assurance that the first born of the Egyptians had fallen victims to the plague. That is a strange reason assigned by him as the ground of his inference, viz. because the great body of the Israelites were "neither to see nor do any of it." The angel of the pestilence, a few years ago, passed over this land, spreading consternation and death throughout the nation. According to Mr. Olmsted's principle, we cannot believe that any of our fellow-citizens, during that season of distress, fell victims to the cholera, unless with our own eyes we beheld some of them in the agonies of death, or aided the angel of the pestilence in his work of destruction. Is it replied, But we heard the lamentations of the bereaved relatives, and beheld their habiliments of mourning? Did not the Israelites have testimony fully as conclusive, when in the morning they heard the wailings of Egypt, and the Egyptians thrust them out, being urgent for them to be gone lest a still more terrible calamity should befall the nation?

If the Israelites were originally a horde of Arabs dwelling on the confines of Egypt who, upon leaving that country, had committed unprovoked murders upon the persons of the Egyptians, as Mr. Olmsted seems to suppose is probable, and in behalf of whom, as he maintains, there never was a divine interposition, and who never were the subjects of divine illumination, whence came the only theocracy, the only unmixed theism, the only religion on earth during many ages, in which the only true and living God was worshiped, and human sacrifices never burned nor bled? Can an instance be produced from the history of the nations of the earth of a horde of such barbarians possessing and being governed by such a pure, enlightened, and comprehensive moral code as that of the twelve tables of stone which Moses cast down and broke at the sight of an act of idolatry in Israel? Is it not very remarkable that a horde of rude barbarians, possessing no advantages of instruction over their neighbors, should, in the days of Joshua, teach their children the precepts of a perfect law? Is it not surprising that throughout the whole world, for many ages, none can be found who stood erect before an idol except this "horde of rude Arabs?" Is it not astonishing that such a horde of barbarians, as Mr. O. would have us to believe the Israelites were, should for many centuries be stigmatized by all the other nations of the earth as impious on account of their hatred of idolatry? Finally, is it not passing strange that they alone among all mankind should believe that creed which all science confirms, and all nature ratifies, the Lord our God is one Lord, beside whom there is no God?

position that the Israelites were just such a people as Mr. O. supposes they possibly were, upon what principle are we to account for the purity of their worship, and the excellency of their moral code? If the Infidel will attempt the solution of the difficulty here presented, in order to his success he must have recourse to a miracle more stupendous than any of those recorded by Moses, the servant of the Most High.

SECTION III.

LET us now enquire what collateral testimony can be adduced, showing that the leading facts detailed by Moses concerning the bondage of the Israelites in the land of Egypt, their sojourn in the wilderness, and their settlement in the land of Canaan, did transpire.

In Egypt vast chambers have been discovered cut in the rock, be neath the ground, where, it seems, the ancient Egyptians resided. On the walls of these chambers are many paintings, which still preserve their colors and outlines so perfectly as to be easily understood. Here the manners, customs and history of the ancient Egyptians can be studied, and many of these mute monuments, after slumbering for long ages, add their indubitable testimony to the truth of the Scriptures.

"A recent discovery presents a contemporary picture coeval with the birth of Moses, and copied by Rosselini and Wilkinson, which may be said to be a commentary on the first chapter of Exodus, and to set the Israelites before our eyes actually engaged in the hard bondage in mortar and brick as Moses described them. The Egyptian task-master is set over them with a rod in his hand; the diversity of color as well as of their countenances distinguishes the oppressed Hebrew slaves, and the whole process of their labor is seen till the tale of bricks may be counted. "Their countenances are as perfectly Jewish," according to the London Literary Gazette," as those of any old clothes-man from St. Mary Ax who now perambulates the streets of London. Neither Lawrence nor Jackson could have painted more perfect Jews; the features so changeless and peculiar to that people! And then their occupation; the several portions of the process of brick making, their limbs bespattered with the mud, and their Egyptian taskmasters with the scourge superintending their labor. The whole seems to us to be a clear and decisive evidence, not only of the captivity, but of the actual circumstances related in the history of Moses. The Egyptians, in the original, are painted in the usual red;

the Israelites of the sallow color; and when we reflect that throughout all the other subjects figured in these sepulchers of Beni Hassan, the utmost regard is paid to individuality, and even to minute accessories, we cannot imagine a reason to induce us to question the truth and application of this remarkable discovery. Rosselini's last levraison of illustrations brings these Jews before our eyes, who were captives in Egypt under the eighteenth dynasty and previous to the Exodus. Independently of other evidence drawn from the Phenetic language to prove that they are Jews, no cursory reader who glances at their lineaments or persons, will for a moment doubt their identity. These Jews are employed under the dynasty of the very kings contemporary with Moses, in the specific act of slavery which he and Manetho both describe, viz. making brick and working in the quarries. An Egyptian taskmaster superintends the work; and the bricks, according to their delineations, are precisely those which are found in the walls constructed of bricks, the date of which is assignable to the era in question." The Egyptians set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens, and made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in bricks, and in all manner of service in the field. Exclusive of the brick makers set before our eyes by Rosselini, a small picture is also introduced in the annexed plate. The outlines of some of the heads and features are exactly engraved of the full size of the original drawings."*

Justin, the historian who wrote in the second century, abridged the work of Trogus Pompeius, a Greek writer, which is now lost."The Jews," says this writer, "hail their origin from Damascus, a most notable city of Syria, whence also proceeded the Assyrian kings, the descendants of Queen Semiramis. The city received its name from king Damascus, in honor of whom the Syrians worshiped at the sepulcher of his wife, Arath, and thence received her as one of their deities. After Damascus, reigned Azelus, then Adores, and Abraham and Israel. But a happy progeny of ten sons rendered Israel more illustrious than any of his ancestors. Therefore he delivered to his sons a people divided into ten kingdoms, calling them all Jews, from the name of Judah, who died after the division: and he commanded that all the survivors should revere the memory of him whose portion fell to all. The youngest of these brethren was Joseph. His brethren fearing his superior genius, having secretly surprised him, sold him to foreign merchants. By them he was carried into Egypt.