126 MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION 



and revelation, properly understood, many crude 

 theories are hastily adopted, and to untrained 

 minds there has seemed to be reason for doubting 

 the truths of Christianity. The leaven of unbelief 

 has steadily penetrated large classes, and it has 

 called forth the mighty energies of the Church to 

 counteract the mischievous efforts of perverted sci- 

 entific progress, to show that the God of revelation 

 and the God of Nature are one ; that the Bible and 

 the Book of Nature are from the same Author, and 

 hence there must be agreement, even though in 

 all cases our present light does not enable us to 

 point it out fully. 



While, however, no part of the ancient faith has 

 been surrendered through the assaults of the Ration- 

 alists and the Materialists, advancing scholarship 

 and scientific research have modified, in some re- 

 spects, many notions which have been held as to the 

 teachings of revelation, — notably among these the 

 periods of creation and the age of the earth. 



It is almost unnecessary to add that these contro- 

 versies, which have agitated the English Church, 

 have also agitated the American Church, and have 

 called forth the same or similar earnestness. 



The Episcopal Church in America. — The 

 Church of England was first established on the 

 American shores in 1609, at Jamestown, in Vir- 

 ginia. The colonists obtained grants of land for 



