but, as might be expected, strongly corroborate many of them.

The object of Scripture is to reveal to man that knowledge which is essential to salvation, and which could never be discovered by his unassisted reason. God has endowed us with powers for investigating his works, and leaves us to make scientific discovery by the active employment of these intellectual faculties. He does not, however, divert our mind from what is essential to our spiritual and eternal welfare, by engaging us in scientific research. If a Christian converse with a dying man, he does not endeavour to engage him in philosophical discussion, but rather to direct him to such truths as are calculated to prepare him for his approaching change. Now, the object of the Word of God is to turn men's thoughts from the world, and to prepare them for death, judgment, and eternity. To all who desire to become acquainted with nature and its wonders, God has spread out another book, which they are invited every day to read, and from which, by diligent study, they will derive great delight and profit. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech; night unto night showeth knowledge.' 'Praise

the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind fulfilling his word; mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl; kings of the earth and all people; let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent.'

The Scriptures open with the declaration, that In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,' but give no intimation when that beginning was. It may, therefore, have been millions of ages before the subsequent events took place.

It establishes the fact, which geology no less plainly makes known, that the universe did not exist from eternity, but had a beginning; and it thus sweeps away one of those delusions by which philosophers, falsely so called, were wont to bewilder and deceive themselves and their disciples.

"The heaven,' in the above passage, most probably does not mean the region of the atmosphere, which was not created till the second day; nor can it refer to the third heavens, in which the Most High is pleased peculiarly to manifest himself. It there. fore probably means the starry heavens, including the sun, moon, and all celestial luminaries. The

Almighty does not reveal how the starry universe was created; and if La Place could prove, that by supposing it at first to have been a fiery vapour diffused through space, and which was gradually formed into solid globes, various phenomena could be explained, there is nothing in Scripture to oppose the theory.

W. C.

21

LETTER III.

LA PLACE'S THEORY CONSISTENT WITH

SCRIPTURE.

SIR, It is not a little surprising to find, that what some men of gigantic intellect among modern astronomers, who appear to have laid the cope stone on that mighty pyramid of discovery which has been gradually rising to its summit through a long succession of ages, consider to have been the origin of our solar system, most singularly harmonizes with what, according to Scripture, is destined to be its termination. When infidels of former days read in the epistle of Peter, that 'the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up,' they would tauntingly exclaim, Where is the fire to come from that could consume the solid earth, with all its immense oceans and continents? Our modern philosophers, even the most infidel, in reply, inform them, not only that the earth is burning within, but

B

that sun, moon, and stars, were at one time a fiery, gaseous vapour diffused to the limits of the system, which, by the law of gravitation, was at once collected into liquid masses, and, as in the eddies of a mighty current, sent whirling through space, in those sublime and uniform motions which they still retain.

Ages before the wisest men of science could make the most distant approach to such sentiments, the humble fishermen, who followed the Saviour, had announced, in language the most sublime, that 'the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.' Does not this appear like a declaration that the whole system is to return to what La Place, Herschell, and the author of the Vestiges consider to have been its original elements? Could any of these or their disciples now say, that such a catastrophe is either impossible or even improbable?

'Nevertheless, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,' and believe, that the same Almighty Architect who first created them, can, even if they returned to their original condition, if necessary, easily re-organize them.