XXIII ADDRBS8 



emergency, that conclusion too is in accordance with 

 the explicit declarations of the oracles of God. And 

 so we come back from our wide wanderings over the 

 earth and down the ages, bringing home at least this 

 one sheaf of practical wisdom, that the laws of nature 

 and of human progress are working out the very 

 results which the Scriptures announce. Our specula- 

 tions, however fanciful some of them may have seemed, 

 will have done more than to amuse an idle hour, if they 

 shall serve to present to our minds, in any new aspect 

 of evidence or impressiveness, the important truth, that 

 the God of nature and of providence is the God of the 

 Bible, and that u the testimony of the Lord is "sure, 

 making wise the simple." 



