154 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



in the sermon, he may be reminded that his impulsive eloquence has 

 led him to forget that he said on another occasion in holding 

 forth on Nature and Christianity: "This is an age of research, 

 nature cannot evade men's enquiries. Hidden laws have come out 

 of their hiding place, the earth and the heavens, since they have 

 been ransacked by geologist, botanist and astronomer appear so 

 different from what they were once that they may be called the new 

 heavens and the new earth. The church rejoices over every dis- 

 covery as the world rejoices." If Dr. Talmage was moved by the 

 spirit to denounce higher criticism, astronomy, geology, does he not 

 display no little inconsistency now and then in his addresses requir- 

 ing explanation. It may be he sometimes consults the views of his 

 audience, and his hearers were of a higher class (intellectually) when 

 this latter was delivered than the usual congregation assembled at 

 the Brooklyn tabernacle. 



We believe the majority of the clergy on this continent are over- 

 worked—that they have too little time to learn anything regarding 

 recent discoveries in the tombs, temples and palaces of Egypt, 

 Assyria, etc. The important records just obtained by Prof. Hel- 

 precht, Philadelphia, and Dr. Peters, from the ruins of Niffer, near 

 Babylon, display historical writings dating 4,000 years before Christ. 

 Why are they silent respecting that awful catastrophy the Noachian 

 deluge, said to have taken place on the authority of Archbishop 

 Usher, 2,500 years before our Saviour's appearance on earth ? A 

 complete list of Babylonian rulers from 2,600 years B. C. to its fall 

 in 558 B. C. has been obtained. In writing to the States govern- 

 ment Minister Terrell expresses his opinion that this American find 

 equals if it does not excel the explorations of Layard at Ninevah or 

 Rasam*s excavations. The beautiful obelisk on the Nile which 

 marks the site of the great temple of the sun at Heliopolis, was 

 erected 2,800 years B. C. It is still erect, about 68 feet above the 

 river mud, which conceals a considerable portion of the base, yet 

 this is comparatively modern compared with other relics recently 

 obtained from Egyptian ruins. Old as was the civilization of ancient 

 Egypt, recent research proves clearly that it was indebted to the still 

 older Babylonian empire even for that. 



" The world has been satisfied," remarks an English writer, com- 

 menting on Sir A, Geikie's inaugural address at Edinburgh, "to take 



