of Methuselah two hundred and forty-three years before the death of Adam.

Olympas. So then all the experience of Adam was communicated to Noah and his three sons by one person. For if Noah was five hundred years old at the deluge, and Shem ninety-eight, as we are informed, then the entire history of all time reached Shem, Ham, and Japhet by one person; corroborated, indeed, by innumerable vouchers. For when we say one person, we do not mean one witness; but that one person only was necessary, because he that for two hundred and forty-three years talked with Adam, talked with Noah five hundred years; with Shem, ninetyeight; with Ham, one hundred; and with Japheth, at least one hundred and two years. But he conversed with many others of his own ancestors and descendants besides these, and they with one another; so that the true faith and true history of all time were most carefully and safely kept to the deluge by a few chosen spirits. Who, Susan, was the father of Methuselah?

Susan. Enoch, who was translated.

Olympas. What mean you by translation, James?

James. To be translated is to be carried from one world or place to another. Enoch did not die, but his body was carried up into heaven.

Olympas. Can you, Edward, name any allusion to this subject in the New Testament explanatory

of it?

Edward. Paul says to the Hebrews, chap. xi., "By faith Enoch was translated that he might not see death; and was not found, because God

had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God."

Olympas. This translation of Enoch is a truly grand and important event, and must be well understood by you all. He was taken up into heaven, body, soul, and spirit, without sickness or death, as you understand it, Edward?

:

Edward. I suppose he was changed some way before he entered heaven; inasmuch as Paul says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."-Enoch, then, must have been changed in a moment, as will be all that are alive at the coming of the Lord. "They shall be caught up into the clouds," as Enoch was translated to heaven without the sensation of death.

Olympas. The translation of Enoch is a whole volume in itself. It was a gospel and a revelation of a future and happy life to those who had honesty and capacity to consider it well. It must have been a soul-absorbing and thrilling question, Whither went Enoch? Do you think, Edward, there was any search made for him?

Edward. They certainly made search for him, as it is affirmed that "he was not found." Had they not looked for him, they could not have said this.

Olympas. Do you, Edward, remember a similar search for a Prophet that was lost?

Edward. It is said, I believe, that they searched three days for Elijah after God had taken him up in a whirlwind into heaven.

Olympas. True: and the spirit, or wind, from the Lord "suddenly caught away Phillip" the

Evangelist; but "he was found at Azotus." Enoch was not found, because God had translated him. But you have not told us, Edward, how the translation of Enoch demonstrated a future and a happy life.

Edward. The character that was translated imports future happiness: for if "walking with God" and being "perfect" are the ways of blessedness, surely one pre-eminent in these, snatched away from earth to heaven, fully indicates a state of blessedness consequent upon removal from these coasts of mortality.

Olympas. Be it granted, then I ask at what time did this event transpire-before or after the death of Seth, Abel's substitute?

Edward. Before the death of Seth. Enoch was born in the year of Adam 987, and died in the year of the world 987, fifty-five years before Seth died; for all the days of Seth, born in the year 130, were nine hundred and twelve years.

Olympas. This is the point to which I have been leading your attention. The translation of Enoch happened so early as that all the sons of Adam in our Lord's ancestry had the advantage of it. On the sacred page, so far as the written document goes, the first man that left this world was slain-the second died-the third was translated. Murder, death, and translation follow close in the succession of history, if not in actual fact-in these three good men, Abel, Adam, and Enoch?

Olympas. What, Reuben, was the profession or calling of Enoch ?

Reuben. Enoch was a prophet and a saint.

He "walked with God," and it is said "he prophesied." He was a preacher and a saint. Olympas. Do we know any thing about the sermons of Enoch?

Reuben. Jude alludes to the book of Enoch; at least he says that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold the Lord comes with his myriads of holy angels to pass sentence upon all and to convict all the ungodly among them of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have impiously committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Olympas. From this sermon or text of Enoch, how many distinct subjects of revelation are intimated, Eliza?

Eliza. The coming of the Lord-the existence of myriads of holy angels-the providence and supervision of God-human responsibility—a general judgment-and the punishment of the wicked. If each of these may be regarded as a distinct topic, then there were some six or seven very fundamental matters revealed and taught ever since the fall of man.

Olympas. If to the altar, the priest, the sacrifice, the sabbath, we add that knowledge of the principles of general piety and morality which enabled Enoch to walk with God, and to be perfect in his generation; I say, if to these we add his teachings, much more light and knowledge of the being and perfections of God-of his creation, providence, and redemption-the principles of righteousness and piety-of future rewards and punishments, was communicated and possessed in the first ages of the world, than many now seem

to imagine. Of all which the translation of Enoch was a seal and confirmation difficult fully to appreciate. Tell me, Thomas Dilworth, what think you would be the most likely train of reflections to which such an event would give rise?

Thomas. That man is predestined to live again; at least susceptible of a new life in some other world than this. That the transition from this state to that is rapid and direct, and that the virtuous and morally excellent will, on quitting these confines of mortality, be admitted into the presence of the Lord; for it is implied that God took Enoch to himself.

Olympas. It is then presumable that Abel, and Enoch, and Adam, who died in faith, were all taken to the Lord?

Thomas. Being all the children of men and the sons of God, I know no reason nor Scripture that forbids the idea of their all going to one place.

Olympas. Paul says, "Absent from the body, and present with the Lord." But as Enoch was not absent from the body, could he be present with the Lord in the same sense as Abel?

Thomas. The ten thousand angels of whom Enoch preached were present with the Lord. But while in the presence of the Lord there is fulness of joy, there are many ways of being in his presence. We in this family are all in your presence at this time; yet we are not all standing in the same relations, nor performing the same services. I think that Gabriel, Enoch, and Abel are equally in the presence of God, though not sustaining the same rank, nor performing the same services; and though all happy in the ratio