t~t~w 1% t' - /;,  X
THE RELATION OF THE BIBLE TO SCIENCE.
DISCOURSES
DELIVERED AT
THE SALEM STREET CHURCH, WORCESTER,
FEBRUARY, 1868.
BY  MERRILL  RICHARDSON,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.
[PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.)
WORCESTER:
PRINTED BY CHAS. HAMILTON.
FOR SALE BY GROUT & BIGELOW. 
NOTE.
These  Discourses were  suggested  by a Course of  Lectures on
Geology, given in Worcester during the winter.  The train of thought
in each discourse has reference to that and other scientific discussions.
Keeping this in mind, the reader will understLand my treatment of the
subject.                                                         M.R.
WORCESTER, March 10th, 1868.
tit 
I.
TIHE BIBLE.
All Scripture, given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2d Tim. 3: 16.
I prop(ose to give three discourses upon the relation
of the Bible to science. The subject for this mnornilng is,
Thte design of.the Inspired Scriptures; viz: to instruct and
build men up in righteousness.
As chemistry teaches the elementary construction of
bodies; as medicine deals with diseases and their cure; so
does inspired truth have to do with sinl and holiness. The
Bible is a book of religious character. It alludes to a multitude of subjects, but only as they bear upon this.  It contaiIns biography, poetry, history, parable; uses illustrations
from nature and national events, but the one chief aim of
the book is righteousness.  A work upon mechanics or natural history may refer to other things, but we should read
and judge it according to its professed design. Does it accomplish its object? Is it clear and conclusive on the subject it professes to teach?
We ask the same of the Bible. Here is a book written
by different men and at  sundry times," which professes to
instruct men and nations in righteousness; to teach the
character of God and his government; what he has done
for men, the end of their creation, their duty and destiny.
Is this design accomplished? Are its teachings so perfect
on this subject that the mind has never been able to go farther? Were all the works on Astronomy, written at different ages, bound in one volume, it would be our complete 
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science on that subject, and open for our instruction and
criticism. But we should not condemn it because it did not
teach civil engineering or the structure of the earth. If I
find your machine perfect for weaving cloth or setting card
teeth, I have no right to complain that it does not write
sermons. You demand that I shall judge it from its design.
With this statement of the subject, I proceed to show
that the Bible answers the end for which it is given.
1st.  This is now conceded by men who deny its special
inspiration.  The skeptic grants it.  Renan calls the teachings of Christ absolute religion.  " The final religion."
After him, there is nothing more but to develop and fructify." "All that may be done outside of this great and
good Christian tradition will be sterile." " He has fixed for
eternity the idea of pure worship."  "The Sermon on the
Mount will never be surpassed."   His worship will grow
young without ceasing."  Such concessions are now common with this class of writers. They claim the motives
and principles of Christianity go to the extent of our conception. They criticise many things in the New as in the
Old Testament; but not its righteousness. Very well. If
here is a book, whose one great object is to instruct us in
righteousness, and is so complete on this point that nothing
can excel it, then it has perfectly done what it professes to do.
So far the evidence is conclusive. No more is possible.
The voice which speaks to the deepest convictions of men,
and for all time, is the voice of God. The soul responds to
its Creator. Reason examines, the conscience approves and
the heart says, "yes! that is the truest utterance!"  What
more can be said? The Book does what it aims to do; and
does it so well that friend and foe call it perfect, and say,
" the world can never outgrow it."
A moral being who should build his character on this truth
could not fail. The structure would be upheld by the laws
of the moral universe.  That is enough.  It is an unerring
rule of religious duty; good in the first century and in the
last; and for men from the equator to the poles. I call 
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that inspired Scripture. The Maker of men moved the
minds that wrote such truth. The writings of all other great
minds, says Theodore Parker, pale before this light of the
Bible. So much is now granted.
2d.  Keeping in view this leading object of the Bible,
what is the significance of the multiplied differences among
its interpreters?  It is said that this book of righteousness
is inconsistent with itself; allowing in one age what it condemns ill another. The New Testament differs from the
Old, respecting divorce, polygamy, slavery, and the ritual
service. It does; and gives the best of reasons. In the
darkness and childishness of the age of Moses the people
could not receive the spiritual truth of a more enlightened
period.  The rites of the altar were desiaied to give place
to the law that should be put into the heart as men were
able to bear it. Observe, the Bible declares this. Christ
gave this explanation.  Now if a wise man was to teach a
tribe of debased idolaters with a view of elevating themn to a
knowledge of the true God, and educating them to a higher
standard of duty, how would he begin? Give them pure,
abstract truth for the intellect? That would be impossible
without a miracle, the like of which was never wrought;of suddenly expanding an ignorant mind to the highest
spiritual ideas.  As well begin teaching, children metaphysics.  No. He must begin with sensible objects. Begin as
scientific men always  begin, with the very alphabet of
knowledge. Gradually lead them to better views. Follow
the law of the mind's development.
Precisely this is what Moses and others did;-revealing
God and duty as fast as the people could understand.  It
took centuries to wean the Hebrews from idolatry and its
kindred vices. But by the time of Isaiah they knew God's
will in motive and conduct.  They  were made to feel that
no altar service, no prayers or solemn assemblies were of
any use without dealing justly and loving mercy.
God always required the heart; and it was as great a
virtue for a Jew at Shechem to give up his idol, as for a 
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man nlow to take up the cross of Christ.  As it shows as
true a heart in a child to do that which is least, as for a man
to do that which is greatest. Do we judge the ignorant by
our standard for the learned?  Does God require of any
one more than is given?  Ah, did the Bible teach such a
doctrine you might complain!  Find how the good parent
treats the younger and the older members of his fanmily, and
you know how God, as presented in Scripture, treats men
of different degrees of knowledge, capacity and culture.
His requirement is the measure of their ability.  This is a
principle of Bible righteousness, and we know it is of God.
We  do not condemn our Saxon fathers for their rudeness
when they first embraced Christianity.  We allow much for
the ignorance of Christians at our missionary stations.
Why, some studies of nature, plain to us, could not have
been known ill past agtes.  Religious truth for the heart and
life must follow this law.  From the first the Bible demanded of men the best they knew.  Called upon them to learn
more and come up higher. Both revelation and character
must be progressive. The Pentateuch was as profitable for
rig,hteousness when it was  given, as the prophets and evangelists at later periods. Shall we condemn a child's pictorial primer because it does not contain Newton's Principia?
Tubal Cain instructed the artificers in brass and iron; but
he probably knew nothing of a sewing machine.
When men refer to Moses to justify slavery, polygamy or
any evil practice of our day, they undermine every principle of righteousness.  They belie the Bible.   They contradict Christ. They wrest the Scriptures unto their own destruction.  Half the infidelity of our day has been caused by
this class of writers.  They make it impossible to believe in
any such inspiration.  If Christ had done that, we should
have had no New or Old Testament.  Reason and conscience
would refuse to be bound by a rule allowed an ignorant
people three thousand years ago.
Again; —Most of the differences about the Bible refer to
things not fundamental to its righteousness.  Men will differ 
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upon incidentals; differ because they love it; differ for
sectarian and party purposes.  We have a Constitution of
the United States, a supreme law of the nation.  It was
written in our time and in our own language; not a chapter or verse of it lost or altered. It was printed, and not
left on rolls in different hand writing and liable to alterations.  Surely, then, our learned men, president, judges,
cabinet, congress agree as to its meaning,, and in every part.
Not at all.  They differ as widely as commentators on the
Bib.le.  And  they differ on fundamentals;  e.g., "State
Rights," and "National Sovereignty,"-a difference which
has deluged the land with blood.   While the differences
about the teachings of the Scriptures do not relate to 1.9inciples of right and character; but to churches, creeds, catechisms, rites, days, dates, history, genealogy, allusions to
nature, the creation of the earth, and the like. Test this;
let the members of all sects come together and discuss the
doctrines of mercy, purity, meekness, justice, charity as
taught in the Bible; love to God and man, the goldeln rule,
the parables, all principles and motives of character, and
they would agree.  On these essential, saving, eternal qiialities of righteousness, there would be union.  Or thus;  let
the members of any of these sects live out these virtues in
any neighborhood of the world-truly representing, in living epistle, the righteousness of the Bible, and they would
command the respect of that community.  Take the example of Christ. Did not his enemies often grant that he was
a good man? Had he not conflicted with what they supposed was in their law, or denounced them personally for
their wickedness, would  they have accused  him?  They
knew his goodness was of God.  Here they could find no
fault in him. Such goodness, seen without the prejudice of
opinion, would win the admiration of men., It would shine
as the sun.
Or, again, take the books and papers of all denominations and, differ as they may in the incidentals of religion,
they will not differ on those principles of righteousness. 
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Nay, some of the sages of antiquity, in writillng upon moral
subjects, denounced iniquity and extolled virtue like the
prophets.  As Paul declared, the principles of the gospel
commended themselves to every man's conscience. They
are universal. They are for all time. They can never pass
away.  The Bible outlives the ages because of its known
truth. What evidence can be more conclusive? It answers
its professed object. It does not pretend to teach natural
science.  It alludes to such things as they appeared to the
eye, and speaks in the common language of the day.  Bear
in mind it is written in Eastern language,-the language of
figures and poetical imagery. Men will differ in explaining
these; but they cannot mistake the requirement. So will
men differ in methods of embodying its teachings, and hence
so many sects. But this does not touch what is vital to the
book, nor the righteousness of character which it requires.
As far as men are good the goodness is the same.
Our government is not like that of the Jews; but the
Bible requires the same justice in the one as in the other,
and in each according to its light.  We do not work or
dress like Eastern people; but diligence in business and
simplicity of attire were demanded of them as of us. We
have more knowledge; the Bible required them to act up to
what they had. They had their arts and their views of
nature, and we have ours; but none of these things affect
any doctrine for reproof and correction and instruction in
righteousness.
Now if we cannot attack a work in its vital point, all
skirmishing about the outposts avails nothing.  The Citadel
of God's truth stands firm, after centuries of effort to loosen
a few insignificant stones in its outermost walls. Every
shell thrown at this tower of righteousness has not made a
dent,-only bounded back to explode among the gunners.
If we object to the Bible because it does not teach this or
that science, the answer is, it has no such design.  Such
teachings would require a whole library, and not one in a
million could ever read it. A book of medicine does not 
9
teach navigation. We needed light on the character of
God; our duty and relations to him; on life and immortality, and we have it. It reveals God as a Father, when
the world, by its wisdom, knew not God. And who would
exchange this knowledge for all the wisdom of the ancient
world?
Compare the nations without this book with those educated under its light. Or the persons who love and obey it
with those who scoff at its teachings; and you have one
argument which none  can resist.   Why  not judge  the
instrument by its workmanship?  True, the Bible does not
make all righteous who have it. Good laws do not prevent
all crimes, nor good medicines cure all diseases.  This book
does not work mechanically, or as a charm.  Its truth must
be applied. No matter how much food you have in the
house, you will starve if you do not eat.  The fault is not in
the food.  However conclusive the argument for temperance,
there are sots.  Educate generations in the righteousness of
the Scriptures, and their power will be seen. Every individual who builds upon this foundation shall stand, as the
experience of millions has proved.
Then, how comprehensive is the Bible as a book of righteousness. For nations or individuals, the learned or the
ignorant, for the old or the young, it has  instruction.
What rulers and judges should be; the just and equal laws
which governments should execute; the greater responsibility of those in high places, of the rich and learned,
specially to favor the poor; the strong to help the weak,
and the greatest to be most the servants of all,-these principles of civil and social life, are known to be of God.
They. are talked in parliament and Congress; they are advocated by the pulpit and press of all civilized countries.
They are felt to be true by every heart.  The struggle of
the best nations is to bring their governments up to this
standard. How this Book lashes wicked rulers and those
who pervert justice. It covers no sins of good men. David
himself is not spared. The old prophets were terrible on
4
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:::,..        1..; 
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the wickedness of the great. This is the design, and how
outspoken and honest.  "Thou art the man!" whoever you
are. It teaches that the Eternal God is impartial and without favoritism. And so does every law of his universe.
God has the same love and care for the humblest as the
highest. We read it in the sun and the rain, the distribution of talents, the widow's mite, the publican's pardon, the
Levite and the Samaritan. Or look at its instruction for the
family and social life. Nothing can be more perfect for the
mutual duties which the members owe to each other. Do
we need a Father's sympathy and aid in the afflictions of
life? Was a book ever so full of tenderness; inviting our
trust, cheering our hearts, and compensating in spiritual
good the earthly loss? Can you carry such consolation to
the bereaved heart, as the Bible offers?  Any such hope to
the dying?  What  a treasure, richer than rubies, has it
proved! When other light goes out, this shines in its noonday brig,hness.  It cheers more souls, when they most need
comfort, than all other books. What words of hope and
gladness to the desponding: "The bruised reed I will not
break; the smoking flax I will not quench."
And that other question,-one that has caused the smoke
of slain victims to ascend from myriads of altars from the
beginning of the race:-" How  can sin be pardoned?"
What must I do to be saved?" The Bible answers:  Break
off you iniquities by righteousness;" "My grace shall be
sufficient for you."    Come unto me  and be ye saved, all
ye ends of the earth." Do not fear. Do not maim your
body.  Do  not make any costly sacrifice.   Start on no
wearisome pilgrinmage.  Put out your fires on every altar.
Behold what I have done for you.  I so loved the world!
Remember the Bible did not originate this question, but
found it. The world was travailing in pain. The most enlightened Athenians had an altar to an unknown god. The
wisest philosophers were in doubt. Would not the good
Father speak to his children when it would so relieve them?
Has he not spoken on this most vital question, and with a
.eee ee 
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voice so clear that no other is needed? Would we part with
the parable of the Prodigal Son for any or all other lights
upon this subject?  And will aly object to such a Book,
because it does not teach more clearly the science of nature?
Do we act thus with any book or work of mal?
But some claim it conflicts with certain facts of the nlatural world.   No!  Only man's mistaken interpretations of
the Bible conflict with other truth. Its allusions to nature,
inl the common language of the age, are no part of its doctrines, as I purpose to show in another discourse.  I now
ask you to look at the Scriptures for what they profess to
teach, and what we know they do teach-righteousness.
Use them for this, and they are profitable. Yes, and so
perfect that, confessedly, they can never be surpassed.
Every thing which relates to religion you will find here;
and so clear, so full, so convincing, that the way-faring man
need not err, and no scholar can justly criticise. No work
upon natural science is so complete as this science of righteousness. Treat it as you treat the earth-search for its
rich treasures-and you shall find. Use them as faithfully,
and you shall be built up in the very righteousness of God.
Hear these words and do them, and your spiritual temple
shall defy all storms.
We have this light. We have been educated under it.
If we reject it, our responsibility remains the same. Account for the origin of the Bible as we may, so much of its
teachings as we know to be truth is authority. So much is
God's voice to us. If we question some of its allusions to
the heavens and the earth, or if we cannot understand some
of its prophetic visions, this does not detract from our obligation to obey its well known truth for the soul. If we
were born in paganism, we should be bound to act up to
the light of nature, and the law on the heart. Where more
is given more will be requiked. Does not creation contain
much which we cannot understand? Is this a good reason
for not using those products and forces which we do know?
Let us be honest in our treatment of a Book, without which 
12
we should have been groping in darkness, and, it may be,
offering the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul.  Think
what this Book did for our fathers, to what extent it has
fashioned our institutions of freedom; the light it has shed
upon life and immortality, and we shall be slow to doubt its
Divine origin, or complain that it does not teach the sciences
of our day. One thing all can do;-try the doctrine, and
know if it be of God. 
II.
GENESIS AND GEOLOGY.
Genesis 1: 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The subject of the present discourse is the agreement of
Geology and Genesis on the work of creation.
From the earliest historic period men have wondered how
this world came into its present form.  But not till our
time have a few scholars read aright the hand-writing of
God upon its surface. Centuries before Christ men studied
the heavens. Looking, up to the starry dome of night, they
saw order and beauty - the work of an Infinite Spirit.
Looking down upon the earth, they saw confusion, chance,
deformity-the work of contending deities. In the sky there
was a God-in the earth, demons. Above, there was law;
below, lawlessness. In that azure vault, all was serene,
harmonious, grand.   here was the strife of winds, fiery convulsions, Titanic forces rending the rocks and upheaving the
mountains-a war of life and death ill the air and in the
water, on the land and down to the very centre of the earth.
Caldean shepherds gazed at the heavens and worshipped
they gazed at the earth and trembled.
Not till our day did man read in the structure of the
earth, the footprints of a One, Wise, Benevolent Creator,
holding everything to its law. The Bible asserted the fact,
and the Jews were finally confirmed in it. But all other
nations had gods many, good and bad, to account for the
diversities of the world. Darkness, tempest, flood, earthquake, volcanic fire and Arctic frost, pestilence, famine, disease, death,-these were the work of evil spirits. They had 
14
no law; only caprice. They were mad, and tormented the
race; they were pettish, and must be appeased.
Thanks to science for delivering us from such folly, and
demonstrating what the Bible had so explicitly declared,that there is One Lawgiver, the same yesterday, to-day and
forever. Thanks to God, for the Book that, for three
thousand years, taught the first principle of all science, viz:
that every part and product and force of nature are subjected to laws which are without shadow of turning. When the
world was groaning with fear at every strange phenomenon,
inspired men could say,  though the waters rage, and the
mountains shake, and the earth move, and the hills sink into
the depths of the sea, we will notfearl"  Higher than that,
human confidence cannot go. When even the ancient sages
approached Nature with dread, and shrunk appalled before
her frowns, the old Hebrew prophets stood boldly up, undauned at her volcanic throes within, and her raging storms
without, confident that one Almighty hand guided all things
wisely, and bound them by laws they would not pass and
could not break.  In that power they trusted.  It was the
very sublimity of repose.
And now, after thousands of years, science confirms their
faith. Geology declares the earth, as Astronomy declares
the heavens, to be subject to perfect order, and all its parts
harmonious.  Not the minutest shell or floating mote is
without law; not an elemental force is ever out of its place
from the first germ-cell of sea-weed and coral to the California cedar and the pliocene mastodon.  No evil spirit has
swerved the order of Creation by a hair's breadth; no hand
but God's has touched the forming, earth.   Of chance,
caprice, passion, there is not a trace down all the geological
ages. That Creating Spirit works to-day by the same chemical affinities, the same laws of crystalization, the same
attraction, cohesion, generation and reproduction, as on the
morn of creation.  One Lawgiver and one law, one plan and
one purpose, carried through all time,-the sure prophecy
of a future surpassingly glorious. 
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Let us, then, with adoring hearts, read, in the light of
our newest science, the record of Genesis given in the very
dawn of history.
First, what are the essential facts of Scripture and Geology on the subject?  Both agree that the earth is not now
in the state it once was. Both go back to a period when
the matter' of the globe was chaotic. Both agree that its
development was a work of tiinme,-beginning in the cohesion of its mass; separating the mist or water from the
land; causing a firmament or atmosphere to appear. Both
agree also in this: that the lowest orders of vegetable and
animal life appeared first, and the progress was ever upward to the highest. Grasses, herbs, trees; the smaller
fishes, and every thing which could live in the water, up to
whales.  Then the fowls of the air,-a still higher order of
creaton; and then the land animals, from the creeping thing
to the beasts of the forest; and last and greatest, and the
crown of all, man.  Up to date, our earthly creation of animals and man has gone no farther, and there is not a sign
that it ever will.  So far Geology agrees with Genesis.
The rocky strata of the earth confirm the record of Scripture. Think of it;- after long geological eras, scientific
men stand before the upheaved, outcropping beds of its
crust, and read, in characters of light, the order of development as Moses recorded it thirty-five hundred years before
geology was known, or any real science was thought of.
Was not that a shrewd guess of a Midianitish shepherd back
when the pyramids were building? Was it not more than
a guess?
And observe here, that Genesis barely alludes to creation to show the power of God, without a thought of giving
a scientific description.  In ten short verses the writer
states what ten large volumes of science are necessary to
unfold. Yet what the writer touches is true to what geology declares, and down even to the gradual appearance of
light before the full orbed' sun was seen.  True, also, to
what we know of the propagation of every living thing
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from a seed within itself in everlasting succession. The
writer of Genlesis so conceived of the wonider-working
Spirit, that he could create all life with power to re-create
itself.  It requires some wisdom to make a watch; but to
make a watch which could forever go on producing a watch
of its own likeness-that would make a sensation among
scientists.  Yet science agrees with Genesis in declaring
this to be true of all the myriad creations of God on the
land and in the deep.
Again; Geology agrees with Genesis, not only that man
was the last and highest creation of the earth, but that he
was formed out of the dust as to the matter of his body.
The Bible does not tell how this was done, nor does science.
Geologists differ on this. Most claim that we can know
nothing about it.  A few, following Darwin, (his theory of
development, for he does not consider it proved,) advance
the idea of mana's development from the monad,-the very
beginning of the living germ.  But they hold this germi was
of the earth.'Go back as far as we may, it comes to the
same thing so far as this point is concerned, —man was
formed from the dust of the earth. Ask,-" Whence the
first mail?"  " From the dust," says Genesis.   "From the
dust," echoes geology, ages after:
When one affirms that God did not mould man out of the
clay'as a potter would mould a pan or a pitcher, we can
reply,-We do not know how it was done, nor how long it
took.  But whether twenty-four hours or eons, here he is,
and all agree that his body was from the dust and uinto dust
must return. While the spirit lives; and if man's spirit
lives, then the living Spirit that formed him lives. Geology
teaches that there was the agency of the Spirit in man's
formation.  Mere dead matter could not happen into such
a work. One may call it the spirit that works through matter rather than upon it, as there is a spirit of man working
in the body. Genesis calls it the Spirit moving upon the
face of the deep; and some geologists call it the Spirit moving, or working in the chaotic matter.  But all I claim now 
17
is, the actual agency of this. Spirit in creation. And science
grants it.i It declares all other agencies inadequate to
explain the marvels of creation.  So does Genesis.  We
want ideas and not words.  Science gains nothing by giving
to "vital force," or "the spirit of matter," what the Bible
gives to God. Did an intelligent Spirit form this universe,
or was it a chance product of matter?
I come now to the time occupied in bringing the world
into its present form.  How long?  Geology says and with
good evidence, millions of years or ages. Genesis says
nothing.  "In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth."  But how long the'earth was " without form,"
and darkness was upon the face of the deep; or how long it
took for the atmosphere to be clear of its dense vapors; or
how long before the sun appeared, or any dry land; and
then how long after this before there was vegetation; and
then moving things in the waters; and then the birds;
and then the beasts; and then man, Genesis does not say.
It speaks of six days' work,-a day for each of these creations.  Geology calls them long, periods of time.  Now if
we were taught that a day here means twelve or twentyfour hours, we shall think there is a contradiction. But this
is not necessary.  Day, in the Bible sometimes stands for a
year, or any indefinite time. In the second chapter of Gelnesis, the fourth verse, day is used for the whole period of
creation.  We  speak of Cromwell's day, or the time of
Washington.  The Bible, like other books, uses words in
their different meanings, and the meaning is decided by the
connection, or the known nature of the subject. It does no
violence to the record to consider these days of Genesis as
standing for the ages geology requires. We are to keep in
mind that Moses is not teaching science; only giving his
conception, in a few words, of the sublime drama of creation.
A mere glance at a scene which would fill volumes to describe. Some minds may be disturbed to hear that a day in
Genesis is not the same as a day by the clock.  Good men
were shocked when science first taught that the earth moved
3 
18
round the sun. E/ducate a people into a wrong view of
nature, or a doctrine of the Bible, and they are slow to
change.  They think it infidelity to doubt the old impressioll. But we are no longer disturbed by astronomy, as
men once were; nor will our children be by geology.  For
the facts are conclusive, that it has taken vast periods of
time to fashion the earth as we find it. And these facts are
taught in our best schools and colleges, and should be in all
the higher schools.
Some of these facts are the following:-Genera and species innumerable followed each other as the earth was ready
for them. Their fossil remains mark the different layers of
the earth's crust. These rocky strata, in many instances,
are thousands of feet thick. Each has its own types or orders of animal and vegetable life.  Islands and coasts are
made of the remains of coral insects and myriads of shell
fish;-giving us our chalk, our lime and our marble, and, it
may be, our petroleum. Forests of gigantic growth were
swept off and changed into coal beds; —a process requiring
ages. Half the earth's surface has been ground by glaciers,
pulverising the very mountains, and giving us our sand and
gravel and boulders.  The stone walls of New England are
built of the stones thus broken and rounded. Look at the
variety of metals and minerals deposited in masses and in
the veins of the rocks; and particles of them loosened by
the action of frost and atmospheric influences, have been
carried by the rivers and deposited in the sand, many miles
from their original source. The first river of Eden compassed the land of Havilah,'and men gathered gold in the
Pison, as they now do in the Sacramento.  Long periods of
time must have elapsed before such gold diggings were possible.  Then, what upheaval of continents by internal fires.
What mighty floods have covered the earth, as geology
teaches. What convulsions in raising the Alps and the
Andes. What periods of time to form the deltas of rivers
and the fertile valleys —precisely as new ones are forming
in our day. For the dry land and the bottom of the sea 
19
slowly change places now as they have done in past eras of
time.
The proof of these processes of formation is clear to
every mind that will examine the subject. Only the sublime expressions of Job, the psalms mad the prophets can
fitly set forth the wonders of the Creator. This Bible of
nature will be read by intelligent men.  It should be.  The
Creator invites us to read it. It exalts our views of his infinity and greatness and glory and goodness. The heavens
declare his glory and the earth showeth his handi-works.
We are stupid, ungrateful, if we shut our eyes to these stupendous works of our Father's wisdom.   Our temporal
prosperity, as our mental and spiritual culture, depend upon knowing and confiding in these forces of creation.  Man
has never advanced only as he understood the works of
God. He is debased and wretched when he trembles with
fear before those very works by Which God expresses his
loving provision for man. Thy reluctance which some have
to introducing, these studies of nature, lest some interpretation of Genesis should be shaken, is unworthy of an intelligent man. It shows they have no confidence- in truth.
God did write this book of nature, whatever else he has
written.  And no study so exalts our conceptions of his
infinite plan, of the persistent uniformity and perfection of
his law, the wisdom of his vast designs, the glory revealed
and the sure prophecy of a future glory which shall excel
the past-that New Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousnesslike tracing the matter of our globe from its moltell, chaotic
state, onward and upward, as age after age passed by; depositing layer after layer of rock-first its granite pillars;
then its beds of clay and slate and coal and chalk and lime
and marble  variegating themn with the remains of living
things; veining them with all useful metals, and all precious
stones by which Revelation emblems the New Jerusalem
gold and jasper and sapphire and emerald and chalcedony
and sardius and beryl and topaz and jacinth and all manner
of pearls, the brilliancy of which rivals the colors of the rain 
20
bow and the flowers of the field;-and then to read in them
all,iln the light of geology as in the Bible, a Father's care and
love;-leaving nothing out of this his grand pavilion for man,
which can quicken our thought, or keep alive our curiosity;
nothing which can please the eye or charm the ear or gratify
the taste; nothing which can touch our hearts or elevate
our praise and lead us reverently to bow before the Glorious Giver;-Oh, this is a study worthy of men made in the
image of God! And the Bible says search! What ecstacy
of devotion must the 104th Pslam have kindled in the great
congregation.  Humboldt, a most competent witness on
such a subject, says of this Psalm:-' We are astonished to
find in a lyrical poem of such limited compass, the whole
universe-the heavens and the earth-sketched with a few
bold touches."  And of the Hebrew poetry generally, he
says, " it always embraces the universe ill its unity. The
Hebrew poet does not depict nature as a se]f-dependent object, but always in subjection to a higher spiritual power.
Nature is to him a work of creation, and order the living
expression of the omnipresence of the Divinity in the visible world."  I quote this from Professor Chadbourne, who
adds-" After such testimony, it is no unfair claim to make,
that those who flippantly talk of the Bible as being in whole
or  in part contradictory to the modern revelations of
science, shall show us some tangible proof of their assertions that shall at least offset the testimony of the author of
the Cosmos."
Geology confirms the Bible in its sublimest passages of
creation. It interprets nature. It banishes superstition.
It declares the reign of law, from the germ-cell of the first
plant to the most complicated structure.  It banishes every
false god and leaves the One Eternal Forming Spirit.
Geology,- that is, a true knowledge'of the earth,-brings
God so near that, as Paul told the Athenians, we have only
to feel after him to find him. It surrounds us with the evidences of a Creating Mind. As the prophets heard his voice
in the winds, and made the storm-cloud his chariot, and saw 
21
the hills skip and cedars bend before his power, and the
lightning follow his pathway; as David beheld his hand in
giving food to fish and bird and every living thing; as
Christ saw his care in the falling sparrow and his beauty in
the lily; so does geology see this same Creating Spirit in
the hyssop upon the wall, and the leviathan of the deep,
working every moment by laws which are without shadow
of turning.
Again; the Bible has its different dispensations, progressing from the lower to the higher, and so has geology.
Science says, there was a time when man was  low, vile,
brutal, and incapable of receiving our clearer light.   So
says the Bible.  It alludes to giants,-rude beings of mere
physical strength and passions, given to violence. It has
been by a gradual process that any nations have risen, and
only portions of these. On this main fact, history, Bible,
and science speak the same language. And we know that,
in nature as in the moral world, a great deal of savagery
still remains. Scripture points to the time when knowledge,
culture, comfort, truth, justice, benevolence shall be universal. How strong its speech of the future kingdom of righteousness.  But not stronger than geology speaks  in its
method.  During all the long ages, this science prophesies
of the future; points to ever higher water-marks in the evolution of earth and mall; and asserts posivitely, ill the glowing visions of the prophets, that the time must come,-must,
from every law of the past,-when the desert shall blossom,
the wild beasts subdued, the noisome reptiles banished, and
nothing left to hurt in all God's holy mountain.  Man's
dominion shall be complete. The products and forces of
nature shall do his bidding, violence shall cease; and order,
beneficent, beautiful order, reign throughout the moral as the
physical world.  The Bible speaks of this more as the result
of spiritual agencies, while geology, as a science, deals only
with natural causes. Yet science teaches the workings of
the Spirit, and the Bible alludes to the forces of nature.
Both agree in the fact. Geology, as such, does not teach 
22
Bible; and the Bible, as such, does not teach science. The
departments are distinct; the conclusions the same.  This
is as it should be. Let every book be judged by itself.
Only know that truth is one, and the God of Scripture
and of nature cannot contradict himself. There must be a
science of mind as of matter; and our spiritual nature has
its laws as truly as the body. Did we have perfect knowledge of all the sciences, we should see perfect harmony.
One other  point remains to be considered,  viz: the
Antiquity of Man. Here it is supposed there is a contradiction between geology and Genesis.  Geologists, or many
of them, think they find evidence that the human race has
been on the earth longer than the chronology of the Bible
admits. How long, they do not say. Nor does the Bible.
There is nothing in this book which fixes the time of man's
creation. The learned differ widely in their chronology.
If neither Scripture nor science fix the period of man on the
earth, there can be no conflict between them. How difficult
to form any clear conception of six thousand years; or what
changes might be wrought during such a period. We are
lost when we try to measure back to the time of the first
Caldean empire, or the founding of Rome. But far back of
these, in the period of giants and long life, we read of men
working in gold and brass, and making organs of music.
Yes; and Cain, sent off into distant lands, feared the people
there would kill him; and found a wife, and builded a city
in the land of Nod, as if there were plenty of workmen and
citizens even then. These brief allusions in Genesis settle
nothing as to time and people, and were not designed to do
so. And all commentators agree that the genealogical tables
of Matthew and Luke, do not fix the time of the race. Also,
that it is impossible to say how long a generation was in the
period of the patriarchs; and who can guess what is meant
by an antediluvian generation, whether thirty, ninety, or
nine hundred years?  The Bible does not aim  to teach
chronology. It is a book of righteousness; and its allusions
to other things are but incidental to its object.  And Geolo 
23
gy is equally indefinite. There we must leave the time till
we know tnore about it.  If the Bible taught every thing
which some think it should teach,'the world itself would not
contain the books.'
But when the antiquity of man is blended with the manner
of his creation, a word should be said.  Silliman,  Hitchcock,
Dana, Agassiz and most scientific men believe that each
species of living things, including man, was formed by a fiat
of the Almighty, as fast as the earth was ready to receive
them. Others adopt the theory of one species being developed from another.  But this is not proved, and proof is
impossible  in the  nature  of the case.   As  one  well
remarks,'If species do not keep their places, but one is
transmuted into another, where is the possibility of science?
If some original germ-cell may travel up through molusc and
reptile and mammal into man, what forbids stones becoming 
wood and water and wind?   If there is no stability of
species, why, then science itself vanishes into moonshine.'
Think of this; the reason we can make a science of botany
out of plants is, their laws never allow them to change into
other species of creation.  If the lichen of one period
became the oak or the pine of another; or the coral polype
strays into an elephant, or a fish into the mastodon, what
becomes of science?  Science means "to know," not guess.
It is fact, not theory. If nothing abides by its law, where
is your'glorious, changeless law, of which geology talks so
much, and which reveals that forminig Spirit that both the
Bible and geology declare is without shadow of turning?
This law admits variety-Oh! how wide, in man and
plants and animals; from the Shetland pony to the Arabian steed; from the lap-dog to the Newfound}and; from
the pine of the forests to the pine shrub of the mountain
top.  Why, no two leaves or flowers or plants or shells or
animals or men are precisely alike.  In this diversity is the
beauty of creation, and reveals the more the infinity of creating Wisdom. You can graft and improve your fruit. You
can gain by mingling varieties of the came species of ani 
24
mals. But if the peach could bear acorns, or the thistle
figs;' if the aligator could become a sheep or the dove a
mammoth, then you might. close your books of science in
the sad conviction that caprice had set up its lawless rule
through all the realm of nature. Nothing could be known
as settled truth.  Law then has a margin so wide as to lose
itself.  Yes! and peering through the past eons of time,
the geologist must say, nothing is fixed; nothing is clear;
there is nothing which points to the future;-not one uniform law, down through all the ages. The freaks of nature
defy the researches of man. The eagle may become a teradactile, and man himself may be transmuted back into a grub.
Farewell to science, if law becomes caprice.  No! when,
as far back as knowledge can go, every thing has held to its
type; every species stayed in its proper bounds; when man
remains to-day, with every limb and feature and bone and
muscle and nerve and mental faculty and moral sentiment
that he first possessed, only with such varieties as the law
fior improvement allows, I must, as a believer in the science
of Geology, say, God made man in his own image, infinitely
above the beasts; gave him dominion over the earth; and
for the one great end of intelligently adorilng, the Great
Creator. All of which is true, for mental science teaches
this image of the Creator, and history declares man's dominion. Behold it in the tamed beasts, the cultivated grains
and fruits, the winds and rivers, steam and lightning harnessed to his manifold industries.
Genesis says, God breathed into man a living soul. How,
it does not say. Nor can science tell. Here and everywhere are depths of wonder and mystery which no finite
mind can fathom.  Can geology tell how the "vital force"
in matter evolved a living soul? It stands dumb before
the fact and confesses mystery. Very well. Then which
is the more credible, this inbreathing of the soul by the Creator, or its development from the mammal that died without
a soul? It has been said, had the mammal ripened, like the
fruit, only a little more, it would have become man, and 
25
been immortal!  It was a moment too late, and perished
forever, as the unripe seed.  Rather than that, give me the
declaration of Genesis, either as a matter of reason or
science.
Man has been low enough in past ages, and he is low
enough now.  If geology finds his fossil remains beneath
the mastodon, in caves or lacustrine dwellings, it has not, and
will not find a smaller skull than can be found to-day in
Caffre settlements, if not in Timbuctu and London. If geology says, man was once wholly physical and vile, Genesis
will match it with declarations of his debasement.  The
total depravity of Genesis will not fall much behind the total
depravity of Geology.  But low as man has been, the Bible
has proved a power for his elevation. This science of righteousness has raised nations, as internal fires have raised
continenlts, to the light;  anld the fruit thereof shall shake
like Lebanon, and all flesh behold the glory of the Lord."
Welcome, then, this new science, and all others, which
so exalts our views of God, and so confirms the truth that
his kingdom of righteousness shall yet fill the whole earth.
4
I
4*: 
III.
FIRM FAITH AND FREE INQUIRY.
Heb. 13: 9. It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.
The subject for our present consideration is,-Tlte duty
of establishing the heart in religion, while the mind isf jee to
inquire, 1st, as taught ill the Bible; and 2d, as seen in its
method of attaiment.
The Bible solves the problem of free inquiry and a firm
faith. Call man be established in his religious character,
and yet be at liberty to search for himself into all the teachings of nature and Scripture?  This question has often colivulsed the world and divided the church.  Authorities, civil
and ecclesiastical, have answered, No! The Bible answers,
Yes!  Its language is,-Search into all the works of God;
try every doctrine; and yet stand firm in the truth of character.  Let the heart be established and the mind be free.
Men may differ in meats and days, tradition, philosophy
and art, and yet be one in righteousness.  In the essential
elements of religion, men of all ages and of all degrees of
talent and culture, may be agreed.
This position I shall now attempt to make good.
1st. It is taught in the Bible.  How often did the prophets call upon the Jews to inquire into the works of God and
the equity of his laws. It was a necessity to wean them
from idolatry, and bring them to believe that One God was
over all the diversities of nature. In passing from ignlorance
to knowledge, men and nations must differ intellectually.
On questions of social life and government, in explaining
the laws of the universe, ana in interpreting nature and 
27
Scripture there will be diversities.  Difference in talent and
conditionilinecessitates it, and God gives the mind free play.
It may doubt, inquire, affirm, deny; else nothing could be
knownil.  If a child never doubted, it would never inquire,
and hence it would never learn.  And what are the wisest
men  but children as it respects the vast ocean of truth lying
beyond the shore upon which they have gathered a few pebbles?  The Creator opened his works to the insp)ection of
man, and told him to inquire into the heights and the depths.
He may put the microscope and the telescope to his eye
and find ever new wonders in the minute and the vast, and
tell us what he finds, let authorities do as they please.  He
may couple the winds and the rivers to his wheel, and bridle
the lightning and make them pliant to his will; he may turn
over the folds of the earth and ask how its deep foundations
were laid; he may tame the wild beasts to his service, bring
up its gems from the ocean, traverse every clime for its
products, for God gave him the whole world to study, to
subdue, to use and to enjoy.  Many of the Pslams quicken
our devotion, by dwelling upon the wonders of Creation.
But when it comes to religion itself,-duty to God and
man,-the affections of the heart and the principles of character, the Bible requires that we put this truth into the life
and soul as far as we know it.  Be established in rilghteousness.  "Be thou holy for I am holy." "My thlrone is established in righteousness;  in righteousness  shalt thou be
established." Be rooted and grounded in this truth of life.
Unlwavering.  Let nothing move you.  Lose your life rather
than sin, or deny the truth.  Here we are to believe and
not doubt.  Know assuredly.  Let the heart be established.
This truth is more precious than gold. Treasure it up; put
it into your spiritual temple; for building with this,,you
build for eternity.  Other knowledge may pass away.   This
can never pass away. It is duty, right, love, charity,
grace,-God's will in the heart, and becomes identical with
the soul.  It allies us with God and makes us heirs to his
inheritance. 
28
In other things man will change as his light increases;
buttn-ot in right as a principle of character, nor in affections
as true to God. Abraham could be as well established in
vital religion as Paul,-the ignorant as the learned.  Opin ions vary, and the outward acts, while true hearts are one
in the sight of God.   He requires of none, Jew or Gentile,
only according to what is given.  He looks at the motive,
and the widow's mite is as much as the rich mal's dollar.
2d. This firmness of religious faith and character is at tainable. Religion may be considered a science as strictly
as botany or geology.  It has its foundation in the nature
of moral beings.  Manl was created to be religious, in every
sense he was created to be anything else.  His moral nature
has its laws as clear and fixed as the laws of mind or mat ter.   The Scriptures teach  a science of  righteousness.
Hence we can know it and be established in it.  The science of Theology implies a science of religion.  As we
look over the wv-rld, and see how religion has been perverted, and in Christian as iii Pagan lands, it may appear
like a jumble of contradictions.  And does not every other
science?  Are there not as many absurdities in the record
of astronomy, medicine and chemistry, as in the history of
relig,ionl? Look at astrology, alchemy or the treatment of
diseases in past times and among most nations to-day, and
you will find all the follies and superstitions of religion fully
matched.  Why  should men ridicule its vagaries as they
never ridiculed the mummeries of other sciences?  All people stumble in learning to walk, and stammer in learning to
speak.  Judg,e each by its acknowledged standard.  The
Bible professes to be a guide for our spiritual nature.  It is
addressed to our religious sentiment. It makes us judges
of its teachings and allows no lhuman master over the conscience.
Now that man has a sentiment of religion, is as evident
as that he has passions, love of the beautiful or natural affection. The sense of obligation and of dependence is universal. Duty is imperative. Let the reason decide what is 
29
right and conscience says, we ought to do it.  This is its
dictate in all lands and under all degrees of light, alld as
constant as gravitation. Shakespeare was true to fact in
his delineations of the workings of this moral sense. Manl
has been called a born worshipper. And surely the myriads
of altars the world over, attests its truth.  And does not the
Bible teach that God requires a reasonable service?  Reasonable! then we can know it.  Orderly, too;-then there
is law,-the law of spiritual life, as there is of the material
life. These are the conditions of a science of religion
which, once known, will be as perfect as any other science.
IHow attain this certainty of spiritual truth, so that we
can become established in it? As we attain other knowledge.
Seek and find.  Inquire and know; and knowing, act. God
did not command man to search for his will with no certainty of finding it. In matters of temporal interest we
can find essential truth. We can build and weave and sow
and reap; We can sail the ocean, bridge the rivers, tunnel
the mountains and make the desert bloom, Behold, in how
many thousand ways man'has turned to his use the works
of nature! And why? Because God designed it; made
the mind capable of such study, and of trusting in the facts.
Once learn a law of matter, and doubt ceases.  You can
rely upon it. Gravitation will not mock you. The unsupported body will fall every time.  Iron will not float to-day
and sink to-morrow. Thistles will never bear grapes, nor
thorns figs. What you sow that shall you reap. Law has
latitude for one improvement, but never a freak to deceive
us. Once learn the order of the seasons, of day and night,
and you can trust unwaveringly.  You can set your clock
by the sun. Why, men are established in the time-tables
and the tide-tables of the almanac.  They can say, "We
believe." Their faith is not shaken.
Can we doubt, then, that God designed equal firmness in
spiritual truth?  This is our deepest want.  Both reason and
revelation place moral qualities inlfinitly above material
things. The old Egyptians and Caldeanls did this. Centu
t 
30
ries before Christ men could die for their truth, and were
commenided for the sacrifice.   The infinite obligation of
right was discussed in Athenls as in Boston.  Thinlking men
have ever believed that the material universe was but a mediumn of the spiritual, as the body is of the soul. Not
what shall we eat and wherewith shall we be clothed, but
what are we morally, has been the great question.  What
is the man himself, not what are his accidents?  We  talk
of the supremacy of tihe spiritual over the natural as the
Bible talks.  No matter how rich or great a man is, we esteem him only for his intrinsic worth. "The memory of
the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot."
History never reverses this law unless by mistake. It'is
regarded in the conversation of every neighborhood.
Shall we say, then, that while man can be established in
the arts of life, he must search in vain for its supreme end?
Learn the laws of the body and not the soul?  Find how to
trim his sails to waft his commerce, and yet remain ignorant
of those principles by which he must reach the haven of his
being?  See his palaces of luxury, his marts of trade and
his ornamental arts,-carrying his physical life and  his
mesthetic culture to the highest degree; and when he asks"For what great end was I created?" The mocking echo
comes back,-" For what?"  No answer, but doubt.  Inquiry, but no response.  Scepticism, not belief.  We  cannot believe it. What, be established in the truth for a day,
and compelled to be carried about by every wind of doctrine
where our eternal interests are at stake?  It reflects on the
Creator.  It is false to Scripture.  Yet it is a prevailing
idea, that we can have certainty in the kingdom of nature,
and only a guess or a blind faith in the realm of spirit.
Some have gone so far as to say that man, with the Bible
in his hands, cannot find truth for the soul; and this, while
the Bible declares the way-faring manl need not err, and that
nature's light is so clear, the heathen are without excuse.
Inspired men pointed to the provisions of the natural world
in proof of God's goodness.  His creation answered to every 
31
want.  How much more do we need faith in the spiritual.
And the Creator has provided,-First, the means of knowing and being confirmed in things spiritual are ample.   We
actually begin to learn truth for the character before we can
understand nature. God's will in right is taught the child
before philosophy.  Its first, deep convictions relate to religious things.  It may mistake in its lessons and not feel
it; while the first known sin brings compunction.  Conscience is strong.  It is the voice of God.   It speaks the
earliest, and let it be continually heeded, and the moral
sense will keep in the advance. And that child, at twenty
years of age, will be firmer in his convictions of right and
duty, than in his views of physical science. He will have
the evidence of consciousness,-the highest possible.
Again; Scientific knowledge has  never been extensive
among any people, but the knowledge of right,-obligations
to God and man, has been general.  Christ found a loving
response to his truth, seen in his life and teachinos, among,
the people, while the proud rulers rejected it.  John and
Mary knew little of Science;-they knew much of religion,
and their hearts were established.  On the policy of government, igniorant men may err; on questions of moral right
they can be trusted as safely as the educated.  The Sanhedrinm called the people accursed-knowing nothing; we now
know that the people then decided more wisely than lawyer
or priest on questions of religion.  Was it not the ruling
class that caused Israel to sinl?  So has it been in every nlationI. Not because this class did not know, but ambition
and greed swerved them from their convictions. Can we
not judge the leading traitors in our country out of their
own mouth?  The plea in their behalf that they were honest, is simply contemptible. Such facts show us that the
essential principles of righteousness are not obscure.   It
is not difficult for the mind to discern them and the heart to
be confirmed in them.  God has been beneficent in this regard.  He has so ordered that truth essential for man's character and salvation should be within the reach of all. Old 
32
Nineveh knew enough to repent and be saved. Only by
loig abuse does the law of God written on the heart become
dim, and the conscience seared.
The intellect must be slow in reading nature aright; but
the first heart which ever beat could rightly respond to the
will of God in all duty required.  Ally other view impeaches
the Divine justice. After thousands of years a few of the
race are established in a few sciences. But as far back as
the record goes, some men were so established in righteousness that they could relounce life in its behalf.  Enoch was
ripe for translation five thousand years before the circulation of the blood was thought of; and Abraham knowing
nothing of a car or a telegraph, was appointed "father of
the faithful." Socrates never heard of strata and fossils,
but was so confirmed in his moral convictions that he could
drink the hemlock. Did not Moses, thirty-five hundred
years ago, regard God's will in human rights better than
many pro-slavery writers now?  Bishop Hopkins was a
stammering babe in the equal justice of God compared with
some pagan writers. Have not the heathen said to our missionaries, on the subject of Slavery, "Physician, heal thyself?"  God never left himself without witness, in truth for
the soul, while a true Science of nature is of yesterday.  It
took the Caldeans nineteen hundred years to complete their
table of the Moon's eclipses; yet Daniel, alone and while a
young man, was so established in religious character, that
he could go to the lion's den before violating his conscience.
Learned men may be greater sinners now than ever, because
they know more; but none are holier than some before the
flood. For holiness relates to the heart, its affections and
intents. The race did not have to wait for the mariner's
compass before they could sail heavenward, nor for the
steam engine before they could seek a city that hath foundations whose builder and maker was God. Millions of the
truest hearts lived, labored, loved, and died in faith, without our knowledge. Long before a child can say the multiplication table, it can love truth and God with a perfect love. 
33
It would be as foolish to require children to understand physiology before eating, as creeds before they could be religious.
Such a test would exclude from the church the old as the
young, the learned as the ignorant, for they differ as widely
about all catechisms. Did Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Daniel, David, Simeon, Mary, Cornelius, and the poor publican sign the Thirty-Nine Articles? Or any Five Points of
Calvinism? Did Peter understand the atonement as we do,
when he told Christ he should not be put to death? Who
ever could be saved, if such tests are applied?
Open, now, the Gospel of Christ. Listen to the Sermon
on the Mount, the parables of the Good Samaritan, the
Prodigal Son, the Banquet of Love;-look at the spiritual
truth which Christ taught-the meekness, purity, humility,
justice, charity, love;-tenderness to the poor, severity
towards great sinners; sympathy for all sorrow and suffering;-that is, listen to religion from him whose words were
grace and truth, and then do them, and you shall know they
are of God. They speak to the heart and the heart responds. You shall know them as you know that honey is
sweet; as David knew God's law to be sweeter than the
honey comb. You shall no more doubt than you doubt the
reality of natural affection.  Here the heart can be established.  Untold millions have been, and lived and died in
the fiull assurance of faith, and with a hope which was an
anchor to the soul.  "Try the docrine," says Christ, and you
shall know.  And how else can we know this truth for the
soul? Know it, as we know what food is wholesome, or what
medicine is healing. The greatest and the humblest have eaten here, and hungered no more; drank at this fountain and
thirsted no more; each his fill-a Newton and the slave alike.
Why, the skeptic as the believer has pronounced the religious truth of the gospel so absolute that the world can never outgrow it. This truth does not depend upon any interpretation of nature or prophetic visions or doubtful passages,
more than upon the Atlantic Cable. As well ask a child to
know the machinery of its father's factory before it knows
5 
34
and loves the father, as to ask us to read aright the wonders
of creation before we can love God. What had the new
views of Astronomy, which so shocked the Christianl world
three hundred years ago, to do with a single principle of
religion? And now Scientific men claim that the earth has
been millions of years in coming to its present form. But
this has no more to do with religion, or with this Book of
righteousness, than the question whether the firmament is
solid or only blue ether; or the stars suns or specks of
mica; both of which good men have disputed. One interprets the prophecy of Daniel one way, another a different way. Let them.  One turns a hundred passages of the
Bible to the personal reign of Christ on the earth; another as
many other passages to his spiritual reign. Let them. One
believes that the Bible teaches this body of flesh and blood
will rise from the grave. Another believes that only a spiritual body will come forth; while all the matter of the
body enters into other combinations. " Not that which thou
sawest." Let both enjoy their opinions. Let the intellect
work at such questions. They concern no question of character and righteousness. Good men hold different opinions
about many passages of Scripture.  Now if you leave out
all these, there is left all truth for the soul. Timothy had
Scripture enough to be confirmed in righteousess, before a
word of the New Testament was written.  A  missionary
sent a gospel tract hundreds of miles up the Ganges, and
said he believed there was truth enough in that one tract to
convert the world, if it was read and regarded. There was.
It does not take a very large tract to save men. " Do tts
and live," is enough; and such a tract God wrote onl the
heart of man.  His superabounding love has given this
clearer light of Revelation. We could not have demanded
it. And if in the Bible there are passages difficult to understand, so are there in creation. Let us use what we do
know. Be established in the virtues and graces which are
clear beyond dispute. It is good to be. We were made to
be. Our heavenly Father demands our love and duty to 
35
the extent of our light and ability. If we can know but
little, we'can love much.   We  can believe.  We need not
doubt. God has not put us on short allowance of truth for
the soul, ally more than of air for the lungs.  Put his truth
into the heart and life as fast as we can find it, and we shall
be led into all truth. This is the promise. We are at liberty to inquire; but we need not and we should not inquire
and never know; or know, and never be established.
Historically not one in a thousand has time to settle the
authenticity of the Bible.  But its truth of life is its own
authority and its own evidence.  And so much every one
can find for himself.  Christ put his truth on this ground.
We do not reject what is good ill nature because there are
mysteries we cannot fathom.  We  do not refuse food, till
we can explain how it grew, or how it can be changed to
flesh. If we did, we should starve, and deserve to starve.
No science of nature call ever disturb this clearer science
of religion.  It has its foundation in man, and is the deepest
necessity of his life.  We can live in ignorance and poverty
as most of Adam's race have done; but we cannot live well
and hopefully and joyously, or meet any great end of living,
without religion. All eternity will be given to learn; but
here and now we are to be disciplined in character. Err as
we may,-err as good men have in theories, we can be right
at heart.  We may mistake ill chronology; we may misinterpret many a passage of the Bible and nature, as the wisest
men, iln all ages, have done; but we need not mistake those
qualities of character which Christ lived and taught, nor minisinterpret the aim of our being. It was a necessity that men
should long be ignorant of physical forces; but from the
first man to the last it was not necessary that one soul should
perish for lack of vision. Scripture declares that God is not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a
knowledge of the truth and be saved. All can come. God
requires of none beyond what is given. His kingdom is
within us, and consists not in meats and drinks, not in the
tradition of the Jew nor the philosophy of the Greek, but 
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"in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
'What doth the Lord, thy God, require of thee, but to deal
justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God"?
Let us keep these two things distinct.  Men will differ in
much; but good men themselves are the same, for all goodness is one, and of the heart and not the head. Would that
I could make the young see this subject as it is.  You study
books, hear lectures, read papers which seem to coniflict
with the Bible.  The faith of some is shaken.  There seems
a morbid appetite for skeptical ideas. They are discussed
ill your shops.  Papers are published declaring the Bible
antiquated, and that it should no longer bind the conscience.
Well, the Bible is an old book. It has outlived other books,
and survived the rise and fall of empires. But is age anl
objection to works of art and literature? Do they not live
because they are found worthy to live?  Men let the worthless die. Old as the Bible is, its life was never so vigorous.
Of a poem or painting, you would say, such life was a strong
argument in its favor, and men would pay more for it.
Antiquated"?  As well call creation antiquated.  Has
the sun and moon become obsolete?  Are they not as good
for us as if they were published yesterday? Is mall, his
mind, his heart, his wonderful life, his religious sentiment,
his hope and fear, his sense of dependence, his intense longing for immortality, his remorse for sin. his need of a
Father's love and grace, any older now than when Christ said,
Ho, all ye who thirst, Come to this fountain of living waters?
Or, than when the great lawgiver said,-Love the Lord thy
God, with all thy mind and might?  Why will men briing,
against the Bible the very reasons which they urge in favor
of other works of antiquity? A Book that has done so
much for us.
Do any say, the Bible has been used to sanction wrong?
So have men used the truth and beauty of nature to sanction
wrong.  It is a pity and a shame.  But do you reject nature
for such abuse?  "The Bible bind the conscience"?  Why,
it is the only religious book of all the nations, which de 
37
mands the conscience to be free. No human master shall
touch it.: Judge your ownselves what is truth"  Then do
it.  In this, the Bible was thousands of years in advance of
the most enlightened nations, a proof positive of its inspiration.  The loudest infidel is not half so liberal as the Gospel
of Christ. It allows us to be umpires of spiritual truth for
ourselves; and asks,-what we know is right,-viz: that
so far as we know God's will we shall do it. That we come
up to the light we have, and thus be the loving children of
our Father in heaven. With such a purpose, He meets us
with His Spirit and Grace. If man has not the written
word, he is to use the law he has. Whosoever, in whatever
nation, worketh righteousness, is accepted. What more
would we have? Loyal to our best convictions, and God
will no more reject us than the mother the child, because we
could not know more.
The opinions of men on Scientific subjects, or their diverse
views of certain passages of Scripture, need not have the
remotest connection with any principle of righteousness;our duty to God and man. In these they can be established,
while they maintain their intellectual differences.  The mind
must be free to inquire, or all is lost.  If I may think for
myself, then you may think for yourself.  We may instruct
each other, but each must stand or fall at his own master.
This is the Protestant position, taken by our fathers, and
we believe it is the true Bible doctrine onl the subject.
There are evils of friee-thinking, but they are as naught to
those of no thinking. If liberty has its perils, the perils
of despotism are greater.  We fear no comparison of our
position with that of any other country. We appeal to
results after centuries of trial.
But we are not to abuse our liberty. Our responsibility
is not less but greater. Each one is bound to search for
truth as for hid treasures.  If the young will take the
opinions of others, then follow those whose character and
opinions are most worthy of regard.  Begin early to establish your hearts in what you know is righteous; keep a con 
38
science void of offence; and when new ideas come up accept them on their mnerits, yet know assuredly that nothing
true can ever conflict with religious duty. The truth shall
make you firee; and strong too, and blessed as a moral being
should be; but only as it becomes incorporated into the
motives of the heart and the principles of the character.
Listen to Christ who believed in this scientific structure of
our spiritual temple.  After specifying the numerous virtues whichl made man  blessed, he said: -'He that heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them, is like a man who
built his house on a rock; no storms could shake it. But
he that heard and did not, is like a man who built his house
upon the sand, and it fell.' What laws of spiritual architecture are here!  No chance; no caprice; all by plummet
and line;-and the whole force of gravitation in the moral
universe of God was pledged to uphold this rock-founlded
temple of the soul! There is science for you that you can
understand! and law, too, which never changes, and cannot
change, while iman's moral nature remains.
I know not what discoveries in nature will yet be made,
but this I do know, there is not, will not be, and cannot,
one force or fact in creation that will ever undermine a character built onl this righteousuess of the Bible.  It is deeper
than the granite, firmer than the strata, higher than the atmosphere, and shining as the sun.  Be established in this!
It is our being's aim and end.  Without it, though we have
all knowledge, we are as sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal.