3O2 Natural Theology. 



only so much of nature as its purpose demands. That 

 purpose certainly demands some account of the pre- 

 sent order of things. All that could be required of 

 such an account would be that it should be sufficiently 

 explicit to answer its purpose of assuring the race 

 that the world was created by God, who still con- 

 tinues to rule it, and that its bold touches should 

 be so truthful that the revelations of science should 

 in the end harmonize with them. No such account 

 can be held responsible for the opinions or mistakes 

 of those who have attempted to explain it. Most 

 of the Christian world believe that the coming of 

 the Messiah was foretold by the prophets, and that 

 his character was perfectly sketched by them ; but 

 the whole Jewish nation, to this day, while accept- 

 ing the Old Testament, regard Jesus of Nazareth 

 as an impostor, and are still looking for a Messiah 

 whose character shall harmonize with the Scriptures. 

 While there is such a diversity of opinion in regard 

 to the character of Christ compared with the pro- 

 phecies respecting the Messiah, it is not strange 

 that there should be difference of belief in regard 

 to the correspondence of the Bible and the structure 

 of the earth. We doubt very much whether any 

 man has science enough to trace out the corre- 

 spondence fully, even to the satisfaction of his own 

 mind. But on the other hand, we are quite as sure 

 of the statement which we tried to substantiate in 

 the early part of this course, that the account of the 

 creation of organic beings given in Genesis, is as 

 probable, viewed from a scientific stand-point, as any 



