Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/32

 too high, and its surface too liable to be broken up by volcanoes, and drenched by deluges, to be a secure and happy abode for the more perfect races of animals that now inhabit it. But it was adapted to the nature of such animals as we now find entombed in the rocks. The overflowing benevolence of the Deity, therefore, led him to place such beings upon it, and thus to create a vast amount of happiness, which seems to be a grand object in all his plans and operations. The vegetables that existed in those early periods, have been converted, in the course of time, into the various species of coal now dug from the bowels of the earth; while the remains of the animals of those times have become changed into lime stone. Even those violent volcanoes and earthquakes, by which the successive races of animals and plants have been suddenly destroyed, have probably introduced into the upper part of the earth's crust, various metalic veins, very important to human happiness. And in all this, we see indications of that same benevolent foresight and care for supplying the wants of his creatures, to which our daily experience of God's goodness testifies." These are important facts, which no serious mind can pass lightly over. Long ages, millions of years rolled round while the earth was being formed, matured, and fitted for the use of man. The materials for our houses, our clothing and our food, had to be prepared in the great laboratory which was kept at work for millions of years. Myriads of animals lived and died long ages before thé creation of man, and their remains were treasured up in the earth to afford the materials for our daily bread. Why, even the wheat of which our bread is made, contains a very large proportion of phosphate of lime, which is of animal origin. Sir Humphrey Davy, on analyzing the ashes of wheat, found this substance in the proportion of 0,445, or nearly one half. For the proof of this statement, the reader is referred to Dr. Jackson's Geology of Rhode Island, page 233.