sions, that plainly reveal the fact that in his day the human family had greatly multiplied and spread far and wide over the face of the earth. The land of his nativity appears to have been situated in the midst of an extended region of vast population, and comprehending the territories of many independent kings;-here lay the dominions of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellazar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal, king of nations, and other kings probably more or less remote whose names are not mentioned. And scattered through these kingdoms were already many cities, among which we read the names of Ur, Babel, Erech, Accad, Calneh, Nineveh, etc. What the actual extent of these kingdoms, or magnitude of these cities might have been, we have no means of ascertaining; but all these facts. certainly indicate that this whole central region of Western Asia was quite thickly peopled, and that some at least of the above kingdoms were no mean powers; such, we read, were the national strength and military resources of Chedorlaomer with his allies that he was able to carry on wars of conquest at the distance of many hundreds of miles from the seat of his government.*

As Abraham, in obedience to the Divine Call, journeyed southwestward toward the Land of Promise, at the distance of some 300 miles from his native Haran he passed by Damascus, already a place of note, and the centre of a busy population extending far on every side. And when he had advanced some 150 miles farther and

* See Genesis xiv. 1-12.

arrived in Canaan, he found it no empty or desert country, but peopled by various tribes throughout its length and breadth. Along the Mediterranean coast, even from Sidon to Gaza, stretched the flocks and herds of the Canaanites. Farther south still along the same coast was the dominion of Abimelec king of Gerar, whom Phicol served as the chief captain of his host. Inland and adjoining these extended the territory of Melchizedec king of Salem. East and southeast of the latter stretched the plains of Jordan and the region of the Salt Sea, studded with the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zoar and Zeboim; while far beyond lay the territory of Moab in one direction, and Mount Seir in another, peopled by tribes, whose accumulated wealth even then was sufficient temptation to draw upon them the invasion of distant kings. Thus the land of Canaan on Abraham's entrance into it wore everywhere the aspect of a long-settled and populous country.

After a brief sojourn, Abraham was compelled by famino to leave this region, and seek sustenance for himself and household in the land of Egypt, a country some 250 miles still farther from his native home. In Egypt he found a great and strong nation, advanced in civilization and the arts, and living under a well-organized government, whose great cities with their palaces and temples plainly indicated that they had for many generations been dwellers in the land.

So far, in this direction, but how much farther we cannot tell, had the descendants of Noah already trav elled and spread. And we have clear intimations in the

tenth chapter of Genesis that they had in like manner advanced and spread in all other directions-the descendants of Japheth northward and westward toward Europe, and the "Isles of the Gentiles;" and those of Shem eastward and southward through Asia. Thus we gather, brief as the sacred history is, that in the day of Abraham, the human family had greatly multiplied, and overspread a very large portion of the habitable surface of the earth. And all this receives confirmation from the records and traditions of various nations.

Now these vast numbers and this wide dispersion of the world's population at this early day, it is contended, present various difficulties which are irreconcilable with the Scripture history of our race, and are, therefore, fatal to its credibility. These difficulties we now propose to consider in their order.

1. Difficulty in regard to the aggregate of the world's population. It is asserted that we have in the immense. population of the globe at this date a proof conclusive of the incorrectness of the Bible history of mankind;that it would require a vastly longer period than that allowed by the Bible between the Flood and the Call of Abraham, for the single family of Noah to increase into such multitudes as had already taken possession of Asia, Europe and Africa. Hence, a much higher antiquity is claimed for the human race than the Bible is understood to allow.

We admit that the length of time indicated by the common or Hebrew chronology, 428 years, is much too short for this great increase of the human family; but

we contend, and shall now undertake to prove, that the chronology based upon the Greek Text, which, for the reasons already given, we hold to be the more correct chronology of the Bible, allows an amply sufficient period, 1247 years, to account for all that we find in the world in the day of Abraham.

Let us resort to figures, for the increase of human population has been reduced to a science. According to the high authority of Malthus, it is a proved fact that population tends to increase at the rate of doubling every twenty-five years. That this rate of increase, excluding extraordinary destructions of life by war and pestilence and famine, is a fair estimate, might readily be shown from the statistics of various nations; but perhaps no fact more satisfactory, or more in point, could be cited than that supplied by the interesting and romantic history of Pitcairn's Island, which was peopled by a remnant of the mutineers on the English ship Bounty, together with a few islanders that accompanied them. There landed on this lone and desolate isle, in the year 1790, nine Englishmen, each with an Otaheitian wife; six Otaheitian men, three of them having wives; and one child ten months old:-in all, 28 souls. Though eleven of the men were cut off by mutual violence within the first year, yet the remainder, by the year 1830, had increased to 79 souls; by the year 1856 to 194 souls; and by 1862 to 296 souls. That is, in seventy-two years they amounted to more than tenfold the number that landed on the island, thus doubling in considerably less than every twenty-five years. If,

therefore, the populations of the crowded countries of Europe, as Malthus states, and if this little company on a desolate island, only four miles and a half in circumference, present such an increase, it is obvious that this rate, namely, doubling every twenty-five years, is a fair and safe basis for calculating the increase of Noah's descendants, who had all the world to themselves, and who, moreover, were favored with a measure of longevity far beyond what men attain in our day. From the deluge to Peleg, the period of procreation ordinarily ranged from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.

Now the problem before us is, allowing the family of Noah, eight souls, to increase at the rate of doubling every quarter of a century, what would be the earth's population at the end of 1247 years, or the time when Abraham entered Canaan? On calculation we find that it would stand as follows:

But we need not carry out this calculation any further; -the above figures are sufficient to show the rapid and enormous multiplication of men that would have taken place at the rate of doubling every twenty-five years. If now, in order to make full allowance for the destruction