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THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA

DURING THE LAST CENTURY.

No country upon earth ever made advances in population, wealth, and religion, in a degree equal to America. Its people are our brethren; of the same kindred, language, and Protestant Christianity: we cannot but rejoice therefore in their prosperity.

We have received a copy of the most eloquent "Oration delivered before the Legislature of Massachusetts at their request, on the hundreth anniversary of the birth of George Washington," by the Hon. Francis C. Gray, Feb. 22, 1832.

From this instructive oration we transcribe the following paragraphs, exhibiting the amazing progress of that wonderful country during the last century.

"From the elevated position we now occupy, let us turn our eyes back on the history of the past century, to observe the progress of America since the birth of Washington, and the influence of his life and character on the destinies of his country and of mankind. What was his country? Eleven small British colonies (for Georgia had then no existence, and Delaware no separate name), were scattered along the shores of the Atlantic, within the present limits of the United States. They extended inland only to a short distance, their remotest outposts hardly reaching the foot of the Alleghany Mountains. Behind them was an unexplored wilderness, from the recesses of which, savage tribes, trained to war and plunder, were ever ready, at the instigation of an ambitious chief, or the temptation of a favourable opportunity, to spring forth on their inhabitants, without warning and without mercy. On the north and on the south were the colonies of France and Spain, both ancient rivals of Great Britain, and, according to the universal opinion of that age, its natural as well as hereditary enemies; so that every contest between those nations brought war home to the doors of the colonists, who thus suffered from all the intrigue of European policy." From a "Report of the Lords of Trade," to which the eloquent orator refers, he says, “it is dated exactly one week before the event we commemorate. From this it appears that wool, flax, and hemp were raised in small quantities by the farmers, and wrought into coarse cloth and ropes, in their own dwellings, for their own use. Besides these household manufactures, and a number of establishments for refining sugar, for distilling, and for tanning, there were several forges and furnaces for making iron, and in all America, one slitting mill, one nail mill, and one paper mill, the last of which produced paper enough to sell for nearly a thousand dollars a year. The inhabitants of the northern colonies also had recently began to make hats, and had even exported some, of which great complaints were made by the hatters of London, as interfering with their business. Parliament' diverting the thoughts of the colonists' from manufacturing and exporting the produce of their soil, enacted under severe penalties, that neither hats nor wool, nor any manufactures of wool produced in America, should be water-borne, or laden in any vehicle or on any animal for transportation, even within the colonies themselves; and that every slitting mill and nail mill should be abated as a common nuisance.

"Only two of the colonies had the right of choosing their own chief magistrates. The others had governors appointed in England, either by the crown or by the proprietors of the colony, who possessed also respectively the right to annul, within a limited time, any laws passed by the Colonial Assemblies. The colonies were not bound together by any other tie than their common allegiance to the British crown.

"Such was America; a number of feeble, scattered colonies, surrounded by enemies, disunited, dependent. Possessing, indeed, in its habits of industry and enterprize, in its domestic, civil, literary, and religious institutions, the germs of its subsequent greatness, but faintly developed; crushed beneath the oppressions of the colonial system, and in this part of the country still languishing under the influence of that connection of civil with ecclesiastical power, which is everywhere degrading to religion, and dangerous to liberty. Such was America! Look on it now. What do you behold? One great, united, powerful, prosperous, free people, without a master, without an enemy, without a rival. The Alleghanies, which were then your utmost limits, are now in the midst of your population; the vast region beyond them, at that time a wilderness, is crowded with villages, and towns, and cities, swarming with inhabitants, burthened with plenty; the Mississippi, whose origin and course were not then known, is now a common highway; and the still more remote territory, then unexplored, may I not say undiscovered, is now entirely subjected to your laws. Your manufactures, relieved from the monopoly of the colonial system, have extended with inconceivable rapidity; your commerce peoples the ocean; enterprize and industry in every pursuit are all unshackled; and under the protection of a free government and equal laws, the institutions then so feebly developed, have shot up, and spread abroad, and covered the whole land, and blossomed and brought forth fruit abundantly-the fruit of knowledge and virtue.

"But general expressions can give no idea of our progress. Fancy itself flags, and lingers, and halts behind the truth. Look only at our population. A hundred years ago, it did not exceed 700,000. At this day, it is more than 13,000,000. Consider, too, the difference between our progress in this respect, during the first half and the last half of the century just ended. The first fifty years added to the existing population 2,000,000, making in all nearly 3,000,000 of inhabitants in 1782. The last fifty years have added to that number more than 10,000,000. The whole shipping of America a century ago, was not 100,000 tons. At present, though the revolutionary war almost swept it from the ocean, and it suffered greatly in the last, it approaches 2,000,000 tons. In the whale fishery alone, 1,300 tons only of shipping were then employed, and it now gives occupation to 90,000 tons. Our whole exports and imports, which did not exceed one million sterling, have increased twenty-fold. There are no sufficient data for estimating our progress in other respects; but who can look around him without perceiving, that in domestic comfort, in internal improvements, in wealth, in knowledge, and in all the arts of life, it has been far more rapid even than in population or in trade; and that we have advanced with constantly accelerated speed during the whole period. It began with achieving the work of a century in a generation, and it seems to end with crowding the work of generations into single years."

REMARKABLE STREAM.

Ar the bottom of a wood belonging to W. Turton, Esq. of Knowlton in Flintshire, is a rill of water which empties itself into the river Dee; and when a person strides across it, he is in the kingdom of England, the princi. pality of Wales, in the provinces of Canterbury and York, and the dioceses of Chester, Litchfield and Coventry, in the counties of Flint and Salop, in two townships, and in the ground of Mr. Turton and his neighhour.

OF STUDIES, BY LORD BACON. STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. The chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business, for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar: they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire then, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would only be in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great me, mory if he confer little, he had need have a present wit and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise poets, witty: the mathematics, subtle: natural philosophy, deep: moral, grave: logic and rhetoric, able to contend: Abeunt studia in mores,' 'Studies pass into laws:' nay there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises: bowling is good for the stone; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head, and the like: so if a man's wits be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstration, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again: if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen: if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

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tion, broke windows, &c. &c. Many of the stones were five inches in circumference. Dr. Halley mentions a similar storm of hail in Lancashire, Cheshire, &c. in 1697, April 29, that for sixty miles in length and two miles in breadth did immense damage by splitting trees, killing fowls and all small animals, knocking down men and horses, &c. &c. Mezeray, in his history of France, says, that in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night; after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hail-stones, which destroyed all the beasts, birds, and even fish of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur, and the stones were of a bluish colour, some of them weighing one hundred pounds weight.-Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary.

A SAILOR'S ESCAPE FROM AN ALLIGATOR. A SAILOR, named Campbell, on board a Guinea-man on the Congo, bathed in that river while in a state of intoxication. When he had swimmed some distance from the ship, some of the sailors on board discovered an alligator making towards him. His escape appeared impossible: but two shots were fired at the frightful monster, which however did not take effect. The report of the piece, and the noise on board the vessel, intimated to Campbell his perilous condition; and turning, he saw his enemy advancing with open jaws, which impelled him with his utmost strength and skill towards the shore. On approaching some canes and shrubs which covered the bank, closely pursued by the alligator, a ferocious tiger sprang towards him, at the instaut the jaws of his first enemy were extended to seize him. At this awful moment Campbell was preserved : for the too eager tiger, by overleaping him, encoun tered the gripe of the amphibious monster. A conflict ensued between them, and the water was coloured with the blood of the tiger, whose efforts to tear the scaly covering of the alligator were unavailing; while the latter had also the advantage of keeping his adversary under water, by which the victory was soon obtained, and the tiger fell the victim. They both sank to the bottom, and the alligator was no more seen. Campbell was recovered, and instantly conveyed on board. His danger had made him sober, and the moment he leaped

on deck, he fell on his knees, and returned thanks to Providence for his most remarkable preservation; and what is most worthy of observation, “from that moment to the time I am writing," says the narrator, "he has never been seen the least intoxicated, nor has he been heard to utter a single oath. If there ever was a reformed being in the universe, Campbell is the

man."

HAIL.

To "rain hail," may appear to some superficial observers as an unphilosophical mode of expression; but nothing can be more correct. Drops of rain falling through a cold region of the atmosphere, are frozen and converted into hail; and thus the hail is produced by rain. The farther a hailstone falls, the larger it generally is; because, in its descent, meeting with innumerable particles of water, they become attached to it, are also frozen, and thus its bulk is continually increasing till it reaches the earth. When it begins to fall, it is rain; when it is falling it is converted into hail; thus it is literally true, that it rains hail.

A storm of hail fell near Liverpool, in Lancashire, in the year 1795, which greatly damaged the vegeta

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STATION OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY AT KERIKERÍ (FORMERLY CALLED KIDDEEKIDDEE) NEW ZEALAND.

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

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UNDER the title of a Society for Missions to Africa and the East," the present CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY was first formed in the year 1800, by members of the Church of England, for the purpose of sending the Gospel to heathen lands. Since that time it has pleased God so to enlarge the means and bless the labours of the Society, that, under a more general name, it is now spreading eastward and westward, to bring Heathens, Mahomedans, and fallen, corrupted, misnamed Christians to a saving knowledge of the Redeemer. It is not so much the glory of this evangelical body, that mitres and coronets glitter on the brows of some of its distinguished supporters, as that it numbers on its list of friends, ministers of Christ the most distinguished for truly spiritual and practical piety; but its greatest commendation is its object-not to gain proselytes to a party-but, under God, the conversion of a ruined world!

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The Society has now NINE different missions :-in Western Africa-in the Mediterranean-in BengalMadras-Bombay-and Ceylon-in Australasia-in the West Indies-and in North-West America.

It was in the year 1804 the first missionaries of the Church Missionary Society set foot in Western Africa. They began their labours in the Susoo country. This place they were compelled afterwards to abandon in consequence of the revival of the Slave Trade; and the VOL. I.

Society now confines itself to the liberated Africans in the colony of Sierra Leone. The Directors of the Society find in Freetown and the surrounding districts a larger field than they have labourers to cultivate. The debilitating influence of the clinate, as well as the state of the people, present great discouragements, and call for great self-denial, in carrying on the West Africa mission. About ten years ago, a powerful effect seemed to have been produced on the minds of many of the natives by the preaching of the Gospel, and though the hopes which were then excited, have in the event proved to have been too sanguine, there is still encouragement to be derived from it.

The islands of the Mediterranean and the countries surrounding it, present a very different but no less important missionary sphere. Malta, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Abyssinia, are occupied by the Society as their leading Mediterranean stations. In the head station at Malta, the work of translation is principally carried on, and from the Malta Church-mission Press numerous religious and useful works are issued in the Maltese, Italian, Modern Greek, and Arabic languages. At Syra the missionary has been enabled to continue the schools in the midst of the changes and desolations of distracted Greece. Smyrna has only recently been entered on as a missionary station. The accounts of the schools are encouraging. The only surviving missionary in Abyssinia-his fellow labourer having sud

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denly been cut off-has been surrounded by trials and dangers of no ordinary kind, while yet only entering on his arduous undertaking. Even here, however, there has been one token for good in Sebagadis the Prince of Tigrè, who, in the war which terminated his life, gave the enemy an advantage, by decidedly refusing to fight on a Sunday.

The Calcutta mission, in the Bengal presidency, was commenced in 1807. It must ever be considered a great blessing to India that missionaries have been sent there. The deeply-rooted superstitions of the people, the cruel and obscene character of their idolatries, and their generally licentious habits, while they are formidable obstacles to the spread of the simple truths of the Gospel among them, form a strong claim on the pity, the prayers, and the exertions of British Christians. It appears from the accounts received that the strongholds of idolatry have been much shaken, and a general preparatory work has begun among the people; while instances are not wanting of a real change produced on the heart and life of the benighted Hindoo.

In the Madras Presidency, or the South India Mission, particularly in the district of Tinnevelly, a considerable work has been carried on among the natives. It is not indeed safe to affirm that whole villages have become true converts to Christianity, but multitudes are brought to attend regularly the preaching of the Gospel. Two native clergymen are now actively engaged under the Society in this part of India:

some

of the natives have died in the faith of Christ, and some are living as consistent Christians: lights, indeed, amidst a dark and degraded people.

In the West of India there are two clergymen, stationed at Bombay and Basseen, and a third is on his return thither. Schools, preaching, and translating, occupy the attention of the missionaries here. It does not appear that in this quarter the Society has hitherto been enabled to enlarge its operations. It is however in contemplation to put this mission on a more effective footing, and Ahmednuggur, containing a considerable Mahomedan as well as heathen population, has been fixed on as the head-quarters.

The island of Ceylon has afforded considerable encouragement to the Society. Here they have four principal stations, at Cotta, Kandy, Baddagame, and Nellore; and two presses employed in printing the Scriptures and religious and elementary works in Cingalese. Sir R. W. Horton has lately paid a visit to the Christian institution at Cotta, when the seminarists underwent an examination in his presence. His Excellency expressed himself highly gratified with the progress which the youths had inade, as equally creditable to the teachers and the taught.

The mission to the aborigines of New Holland, of which his Majesty's government bears the main expense, has hardly yet been entered on. Two clergymen have gone out to seek the spiritual welfare of these people, who are described as some of the most degraded and brutalized on the face of the whole earth. We wish them God-speed, and think, when we turn to what is doing among the cannibal New Zealanders, that there is no reason to despair. New Zealand, which forms the chief scene of the Society's Australasian mission, appears indeed amply to repay the servants of God for all their toils and trials. The first settlers sent out by the Society, arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1814, and for some considerable time were without any great hopes of success: but now the published accounts (contrary to what is falsely stated in a work on New Zealand, lately reviewed in the Literary Gazette) give the most satisfactory statements of the effects of the Gospel on the wild New Zealander. The missionaries have gained a very general influence over the natives-war in more instances than one has been

prevented-native converts have lived to maintain a Christian walk- some have begun to go among the tribes as missionaries to their own countrymen-and some have died, whose erd has been peace. An interesting account of Betty, a New Zealand convert, has been lately published by the Tract Society; and in the Monthly Record published by the Society, there are some curious and striking letters from native candidates for baptism. There are now four stations of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand, viz. Rangihoua, Kerikerí, Paihía, and Waimate. The Kerikeri settlement, of which an engraving is given, was formed in 1819, on a river of that name which falls into the Bay of Islands on the west side of the northern island of New Zealand.

The West Indies Mission, in the dark regions of slavery, is carried on chiefly by schools for the Negroes. Schoolmasters are stationed on several of the Jamaica plantations, and in British Guiana.

North-West America is the last of the Society's missions. Two clergymen with their wives are settled on the Red River, in the Hudson's Bay Company's territories: three churches have been erected and filled with attentive hearers; and a youth from the Rocky Mountains has filled the hearts of the missionaries with gladness by his dying testimony.

In the NINE Missions of the Society are 48 stations, besides a considerable number of out-stations. These are supplied by 55 European, 2 country-born, and 2 native clergymen; 43 European lay-agents, employed as catechists, schoolmasters, and artisans, besides the wives of missionaries, and 477 native or country-born assistants. Many congregations are regularly brought together for public worship: in connection with these there are more than 1,270 communicants. The Society has 375 schools, containing 16,881 scholars. The mis sionaries who were first sent out, received their education in the Mission seminary at Berlin, which institution has since furnished several others: afterwards, when our own countrymen came forward to offer themselves as missionaries, they were placed for preparation under the care of pious clergymen in various parts of the country. At the present time, missionary students are received into the Islington Institution, which has been erected at the expense of the Society for that purpose: here they pass through a course of study, adapted to the country for which they are destined. The missionary institution at Bâsle in Switzerland has been, and still is, a valuable means of adding to the number of the Society's labourers. While, however, many have from time to time been raised up, who have devoted themselves to the work of the Lord; the number of labourers is still very disproportionate to the vast harvest. The Directors of the Society consider it a point of great importance to train up in the different countries a body of native teachers, to tell to their own people, under their own climate, and in their own tongue, "the unsearchable riches of Christ;" for this purpose seminaries have been established in Africa, India, and Ceylon, in which many hopeful youths are training some are already in the field.

The income of the Church Missionary Society during the first year (1800-1) was 9117. 198. 8d.: last year (1831-2) it was 40,7517. 18s. Large as this last sum appears, it fell short of that received during the preceding year by 58001.; and the expenditure of 1831-2 being 47,1737. 3s. 5d., the Society's income is not adequate efficiently to support its unavoidably increasing expenses. We doubt not that British Christians whose hearts are in this great undertaking will use every effort to prevent what will only be resorted to from absolute necessity-the abandonment or curtailment of any of the Society's missions.

The Scriptural doctrine of the need of Divine influ

ence to render any means, or any efforts, effectual to the conversion of sinners, has always been held by the Committee. Hence, they not only make a point of imploring the Divine blessing whenever they meet to transact the business of the Society, but a prayer-mecting, open to any friends, is held every Saturday evening, at half-past six o'clock, at the Society's House, 14, Salisbury Square, on which occasion a portion of Scripture is expounded by one of the secretaries, or by some clerical friend.

It is gratifying to add, that the secretaries of this and other kindred institutions, of different denominations, hold a monthly meeting for the purpose of prayer and conversation in furtherance of their common object. Thus laying aside the little differences which now unhappily divide the Christian church, serving the same Master, and seeking the same end, they seem to breathe something of the atmosphere of that heavenly world,

"Where names and sects and parties fall,
And Jesus Christ is all in all."

SCRIPTURE BIOGRAPHY.

ADAM.

Sect. IV. The Covenant of God with Adam, and his Fall by Transgression.

FROM the inspired record by Moses, we learn, that in the Paradise of Eden, there were two remarkable trees -"the Tree of Life, in the midst of the garden," and "the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil," Gen. ii, 9. The tree of life yielded the most delightful fruit of which Adam was permitted freely to eat; and it appears to have been as a kind of sacrament-a special symbol of the friendship of God, and an ordained pledge of present and future happiness, a promissory memorial of a glorious immortality. This favour he possessed as long as he continued innocent. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, was appointed as a test of Adam's obedience, to prove the reality of his dutiful affection to his Maker. It was accompanied with a positive prohibition: "thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii, 17.

This trial of Adam was wisely adapted to serve as a means of proving, whether he would continue in a spirit of virtuous loyalty to the will of his Creator and Sovereign. And such obedient resignation is the true spirit of real and acceptable religion. The safety, the honour, and the happiness of our first parents, depended on their affectionate observance of the law of God, in which also were involved the interests of their posterity through all generations. But reasonable as was this command of God, and easy as was the service which he required, yet Adam wickedly transgressed. Eve was beguiled by the subtlety of the envious tempter, "that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan." Rev. xx, 2. The woman being deceived, was in the transgression." 1 Tim. ii, 14. Adam was not deceived; he sinned with his eyes open to the guilt and danger, daringly violating the righteous commands of his bountiful Maker. Adam transgressed, as it is thought most probable, out of natural affection to his wife. Resolving that he would be a sharer of her fate, he plunged headlong into her dreadful ruin.

The account of this melancholy revolt is given by Moses, in a manner deeply affecting and instructive. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of

it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat." Gen. iii, 1—6.

In accomplishing his accursed object, the tempter first addressed himself to the principle of curiosity in the mind of Eve. This useful principle, curiosity, has been called, "the investigator of truth, the mother of invention, the prompter to rashness, the parent of danger, and the guide to ruin."

'Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she ate :
Earth felt the wound; and nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe,
That all was lost."

The immediate effects of this criminal act, in the conduct of Eve, we cannot ascertain: but "she gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat" (Ver. 6.)

"Against his better knowledge; not deceiv'd,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
Earth trembled from her entrails, as again
In pangs; and nature gave a second groan;
Sky lowr'd, and muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept, at completing of the mortal sin
Original."

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed tig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Gen. iii, 7.

That the serpent was only the instrument of some vile and malignant spirit is manifest; and by various intimations in the Holy Scriptures, we learn his hateful character, and part of his wicked history. It is supposed, that Eve was powerfully attracted by the re splendent beauty of the serpent, and that she imagined it was a ministering angel, when the creature addressed her in human language. An angel was indeed present, but it was an angel of darkness. It is evident that the evil spirit in the serpent was originally one of those glorious beings, who surround the throne of God their Creator: probably the chief of those "angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," and are now "reserved under chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6. There had been 66 war in heaven," and "the devil and his angels" were overcome, and driven from their lofty abode. Rev. xii, 7. The chief of these apostate spirits seems to have possessed the largest measure of malignity and subtlety, which led him to seek the ruin of the new, the beloved creature man. He was permitted, by Infinite Wisdom, to become his tempter, and partly to prevail with his deceitful wiles. Our Saviour refers to the temptation of Eve, in reproving the hypocritical Pharisees; and characterises their wickedness, as being acted under the influence of this evil spirit. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it." John viii, 44.

As " a liar," and " the father of lies," he succeeded with Eve at first only by insinuating a doubt. "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Nothing can be conceived more artful than this wily suggestion; it being effectual to excite her curiosity, and to lead her admiring eyes towards the forbidden fruit. With diabolical audacity the evil one asserts, "Ye shall not surely die." To gain more credit, he added an awful oath, and swears even by the Almighty! "For God doth know, that in the day ye

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