a false religion and the idolatries of Popery, they may shine as lights, and that thus a blessing may return a thousand-fold upon our own heads, and a blessing, no less large, may abide upon those lands whither they have gone; that the flag of death may be turned into the banner of life, and the hoarse brazen trumpet of war may prove, in the end, the silver trumpet of the gospel of peace.

ART. II.-POST-DILUVIAN GENEALOGIES.

It would have been better had the 9th chapter of Genesis ended with the 27th verse. The prophecy of Noah seems to mark an era which should have terminated with a chapter; and the continuation of history, followed up by the family genealogies, should have commenced with another. The 10th chapter might better have begun with the 28th verse of the 9th; and it might also have more suitably ended with the 31st verse, leaving the 32d to form the preface to the eleventh chapter, which it undoubtedly is.

Our remarks in this article range between the 28th verse of the 9th chapter, and the 31st verse of the tenth, as the reader will see. It is of some interest as well as importance, in these days when kingdoms are breaking up, and probably on the point of re-division and reconstruction, to look back to the roots of the nations. A few years will call our attention more powerfully to this subject, and will, in all likelihood, cast light upon many an ancient name that now seems little more than a fragment of lava cast up by the volcanoes of ages, and left for the moss to cover, or for the wheels of the war-chariot to grind to pieces or bury in the soil.

The great father of the new world lives on in the midst of that new generation of which he is the head. God has need of him after as well as before the flood. He does not die, but lives to declare the works of the Lord. He has a testimony to deliver in the new world as well as in the old,—he is the preacher of righteousness in the former as well as in the latter. In the one case he was to point forward, in the other backward, to the judgments of God in enforcing his message of warning or of grace. And doubtless he went softly all his days, remembering his own sin, and carrying about with him the humbling thought, that at his very entrance on the new world he had stumbled into sin, without a tempter or a snare,

and without the excuse of being led away by the fellowship of multitudes.

His time of witness-bearing was a long one-350 years. And during that long period, in what a solemn and venerable position he must have stood forth amidst his multiplying offspring! With what power would God's messages come from his lips! Yet, as before, so after the flood, these messages seem to have been very much in vain. He preached, but men believed not his report. He still walked with God, but men followed not his example.

At the age of 950 Noah dies, like all who had gone before him. It is a long life and a long witness-bearing, yet the end comes at last. God's purpose is served; Noah's testimony is closed; and his walk with God transferred to a higher sphere, ending not in separation, but in closer fellowship above. Such let our walk be, such its end! How blessed thus to walk with God on earth, and to end that walk by nearer communion in his more immediate presence!

The genealogies which the 10th chapter contains are the foundation-stones of the world's history. They are very needful links in the chain that binds the present to the past. They afford us brief but true glimpses into the dark vistas of the olden time. They help to clear away the mists with which oblivion had wrapped these ages, and to shew us what kind and amount of truth are contained in the fabulous names and legends of heathenism. Many of the names given here we find, though under strange disguises, in Pagan and classical story; and there is both interest and profit in threading our way back through the thickets of heathen fable to the clear broad ground of Divine truth, even though that truth only respects a name or a date. God has placed these names on record for some great end or ends. No doubt these ends have been served in past ages, and were useful in the division of the earth which took place not long after the flood; these names are at the present day serving a purpose in connexion with the recent discoveries at Nineveh and Babylon, where names are coming to light that have been unknown for agesnames evidently the same as these registered in this and the subsequent chapters of this Book-thus marvellously confirming the truth of Scripture. How far this list of names may yet be serviceable in the latter day, in connexion with events predicted both by Isaiah and Ezekiel, we cannot say, though it seems altogether likely that the scenes of the latter day will bring strangely before us these names again, and thus the beginning and the end of Scripture will most harmoniously

unite together, these very names apparently so barren forming the clasp which is to fasten the wondrous volume.

The chapter begins with a repetition of the names of Noah's sons,- "these are the generations of the sons of Noah;" that is, "the genealogical history of the sons of Noah is as follows." Then their three names are repeated-Shem still the first in order, though Japhet was the elder-born. And surely this repetition of these names shews the importance which God attaches to them, and his desire to fix our eye on these three roots of the race, and so to lay the foundation of authentic history. "To them," it is added, 66 were born sons after the flood," implying that God's blessing did take effect, and that the flood did not destroy the fruitfulness of the raceGod still, in spite of man's sins, carrying out his purpose of grace, and preparing a channel through which the seed of the woman should at length arise. We have just read the predictions regarding these sons, and now come the fulfilments. God's word neither fails nor tarries. Even in these genealogies we see God's hand and wisdom. This record of them is as truly the Holy Spirit's work as any prediction of Isaiah or Daniel, and is meant for profit and instruction to the Church of God. Let her beware of overlooking names which the Spirit himself has been at such pains to record. He surely would write nothing in vain.

Though Shem is named first, yet Japhet's posterity are first mentioned, that there might be perfect order in the history. Gomer stands first-from him come the Cimmerians, and the Cimbri, and the dwellers in Phrygia; also, in all likelihood, the Britons, who called themselves originally Kumero, or Kymr; also that nation which Ezekiel has joined with Togarmah, who frequented the marts of Tyre (chap. xxxviii. 6; xxvii. 14). Then Magog, from whom came the people described by Ezekiel (xxxviii. 2; xxxix. 6), inhabiting the far north, mighty and numerous; and the Scythians, whence come the Scots originally, and the Goths of the early ages. Then Madai, from whom come the Medes, well known in history, both scriptural and classical (Isa. xxi. 22). Then Javan, the father of the Ionians, a Grecian tribe of renown (Isa. lx. 19; Ezek. xxvii. 13). Then Tubal, to whose descendants Ezekiel refers (xxvii. 13), who join with Gog in the great assault on Israel in the latter day, and who are destroyed with such total destruction upon the mountains of Israel. Then Meshech, the father of tribes afterwards found inheriting the same regions as Tubal, and doubtless giving origin to the great city of modern Russia, Moscow, forming another of the powers

*

that are to make the last desperate inroad upon Israel in the latter day. Then Tiras, the father of the Thracians, or Tiresians, giving name to the region of Thrace, a region noted in ancient story.

Then are given the names of the sons of the above-Japhet's grandsons, Noah's great-grandsons. Not all of them evidently, but such as the Holy Spirit saw fit to select and hand down to us as the roots of the nations. Gomer's first son is Ashkenaz, whose descendants seem to have inhabited the region of Bithynia, mentioned in Peter's Epistle as one of the places which the scattered strangers occupied. Of Riphath we have nothing afterwards, save in the Riphaean mountains, which bear his name, in the far north, known in classic story. Togarmah is mentioned by Ezekiel (xxvii. 14) as one of the nations that traded with Tyra, and famed for its " "horses, horsemen, and mules." Elishah is evidently the father of those tribes that gave name to Greece, or Hellas, and more particularly to the Peloponnesus, which was originally named Elis. Tarshish is well known in the after history as a famous trading city (probably the Spanish Tartessus). "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs (Ezek. xxvii. 12). Kittim, or Chittim, gave origin, or at least name, to the peoples inhabiting the islands and northern coasts of the Mediterranean. Dodanim, or Rodanim, as it is in 1 Chron. i. 7, is considerably doubtful, some referring to this origin Dodona, in Greece, and others the river Rhodanus or Rhone.

"From these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his tongue (lit. a man to his tongue) after their families in (or among) their nations." Such was the division of the Gentile "isles," or places to which the Jews could not pass save by sea; and these included all Europe in its widest circle;-such were the tribes descended from Japhet among whom these regions were allotted; not disorderly, but each one according to his language, according to the smaller circle of family, or the wider one of nation.†

Thus God portions out his own earth, assigning the bounds of their habitations to each. Not the ambition of conquerors,

* Ezek. xxxviii. 1-3. There the great invading nation is called Gog, and his land Magog; and he is described as "the prince of Rosch, Meshech, and Tubal," and that Russia, or "the Russias" (Rosch), is described here is

evident.

+ See Mede's Discourse on Gen. x. 5, where, having shewn that the expression "isles of the Gentiles" might mean "Gentiledom full of islands," fixes it rather to mean what we have indicated above, "regions divided by the sea from Israel." See Isaiah xi. 10, 11; xl. 15; xlii. 4, 10.

VOL. VI.

nor the shortness of territory, nor the roving dispositions of certain tribes-not these have divided the earth, but God himself. He has doubtless made use of these for carrying out his own ends, but they are only subordinate influences, guided by him, controlled by him, and made to fulfil, not their own objects, but his.

These are truths which ought to come with weight to us in these days, in reference to the many lands which God is calling on us as a nation to occupy. What nation has ever had so many portions of earth, far and near, under their dominion, and peopled by themselves? Who has given our colonies? Who has peopled multitudes of lands with our island-race? God himself assuredly. Let us see that we recognize him in the assignment of our various habitations, and the division of our families throughout the earth. We have spoken of our colonies, and boasted of their number and extent, their produce, their richness, their gold and silver; we point to America, to Australia, to Africa, to India, and to an hundred islands where the Saxon race is multiplying,-but do we not forget Him who has divided the earth for us, sons of Japhet? Do we remember that he has a purpose to serve in giving us these possessions?-that it is not for empire, or riches, or glory, or national distinction, that he has done these things for us, but that he may shew how great he can make a Protestant nation, in the midst of Antichristian kingdoms; and further, that we may be his instruments in carrying to the remotest islands of the earth the name of Jesus, and making the good news of a dying and risen Christ resound from pole to pole? Assuredly if we forget this he will smite us in our height of power, and bring down our glory to the dust.

Second in the catalogue of the nations comes Ham, with his sons. He himself was afterwards worshipped in Egypt under the title of Jupiter Ammon, though whether, as some think, he went to Egypt at the dispersion, is not known. He passes away from before our eyes. Whether godly or ungodly, we cannot say. There is no evidence on either side. He departs without a blessing.

His eldest son was Cush, giving origin to the people known in our translation by the name of Ethiopians, but more properly Cushites, inhabiting the east of Egypt, for Moses' wife, who was from Midian, is called a Cushite. It is Cush (our translation has Ethiopia) who is in the latter day to stretch out his hands to God.

Mizraim comes next, the father of the Egyptians; and it would have been better had our translators followed the