years are marked by very important eras. That which intervened between Abraham and Solomon, is divided by the mission of Moses to the Israelites, their deliverance from Egypt, and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, which is determined to the year 1491, or nearly 1500 years B.C. The last period of a thousand years, or that which intervened between Solomon and the birth of Christ, is equally divided by the building of the second temple, after the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, which event is determined to the year B.C. 515. Thus the whole period, from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ, is divided by remarkable eras, into eight periods, of about 500 years each, as in the following table:

Creation of the World.-A.M. 1.—B.C. 4004.

THIS era is marked by that stupendous operation, by which the earth was brought from a previous state of chaos, into the order in which we now behold it. "In the beginning," it is written, "God created the heavens and the earth." "And the earth was without form and void (or empty.) and darkness was upon the face of the deep." From this state, it was brought, by the work of six days, commencing with the commanding the light to shine upon it, and concluding with the creation of man. On the seventh day, God rested from his work, and thus laid the foundation of the institution of the Sabbath.

M

When man was created, he was placed in the garden of Eden, some delightful spot in the neighbourhood of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates; and a command was given to him, enforced by the penalty of death, by which command he was given to know his subjection and responsibility to the Almighty Creator. Eve was then made and brought to him to be his wife. The fall of Adam and Eve into sin soon follows, and their expulsion from the garden of Eden, to earn their bread by the sweat of their face; and then, in pursuance of the penalty of death which they had incurred, to return to the dust whence they were taken.

This era also is distinguished by the annunciation of the great redemption from sin and its ruinous consequences, which God purposed to accomplish for man, by the mission of his own Son, in our nature, into the world. "The seed of the woman," said he, "shall bruise the head of the serpent." The ordinance of sacrifice is also introduced, typical of the sacrifice which the promised Redeemer was to offer up of himself in the fulness of time. For Abel presented before God of the firstlings of his flock, with the fat of them. This era is also marked by the sudden and awful development of that corruption with which human nature had been tainted. Cain, the first-born son of Adam, became the first murderer, imbruing his hands in the blood of his own brother, Abel.

Cain was then separated from his father's home, and in process of time, built a city. His descendants apparently living without God, betook themselves to various worldly avocations and amusements, to fill up that sad vacuity in their bosoms, which the want of love to God A had created there. In the mean while, another son was born to Adam, whom he called Seth, and who occupied the station of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Thus mankind were early separated into two classes, the descendants of Cain, who betook themselves to enjoyment and gratification of their tastes and passions, and among whom murder soon again made its appearance with polygamy; and the descendants of Seth, who maintained among them the worship and service of God

SECOND ERA.

Jared.-A.M. 500.-B.C. 3500.

AT this era the families of Cain and Seth were still living separate from each other. During the period that followed, there were born Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, the father of Noah. Adam died at the age of 930 years. During the antediluvian periods, human life bore nearly the same proportion to a thousand, which it now does to a hundred years. It is now only about the onetenth of what it then was.

THIRD ERA.

Enoch.-A.M. 1000.-B.C. 3000.

THIS era is marked by that extraordinary testimony which God bore to the holiness of Enoch's character when he removed him to heaven, without subjecting him to the universal sentence of death. This distinction conferred on Enoch, indicates that corruption was making rapid strides among men.

Towards the conclusion of the period of 500 years which followed this era, the progress of corruption was accelerated by intermarriages formed between the descendants of Cain and the descendants of Seth.

FOURTH ERA.

Building of the Ark.-A.M. 1500.-B.C. 2500. THIS era finds the whole world one scene of violence and corruption. Only Noah was found upright before God. And God proposing to sweep away the whole race of the wicked, commanded Noah to build an ark for the preservation of himself and his family. Noah believed that God would do as he had declared, and, "moved with fear," began to build the ark according to the directions that were given to him, proclaiming, in the mean time, the catastrophe that was approaching, and warning men to repent of their sins. The ark being finished, Noah was directed to collect in it pairs of all those animals that were to be preserved, and then to enter it himself and his family in all, eight persons. The windows of heaven were then opened, and the fountains of the great

deep broken up, and the water rose, till it reached the tops of the loftiest mountains, destroying every living thing that could not subsist in the water. It then again gradually retired. This whole operation occupied only about a year;-namely, the year B.C. 2347.

The first remarkable event after the deluge, was the promise of preservation from any future deluge, and the law given to Noah, in which was pointedly prohibited the shedding of blood. At this time, also, liberty was given to men to eat animal food. Then followed the division of the earth among the three sons of Noah. The descendants of Shem spread themselves from Mount Ararat, where the ark rested, towards the South and East; the descendants of Ham went towards the South and West, particularly occupying Africa; and to Japheth and his posterity were assigned the North and West.

Towards the latter part of this period, or about 2250 years B.C. cities began to be built, which afterwards rose to great eminence. Ashur, one of the descendants of Shem, built Nineveh on the Tigris; and Nimrod, who had addicted himself to hunting, erected a kingdom in the land of Shinar, on the banks of the Euphrates. On the plain of Shinar, the tower of Babel was erected. The completion of this tower was prevented by the interposition of God, who confounded the language of those who were employed in building it.

FIFTH ERA.

Abraham.-A.M. 2000.-B.C. 2000.

Ar this era idolatry had made some progress. Tera, the father of Abraham and of Nachor, when he lived on the other side of the Euphrates, we are told, "served other gods." But God, instead of checking this evil by some awful infliction similar to the deluge, selected a family with whom he might deposit the knowledge of himself and his will, and to whom he might give so conspicuous a station among the nations of the world, as would tend to preserve that knowledge in the world, and diffuse it among the rest of mankind. This measure he commenced by calling Abraham to leave his native country, Mesopotamia, and to reside as a stranger and a wanderer in the

land of the Canaanites; a land which lay between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

Abraham obeyed the call of God, and came from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. This land was occupied by different families descended from Canaan, the son of Ham, but to a great extent open and uncultivated, yet with some towns or cities scattered over it. The sea coast to the southward was in possession of the Philistines, from whom the whole country afterwards derived the name of Palestine.

Egypt was then governed by a king. Damascus was built in a beautiful valley, watered by two rivers, on the edge of the wilderness.

Abraham had brought with him Lot, his nephew, who went down to live in the vale of the Jordan, near the city of Gomorrah. The wickedness of that and the neighbouring cities became so intolerable, that God rained fire and brimstone upon them, and destroyed them; and the ground seems to have sunk, so that the Jordan, instead of flowing through the valley to the Red Sea, was arrested in its course, and formed that salt lake which is called the Dead Sea. After this, Lot, who had been warned of the impending fate of the cities, and had fled with his daughters, lived among the mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where he had two sons, Moab and Ammon, by whose descendants that district of country was afterwards peopled.

Abraham had a son by Hagar, an Egyptian womanIshmael, whom he sent away, and who took up his residence in the wilderness, between the South of Palestine and Egypt. In his old age, Abraham had his son, Isaac, who was to inherit the promises made to him on leaving his own country. Isaac, before the death of his father, married his near relative Rebekah, by whom he had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau, or Edom, became a man of the field, and frequented Mount Seir, to the southeast of Palestine. Jacob went to Mesopotamia and married two daughters of Laban, his mother's brother, Rachel and Leah, and by them, and two other wives, he had twelve sons, who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Abraham had also children by Keturah, another wife, whom he sent away from Isaac towards the