New Discoveries.

New Records Found. Recently the British Museum received a new cylinder of baked clay containing the achievements of Sennacherib in cuneiform inscriptions. It has been translated and has been found to contain the record what Sennacherib did for the city of Nineveh. The Old Testament tells us what a great and beautiful city Nineveh was. The newly discovered record says, among other things, this:

He tells first of the rebuilding of his palace. "Bull colossi of white stone * * * they quarried as supports for the doors thereof. In order to construct rafts great trees in the woods throughout the whole of their land they cut down. In the month of Ivyar, at the time of the spring floods, on mighty rafts they brought them across with difficulty to the other side. In the crossing of the quay wall the great vessels sank deeper and their crews groaned and were distressed in spirit, but by might and tribulation they brought them with difficulty and set them up in their gates.

It is a wonderful picture of the building of one of the great cities of old when human labor was so cheap that Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, was able to build a magnificent temple in fifteen days.

Sennacherib's tale continues in this fashion: "I altered the structure of the palace and enlarged its site. Palaces of gold, silver, bronze, malachite, breccia, alabaster, ivory, cedar, cypress, pine for my lordly habitation I constructed. Beams of cedar and cypress, whose scent is pleasant, the products of Amanus and Serara, the snowcapped mountains, I arranged in place above them. Doors of cedar, cypress, pine and sindu wood with a plating of silver and copper, I found. Female colossi of alabaster and ivory, wearing horned headdresses, having bent talons, clothed with strength and vigor, full of splendor, I set up in their doorways and made them a wonder to behold. With brickwork, Ka stone and lapis lazuli I decorated the ramparts, the cornices and all the copings." It is a vision of barbaric splendor that approaches the description of Solomon's temple. "The palace that has no rival," Sennacherib called his habitation.

The King's proudest record is of the casting of bronze lions, colossi which had been moulded in clay "as in casting half shekel pieces." It was evidently an unprecedented achievement.

In the eyes of many people this will be another confirmation of the Old Testament and its trustworthiness. But why not turn it around and say instead of "These records prove certain parts of the Bible true," say which is more according to truth, "These records are trustworthy because the Bible says so"? Without the Bible these records would have no meaning at all.

But Sennacherib's beautiful residence is a heap of ruins. God's Word predicted this and it has come to pass of Nineveh. Nahum said in Jehovah's name, "Woe to the bloody city, it is full of lies and robbery, the prey departeth not. . . . And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" (Nah. iii:1, 7). And this present age likewise, with its great cities and magnificent palaces, awaits a predicted judgment, when the works of man will crumble into dust and Jehovah will be exalted.

An Interesting Recovery. Most interesting and important excavations are being made in ancient Ethiopia, showing a high state of civilization and an empire of great wealth, which existed there several thousand years ago. Meroe is the name of the ancient capital. Queen Candace reigned there (Acts viii:27); but even then Meroe was hundreds of years old. We quote from the report of the excavations:

The story of Queen Candace's ancient capital should make interesting reading when the excavations now in progress under Professor Garstang are completed. The royal city of Meroe lies between Aaraba and Khartum, on the Nile.

The story of these discoveries is indeed one of the most romantic pages of modern research; no one, unless it were Professor Sayse, had imagined or could have inferred how extensive the ruins of the city were, nor how remarkable in character. When the excavators first arrived, three or four seasons ago, the only visible trace of ancient handiwork was a simple line of wall and three or four carved stone rams in the same vicinity.

Now, however, all is changed; the stone rams are found to line the avenue of approach toward the great Temple of Ammon, which in more ancient history was one of the chief features of the city. The stone wall which rose in isolated ruin is found to be only a portion of a great enclosure, inside which there are coming to light the stone built palaces, official buildings and the royal baths which form the royal city of tradition.

The broken potsherds begin to tell their story and to disclose to expert examination three main successive periods of local activity; the first subject to Egyptian influence, the second marked by an influx of Greek ideas, and the third suggesting a Roman occupation or colony.

The historical material confirms these evidences, showing the city to have been founded about the eighth century B. C, possibly when the Ethiopian power in Egypt began to decline before the advance of Assyria, impelling the king and his court to seek the security of a refuge further up the Nile than their previous capital of Napata afforded.

Many tombs of the Necropolis have been examined and show that the development of local funerary art and customs pursued a parallel course. These are archaeologically divisible into three separate groups corresponding to the main historical divisions, land, it would appear, to the groups of pyramids.

Another Evidence for Daniel. In our exposition of Daniel we have made the statement that this magnificent book has been completely vindicated and has proven an anvil upon which the critics' hammers have been broken to pieces. This vindication still goes on. We quote the following from an Exchange:

It is reported that Greek and Cypriote vases have been discovered among Hittite remains at Carchemish. What does this mean? In a word, that, during the period 1100 to 600 B.C., works of art from the lands of the Levant had been carried into the great empires on the Euphrates. Having regard to the extraordinary commercial activity of the ancient East, this is a proposition quite easy to understand. Yet, again and again, in order to "bring down" the date of Daniel, and support the theory that the Book was not written by the prophet of that name, it has been objected that musical instruments with Greek names are mentioned in the record as having been used in Babylon! And why not? Now at length the objection is shattered; for if Greek works of art were imported into "the land of the Hittites," as we now find to have been the case, they cannot for one moment be regarded as unknown in Babylon, at a still later date!

The Limit of Earth's Resources will Soon be Reached. A leading English Scientist made a few weeks ago before the British Association for the Advancement of Science some interesting statements. Within a century, he estimates, the resources of the world will be taxed to their full capacity.

Civilized man is, or ought to be, beginning to realize that in reducing more and more of the surface of the earth to what he considers a habitable condition he is making so much progress and making it so rapidly that the problem of finding suitable accommodation for his increasing numbers must become urgent within a few generations.

He also referred to the wheat acreage as not keeping pace with the increase in population, and added:

"If prophecies based on population statistics are trustworthy the crisis will be upon us before the end of the century.

"We must either depend upon some substitute to reduce our consumption per head, or we must take to intensive farming of the most strenuous sort."

We doubt not these fears are fully justified. Problems arise on all sides and man is helpless to solve them. The world is rapidly approaching what may be called a great bankruptcy. Tremendous upheavals of a physical and social nature will surely come. God's hand will be felt in mighty judgments. But we know more than that. The Word of God holds out the blessed hope of better things for this earth with its ever increasing groans. That hope can only be realized in the Coming of the Lord, who is both Creation's Lord and Creation's Redeemer. He did not wear the thorns, the emblems of the course, in vain upon His blessed brow. With His Coming a new era, a new age, will begin for this earth. The nearness of this age introduced by His manifestation seems indicated by the fact that the limit of the resources of this earth will soon be reached.

Beth-Shemesh has been Found. There have recently been discovered in Palestine by Dr. D. Mackenzie and F. G. Newton the remains of Beth-Shemesh, which had been lying forgotten for 2,614 years. Beth-Shemesh was possibly one of the high places that King Hezekiah overturned, as described in 2 Kings xviii:4.

A mound in the valley of Sorek, known as Ain Shems, which, from its position on the main road between Jerusalem and the sea, would have formed an important point of defense for the Holy City, was thought to cover the Beth-Shemesh of old. There was little indication on the surface of what lay buried beneath. Trial shafts, says Claire Gaudet, in an article in The Graphic, wert sunk with satisfactory results, the walls of the city were traced and laid bare, and the ashes which have covered these walls probably since the Assyrian invasion in the year 701 B. C. have now been forced to give up the secrets they hid. The city, however, had been completely destroyed by fire on a former occasion -- it is thought in the days of King Ahaz, at the time of the Philistine invasion.

The first year the explorers pitched their camp beneath an olive grove close to what is probably a very ancient road which crossed the Tell, dividing it into two, the eastern part being Ain Shems and the western Rumeileh, where the buried city proved to be. Close to this road is the shrine of Abu Meizar, which, according to tradition, is associated with Samson. The shrine is built on a rock, and its position forms a natural halting place for travelers crossing the valley.

Mr. Newton points out the probability that this is the very spot where the Ark rested on its arrival from Ekron, for the surroundings correspond exactly with the description in the first book of Samuel vi:14 even to a great stone which is to be seen close by, in front of the shrine.

Well may we all be thankful for these continued confirmations of sacred history. Infidelity and its cousin, "Higher Criticism," may laugh for a time; the last laugh belongs to faith. Let them dig on. The spade will turn up other things. Happy are we, that we believe in the Bible apart from any of these archaeological finds.

The Claims and Twaddle of Science. The so-called "scientific world" was recently startled by the claims of a Mexican professor, Mr. Herrera, of having succeeded in forming a human embryo by chemical combination. Science has for a long time wrestled with the problem of life and has more than once attempted to produce life artificially. That the claim of this Mexican scientist is another fake needs hardly to be stated. In connection with this alleged discovery a scientific paper says:

It would be impossible of course to set a limit to the scope of scientific research and investigation which in reality covers the universe itself; and what the professor believes he has accomplished is after all only what the free play of natural forces brought about in a natural way some 100,000,000 (more or less) years ago.

We refer to what is known as spontaneous generation or the passage from non-living to living matter -- from the inorganic to the organic. This must have taken place under a transitory set of conditions existing toward the end of the azoic or lifeless period of our planet. At that precise time the earth's physical condition was entirely different from what it is now. Although still warm, as compared with subsequent stages, it had cooled down sufficiently to enable the enveloping vapors to condense and form water, without which any known form of life would have been impossible.

There is no doubt whatever that on strict analysis it will be found that the bodies of all living things -- animals and plants -- are made up of elements all of which are included in the earth's composition; and out of a few of these, such as carbon hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur, united into a proximate compound, is formed a substance called protoplasm, which is the physical basis of life in all its forms.

The first formation of this substance under special conditions -- chemical, electrical, thermal, and aquatic -- probably took place in the shallow margins and lagoons of the Laurenthian seas. This was the starting point of life, and if through any fortuitous cause it failed to develop under the conditions then obtaining, it is in the highest degree improbable that life could have originated in a natural way at any subsequent stage of the earth's evolution, as the requisite conditions are wanting, and can no more be recalled now than we can recall our individual childhood state. Both have passed and gone never to return.

It, therefore, follows that we need not expect to see at the present stage of the earth's evolution any such thing as abiogenesis or spontaneous generation through a natural operation. But this does not preclude the possibility of an artificial production of living substance in the laboratory of the chemist or experimental physicist some day. But it is exceedingly doubtful if any artificial organism would be able to survive the strain of adaptation to what would most likely be an unsuitable environment. Whether the organism's life would be a "merry" one or not is doubtful; but it would certainly be "short"!

This sounds all very learned and plausible, but is it truth? Certainly not. It is simply the speculation of man, who rejects God's revelation concerning the origin of this earth. No, life cannot be manufactured. In the above article the first beginning of life is given as 100,000,000 years -- more or less. That is how exact science is in its miserable guesswork. One only needs to put together the different estimates of well-known scientists to find out how much at sea they are in regard to the age of our planet. Here are a few guesses about the age of the earth:

Lord Kelvin, 1862, 20,000,000 to 400,000,000 years, probably 98,000,000.

Clarence King and Carl Barus, 1893, 24,000,000.

Lord Kelvin, 1897, 20,000,000 to 40,000,000.

De Lapparent, 1890, 67,000,000 to 90,000,000.

Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1893, maximum, 70,000,000.

J. Joly, 1899, age of the ocean, 80,000,000 to 90,000,000.

W. J. Sollas, 1909, age of the ocean, 80,000,000 to 150,000,000.

Messrs. Becker and Clarke of the U. S. Geol. Survey, not above 70,000,000 and not below 55,000,000 years.

A few million years apart, that is all. What a sure foundation and perfect knowledge we possess by direct revelation in Genesis i. That blessed opening chapter after centuries of scientific investigation, discoveries and theories stands still unimpeached. It can never be shaken. The earth itself and the heavens may pass away, but His Word never.

The Guess Work of Science. The age of the earth has been over and over again estimated by the men who call themselves Scientists. Not two of them agree, but they differ a few million years and more. Recently a geological publication of the University of Chicago made the statement that the age of the earth is about 400,000,000 years. Others are equally sure, say that the age is 100,000,000,000 years. What folly! But turning from the Scriptures these "great" men professing themselves to be wise become fools.

Some years ago a skull was found at Gibraltar and was termed a prehistoric skull. After spending months of study on the skull Prof. Keith of London has come to the conclusion that it belongs to a woman who lived 600,000 years ago. This great Professor has discovered that nuts and roots were the chief diet of that woman and that her palate was one-third larger than that of the woman today. Oh, how smart! But -- some other scientist will be certain that the skull is not more than 2,000 years old. And this flimsy thing called science is used in colleges and institutions to ridicule the Word of God, that sublime revelation, which tells us of the beginning of all things. Yet with all these attacks the solid rock foundation of God's Word stands and ever will stand: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Still Another Theory. A professor in one of the New York Colleges gave recently his explanation of how life came to be upon this planet.

"The theory of spontaneous generation, having been proved impossible, we are reduced to believing that all life comes from preceding life, and since our earth was originally in a condition absolutely inimicable to life, it must have come from other worlds.

"One theory maintains that meteors falling upon our earth brought germs of life. This idea, however, is not plausible. Meteors become white hot on passing through our atmosphere, which would destroy any life which might have existed upon them.

"About the only other thing which arrives on this earth from far away globes is light. This form of energy, rushing through space at 186,000 miles per second, became the carrier of the first life which took root on the earth. In the form of tiny spores, life germs, they were planted upon fertile soil, and through the process of evolution eventually became even man himself."

How the tiny spores and life germs came into existence originally he does not tell us nor can he answer other questions about his "explanation," which explains nothing. Yet boys and girls have to listen to such nonsense and their poor hearts are a good soil for this seed of infidelity. The rejection of the light given by revelation and moral declension go hand in hand. What dark days are ahead for this poor world!

Artificial Creation Once More. During the last ten years different scientists have claimed that life can be produced in an artificial way. Prof. Edward Albert Schaefer, of Edinburgh University, president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in his annual address to that body at Dundee recently asserted again that life can be produced artificially. This is mere guesswork. Life can never be produced by a chemical process. It is amusing to read what some of the leading men of science have to say on this question:

Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, a former president of the British Association, remarks: ''Professor Schaefer cast no bombshell into the ranks of men of science. Those who arc engaged in research are in complete agreement with him. Opposition can only come from metaphysical Philosophers. The public should refrain from excitement as to Professor Schaefer's vision of the ultimate production of a life-compound by the chemist. The evolution of a synthetic human is probably a hundred million years in front of us.

Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson observes: "'Though we push such explanations to the uttermost, and learn much in so doing, they will not touch the heart of the great problems that lie deeper than the physical plane. Over the ultimate problem and causes of natality we shall be left wondering still."

Professor Elie Metchnikoff, Director of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, declares that the artificial production of life is not within the present range of practical chemistry. He says: ''I do not think such a step will be made in cur epoch, certainly not in my lifetime. Chemists have applied themselves to the task of synthesizing living matter for many years, but there are great difficulties which must still be overcome. The composition of living matter is not yet sufficiently known, and chemists have yet to complete their analysis of the albuminoids which form the living cell before they can hope to build up life. That task is certainly one of the greatest difficulty."

Alfred Russel Wallace is prone to ridicule the proposals of Professor Schaefer, whose arguments, he says, "are the same as those of Haeckel and all the great agnostics, but he does not really get over the difficulties one iota more than they did. So there is nothing in what he says that one can call new. He begins by stating, as if it were his point of view, that the problems of life are essentially problems of matter, and that we cannot conceive of life in a scientific sense as existing apart from matter. He puts down what he could conceive and could not conceive as a datum, without any attempt to prove it. A little further on he tries to show the similarity of the process of reproduction in living and non-living matter, and the only thing he brings forward is crystals. He says that crystals grow and multiply and reproduce their life, and therefore he appears to be utterly ignorant that a crystal is simply added to on the outside, whereas life is a thing of wonderful and complex structure and is added to on the inside. That, I consider, is a wonderful case of bad reasoning, of begging the question."

A believer in the Word of God can read all such statements in calmness of soul, knowing that all these efforts will prove a complete failure in the end.

An Interesting Discovery. Dr. Vilhjalmar Stefansson, of the American Museum of Natural History, has returned after the discovery of a tribe of 2,000 white persons lost for more than 400 years in the arctic regions. He travelled 10,000 miles on foot during four years, and found the longlost descendants of the Norsemen who 800 years ago went to Newfoundland with "Lief the Lucky" from the shores of Norway.

The discovery is ranked by ethnologists as the most important of the kind that could be made, with the single exception of the discovery of the history of the lost tribes of Israel.

This tribe, living yet in stone age style, has its habitat about Coronation gulf and Victoria Land, regions the doctor was warned to avoid before he started on his expedition. All maps which he had showed the country as uninhabited.

But he found a white race of fair complexion, half of whom have red hair and white eyebrows. They bear no trace of Asiatic or the Eskimo, but resemble in many respects the Scandinavians from whom they descended.

Prof. Stefansson accounts for their existence by the fact that in the year 982 Greenland was discovered and settled by 3,000 Icelanders. One thousand of these people sailed from Norway and missed Greenland, but landed on the coast of Newfoundland. The Norsemen settled in two colonies, one on the north and one on the south side of Newfoundland.

How remarkable that this race should have been hidden so long and now be brought to the attention of the civilized world! But God knew them and knew their abode. The so-called "lost tribes" are equally known to God. May the Gospel now be speedily carried to this white race of the far North.

The Missing Link Still Missing. During an animal show in Chicago, a dark skinned being, which had no articulate speech was exhibited. The poor creature was advertised as the "ape man," a "cannibal" and as the "missing link" of the evolution theory. The being, a mere boy, was called "Congo" and his exhibitors told a graphic story how he was captured in Central Africa and what dangers were connected with his capture. Many thousands looked at the boy and not a few believed that he must be the long looked for missing link.

But it has now been discovered and legally decided by Judge Windes, that the poor fellow is not the missing link, but an imbecile Louisiana negro boy, who never saw Africa. The Judge has awarded his custody to the mother.

The scientists, professors and preachers, whose creed is the Darwinian evolution theory, must keep on looking for the missing link. It is still missing and will never be found.