84 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



the Bible statements, even without any scientific 

 authority, must not be taken as the deliberate and 

 final verdict of geologists. With regard to the 

 physical universe, the language of Moses harmonizes 

 perfectly with the belief in its enormous antiquity, 

 and Christians ought to feel grateful to geologists 

 for leading us out of the false interpretations which 

 for so many centuries have obscured the sacred 

 narrative. And if geology should, later on, make 

 it undeniable that the human race is of much 

 greater antiquity than we have been taught to 

 regard it, surely it is well for us to know what 

 the truth is, so that we may, in this respect also, 

 arrive at more accurate interpretations of the 

 Scriptures." 



" But," said my friend, " supposing that our Bible 

 chronologies may be stretched a few thousand years 

 that would not meet the enormous demands of 

 geology, would it ? " 



" I don't say it is necessary to stretch our Scripture 

 chronology. As I have said, geology has not de- 

 monstrated that man is more than about six 

 thousand years of age. I can affirm this on the 

 authority of Sir J. W. Dawson, of Montreal, one of 

 the most reliable geologists of our time. But still, 

 I don't care to regard Moses as teaching that our 

 race is no older than six thousand years, for he does 

 nothing of the kind. Your difficulty, however, I 

 can clearly see, is not with regard to man's age, 

 but arises from the fact that there must have been 

 life on the earth, according to the evidence of fossils, 

 myriads of years before Adam was created." 



