Page images
PDF
EPUB

And so will it continue to be. The friends of revelation have nothing to fear from any discoveries that can be made in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth. Geology may dive and delve into our globe's deepest recesses, and astronomy may move along her star-paved way until we are dizzied at the story of her ascents; but they can bring back no report which will shake the pillars of the "sure word of prophecy." "Let science perfect yet more her telescopes, and make taller her observatories, and deeper her mines, and more searching her crucibles; let even a new Cuvier and another Newton arise, to carry far higher, and to sink far deeper than it has ever yet been, the line of human research; and yet will not all this, even though the new masters of physical lore should blaspheme where the older teachers may have adored, bring God into contradiction with himself, or subvert the truth which he has given, or eclipse the light which shineth in this dark place." Still will it be true, however boldly it may be alleged that Jehovah's works conflict with his word, that the higher deductions of reason harmonize with moral truth; and soon in the blended radiance of science and the wonderful testimonies of the Lord, shall nothing be left for their mutual friends to deplore, but the long want of that wise, confiding patience, and that candid forbearance, which would have hastened their union and added to their lustre.

The following interesting letter on Science and Revelation, is from the pen of an author just quoted, acknowledged on all sides as one of the most eminent scientific men living.

"OBSERVATORY, Washington, January 22, 1855. "MY DEAR SIR-Your letter revived very pleasant remembrances. * ** Your questions are themes. It would require volumes to contain the answers to them. You ask about the 'Harmony of Science and Revelation,' and wish to know if I find distinct traces in the Old Testament of scientific knowledge,' and in the Bible any knowledge of the winds and ocean currents.' Yes, knowledge the most correct and valuable.

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?'

"It is a curious fact that the revelations of science have led astronomers of our own day to the discovery that the sun is not the dead centre of motion, around which comets sweep and planets whirl; but that it, with its splendid retinue of worlds and satellites, is revolving through the realms of space, at the rate of millions of miles in a year, and in obedience to some influence situated precisely in the direction of the star Alcyon, one of the Pleiades. We do not know how far off in the immensities of space that centre of revolving cycles and epicycles may be; nor have our oldest observers or nicest instruments been able

to tell us how far off in the skies that beautiful cluster of stars is hung, whose influences man can never bind. In this question alone, and the answer to it, is involved both the recognition and exposition of the whole theory of gravitation.

"Science taught that the world was round; but potentates pronounced the belief heretical, notwithstanding the Psalmist, while apostrophizing the works of creation in one of his sublime moods of inspiration, when prophets spake as they were moved, had called the world the round world,' and bade it to rejoice.

"You recollect when Galileo was in prison, a pump-maker came to him with his difficulties because his pump would not lift water higher than thirty-two feet. The old philosopher thought it was because the atmosphere would not press the water up any higher; but the hand of persecution was upon him, and he was afraid to say the air had weight. Now, had he looked to the science of the Bible, he would have discovered that the 'perfect' man of Uz, moved by revelation, had proclaimed the fact thousands of years before. He maketh the weight for the wind.' Job is very learned, and his speeches abound in scientific lore. The persecutors of the old astronomer also would have been wiser, and far more just, had they paid more attention to this wonderful book, for there they would have learned that He stretcheth out the North over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.'

[ocr errors]

"Here is another proof that Job was familiar with

the laws of gravitation, for he knew how the world. was held in its place; and as for the 'empty place' in the sky, Sir John Herschel has been sounding the heavens with his powerful telescope, and guaging the stars, and where do you think he finds the most barren part-the empty places-of the sky? In the North, precisely where Job told Bildad, the Shuhite, the empty place was stretched out. It is there where comets most delight to roam, and hide themselves in emptiness.

"I pass by the history of creation as it is written on the tablet of the rock and in the Book of Revelation, because the question has been discussed so much and so often, that you, no doubt, are familiar with the whole subject. In both, the order of creation is the same, first the plants to afford sustenance, and then the animals, the chief point of apparent difference being as to the duration of the period between the 'evening and morning.' 'A thousand years as one day,' and the Mosaic account affords evidence itself that the term day, as there used, is not that which comprehends our twenty-four hours. It was a day that had its evening and morning before the sun was made.

"I will, however, before proceeding further, ask pardon for mentioning a rule of conduct which I have adopted, in order to make progress with these physical researches which have occupied so much of my time and many of my thoughts, and that rule is never to forget who is the Author of the great volume

which nature spreads out before us, and always to remember that the same Being is also the author of the book which Revelation holds up to us; and though the two works are entirely different, their records are equally true, and when they bear upon the same point, as now and then they do, it is as impossible that they should contradict each other, as it is that either should contradict itself. If the two cannot be reconciled, the fault is ours, and is because, in our blindness and weakness, we have not been able to interpret aright either the one or the other, or both.

"Solomon, in a single verse, describes the circulation of the atmosphere as actual observation is now showing it to be. That it has its laws, and is as obedient to order as the heavenly host in their mov ment, we infer from the fact announced by him, and which contains the essence of volumes by other men, 'All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.'

"To investigate the laws which govern the winds and rule the sea, is one of the most profitable and beautiful occupations that a man, an improving, progressive man, can have. Decked with stars as the sky is, the field of astronomy affords no subjects of contemplation more ennobling, more sublime, or more profitable, than those which we may find in the air and the sea.

"When we regard them from certain points of view, they present the appearance of wayward things,

« EelmineJätka »