312 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



nile existence, we have but to retire in vanquished silence, leaving 

 the palm in the hand of infidelity. Because, if matter really be 

 eternal, the Being to whom we ascribe the glory of creation, is de- 

 pendent on matter, and no longer a free, but a necessary agent, 

 who ought not to be adored, because he cannot hear or save. 



Just the reverse of this is the Christian faith. We believe that 

 the Supreme Being alone is eternal, independent of all creatures, 

 and infinitely happy in himself. We regard the creation as a vol- 

 untary overflowing of his goodness, that intelligent beings might be 

 happy in the contemplation of his works, and in the enjoyment of 

 his favor. We admire the creation in order to adore the Creator. 

 We see all nature full of his perfections. In the immensity of the 

 creatures, and in the variety of their forms, we trace the wisdom of 

 a God, who, in the formation of every creature, and the connexion 

 of cause and consequence, had every possible plan before him, and 

 has, in ail cases chosen that which was best. Foreseeing the solar 

 influence of the torrid zones, he has provided cooling fruits to al- 

 lay the heats of fevers, breezes almost constant to cool the air, and 

 provided the camel with an upper stomach, to hold a supply of 

 water while crossing the parched deserts. Equally aware of the 

 northern cold, he has there provided more solid food for man, the 

 wannest wools for sheep which prefer the hills, and soft and open 

 furs for beasts which pierce the thicket. Every creature in the 

 mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdom, alike discovers his 

 wisdom, his goodness, and his care. Hence arises the impossibili- 

 ty of superadding the least improvement to the works of nature ; 

 for whatever has once received the finish of God, can never re- 

 ceive the smallest augmentation from the genius of man. 



The contrast, therefore, between the believer and the unbeliever 

 is wide and striking. While the mere geologist contemplates the 

 mines and abysses of nature, while he is awed by the falling of 

 precipitous cliffs, and while he trembles at an imaginary sinking 

 of continents, and the consequent rise of others out of the sea, he 

 looks into the abysses of his tomb the tomb into which he is about 

 to fall and rise no more: whereas, the Christian student looks 

 through all nature with cheerful eyes. When he sees the mineral 

 kingdom abounding in beauties, beauties which in their kind equal 

 those of the vegetable and animal kingdom, he is transported with 

 the thought, that the God who made all these beauties by his fiat, 

 is himself infinitely more glorious than his works.* 



From the surveys which have been made of the solid crust of 

 the earth, so far as it has been penetrated into, it is evident that the 

 rudimental materials of the globe existed at its earliest period, in 

 one confused and liquid mass ; that they were afterwards separated 

 and arranged by a progressive series of operations, and an uniform 

 system of laws, the more obvious of which appear to be those of 



*Sutcliffe's Introduction to the Study of Geology, pp. 4 6. It is much to be regretted 

 that this excellent little work is not more generally known. 



