that ever lived, for he was nine hundred said he, "This same shall comfort us con sixty and nine years old. P.-Who succeeded Methuselah ? C.-Lamech, whose son was Noah. P.-Lamech was evidently a good man, for he had the spirit of prophesy when he called his son Noah, which signifies rest, for cerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord had cursed." How well Noah fulfilled the expectation of his father, declared at his birth in this prophecy, we shall see in the next chapter. Reviews. Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature Abridged. By J. KITTO, D.D., F.S.A. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. THIS work, which is being published in parts, and of which we have Parts III, and IV. before us, continues to progress as admirably as it commenced, and quite to justify us in our previous observations. The Sunday-school teacher requires to have at hand some reasonable and sound books of reference, which in preparation for his blessed and edifying office he may readily turn to, whenever a word, a name, a place, a custom, comes across him; and here he will find all that can be desired by him, and much that, while it informs his understanding, and opens the meaning of the text, may, with the blessing of God, help to convey useful and practical improvement. The Sunday-school Library. Vol. I., Addresses to Children. By Rev. S. G. GREEN, B.A. London: B. L. Green, 62, Pater noster-row. THE publisher of this attractive little series has described it as " cheap, comprehensive, and portable," and yet might well have added two other epithets deservedly due to it; "most elegant, and interesting." We have seldom, indeed, seen upon any table a more elegant little volume, while its deeply interesting character may easily be conceived from the following list of its contents, denoting the topics treated of in it: Introduction to Ministers and Teachers, containing some very useful hints, and a most admirable method of action recommended to them-David's Bible-Good News-The Little Slave Girl-The Bread of Life-The Widow's Son-The Holy Child-A Missionary Sermon-A Sermon for Spring Time-The Old Man's Counsel. These are the heads of various addresses prepared for and delivered to children, in a style and manner of illustration that cannot fail to engage the attention, to cherish the affections, and to aid in renewing the hearts of those for whom they are designed. Ince's Outlines of General Knowledge.Ince's Outlines of English History.-Ince's Outlines of French History. London: J. Gilbert, 49, Paternoster-row. THREE very useful little manuals of instruction on the subjects of which they treat, and serving not only as helps for the education of the young, but as refreshers of the memory to those that are old. The first of the three, that on General Knowledge, contains within its very narrow compass a considerable amount of information of a very valuable kind, on a variety of subjects, that in the ordinary routine of education are too much overlooked, and acquaintance with which is every day becoming more and more indispensable. They are germs which cannot fail to vegetate in the mind, to fructify in the head, and eventually to produce a fourfold reward to him who labours in the acquisition of them. The Normal School. By Rev. A. WELLS.— The Model School. By Rev. W. J. UNWIN. With Notes, Illustrations, Views, and Plans. London: John Snow, 1849. THESE two inaugural discourses, forming one moderate-sized volume, are deserving the best and most earnest attention of all who are interested in that momentous question, the education of the people. They are theory and practice combined. The first, in most clear and lucid terms, developes and advocates the principles for which the Congregational churches contend; and whoever desires to be made acquainted with these principles, will nowhere find a more admirable exposition of them than is here given. He may not agree with the principles, but he cannot fail to be struck with the remarkably elegant, explicit, bland, and Christian manner in which they are here presented. We ourselves do not concur with them entirely, but some we do heartily approve of, and would specially commend to the thoughtful consideration of our readers the following just sentiment: "One great evil to be dreaded from Government interference in schools, and even in some degree from that of Societies themselves, is fixedness, formalism, and a stereotyped system: books never to be changed, plans never to be altered, teachers trained to a course out of which they cannot act or move." The second discourse will be found replete with all the practical information that can be afforded for originating, fitting up, and carrying on schools after the most approved method. And although we have distinguished this discourse from the former by calling that theoretic and this practical, we would remind the reader, that it is not merely mechanical practice that is here taught, but theoretical practice, the practical application of the great principles of teaching, that is, the art of cultivating the human mind, educing its powers, enriching its treasure-house, and endowing the spiritual and intellectual capacities of man with those blessed feelings, science, and perception, which shall make him worthy of, and able to enjoy, the realities of eternal joy in the presence of God. Lays of the Heart, with Oriska and other Poems. By Mrs. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. London: W. Tegg and Co. NEVER did title and book more faithfully correspond than in this elegant little volume. The theme expressed in the title is echoed in every page, and vibrates in every line. The whole volume is full of chaste and pure thoughts, which are the very soul of poetry; and it awakens unceasingly some of the sweetest and tenderest emotions that the human heart is in the eyes, those salient fountains of intelligence, we can plainly discern the swellings of the heart, which have shed themselves so profusely, and with so much grace, on the many touching incidents that our authoress has in succession so skilfully sketched. Biblical Orientalisms; or, Scripture Science and Sacred Hours. By the author of "Steps to the Bible Mine." Fifty Cards and Directions. London: T. Nelson; and B. L. Green, Paternoster-row. ment minister to instruction; that is, in To make knowledge interesting, and amuseother words, to make learning a delight and a pursuit, rather than a burthen and a task, ought to be the chief aim of all who either undertake to teach, or to provide the means of instruction for others to avail themselves of. And this has been both the object and the accomplishment of the author of this amusing and instructive series of Cards. Without degrading the solemn and reverential study of the Bible, they are a means of communicating information respecting various Eastern customs and manners, which serves to make clear wise be obscure and difficult of compreand intelligible passages that might other hension. BOOKS RECEIVED. Original Psalms and Hymns. By Rev. J. SUTCLIFFE, A.M. The Young Teacher; or, Friendly Hints to those who have recently commenced the work of Sabbath-school Teaching. Judicial Laws God's appointment for the Happiness of Man and the Protection of Society. Two Assize Sermons. By the Rev. J. N. COLEMAN, M.A. susceptible of. We pretend not to be phy-"It is I;" or, the Voice of Jesus in the siognomists, but in looking upon the por Storm. By NEWMAN HALL, B.A. trait of the authoress, which as its frontis- The History of Independency. By the piece adorns the volume, we conceive that Rev. J. FLETCHER. Tyler and Reed, Printers, Bolt-court, London. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL MAGAZINE. THE STREAM OF PROPHECY. TRACES OF THE FULFILMENT OF NOAH'S PROPHECY. (Continued from page 165.) THE Bible is the history of God's chosen people, of his dealings with them, and of the gradual development through the house of Israel of his plan of salvation, and of that grand scheme of promises which had their fulfilment through Him, "in whom they are all yea and amen, to the glory of God the Father." It is, therefore, only incidentally that we meet in the Scriptures with facts and occurrences belonging to the ordinary history of mankind; and these chiefly relating to nations that were derived from the same parent-stock, or were by position or otherwise connected with the circumstances of the people of God. It was because of Lot's captivity by the four kings of the East, and of Abraham's conquest of them, that we were permitted to learn some of the first changes that took place in that part of the world, evidencing the decline of the Hamitic races both in Shinar, and along the eastern coasts of the Jordan; and the rise into power and eminence of the Shemitic races. But we are now to observe this accomplishing among some of the descendants of Abraham himself. In the description of the land of Canaan, given by Moses in the tenth chapter of Genesis, it will be seen that the southern boundary of the country there set out as belonging to the Canaanites, cuts it off from the chain of Mount Seir, a district inhabited by the Horims, who were not Canaanites, but descendants of Mizraim. The country of Horim, or Seir, therefore, was no part of the district promised to the chosen seed. It was specially reserved for another branch of the same family, and thus was to be in itself a peculiar testimony to, and exemplification of, the promise, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.' The Horims were of the race of Shem. From the time of their first settlement there, when Mizraim their father passed down into the land of Egypt, and left them in possession, until the period when Esau, the brother of Jacob, assuming to himself the name descriptive of his complexion, Edom, or the red-haired, acquired such influence over them as to become their ruler, the race of Ham had maintained their dominion, and had multiplied their dukes and princes. But God had foreordained and designed the subjugation of the Horims, and the establishment of the Edomites in NEW SERIES, VOL. II.] JULY, 1849. G their stead; and accordingly we are told by Moses that the Lord "destroyed the Horims before the children of Esau, which dwelt in Mount Seir, and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead," Deut. ii. 22. In the same manner also to the children of Lot, the Ammonites and the Moabites, God gave a possession among the race of Ham, in the midst of the Zuzims or Zamzummims. And thus around Canaan, as well as in the plains of Shinar, the race of Ham was declining, and that of Shem was rising into eminence and power. But strange at times to man are the dealings of God; and strangely is the faith of man tried, and his confidence in his Maker thereby realised. The promise of Canaan as an inheritance was to Abraham and his seed; to Isaac again and his seed; and to Jacob and the tribes of Israel from him and yet how long were they delayed. The land that had been promised as flowing with milk and honey, proved instead, one of famine and dismay. The Israelites, without having as yet possessed it, forsook it and betook themselves to Egypt. There they found a refuge and plenty, and that God himself had providentially turned their sin into goodness, and had sent Joseph before them to prepare a place and food for them. They dwelt in Egypt from the time of their going down there, about two hundred years. But when Joseph was dead, and in the course of years that ensued, a remarkable change took place in the land of Egypt, which again evidences the gradual extension and fulfilment of the promise to Shem, and of the curse upon Canaan or Ham. Egypt is frequently spoken of in Scripture as the land of Ham, and the Arabs to this day call it the land of Mizraim. Mizraim, the son of Ham, accompanied by his father, was the first settler there. The complexion of its inhabitants in Abraham's time was swarthy, indicating the continuance of the race of Ham in it; and they appear to have remained still in power when the Israelites came down there to dwell. Between that time, however, and the Exodus, a change of dynasty and of rulers took place, which is mentioned by Moses in these words: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” This new king, or, as the term may be understood to mean, this new dynasty, was, we have no doubt, of Assyrian origin, and therefore a new fulfilment of the promise respecting the children of Shem. From what we have already seen of the progress of the four kings of the East in the time of Abraham, and from the nature of their predatory excursions, it is easy to understand how others, their neighbours, as the Assyrians were, would imitate their example; and, treading in their steps, would overrun various countries, until at length they pushed their invasions into Egypt, and obtained the sovereignty there. The Sacred history is silent as to the changes that might have taken place in Shinar or Canaan during the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, and we can therefore trace none of these, except the solitary fact of the commencement of a new dynasty there, and of a consequent change of condition in the circumstances of the people. Profane history, however, furnishes us with these facts. The seventeenth dynasty, according to Manetho, consisted of shepherd kings, or Hyksos, as they were called, who reigned at Memphis, and are represented as people with red hair and blue eyes, and as having come from the north-east; that is, from the direction and neighbourhood of Assyria. They conquered or overran the whole country, committing the greatest ravages, and at last settled in lower Egypt, where they established a dynasty of their own. Should the complexion attributed to these shepherd kings make it doubtful whether they could be of Shemitic, that is, of Asiatic origin, we have but to turn to Dr. Prichard's "Threefold Classification of Man," and we shall find the description of his third class to be, "the Xanthoees, or yellow-haired variety, which includes all those individuals who have light-brown, auburn, yellow, or red hair. Their general complexion is fair, acquiring on exposure to light and heat, not a brown hue, but more or less of a red tint. The eyes are light coloured." This variety, he adds, may spring up in any blackhaired tribe, as it has at times among the Jews. There is no difficulty whatever in receiving this account of the red-haired invaders of Egypt as that of the shepherd kings, who, from Assyria and its vicinity, came down into Egypt, overthrew the rulers of the race of Ham that had dwelt there until now, and established themselves instead, in fulfilment of the promise made through Noah to the descendants of Shem. But, indeed, whatever doubts we might have had upon this point have been, as we conceive, decisively and definitively removed by the pages of inspiration. In the prophet Isaiah is a passage which sets the matter entirely at rest. The prophet, speaking for the Most High, declares, "Thus saith the Lord God, My people went down into Egypt aforetime to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause,' Isai. lii. 4. Now this assertion at once determines the whole matter. It evidences that the Assyrian had established himself in Egypt; that he had overthrown the dynasty before existing there, and which we have traced to have been that of the race of Ham; that he it was who oppressed Israel without a cause; and that he himself had, under God, been accomplishing the words of Noah's prophecy by subduing the children of Ham, and rendering them the subjects and the slaves of the race of Shem. The policy which Joseph had pursued had, in the providence of God, rendered this work comparatively easy. The rulers of the race of Ham had bought up all the people of the land and all their possessions during the years of famine. The nation had become the property, and their possessions the right, of their rulers. The invaders had but to overthrow these rulers, and to stand up in their place. An enslaved nation would care nothing for a mere change of rulers, unless, indeed, they might hope for benefit, since any change would probably improve their condition. Thus, then, the conquest of Egypt had become a work of comparative ease, and the Almighty had been providentially preparing the way for the success of the race of Shem, which his wisdom and sovereign will had foreordained respecting them. Down to the present period, then, we have the race of Ham successively falling before, and receding from, the increasing power and supremacy of the race of Shem. In Shinar and Assyria, the kingdom of Nimrod, the once mighty hunter, has been overthrown; the western shore of the Jordan has been swept and rendered tributary by the kings of the East; the Ammonites and Moabites have their possessions assigned them; the Edomites have supplanted the Herims; the Assyrian has come down into Egypt. And yet in the midst of all these revolutions, by which the race of Ham has been succumbing to that of Shem, the Canaanites still stand unharmed. "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full," says the Lord |