Year: 1868

hat CHILD, we may ask, mas not nearu OI Lueu
And what rejecting mind does not desire to ascer-
tain the site of the Terrestrial Paradise Planned
by the wisdom and furnished by the exuberant
goodness Of Jehovah, it was the first proof Of his
kindness to man after bis creation and although
no longer existing, the very name is calculated to
excite crowd of reflections in every pious think
ing mind


The true situation of Paradise is involved in
much obscurity, and perhaps all we can hope to OBJ
tain from careful investigation is but an approx
nation to the truth. 1t is hoped, however, that
the difficulties in the way are not entirely insur
mountable The universal deluge certainly made
a deep impression upon the surface Of the globe,
but it could not, it is believed, materially change
the great features Of nature. 1t might dissolve
and level some hills and mountains of softer con-
sistency; might swallow up the waters of some mi
nor streams or change their courses; might bury
some extensive tracts of country, with all their In
habitants, in the bottom of the sea, and elevate
some submarine districts and cause them to appear
as dry land but the more solid parts Of our earth
must have retained their original status


1t is hardly reasonable to suppose that the de-
luge, in the space of one hundred and fifty days.
could dsintegrate the stupendous range Of the Ar
menian or Gordisen mountains, or give them diff
ferent location When the food subsided, the tor
rents which, previous to that calamity, descended
from the sides Of those mountains to swell the mag
ni6eient streams of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
must have resumed their ancient eourseand poured
their tributary streams into the same capacious
fchannels.


The language of the sacred historian, in speak
ing of the Euphrates, seems to confirm this. In
his description of Paradise he observes: '"The
fourth river is Euphrates" In the 18th chapter
of the same book he mentions it again, but with
Eout any notice that it was different stream or that
lit had changed its course. On the contrary, he
uses the definite article, which he could not have
done with propriety, if it were not the same river


In the 18th verse, he speaks of it again in the man.
ner in which we mention thing already known,
and at other times, whenhe mentions the Euphra-
tes he uses the same mode of speech Now if the
antediluvian Euphrates was not the same with
'that great river, the river Euphrates, which he
informs us watered the rich fields of Babylonia,
Moses could not have been ignorant Of the fact


Hence, we conclude, that the surface Of our globe
has suffered no change by the deluge, which ought
to discourage us from attempting to ascertain the
real situation of the terrestrial Paradise. We have
only few brief hints in relation to the seat Of pr-
meyal happiness. A more ample detail would
have been of no real advantage and the reticence
Of the sacred historian may have been in accord
ance with the divine counsel, and that for reasons
that we may not be able to fully understand. The
concise view, however, that has been given, may


well instruct mankind in the folly Of seeking place


of rest or happiness on earth. That in the eziled


Adam we have type of the true spiritual condi-


ton of his posterity-strangers to purity and holl


ness Of heart, and consequently to happiness and


peace. This fact should turn us from the eva


nescent epjoyments Of time to the pure and i'm
perishable pleasures of the heavenly Paradise