Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/40

 36 the Israelites against the Polytheism and idolatry of the nations around them; by announcing that all these magnificent celestial bodies were no Gods, but the works of One Almighty Creator, to whom alone the worship of mankind is due. Having thus far ventured to enter into a series of explanations, which think will reconcile even the letter of the text of Genesis with the phenomena of Geology, I forbear to say more on this important subject, and have much satisfaction in being able to refer my readers to some admirable articles in the Christian Observer (May, June, duly, August, 1834) for a very able and comprehensive summary of the present state of this question; explaining the difficulties with which it is surrounded, and offering many temperate and judicious suggestions, as to the spirit in which investigations of this kind ought to be conducted. I would also refer to Bishop Horsley's Sermons, 8vo. 1816, vol. iii. ser. 39; to Bishop Bird Sumner'a Records of Creation, vol. ii. p. 356; Douglas's Errors regarding Religion, 1830, p. 261-264, Higgins on the Mosaical and Mineral Geologies, 1832; and more especially to Professor Sedgwick's eloquent and admirable discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, 1833, in which he has most ably pointed out the relations which Geology bears to natural religion, and thus sums up his valuable opinion as to the kind of information we ought to look for in the Bible: "The Bible instructs us that man and other living things, have been placed but a few years upon the earth; and the physical monuments of the world bear witness to the same truth: if the astronomer tells us of myriads of worlds not spoken of in the sacred records; the geologist, in like manner, proves (not by arguments from analogy, but by the incontrovertible evidence of physical phenomena) that there were former conditions of our planet, separated from each other by vast intervals of time, during which man, and the other creatures of his own date, had not been called into being. Periods such as these belong not, therefore, to the moral history of our race, and come neither within the letter nor the spirit of revelation. Between the first creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased God to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval? On this question scripture is silent, but that silence destroys not the meaning of those physical monuments of his power that God has put before our eyes, giving us at the same time faculties whereby we may interpret them and comprehend their meaning."