Lesson xxvni.] FIRE. 189 



fend them. Elijah was taken up to heaven " in a 

 chariot of fire ;" and the destruction of the world 

 by fire, is a positive doctrine of Scripture. This 

 doctrine, indeed, is perfectly consistent with the 

 most correct philosophy. All bodies contain ca- 

 loric, and this substance, by its expansive forre, 

 tends constantly to ex 1 end its energy to surround- 

 ing substances. The matter which produces light- 

 ning also, whatever it may be, is now found to be 

 universally diffused through the system of nature : 

 so that the heavens which, according to the lan- 

 guage of Peter, are to " melt with fervent heat," 

 want no foreign matter to convert them into fire. 

 So, likewise, " the earth and the works that are 

 therein," carry with them the seeds of their own 

 destruction, and will, in the appointed time, be 

 burnt up by that element which now r sides within 

 them, and is only waiting for the word from its 

 Creator. 



