therefore I am not unwise in holding this Bible as Divine, and waiting patiently until you become a little riper in your studies; and believing that then you will certainly find that the Bible remains, with its credentials untouched, the inspiration and the revelation of God. But now, while this satisfies me, it will not altogether satisfy the scientific inquirer. He stumbles, hesitates; and the sceptic will seize the discoveries of science and fling them in the face of Christianity; and men who are too willing to get something to say against the Bible, because it prophesies evil about them, men who are too anxious to get their intellects to bear out what their passions need, in order to cover their indulgences, will be too thankful to catch something to throw against the Bible; and men of science, who are full of scientific investigation, and enamoured of scientific discovery, will hesitate before they accept a book which, they think, contradicts the plainest and the most unequivocal disclosures which they have made in the bowels of the earth, or among the stars of the sky. To all these I answer, as I have already indicated, there is not the least dissonance between God's written book and the most mature discoveries of modern geological science. thing, however, there may be; there may be a contradiction between the discoveries of geology and our preconceived interpretations of the Bible. But this is not because the Bible is wrong, but because our interpretation of it was wrong.

One

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Now here is the past condition of the globe, prior to its present configuration, collocation, and arrangement. After this, the present configuration of the globe began, about six thousand years

ago.

"The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light."

Now to show you that this view is not a novel one, nor a peculiar one of my own, I will just give you one or two extracts from a very remarkable book, indicating great scientific acquirements united to deep religious feeling. It is written by Dr. Hitchcock, President of Amherst College, and Professor of Natural Theology and Geology, and is called "The Religion of Geology and its connected Sciences." He gives the opinions of a number of eminent men, who hold this view. "The interval,' says Bishop Horsley, 'between the production of the matter of chaos and the formation of light, is undescribed and unknown.' 'By the phrase, in the beginning,' says Doederlin, 'the time is declared when something began to be. But when God produced this remarkable work, Moses does not precisely define.' 'We do not know,' says Sharon Turner, 'and we have no means of knowing, at what point of the ever-flowing eternity, of that which is alone eternal, the Divine subsistence, the creation of our earth, or any part

of the universe, began.' 'All that we can learn explicitly from revelation is, that nearly six thousand years have passed since our first parents began to be.' 'The detailed history of creation in the first chapter of Genesis,' says Dr. Chalmers, 'begins at the middle of the second verse; and what precedes might be understood as an introductory sentence, by which we are most appositely told, both that God created all things at the first, and that afterwards — by what interval of time it is not specified — the earth lapsed into chaos, from the darkness and disorder of which the present system or economy of things was made to arise. Between the initial act and the details of Genesis, the world, for aught we know, might have been the theatre of many revolutions, the traces of which geology may still investigate."" Here is a very decided testimony. Dr. Pye Smith, too, the recent president of Homerton College, says,

"A philological survey of the initial sections of the Bible (Gen. i. 1 to ii. 3) brings out the result: 1. That the first sentence is a simple, independent, all-comprehending axiom, to this effect that matter, elementary or combined, aggregated only or organized, and dependent, sentient, and intellectual beings, have not existed from eternity, either in self-continuity or succession, but had a beginning; that their beginning took place by the all-powerful will of one Being, the self-existent, independent, and infinite in all perfection; and that the date of that beginning is not known. 2. That at a recent epoch our planet was brought into a state of disorganization, detritus, or ruin, (perhaps we have no perfectly appropriate term,) from a former condition. 3. That it pleased the almighty, wise, and benevolent Supreme, out of that state of ruin to adjust the surface of the earth to its now existing condition, the whole extending through the period of six natural days." Dr. Harris also says, "My firm persuasion is, that the first verse of Genesis was designed by the Divine Spirit to announce the absolute organization of the material universe by the Almighty Creator; and that it is so understood in the other parts of holy writ; that, passing by an indefinite interval, the second verse describes the state of our planet immediately prior to the Adamic creation, and that the third verse begins the account of the six days' work.” Dr. King, of Glasgow, Dr. Schmucker, of the Lutheran Church, and Dr. Pond, of the American Church, are also quoted in this very book, to show that this is not a singular opinion, but one held by the best divines, who have had the materials enabling them to come to a conclusion.

The disclosures of geology justify the announcement of revelation, that all material things had a beginning. Now, this is a very remarkable fact, that geology proves that the eternity of matter, which infidels try to establish, is a false

hood and a fable. In other words, when we argued with the infidel, and said, There are in the earth, in the human body, in flowers, and trees, and all things, evidences of design, and that design benevolent design; and therefore there must be a benevolent designer; the reply of the sceptic invariably was, that this was always the case; and unless you can show that this long chain of designs had a beginning, you do not prove that there is a God who made the world; because it has continued since we knew, and it must always continue, and we infer that it must always have been. Now, geology settles this; it proves to demonstration that races have become extinct, and that new acts of creation have been interposed. I think it is one of the most striking and wonderful discoveries of this science, that the Creator has more than twice, thrice, four, or perhaps ten times, stepped in and created by distinct acts successive races or dynasties of animate things. In other words, geology proves how true is the announcement of Revelation, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Dr. Chalmers has wielded this argument with very great force in his Evidences of Natural Religión, which are well worth perusing.

And this science proves, too, that God is distinct from creation, and not what the Pantheists suppose him to be, part and parcel of creation.

All science, therefore, as it becomes brighter, is casting fresh light upon the Scriptures, and proving, if the Christian needs any additional proof, that "holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." If we take the Koran of Mahomet, we shall find statements in it inconsistent with the simplest elements of science. If we open the Vedas of the East, we shall find that they contain the most absurd and irrational description of the physical world. But in the Bible there never yet has been found a

single statement that contradicts the discoveries of science. On the contrary, science rather keeps advancing and coming up to the simple statements of the word of God. And in all this we have a proof, if the Christian needs it, that "holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Now, this God who in the beginning made the heaven and the earth, is our Father. We learn this, not from the archives of the earth, in which the geologist traces his foot prints, and fetches up the proofs and monuments of his creative power, but in that precious book which tells us that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Whether, therefore, we see God's foot prints in the depths where the geologist unfolds them, or trace God's presence in the heights where the astronomer soars, or whether He sweeps past, and we catch a glimpse of His glory as he passes by, in all heights in all depths-everywhere, it is God; but the Christian can add, It is our Father. No section of the earth discloses to the Christian a hostile being, but every part of it discovers to him his Father. And he can look at sun, and moon, and stars, and fruit, and flower, and tree, and say what none but a Christian can say, "My Father made them all."

In the next place, seeing God in every creature, and seeing that God governs every creature, the Christian must feel that nothing can scathe him unseen or unpermitted by God. What a precious thought is this—there are no such things in this world as accidents! We know well that if the pin were to fly out of the axle of a wheel, it might be the destruction of many persons; and so if there were such a thing as an accident thrust into God's creation, it might be the disorganization of all. There are no such things as accidents, but all are permitted, or controlled, and directed by God. A Christian knows, when he looks abroad on