316 GEOLOGY. 



reasonable manner, it is plain that this account, which is 

 so universally admired for its sublimity, has remarkable 

 coincidences with the record in the rocks. These have 

 been admirably traced out by Hugh Miller, Dana, and 

 others, and I will not dwell upon them here. They are 

 such that every candid mind must conclude, in view of 

 them, with Dana, that " no human mind, in the early age 

 of the world, unless gifted with s'uperhuman intelligence, 

 could have contrived such a scheme." It might have 

 been done by some very wise man of the present time, 

 with the aid of all the knowledge which the researches 

 of Geology could give him, though not with such re- 

 markable skill and sublimity; but to do it previous to 

 the acquisition of this knowledge would be an impossi- 

 bility. The conclusion, then, is inevitable, that Moses 

 was guided by superhuman powei: in making the* ac- 

 count, or, in other words, was divinely inspired. 



Many geologists think it out of place to notice at all 

 the record in the Bible ; but if it be true that the Deity 

 has given us a written record, it is our duty to examine 

 it thoroughly and candidly, and a reasonable reference 

 to it in a scientific work can not be out of place. It is 

 the dictate of science as well as religion to notice it, and 

 therefore it is done by such eminent men as Dana, Hitch- 

 cock, Hugh Miller, etc. 



428. The Days in the Mosaic Record. That the days 

 which Moses says were occupied by the Creator in the 

 creation were long ages is evident from a comparison of 

 the order of events in that narrative with that revealed 

 by the record of the rocks. But perhaps it is objected 

 that the plain reading of the account would lead any one 

 to believe that the six days of the creation were days of 

 twenty-four hours each. So it would, if not interpreted 

 by the knowledge which Geology has given us, just as 

 we should infer from the language of the Bible that the 

 sun actually rises and sets, as the ecclesiastical court that 

 imprisoned Galileo believed, until Astronomy taught us 



