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THE ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA.

THE ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA.

THAT a race far superior to the aborigines existed on this continent at the time of its discovery, and once inhabited the country between the Mississippi and the Pacific, is no longer a matter of doubt. Although they have disappeared and left no written record of their existence, the work of their hands still remains to attest the high state of advancement they had attained. Ruined cities and fortifications, reservoirs, paved roads, and pyramids, are being brought to light, and are exciting antiquaries throughout the land to research. A most deeply interesting discovery in this connection has recently been made. Traditions preserved among the natives of New Mexico kave long told of the existence of a great city in ruins, and called by them Gran Quivira, somewhere in the recesses of their country; but nothing definite has been known regarding it until very recently. It is now ascertained that there is such a city, desolate and in the midst of a desert, and bearing evidence of having once been inhabited by a superior race of men. At a recent meeting of the Maryland Historical Society, a letter, dated Fort Fillmore, New Mexico, January 15, 1853, from Colonel D. S. Miles, of the U. S. Army, was read, and excited very deep and lively interest among the members present. The material portion of the letter is as follows:

Lieutenant Abert, of the Topographical Engineers, is the only officer of the army who ever had the opportunity of visiting Gran Quivira. He went to a deserted village called Abo, in lat. 34 deg. 25 min., lon. 106 W., and says he was within fourteen miles of it, and its direction was east. This may be correct; but my information would lead me to infer that it lies farther south and east from Abo. Since I wrote the article in the Arkansas paper, I have accidentally become acquainted with an old man named Campbell, who is represented as a respectable and truthful man, who has visited Quivira on two occasions→→ the first time, in 1839, when he was run off by the Indians; the next, in 1842, with a larger party, and staid there a week, exploring or dig. ging here and there for treasure. I will, as far as my memory permits, give you his description in his own words:

He found the site of the Gran Quivira on a mesa or table-land, situated on the north-west point of the Sacramento mountains, having the appearance of a large and populous city, regu

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larly laid out in wide streets, at right angles. He supposes the city in length to be at least three miles, running north-east to south-west, and half a mile in breadth; some of the houses, in part, still standing, and built of hewn stone. There are clear indications of the size of the houses, and many of them are of a very large size, or at least cover much ground. One he thought he recognized as a palace, another as a temple, or place of worship; and here he thought it most probable he would find the

treasure.

He sounded about and discovered a hollow place; cleared away the dirt, and reached a floor; dug through it, thinking he was getting into a cellar, but found a room entirely empty, about sixteen to eighteen feet square, with pol ished walls, and with paintings or colored figures all over it, and ascertained for the first time that he was then on a level with the street, which is now ten or fifteen feet below the present surface. He and party used this as a dwelling while at the place. He dug at another place, which he supposed to be at the altar, and came to a flat rock. He was sure of a prize, raised the rock, and found in a carved-out hole in the solid rock the skeleton of a human body, Indian in appearance, the whole perfect, but which in a few moments, by exposure to the air, dissolved, not leaving a particle of evidence of a human corpse but fine dust. On digging farther at that place he found four such vaults and human skeletons.

He abandoned the town, went back to the hils, and found a cave, but, on opening the mouth, discovered it to be the shaft of a mine. This he followed for nearly a quarter of a mile, seeing throughout evidences of a shining mineral on all sides. At the end of the shaft was a small chamber, where he found a crowbar of some metal, but not of ron, quite black, a chisel, and a hammer, or kind of axe, also black, and a curious kind of earthen vessel. He left these things where he found them, and returned to the town. In rambling around the western part, he found what was the reservoir, in the form of an ellipse; its axis must be one hundred and fifty yards in length, its breadth at least eighty, and its depth about fifty feet, paved bottom and sides with hewn stone. At the southernmost end of the reservoir was a very large house of cut stone, several stories high, which seems to have been a place of arms, and intended as a guard-house, to defend this pond of water, as at regular intervals there were long slits and a kind of portholes left in the wall. The walls are four feet thick. One

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PHARAOH AND HIS HOST DROWNED IN THE RED SEA.

corner, perhaps half, of this house is still standing. There is no water or wood near Gran Quivira. The whole country around for many miles is a desolate plain of sand. At the northern end of the reservoir the aqueduct comes in ; this he followed to the White Mountains, forty miles in a north-west direction. It is throughout its length faced with small cut stone (not brick) both on the sides and bottom, and cemented. In width it is about twelve feet, and about ten feet in depth; sufficient to carry a mountain stream which no longer runs through it, owing to the obstruction of rubbish at its mouth, but which now pursues its course to the Pecos river. There is also a deep paved avenue leading directly east from Gran Quivira, near one hundred feet in width, which Mr. Campbell followed forty miles, and he left it, supposing it to be a road which led to Nacogdoches, in Texas. About Quivira, on the northern side of the road, he found quite a large village in ruins. At Gran Quivira there is an abundance of painted pottery and earthen vessels, but he found no metallic

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THE leading idea in this tremendous scene is REDEMPTION-Pharaoh was destroyed, that Israel might be redeemed; the leading characteristics of the events are sublimity and terror.

When the Lord looked through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians; when, at the outstretched rod of Moses, the sea returned to his strength, and the waters engulfed the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh; and when upon the seashore that vast army were cast pale and lifeless, it was indeed an unequalled scene of terror.

The people heard, and were afraid; sorrow took hold on the inhabitants of Palestina; the dukes of Edom were amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling took hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

It is, therefore, the more delightful, to be assured that the main end of these terrific events was not wrath, but redemption to the people of God, and good-will towards man.

The interests of humanity and of the kingdom of God on earth were then at stake. Notwithstanding the terrors of the Flood, the nations were fast revolting from the worship of the one true God, and sinking into polytheism and all its pollutions and abominations. Egypt, the leading kingdom of the world, was a prominent leader in this great revolt. The claims of Jehovah to be the only true God, and his demand for the liberation of his people, when presented in the court of Egypt, were rejected with scorn by her haughty king. The miracles of Moses were of no avail; the magicians of Egypt, acting in the names of their false gods, pretended to equal them. The insulting reply of Pharaoh was: I know not the Lord; neither will I let the people go.

An issue was thus made before the world, in the great polytheistic controversy, which was to rage for thousands of years. A disclosure of divine power was needed, adapted to overawe the guilty partisans of idolatry, and to decide the question in behalf of the God of Israel.

God had foreseen and had prepared for this issue. Under his providence Egypt had increased in wealth and power, and Pharaoh had become the mightiest monarch of the age. Yet he and his kingdom worshipped false gods, and rejected the demands of Jehovah. There was a need, therefore, that the world should be made to know that neither his power, nor that of his kingdom, nor that of his false gods could defend him against the wrath of that Almighty Being whom he defied. And God ordered events with an intent that such a display should be made.

This is the fearful import of the words of God to Pharaoh: I will send all my plagues on thee, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. And in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared through all the earth.

These terrible denunciations of God were literally fulfilled. Idolatrous Egypt was consumed by the fire of his anger, and prostrated by the tempests of his wrath. Pharaoh, often and deeply moved, yet as often refused to submit and obey. At last, when the first-born were smitten, Egypt, in terror and desperation, drove out the people of God; and yet, unwilling to lose his slaves, her unrelenting king girded on his armor, and summoned his hosts, to pursue the fugitives. Soon they were overtaken. On each side mountains enclosed them; behind them came the enemy, before them was the sea.

PHARAOH AND HIS HOST DROWNED IN THE RED SEA. 183

Now, then, the time had come for the concluding act of this great drama of divine retribution.

And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them; and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. To the one it was a cloud and darkness; to the other it gave light, so that the one came not near the other all the night.

Then, at the word of God, was the rod of Moses extended; the sea was divided, and the waters stood up like a wall on the right hand and on the left. Cheered by the light of God, the people of Israel passed rapidly through. Troubled and dismayed by his frown, the Egyptians moved heavily on, till in terror they said, Let us flee; for the Lord fighteth for Israel, and against us.

Then said the Lord unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea. And Moses stretched forth his hand, and the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh; there remained not so much as one of them.

"Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore."

Thus was the honor of the one only and true God, the Creator of all things, gloriously vindicated in the midst of the idolatrous nations of the world. The issue was made with no feeble nation, with no obscure and powerless monarch. Egypt was the head of the idolatrous world, and Pharaoh was the head of Egypt. The god of this world, the great author of idolatry, had no more powerful organization through which to sustain his systems of impious revolt. By this one blow, then, God not only broke the head of idolatrous nations, but of the primal author of all revolt from God: and, in the doom of Pharaoh and of Egypt, made a clear disclosure of his own final doom, and that of his whole kingdom.

Not only, then, have we here a scene of national redemption and of judgment on a haughty human foe of God, but a bright foreshadowing of the future destinies of the universe. These wonderful events are a series of transparencies through which we behold, in the distant future, the final redemption of the Church of God from bondage to the author of all evil, and her eternal reception to the kingdom of God.

Indeed, the very song by which Moses com

memorated this redemption is employed, under the guidance of inspiration, to commemorate the future triumps of the Church over all her foes, and the complete victory of the kingdom of God.

When the seer of Patmos beheld the sea of glass, mingled with fire, upon it stood the victors over the beast--that most terrific organization of Satan-having the harps of God. "And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."

The form of the conflict, indeed, changes; but the main combatants are the same from age to age. Each victory in the series prefigures and foretokens all that are to come. The hallelujahs that celebrate the final victory shall be sung in the very words of this earliest triumphal song. The final result, too, of all the victories of God shall be the same.

As the anthem rises loud from unnumbered harps and voices, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints," the holy universe shall respond, "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name! for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest."

Had no effort been made to dishonor God, such displays of terror and wrath would have been needless. But so long as such efforts are continued, so long as a single revolter from the kingdom of the Holy One remains unsubdued, the development of the tèrrors of God will not cease. But when he hath put down all opposing power, and rule, and authority, then cometh the end, and God shall once more be all in all.

How sublime, then, how full of instruction, are these ancient events? In themselves majestic and impressive, they shine in new splendor, when seen in their relations to those final results which they foreshadow and predict.

Let it be our chief desire to escape from those hosts that are destined to ruin, and to be numbered with the hosts of the redeemed in the final victory of God: and let each, without ceasing, offer the prayer, "Gather not my soul with the wicked; but remember me, O Lord, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people. O visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance."

Then, whilst all the enemies of God perish by an overthrow still more terrific than that of Pharaoh and his hosts, "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father."

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BREAD CAST ON THE WATERS.

BREAD CAST ON THE WATERS.

Nor long since, we were discoursing with a friend on the frequent interpositions of Providence, in order to establish the veracity and inspiration of the Holy Word, when he related the following history, of which he had personal knowledge:

In a country town in England, not many years since, a man having two sons, nearly of age, died, leaving to them and his pious wife a comfortable estate. The young men soon dissipated their portion, and no small share of the widow's property. She tried various expedients to secure a pittance from their grasp; but foreseeing that all would soon be gone, and no one the better, she resolved that she would make one offering to the Lord, while it was in her power. She accordingly paid over to the Treasurer of a Missionary Society twenty pounds sterling. Her wicked and extravagant sons, hearing of this, reviled her, and declared that the money might as well have been thrown into the sea. "And this," said she, "is what I thought; for God says, 'Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days shalt thou find it again;"" and added, "This money may do us all more good by-and-by than it will at present."

When all that these sons could obtain had been spent in riotous living, they both enlisted in the army, and were ordered to India.

The regiment of the elder one was stationed far up the Ganges, but not beyond the circuit of missionary efforts. There the soldier found a man of God, who directed him to the great Sacrifice of the cross, as the only hope for inquiring sinners. He believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Scripture hath said, and became a kind of first-fruits unto God in that regiment. Meantime the praying mother at home had been pleading with God that her prodigal sons might yet return unto their Heavenly Father, even if they never returned to the embraces of maternal affection. While thus she prayed for her children, as the patriarch of Uz sacrificed for his sons and daughters after their festal seasons, a letter was brought her by the post, written by the elder son, announcing the fact of his conversion, his deep contrition for his past wickedness, and especially mourning over his cruel and undutiful conduct to his aged and widowed mother. Half unread, the letter dropped from her trembling hands, and with tears streaming down her furrowed face, she exclaimed, "Ob, that twenty pounds!

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that twenty pounds! God be praised, here is that bread again, found after many days."

This converted son was subsequently removed to Fort William, near Calcutta, and there he found, to his surprise, his younger brother, but, to his grief, he was yet the slave of his sins, and an enemy to God.

He soon, however, succeeded in leading this youth to hear a Baptist missionary, who regularly officiated to the garrison, and the Spirit and the Word said to the poor lost soul, "Come;" the minister said, "Come," and the praying mother at home was saying, "Come," and when he could find no other refuge from the wrath to come, he also said, "I will arise, and go to my Father." Then was there joy again in heaven; and there was joy on earth.

"On India's coral strand,"

two outcasts from happiness and home were filled with unspeakable joy. Here they were both baptized, and almost immediately, the cho lera seized on the first-born heir, and he triumphantly entered into the joy of his Lord.

Long and long had a mother's anxieties yearned over her last and only prop, for the brothers did not both leave at once; ship after ship arrived from India, and one post after another walked through the village, but, alas! not a line for the fainting widow; and when hope was almost expiring in the utter desolation and poverty around her, a large package was brought in, containing a substantial token of filial love, and a full account of the happy death of her first-born, and the blessed conversion of the second, under the preaching of a missionary. "Ah!" she could just utter, through deep and overwhelming emotion, "what a faithful God I have trusted in! Those twenty pounds again! Oh, it is enough, enough!"

The missionaries at Serampore discovered, in the surviving convert, unusual indications of talent that might, by suitable cultivation, be of use in the ministry, and they obtained his discharge from the army, instructed him for a year or two, and encouraged him to preach.

The lamp of life was burning low in the worn. out socket of the aged mother's earthly tabernacle, and she was waiting in humble and patient hope for the day and the hour of her departure.

The day had disappeared, the serenity of evening shade was en wrapping the face of nature, the latch was down, and the "old family Bible had been laid quietly on the stand,” and, leaning on her old oaken arm-chair, the mother

CHRISTIAN ENTHUSIASM.

heard a gentle tap at the door; but before she could rise and reach it, she was seized in the arms of a son! and for a moment neither could give utterance to their feelings. The sacred avenues of maternal and filial affection were closed, but only to be fully overflowed, and then, in strains that cannot be written, they recounted to each other the mighty acts of divine goodness. Again and again, exultingly said the venerable matron, "Those twenty pounds have been found! Ah, but for those twenty pounds I might have gone down sorrowing to the grave. Three times over has the Lord brought them back to me. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits!'"

This younger son left at home an affectionate wife, and, under a high sense of duty, and a returning affection for her whom he had vowed to love, he had returned to England, and thus he had the pleasure of becoming to her as a son alive from the dead. He became subsequently a useful and honored pastor, and is now an able minister of the New Testament.

CHRISTIAN ENTHUSIASM.

THE true reason why the world ever charges Christians with enthusiasm is, secret infidelity. The solemn facts which the Bible reveals, and which the light of eternity will fully disclose, are disbelieved, and therefore the emotions awakened by those facts are treated as idle tales. In no other way is it possible to account for the morbid sensitiveness which is so common as to powerful religious affections. But let Christians convince the ungodly that facts, solemn and awful, but unquestionable facts, have awakened these emotions, and the most careless and most hardened will cease to blame them for being in earnest. No one would censure, for the intensity of his emotions, the man whose house is in flames, and who is watching the operations of the fire-brigade while they are attempting to reach the windows where his wife and children are imploring help, and expecting that each minute of delay will be fatal: under such cir cumstances, no amount of feeling, no violence of gesture, would be thought extravagant. But let a Christian, who is a husband or a parent, be deeply moved because, notwithstanding all the efforts that are made for their benefit, the members of his household show no signs of conversion, and wherefore is he regarded as an enthusiast Because the world disbelieves the threat

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enings of God, and therefore heeds not "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone."

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The same scepticism which frowns on compassion for the impenitent, also scowls on the joy and peace in believing which are the birthright of the regenerate. A little worldly prosperity is expected to make a man very happy, and no one wonders at the satisfaction which accompanies the resolution, "I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods; and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Luke xii. 18, 19. I remember an instance in which sudden prosperity was followed by even fatal effects. An industrious couple were at the same time seized with a malignant fever. They were placed in separate rooms, but within hearing of each other. Their mutual inquiries were almost incessant, till delirium in both ended all anxiety. The husband died and was buried, while the wife was in a state of utter unconsciousness. When she began to recover her reason, the first indication of its return was, the affectionate inquiry, "My dear!-my love!you better?" but there was no voice, no reply. She became alarmed. To keep her quiet, the nurse told her that her husband was better, but that the doctor had sent him away for change of air. This falsehood satisfied her for several days, and then she awoke to the overwhelming consciousness of her bereavement, and found herself the widowed mother of five children, with little prospects of any thing but the workhouse--the staff of the family was gone. She was, however, a woman of spirit, and she roused herself to exertion. Early and late she toiled to keep together the little business that remained, and in part she succeeded. It was a hard struggle; but still, by diligence and frugality, she kept herself and her babes from pauperism. Thus things continued, till one morning the postman brought her a letter from the executors of an old gentleman, a distant relation of her late husband, but of whom she had never heard, and of whom, of course, she had no expectations, informing her of his death, and that he had left her eight hundred pounds. This sudden reverse of fortune was too much for her to bear; for a whole fortnight she never closed her eyes, and then she died. Her death was universally attributed to excessive joy; and though many lamented it for the sake of her children, none seemed to think it strange; certainly not one was heard to remark on the evils of property, or found to opine that

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