good testimony. Proceed.

Reuben. So far as the first eleven chapters of Genesis develop the ways of God and the grand scheme of moral government, it appears to me that sin, even under a remedial system, requires severe and frequent interpositions of vengeance in the way of checks and restraints upon its progress. Already in a space of one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five years four tremendous checks have been laid upon its progress—the deluge, the contraction of the period of human life from hundreds to tens, the confusion of human speech, and the wide dispersion of mankind all over the earth. But for these, human guilt would have transcended even the bounds of God's forbearance.

John. And yet what misfortunes have resulted to mankind! what impediments to salutary, benevolent, and grand enterprize have followed these prolific calamities so necessary to the endurance of the world! But my principal moral

reflection remains to be stated. It is this: If the confusion of speech was a necessary means to the dispersion of the human race-to the formation of distinct and rival nations; does it not seem, then, that the restoration of one language to the world is as indispensable to union, as dialects are to sects and parties? I do not assume that diversities of tongues are the only causes of division; but certainly they are a cause--a chief cause; and while they exist a strong, if not an insuperable barrier to union, harmony, and cooperation. The friends of union among nations and religious parties, it would seem, then, have a lesson of the most practical and influential

character in this chapter, the philosophy of which seems to me to suggest the only rational and practical course of uniting the jarring and discordant sects of Christendom and the world.

Olympas. True, very true. The restoration of a pure speech, and of one speech, is essential to the raising up of the tabernacle of David that is fallen down, the rebuilding of the city and the temple of the living God on earth, as the skilful architects of Galilee laid the foundation in Jerusalem of old. The creeds, then, are the dialects of Babylon the Bible, the pure and the only divine speech. To call Bible things by Bible names is, as I have often told you, the only way to obtain a true, permanent, and blissful union among the people of God. But we have some other questions and suggestions to offer on this chapter at our next lesson.

CONVERSATION XIII

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?

"Pollai men thneetois,

Olympas. You allude to, 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,