THE CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 47 
his own out of purely natural elements, and then to look 
upon the Christian faith as something merely supplemental, 
which may be combined with it, or not? Is he not apt to 
look upon the natural objects around him and draw from 
them the evidences of the goodness and power of God, and 
stop there. And yet can he honestly there stop? Proof, 
undoubtedly, he will find on every side, of God’s abundant 
mercy. He will find the strata of the earth, and all the 
productions that grow thereon, so disposed as to be most 
convenient for the use of man,—he will find marks of de- 
sign and providence in the meanest creature that moves 
upon its surface, power in the floods and in the lightning, 
glory in the sun and in the stars—goodness in everything! 
Even the very lilies of the field, blooming beside his path 
and home, seem placed there but to gladden man’s eyes and 
heart. But is this all that he will see there? Will he not 
also find traces of ruin and of wrath? Will not the same 
rocks that furnish him with materials for his house and his 
hearth shew him also marks of destruction and of death? 
Does not the same electric burst that purifies the atmos- 
phere, bring destruction often upon the lowly cottage and 
the innocent cattle? Do not those birds, those beasts, those 
fishes, from which the naturalist draws so many proofs of 
the Almishty’s providence and mercy, prey upon one 
another, inflieting a cruel and premature death ?—do not 
the floods overwhelm? and does not the sun scorch? Do 
not flowers fade —do not some poison? Can we under- 
stand the stars? Are there then not signs of mystery, of 
sin, of sorrow, of pain, of death, in the natural world? and 
can the philosopher blink and overlook these things? And 
yet how are they to be reconciled with an all-mereiful 
Creator, except it be the God of Revelation, the God of 
the Bible—that Almighty Creator, who, manifesting him- 
