IV PREFACE. 



trate the Sacred Writings ? And do not these in 

 return reflect the brighter light of the inspired page 

 on Nineveh and Babylon these old enemies of 

 Heaven's cause when they arise from their deep 

 graves, after the silence of three thousand years, to 

 emit their testimony before the world 1 For a time, 

 too, not a few hoped that the Geology of our century 

 would give the final death-blow to that Bible, which, 

 for thousands of years, has maintained its place as 

 the Creed of nations. But already Geology has been 

 found to supply the most cogent and complete refuta- 

 tion of Hume's boasted argument against miracles ; 

 and perhaps the time is not far distant when it will 

 appear that such works as the Testimony of the Rocks, 

 or Sermons in Stones, will prove a closer agreement 

 between the first page of Scripture and the many 

 pages of the Earth's successive formations, than the 

 most ardent advocate of Inspiration could, until 

 recently, have hoped ever to discover. 



The conflict has extended to the field of Physio- 

 logy ; and here, too, the friends of religion may 

 anticipate an equally triumphant issue. The Micro- 

 scope will certainly contribute its aid in no small 

 degree to the result, as it reveals to us the (other- 

 wise) " invisible things of God" in His minutest 

 operations, and proclaims that " there was the hiding 

 of His power." 



March 18, 1858. 



