1 



VEUTEDKATA. 



birds, calK'tl lirnnfosnumpif/antciini, of tlic cissowary kind, had a foot eighteen inelies long, and must 

 have weii^lied from four hnn<hed 1o eiglit hnn<hed pounds — four times the ^eiglit of the ostrich! 

 Ami all the>e things are written on tlie ancient sandstone roeks, beneath the surfoec of the soil; 

 and st> eertain, so minute is the record, that even the rain-drops that pattered on the sands while 

 these ereaturi's wi-re liviriL;- Iicrc. are imperish.iMy preserved. And these things were written by 

 the tiiii^er of <iod — who can doul)t it.' And who can doubt that Man — the being competent 

 to reatl the rccDrd, ami after the la|)se of ages, actually present here to read it — is the object of 

 care, of synipatiiy, to Him who alike made and preserved these inscriptions, and made and pre- 

 served and taut^ht generations to interpret tiiciii .' The poet has said, in respect to common ob- 

 jects which strike the mind on the surface of the earth — 



"And this our lift", 



Fimls tongues in trees, books in tlie running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 



Shall not man, in view of these and other revelations of geology, rise to a higher life, which shall 

 find something more than mere sermons in this Book of Rocks, with the imprint of the Almighty 

 on its title-page? We have seen but the beginning; we know that mankind have but just en- 

 tered upon this study, which ages on ages cannot exhaust. Yet how wonderful the record — and 

 every page of it speaking of God, and tiacing his footsteps while laying the foundations of the 

 world, long, long before he walked w ith man in the Garden of Eden. Do we not, must we not 

 derive this great good from such a view — the manifest trutli that God made man to intepret his 

 works; and does not the firm conviction follow, that a being thus endowed, is not limited to a 

 transient existence, but is bound to immortality ? How inevitable is the hope, bow confident 

 the anticipation of a future life — which shall unfold man's capacities, and give scope to man's 

 destiny — springing up in the soul from such contemplations ! And will not God fulfill the hopes 

 thus inspired, and perform the promises thus implied ? 



