DTSCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 19 



No reasonable man can doubt that all the phenomena of 

 the natural world derive iheir origin from God ; and no one 

 who believes the Bible to be the word of God ; has cause to 

 fear any discrepancy between this, his word, and the results 

 of any discoveries respecting the nature of his works; but 

 the early and deliberate stages of scientific discovery are 

 always those of perplexity and alarm, and during these 

 stages the human mind is naturally circumspect, and slow 

 to admit new conclusions in any department of knowledge. 

 The prejudiced persecutors of Galileo apprehended danger 

 to rehgion from the discoveries of a science, in which a 

 Kepler,* and a Newton found demonstrations of the most 

 sublime and glorious attributes of the Creator. A Herschel 

 has pronounced that " Geology, in the magnitude and sub- 



liquit id negotii, ut ubi maturuerit ingenium humamim, per aetatem, usiim, 

 et observationes, opera Dei alio ordine digercrent, perfectionibus divinis 

 atque rerum naturae adaptato. — BurneVa Archxulogix Philosophicx. C. 

 viii. p. 306. 4to. 1692. 



• Kepler conchules one of his astronomical works with tlie following 

 prayer, which is thus translated in the Christian Observer, Aug., 1834, p. 

 495. 



" It remains only tliat I should now lift up to Heaven my eyes and hands 

 from the table of my pursuits, and humbly and devoutly supjilicatc the 

 Father of lights. O tbou, who by the liglit of nature dost enkiralle in us a 

 desire after the liglit of grace, tliat by this thou mayst translate us into the 

 light of glory; I give tliee thanks, O Lord and Creator, that thou hast glad- 

 dened me by thy creation, when I was enraptured by the work of tity 

 hands. Behold, I have here completed a work of my calling, with as much 

 of intellectual strength as thou hast granted me. I have declared the praise 

 of thy works to the men who will read the evidences of it, so far as my finite 

 spirit could comprehend them in their infinity. My mind endeavoured to 

 its utmost to reach the truth by pliUosophy; but if any thing unworthy of 

 thee has been taught by me — a worm born and nourisiied in sin — do thou 

 teach me that I may correct it. Have I been seduced into presumption by 

 the admirable beauty of thy works, or have I sought my own glory among 

 men, in the construction of a work designed for thine honour? O then gra- 

 ciously and mercifully forgive me; and finally grant me this favour, that this 

 work may never be injurious, but may conduce to thy glory and the good 

 of souls." 



