works of art, in all that we do for our comfort or pleasure, it is His Spirit which is present, and which gives the ability of application to the use we have devised. We could not bring "food out of the earth;" we could not have the "wine that maketh glad the heart;" nor the "oil that maketh the face to shine;" nor the "bread that strengtheneth the heart," unless God's blessing went with it all. Let the words," I have given," be deeply impressed upon us: let them dwell with us, and go with us, in all we desire, and in all we do. God is the giver of all—of the substance-and of the ability to an useful purpose. "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live,”—declares the extensiveness of His power; and that that, which gives the ability to the herb, and the plant, and the tree; which gives it to the animal to be food and sustenance, can assign it to whatever else at pleasure; and, for this plain reason, that it is His power alone which can give the ability. "The eyes of all wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due season. He opens his hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing"

"Therefore not unto us, not unto us, but unto his name, let us give the glory, for his mercy, and for his truth's sake.”

CHAPTER XI.

Genesis ii. 8-14.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

66

WHEN God had made man, He put him, we are told, into a place which was called " the garden of Eden,”and which has since been and is now commonly denominated "Paradise ;" and the inspired historian of creation presents us, in his second chapter, with a particular description of this garden, its productions, and local position. He calls it "the garden of Eden" in this instance: "And the Lord God took

the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it." In the thirteenth chapter of this same book, he calls it "the garden of the Lord." The word " Eden" is applied, whether-for it is a matter of dispute-to this spot, or to the whole country in which it lay, as signifying the superior pleasantness of it above other places in even that early stage of the world; the literal construction of it being "pleasure," or " delight."

We first remark that it is said, "the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;" and it is an opinion which has been much urged, that the word translated " eastward" means, and ought to have been rendered" on the third day," because, as it is stated, the garden was formed on the third day; and some rules of construction give authority for such rendering; but the more probable and the better construction is, nevertheless, that which stands in our authorized version, corroborated as it is by the fact that Moses elsewhere uses the same word in the same sense. It is undoubtedly most agreeable to the declared order of creation, that the forming and planting of this garden should be received by us as to have been accomplished on the third day, on which day the earth was disposed into its various arrangements, and the power of production was assigned to it; yet, it is to be noted, that the part of the history, with which we are now concerned, professes to give a descriptive account of this garden, its locality, and its advantages; and it is but reasonable that it should specifically point to the quarter in which it was situated;

consequently, if we reject the word "Eastward," substituting for it the words " on the third day," there will seem to be a deficiency of information; and I do not see why, in the recapitulatory statement, the day on which this garden was formed should be particularized, when no similar particularizing is made in regard to other and equally important matters there mentioned.

It has been doubted, likewise, whether the name of "Eden" was originally given to the garden, the country of which it was a portion thence deriving its name, or whether Moses intends to say, that God planted this garden in the country, which in his days, and previously, was called "Eden," and which appellation was given to it from its more favourable circumstances. I am inclined to think that there is correctness in the latter suggestion, for there was then a large tract of country, of singular fertility, known by this name; and it is the expression, that God planted the garden" in Eden," "eastward in Eden;" the garden not consisting, as we may infer, of the whole country, but only of a part of it, to the eastward. Again, learned Commentators, and other writers, have argued that the word "eastward" is made use of to signify that the position was eastward of Judea, or of the desert of the Amorites, where it is generally understood that Moses was at the time of his writing this book. This I admit to be one inference from the expression, but not the entire meaning of it. I would rather consider him as wishing to inform us, that this garden was in the

eastward of the country then called "Eden," and which "Eden" lay eastward of the place of his own then sojournment. "It is true, indeed," says a scriptural geographer, "that it is not certainly to be determined whether Moses would, by the expression eastward, only give us to understand, that Paradise was easterly in respect of himself, when he was writing, and in respect to the promised land; or whether he meant that it was in the easterly part of the land of Eden. But Moses having said that Paradise was planted in the land of Eden, and this being so near Arabia Petræa, where probably the Israelites then were; as they could not be well ignorant of its situation, it seems to have been sufficient to have said, that Paradise was in the land of Eden, to let them know that it was easterly in regard to the place they were then in, and to the Promised Land. Wherefore it remains, that Moses, by saying that the garden was planted eastward in Eden, designed to mark out to them in what part or place of the land of Eden Paradise was seated. And indeed it seems not likely, that Moses, having undertaken to describe exactly the situation of this garden, (of which he, in the series of his narrative, gives so precise and uniform marks,) after he had said, that it stood in the land of Eden, should neglect to express the part of that land wherein it stood."

This garden, however, be these things as they will, is presented or exhibited to us as an emblem of what

1 Dr. Wells.