Then tions (p. 30), we have similar statements again renewed: ‘Volcanic agency broke up these strata, and projected chains of mountains; sea and land repeatedly change conditions.' Does not all this information, which is indelibly written in the strata of the earth, give mighty emphasis to the ancient declarations of God's Word:-'Who removeth the mountains and they know not, which overturneth them in his anger, who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.' the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.' The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.' 'All the foundations of the world (i.e., of the habitable earth) are moved.' 'Although the mountains be cast into the midst of the seas.' 'The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.' Such mighty convulsions, though new to those who have laid aside the revelation of God, are familiar to all who study it. Geology and astronomy have together brought strange confirmations of the Word of God, from regions where they could have been little expected. The internal heat of the earth is, according to the author of the Vestiges, one of the most certain discoveries of modern science, and perhaps the hollowness of the globe is no less certainly known. If it were a solid mass to its centre, it would probably be hundreds of times heavier than it is known to be. In all likelihood, 50 or 100 miles beneath the surface of the earth, in every region, there is a hollow cavern of immense magnitude, capable of containing myriads upon myriads of cubic miles, which is literally bottomless, which is burning with perpetual fire, yet dark and gloomy, being shut out from the light of heaven. This is the revelation of science. Has it nothing to do with the revelation of God's Word, which speaks of a pit, dark, deep, large, bottomless, and burning? Can it have no possible connection with the declaration of Is. xxx. 33: For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large, the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it?' It is surely passing strange that the revelations of science and of Scripture should so marvellously agree, if they did not refer to the same region. Many of the Scripture declarations on such subjects are, in great part, figurative, but the figures are borrowed from truths and circumstances which have a real existence, and which are intended to present vividly to the mind the consequences of continued transgression. Many, however, of the judgments denounced against the nations in former ages, and which were thought to be the language of strong hyperbole, and regarding which the people said of the prophets who uttered them, 'Doth he not speak to us in parables?' have in reality had a literal accomplishment. When the prophets predicted of the richest, most productive, and thickly-peopled countries in the world, that they would be swept with the besom of destruction, and be converted into perpetual desolations; that the cities would be laid in ruinous heaps, and given, by an everlasting covenant, to the wild beasts of the desert, to owls and ravenous birds, and that the foot of man would not pass through them, the people no doubt thought that it was only the language of strongest exaggeration; and that the partial desolation would only be for a short period; for that the fulfilment of such predictions was impossible; yet let the countries around Nineveh, Babylon, Idumea, and generally of the enemies of ancient Israel, bear witness! Their condition for many hundreds of years, shows that every word has been literally accomplished. Can it be possible that the flames of hell are now burning beneath our feet? There is a fact mentioned in p. 70 which requires a word of explanation. It is as certain that the Grampian mountains of Scotland are older than the Alps and Apennines, as it is that civilization had visited Italy, and had enabled her to subdue the world, while Scotland was the residence of roving barbarians,' &c. This is startling to those who believe that all the dry land of the world arose from the ocean on the third day of creation. Now what does this prove, but that the region of the Grampians, at some far remote period in the history of the world, sent streams and detritus to straits where now the valleys of the Forth and Clyde meet, and when the greater part of Europe was a wide ocean?' This may be true, and yet, with all the rest of the world, they may have been submerged at the time the world was reduced to chaos before the creation of man, and have arisen again when the dry land appeared. W. C. 57 LETTER VIII. SERPENT CHANGED-SCRIPTURE ANIMALS SIR,--There is a fact mentioned in various parts of the Vestiges, which demands attention from all who are interested in the truth of the Bible. No fossil serpent occurred in the secondary formation, where all the other reptilian forms so greatly abounded.' The serpentile race are traced to an order of reptiles of the crocodile or lizard form which walked on four legs. The rudiments of the legs, we are frequently told, are still to be found under the skin. The ribs become in the serpent organs of locomotion.' Vegetable matters, as well as mud and sand, have been found in the stomachs of the ceciliada,' which are of serpentine form, and were formerly ranked along with them. Mark the surprising harmony that here exists between geological and Scriptural revelation. There is but one animal that we know of from the Word of God whose form was to be changed-'And the Lord ' E |