Adam's creation were the first that appeared on this globe. This point might be quickly settled. Whatever be the idea we attach to the term earth" in the narrative-whether that be the whole globe or a part of it—the Mosaic description is exclusively concerned with the creatures and plants God created six thousand years since; what existed or did not exist previous to that date, is never once referred to. Suppose a historian were to commence the account of the Roman people with the popular changes which resulted in the establishment of the republic, would it have been reasonable or safe to conclude, on that ground alone, that the early monarchy had no existence? Silence on any given point, though often extremely perplexing, is no argument against its existence. But this method of meeting the difficulty, though perfectly legitimate, would not be satisfactory to those for whom we especially write, and therefore we shall not press it. There are many who are aware of the fact, that in the crust of the globe the petrified remains, and beautifully preserved forms of plants and animals, are found in great abundance. This they do not attempt to deny; they feel it to be impossible. But they fancy the admitting of this fact does not impinge against the popular belief relative to the age of the earth. They believe that all the rocks of which the crust of the earth is composed, and the extraordinary remains which they enclose, were brought into existence at the opening of the historic period. It is not easy to meet this

extraordinary notion, so as to effectually destroy its spell over many minds. It is not, indeed, owing to anything peculiarly forcible in it; for we are bold to affirm, that no man having a reputation to lose as a botanist, a zoologist, or a geologist, would give it place in his mind for a moment. The difficulty is to exorcise it from the minds of those who are not acquainted with these sciences. You may reason that the trunk of the tree, with root attached, found in the solid rock, must have once struck these roots into the soil; that the trunk standing erect with its roots imbedded in a dark substance, obviously once soil, but now a hard rock, did, ere this change was effected, draw its nourishment from that mould; that the fossil shell once contained a living creature; that the beautifully enamelled plates of the cocosteus once covered a fish; that the fossil bat once floated in the air; that the bony skeleton of the quadruped was originally clothed with flesh and skin, and moved about a living creature, and yet conviction is not produced! The whole is met with the assertion, “nothing is impossible with God." We do not question the power of God; but we ask, is it compatible with his wisdom to believe that these beautiful and elaborate remains are mere freaks of nature, stored up in the mineral masses for the purpose of astonishing and misleading his intelligent creatures? Go with us to the sea-shore. What is this imbedded in the sand? It is a bivalve shell. How beautiful it is! It has got a neatly constructed hinge by

G

which it opens and closes. Besides, when you close it, how exactly each lobe fits in to the other; but it is empty;-no creature claims it as its habitation. How came it here? Was it created in the sandy mass? Incredible? Ten years ago, or thereby, it was inhabited by a living creature of low organisation. Old age, or accident, brought its precarious existence to an end; its substance speedily decomposed and disappeared. Its shell was carried about by the ever-rolling waves, till a friendly billow pitched it beyond high-water mark. There it lay bleaching in the weather, till the drifting sand deposited its floury particles around and within it. The accumulation gradually increased, less and less of the bivalve was visible, and it has not seen the sun for these two years at least, till now an accidental placing of the foot has laid it bare. Is this not the train of remark that every man would indulge in relative to the bivalve discovered in the sand? Where is the fallacy, reasoning in the same manner, relative to the bivalve discovered in the rock, which has obviously once formed a sea-beach?

But there are still individuals who profess to believe that all the disorder observed among the rocks was produced, and all fossil remains were deposited in these rocks, by the flood! Now, one is really tempted to ask, are such individuals in earnest, or are they sporting with this high subject? At this time of day, when light is shining so gloriously around us, it is humbling to think that this notion still impedes the progress of truth, and it is even

more humbling to think that he who clings to it is a believer in the precious truth of the Bible, and fancies that by adopting this course he is doing God service! It may be sufficient, however, to say on this point, first, the character and positions of the different formations are such, that we cannot believe that the whole was accomplished during the short time the flood was upon the earth, unless we had been assured of it by direct revelation. But this is not to be found in the scriptural account of the deluge, or in any other part of God's word. We must therefore fall back on the operation of natural causes-all, however, under the control of the Almighty. Secondly, fossils are found in such positions, and at such depths, that render it impossible to conceive of the flood conveying them thither. They are found on the surface of the rock; but they are also found in its heart, as may be seen in the sea-cliff and sandstone quarry. They are dug from the centre of the mountain, and from the mine many fathoms deep. The surface rocks contain them; but so do the silurian beds half a dozen miles below the surface. Here, too, we may say, nothing but a voice from heaven could convince us that these were deposited by the flood; but that voice has not come. has, in his wisdom, left us on this, and similar points, to exercise our intellects on the natural causes that have in the lapse of long ages effected these results; and the freest and fullest exercise of our faculties leads to no conclusion contrary to the

God

sublime statements of revelation, only to certain low and limited notions men have superinduced upon it.

3. The third point on which the facts of geology clash with the popular belief is the existence of death before the fall; but the Scripture nowhere teaches that absolutely death did not exist before this awful catastrophe. All that the narrative of our first parents' temptation and fall asserts is this -if they transgressed the command of God, their punishment should be death. But of the decay or perpetual bloom of vegetables; of the death or eternal existence of creatures, man excepted, there is not even a hint. The Mosaic reference to death bears exclusively upon man; it has no possible connection with vegetables and animals. Nor has the reasoning of the apostle Paul, in the fifth chapter of Romans, a more legitimate bearing on the point. He is speaking exclusively of man-of sin committed by him, and death inflicted upon him. There is not the most distant reference to plants or creatures. His language is, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." But whether death reigned, or did not reign, in the vegetable and animal kingdom, previous to and at the fall, neither Paul nor Moses affirm. Here, again, the question is left, no doubt in accordance with the divine plan, an open one. Should, then, the advancing revelations of science demand the existence of death in the vegetable and animal king