appreciated, will compare at all, in its influence upon the human mind, with those peculiar and higher truths disclosed by revelation. All I contend for is, that scientific truth, illustrating as it does the divine character, plans, and government, ought to fan and feed the flame of true piety in the hearts of its cultivators. He, therefore, who knows the most of science ought most powerfully to feel this religious influence. He is not confined, like the great mass of men, to the outer court of nature's magnificent temple, but he is admitted to the interior, and allowed to trace its fong halls, aisles, and galleries, and gaze upon its lofty domes and arches; nay, as a priest he enters the penetralia, the holy of holies, where sacred fire is always burning upon the altars, where hovers the glorious Schekinah, and where, from a full orchestra, the anthem of praise is ever ascending. Petrified, indeed, must be his heart, if it catches none of the inspiration of such a spot. He ought to go forth from it among his fellow-men with radiant glory on his face, like Moses from the holy mount. He who sees most of God in His works ought to show the stamp of divinity upon his character, and lead an eminently holy life.

Finally, the subject gives great interest and dignity to the study of

science.

It is not strange that the religious man should sometimes find his ardour damped in the pursuit of some branches of knowledge, by the melancholy reflection that they can be of no use beyond this world, and will exist only as objects of memory in eternity. He may have devoted many a toilsome year to the details and manipulations of the arts; and, so far as this world is concerned, his labours have been eminently salutary and interesting. But all his labours and researches can be of no avail on the other side of the grave; and he cannot but feel sad that so much study and efforts should leave results no more permanent. Or he may have given his best days to loading his memory with those tongues which the Scriptures assure us shall cease; or to those details of material organisation which can have no place or antitype in the future world. Interesting, therefore, as such pursuits have been on earth, nay, indispensable as they are to the well being and progress of human society, it is melancholy to realise that they form a part of that knowledge which will vanish

away.

The mind delights in the prospect of again turning its attention to those branches of knowledge which have engrossed and interested it on earth, and of doing this under circumstances far more favourable to their investigation. And such an anticipation he may reasonably indulge, who devotes himself on earth to any branch of knowledge not dependent on arrangements and organisations peculiar to this world. He may be confident that he is investigating those principles which will form a part of the science of heaven. Should he ever reach that pure world, he knows that the clogs which now weigh down his mind will drop off, and the clouds that obscure his vision will clear away, and that a brighter sun will pour its radiance upon his path. He is filling his mind with principles that are

PERMANENT PRINCIPLES.

309

immortal. He is engaged in pursuits to which glorified and angelic minds are devoting their lofty powers. Other branches of knowledge, highly esteemed among men, shall pass away with the destruction of this world. The baseless hypotheses of science, falsely so called, whether moral, intellectual, or physical, and the airy phantoms of a light and fictitious literature, shall all pass into the limbo of forgetfulness. But the principles of true science, constituting, as they do, the pillars of the universe, shall bear up that universe for ever. How many questions of deep interest, respecting his favourite science, must the philosopher in this world leave unanswered, how many points unsettled! But when he stands upon the vantage-ground of another world, all these points shall be seen in the bright transparencies of heaven. In this world, the votaries of science may be compared with the aborigines who dwell around some one of the principal sources of the River Amazon. They have been able, perhaps, to trace one or two, or it may be a dozen, of its tributaries, from their commencements in some mountain spring, and to follow them onwards as they enlarge by uniting, so as to bear along the frail canoes, in which, perhaps, they pass a few hundred miles towards the ocean. On the right and on the left, a multitude of other tributaries swell the stream which carries them onward, until it seems to them a mighty river. But they are ignorant of the hundred other tributaries which drain the vast eastern slope of the Andes, and sweep over the wide plains, till their united waters have formed the majestic Amazon. Of that river in its full glory, and especially of the immense ocean that lies beyond, the natives have no conception; unless, perhaps, some individual, more daring than the rest, has floated onward till his astonished eye could scarcely discern the shore on either hand, and before him he saw the illimitable Atlantic, whitened by the mariner's sail and the crested waves; and he may have gone back to tell his unbelieving countrymen the marvellous story. Just so it is with men of science. They are able to trace with clearness a few rills of truth from the fountain head, and to follow them onward till they unite in a great principle, which at first men fancy is the chief law of the universe. they venture still farther onward, they find new tributary truths coming in on either side, to form a principle or law still more broad and comprehensive. Yet it is only a few gifted and adventurous minds that are able, from some advanced mountain top, to catch a glimpse of the entire stream of truth, formed by the harmonious union of all principles, and flowing on majestically into the boundless ocean of all knowledge, the Infinite Mind. But when the Christian philosopher shall be permitted to resume the study of science in a future world, with powers of investigation enlarged and clarified, and all obstacles removed, he will be able to trace onward the various ramifications of truth, till they unite into higher and higher principles, and become one in that centre of centres, the Divine Mind. That is the Ocean from which all truth originally sprang, and to which it ultimately returns. To trace out the shores of that shoreless Sea, to measure its measureless extent, and to

But as

fathom its unfathomable depths, will be the noble and joyous work of eternal ages. And yet eternal ages may pass by and see the work only begun.

LECTURE XV.

SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THE BEARINGS OF GEOLOGY UPON RELIGION.

HITHERTO I have conscientiously refused attempting to discuss the relations between geology and religion in a single lecture, because my conviction has been that the view must necessarily be so limited and partial, that, unless an audience were quite familiar with the principles of geology, more harm than good might result to the cause of religion. Hence I have asked the time of two lectures, at least, to illustrate those principles, before applying them religiously. But you have given me more than double that time, and I yield up my scruples, of course; and though only a synopsis of the subject can be presented, perhaps some thoughts may be thrown out, which will not only relieve doubt, but show how science harmonises with, and gives illustration and support to religion.

Preliminary to a direct discussion of this subject, I would gladly disabuse your minds of certain false notions, which are quite widely circulated and believed, and which bar out the entrance of the truth.

One of these false notions is, that geologists in their writings have arrayed the facts of the science against revelation, with the wish to lessen or destroy its authority. But, with perhaps a few unimportant exceptions, this is entirely false. Geologists have, indeed, stated facts and principles in their science which the friends of the Bible have regarded as hostile to its teachings; but it is they who have drawn this inference, not the geologists. In the whole range of geological literature, I have met with no attacks of this kind upon Christianity. On the other hand, a large majority of such writers, being themselves believers in inspiration, have endeavoured to show how their science can be fairly reconciled with revelation, without compromising at all the teachings of either. Why then should the suspicion of scepticism rest upon them? If ever the science has been used against revelation, it was by smatterers in it, and not by its leading expounders, who know very well that geology has in it much more to sustain than to overthrow religion; or it was by learned writers, not geologists, who denied the inspiration and historical accuracy of Moses.*

* For an example of such writers, I would refer to "Buckle's History of Civilisation in England," whose language very unjustly implies that geologists have brought their science to bear against Moses. For example, he speaks of

Another false notion is, that the bearings of geology upon religion are those of conflict, rather than of illustration and corroboration. When most men turn their thoughts to the relations between these subjects, they rest chiefly upon the chronology of the Bible, as in conflict with the great age of the world, or upon the nature and effects of the deluge. But, in fact, these points, even if we fully adopt the views of geology, are of little importance in their religious relations; whereas the science has a far more important bearing upon several of the leading doctrines of revelation, and these it fully corroborates and illustrates. And so the points first named ought to be looked upon as illustrated rather than opposed by geology. Was not the Bible rather illustrated than opposed by astronomy, when that science, upon the appearance of Copernicus, corrected the old interpretation of several passages in that book respecting the motion of the earth? So when geology teaches us how to interpret other passages respecting the age of the world, and the extent of the deluge, it is illustration and not collision. Thus, indeed, ought all the bearings of this science upon religion to be viewed; and men, instead of coming to the examination of the subject with all their prejudices in arms against geology, as an antagonist of revelation, would see in it only an ally and a friend.

A third false notion is, that the principles of geology are unsettled, and constantly changing; that, in fact, the whole science is made up of conflicting hypotheses; and that there is no agreement among its standard writers.

I do not deny that there are points in geology yet unsettled, nor that many dreamy hypotheses have been put forth in its name, which the true philosopher will reject. But what science is there, that is founded upon experiment and observation, that is not unsettled in many of its parts, and upon which many wild, hypothetical conjectures have not been founded? Astronomy, chemistry, and in fact the whole of natural philosophy, are in this predicament. But who hence infers that these sciences have no fixed principles? Equally unreasonable is it to make such a charge upon geology. It is especially true of this science, that none of the slight modifications of its principles which new discoveries have rendered necessary have affected its religious bearings. No discovery, for instance, throws any doubt over the principle that the whole accessible crust "The discoveries of geologists, in which not only was the fidelity of the Mosaic cosmogony impugned, but its accuracy was shown to be impossible.” (p. 308, American Edition.) Again, he says, "Since then (Brydone's time) the progress of geology has been so rapid, that the historical value of the writings of Moses is abandoned by all enlightened men, even among the clergy themselves. I need only refer to what has been said by two of the most eminent of that profession, Dr. Arnold and Mr. Baden Powell." (p. 309). Is it not amazing that a man so distinguished for his knowledge of history, should be so ignorant of the state of opinion among the "enlightened men" of the religious world, not one in a hundred of whom has ever had his confidence in the "historical value of the writings of Moses" shaken in the least by the discoveries of geology, while many have had it strengthened.

of the globe has undergone entire and oft-times repeated metamorphoses since the rocks were created; nor upon the principle that enormous erosions have taken place on the surface since it was consolidated; nor that existing continents, by slow, vertical movements, have been several times below the ocean; nor that processes are now going on around us, capable of producing nearly all the known varieties of rock, with the aid of water and heat; nor that water and heat have been the grand agents of all geological changes; nor that the whole globe has been once at least in a melted state; nor that the time was, when no animals or plants existed on the globe; nor that several distinct economies of life, or groups of animals and plants, have occupied the surface, each adapted to the altered condition of things; nor that those ancient races have been unlike one another, and, with a few exceptions in the highest formations, unlike those now alive, the resemblance between living and fossil types becoming more unlike as we descend; nor that some ten or twelve miles of fossiliferous rocks have been deposited before man was created, who was among the last of the animals that have appeared on the globe; nor, finally, that, amid all the diversities of organic structure, and change of species, genera, and families, in different formations, the features of one great system of life can be seen running through the whole series, linking all past minor systems together, and to the existing races, and showing the one grand plan of creation as it lay originally in the Divine Mind.

Now, these are the chief geological principles that have a religious bearing, and they are most of them as well settled as the diurnal and annual revolution of the earth in astronomy; or of definite proportions in chemistry; or of positive and negative polarity in electricity and magnetism; or of the functions of the heart, the lungs, and the nerves in physiology. In all these sciences there is a multitude of points connected with established principles, that are yet unaltered, just as it is in geology. But doubts and diversities of opinion concerning these do not make the whole of the science uncertain and vacillating.

Hence we see the unreasonableness of an opinion, which has had some distinguished advocates, that the discoveries and inferences of geology should not be allowed to modify our views of any religious truth, natural or revealed. But other sciences, such as astronomy, chemistry, and physiology, have been all allowed to do this; why should it be denied to geology? It is indeed a short way for the religious man to dispose of all supposed geological difficulties. But while he thus keeps his own conscience quiet, the sceptic, knowing that the leading principles of the science are settled, employs them against religion, whereas a fair interpretation and application of them by the Christian philosopher, would make them illustrate and confirm it.

Other conservative Christian men, possessed of the false notion that geology is a recent and unsettled science, take the ground that the time has not yet come when we should attempt its reconciliation with the Scriptures. They believe in these as a matter of faith, and