being raised into the air by the force of the volcano, would fall in a shower upon the surrounding region. Whether it was miraculously produced, or the natural operation of it employed by God to punish the wicked, it is not of much consequence to determine; since the sacred writers, whose example we should copy, seem to regard every natural event as almost equally the work of God.

3. Geology and Revelation agree in representing the continents of our globe as having formerly been submerged beneath the ocean.

At least two thirds of existing continents are covered with rocks that contain abundant remains of marine animals: and the whole of their surfaces are overspread with such a coating of bowlders, pebbles and sand, as proves the occurrence of deluges in former times, too mighty for any thing but the ocean to produce. Indeed, to doubt that our existing continents in early times formed the bottom of the ocean, is scepticism too gross for any geologist at this day to indulge: especially when he sees that the rocks are tilted up just as they would be if a volcanic force had lifted them above the waters.

I hardly need say that all this corresponds precisely with the Mosaic account. Until the third day it seems that the surface of the globe was one shoreless ocean. For the command that the dry land should appear, implies that previously it was covered; and from the second verse of Genesis we learn that it was covered by the deep. It was upon the waters that the Spirit of God moved.

4. Revelation and geology agree in teaching us that the work of creation was progressive after the first production of the matter of the universe.

Every step which the geologist takes in his examination of the crust of our globe, presents to his view fresh evidence that the formation of nearly all the rocks has been progressive. Every where on the earth's surface, he sees in operation the agency of rains, rivers, and deluges, to wear down the higher parts and to fill up the lower, where he finds accumulated sand and gravel with a mixture of animal and vegetable remains. And where water, containing lime or iron in solution, percolates through these deposites of detritus, they become hardened into stone. The mass thus hardened cannot be distinguished from the sandstones and conglomerates that cover large areas on the earth, and form mountains some thousands of feet in height.

The observer cannot resist the impression, that all these rocks, whose characters are more mechanical than chemical, (e. g. the sandstone and conglomerates,) were produced in a similar manner. But it sometimes happens that such rocks in particular localities have been subject to the agency of powerful heat by means of former volcanoes: and there their mechanical aspect more or less disappears, and they are crystalline in their structure; so as exactly to resemble the oldest, or lowest rocks. Hence the geologist very reasonably infers, that even the oldest strata were originally mere beds of clay, sand and gravel, which have been changed by volcanic agency, repeatedly and powerfully exerted upon them. And when he sees the unstratified rocks (now almost universally admitted to be the products of igneous agency,) intruded among the older stratified ones in almost every possible mode, he is confirmed in the inference which he had made. In short, there is not probably a single rock yet brought to light in the crust of the earth, of which the geologist cannot find its prototype now actually forming on the land or in the sea. And they all bear the marks. of progressive formation. Men in their studies may reason about the rocks, as if they were produced in their present state in a moment of time, by the original creative fiat of Jehovah. But they cannot examine them in their native beds without seeing at once that the opinion is utterly untenable.

Now it is an interesting coincidence with geology, that the Scriptures describe the work of creation as occupying six successive days. Whether we are to understand these as literal days of twenty-four hours, or whether geology demands a period longer than six natural days, are questions not necessary to be discussed in this place. The argument requires only that it should be admitted, as all must admit, that Moses represents the work of creation as progressive. He does not, indeed, represent any new matter as brought into existence after " the beginning," in which "God created the heavens and the earth." He describes the animals and plants as produced out of pre-existing matter. And geology teaches the same.

5. Geology and revelation agree in the fuct that man was the last of the animals created.

The geologist finds several thousand species of plants and animals entombed and their forms preserved in the rocks; and some of them very far down in the series. But no remains of man occur until we arrive at the highest strata. It is only in

the loose sand and gravel that cover the surface that human remains have been found at all;* and to this day it is doubtful whether any of them can be referred to a period as far back as the last general deluge. At least, it is only in one or two instances that the bones of antediluvians have been exhumated. Now human bones are no more liable to decay than those of other animals; and they are as easily petrified. Why then, if man existed with the animals now entombed in the secondary and tertiary rocks, are they not found as they are with postdiluvian remains? The conclusion is irresistible, that he was not their contemporary. And probably before the last deluge, he scarcely existed out of Asia: and hence, among the antediluvian animals of America, England and Germany, he has not been found. In the south of France only (unless perhaps in Belgium,) have human remains been discovered so connected with antediluvian quadrupeds as to render their existence at the same epoch probable. Man, therefore, must have been among the last of the animals that were created. And it is needless to say that this conclusion coincides precisely with the revealed record.

6. Geology and revelation agree in the fact that it is only a comparatively recent period since man was placed upon the earth.

We have room to refer only to two or three proofs which force this conclusion upon the geologist.

The last great catastrophe that affected our earth almost universally, appears from the marks it has left on the surface, to have been a general deluge. Since that epoch, certain natural operations have been slowly and pretty uniformly in progress, so as to form an imperfect kind of chronometer. Among these is the accumulation of alluvium at the mouths of rivers, usually called deltas. In some parts of the eastern continents we are able to ascertain the progress of the work, from the situation of certain cities and monuments 2,000 or 3,000 years ago and the conclusion is, that the beginning of the whole process cannot be dated further back than a few thousand years.

And

* The Guadaloupe specimens, now in the English and French cabinets, are hardly an exception to this statement: for although found in solid rock, it is a rock which is continually forming at the bottom of the Caribbean seas, and these specimens are doubtless of postdiluvian origin.

since human remains have scarcely been found in the diluvium of countries which geologists have yet examined, it cannot be that man had spread far on the earth's surface previous to the last deluge. Thus we are led to infer that the date of his creation could have reached back but a few thousand years.

The same conclusion is confirmed by the manner in which ponds and morasses are filled up by the growth of sphagneous mosses. This process is still going on; so that during the life of an individual, he can often perceive considerable progress towards the conversion of a morass into dry ground: But were not the present condition of the globe of rather recent date, all such processes must ere this have reached their limits.

Who has not observed, that where mountains rise into precipitous rocky peaks or ledges, with mural faces, in almost all cases, there is an accumulation around their bases of fragments detached by the agency of air, water, and frost? Where the rock is full of fissures, indeed, these fragments sometimes reach to the very top of the ledge: but, in general, the work of degradation is still in progress, and impresses the observer with the idea that its commencement cannot have been very remote.

I am aware that such facts do not very definitively fix the time of the beginning of the present order of things; because we cannot easily compare them with human chronology. But when we read in the Bible, that it is only a few thousand years since man was placed upon the earth, we cannot but feel that these natural changes are in perfect coincidence with the inspired record; although alone they teach us only that their commencement was not very remote. Had deltas been pushed across wide oceans, or morasses been all filled up, or mountains been all levelled, we should at once perceive a discrepancy between revelation and nature. Now both of them proclaim the comparatively recent beginning of the present order of things on the globe, in the face of the hoary chronologies of many

nations.

7. Geology and revelation agree in representing the surface of our globe as swept over by a general deluge at a period not very remote.

Many distinguished geologists maintain, that the Mosaic account is strongly confirmed by geology. Others merely say, that the globe exhibits evidence of many deluges in early times, but that no one of them can be identified with the Noachian deluge. All will agree, however, (except perhaps some violent

infidels,) that geology affords in these marks of former deluges a presumptive evidence in favor of the one described by Moses. We have no space here to draw out this evidence in detail: but we hope to do it at a future time; so that our readers can judge for themselves to how much it amounts. But in this place we maintain only, that in respect to a general deluge, geology strictly accords with revelation. And considering the nature of such an event and its rare occurrence, coincidence must be regarded as highly interesting.

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8. Finally, geology furnishes similar confirmatory evidence as to the manner in which revelation declares the earth will at last be destroyed.

Recent discoveries and reasonings have rendered it probable that the internal parts of the earth still contain an immense amount of heat, sufficient in the opinion of some to keep the interior in a melted state; and sufficient, whenever God shall permit it to break from its prison, "to melt the elements and burn up the earth, and the things therein." Geology also renders it probable, that the consequence of such a catastrophe would be the formation of "a new heavens and a new earth." But we have no time at present to give a more full developement of these ideas suggested by modern geology.

Now in respect to the coincidences between geology and revelation that have been pointed out, they are for the most part such as no human sagacity could have invented at the time the book of Genesis was written for it is only by the light of the nineteenth century that they have been disclosed. We ought, therefore, to bear in mind, when we examine any apparent discrepancies between geology and revelation, that there exist between them many unexpected coincidences. In other words, we ought not to forget that even from geology alone, we derive presumptive evidence in favor of the sacred historian. The evidence of disagreement, therefore, must be very clear and strong, to justify us in rejecting the Mosaic cosmogony as false.