570 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



THE AGE OF THE WORLD. 



REV. L. J. TEMPLIN. 



Scarce a generation has passed away since it was the almost universal belief 

 among the common people that the earth, in both its material and form, was only 

 about 6,000 years old. When geology began to teach that the age of the world 

 was to be reckoned by not only thousands and tens of thousands, but by mill- 

 lions of years, it was arraigned as being in opposition to the word of God, being 

 infidel if not atheistic in its tendencies. But now, few if any persons, who have 

 any just claims to be considered intelligent, question the great antiquity of the^ 

 earth. But only those who have given special attention to the subject are aware 

 of the vast amount of evidence in favor of this view that is presented by the pres- 

 ent condition of the rocks composing the solid crust of the earth. 



To give even an abstract of all the proofs that exist in favor of this doctrine 

 would require a large volume ; much less can it be compressed within the narrow 

 limits of a magazine article. A cursory view of a few representative facts and 

 general principles, is all that can be attempted in the present discussion. 



There was doubtless a period in the earth's history when its whole mass was 

 in a state of igneous fusion. When it had become sufficiently cooled to permit 

 the existence of water on its surface, currents would be formed, and erosion 

 would begin. The eroded material would be deposited in still water and form 

 sedimentary rocks. These would be laid down in horizontal, or nearly hori- 

 zontal, strata. The cooling of the earth would cause contraction, and this would 

 produce subsidence in places and upheavals in others. By these means the 

 strata, already 'laid down, would be broken, contorted, and tilted at various 

 angles, leaving the edges exposed. As erosion would go on, new strata would 

 be deposited on the upturned edges of the older strata, but unconformable with 

 them. These coordinate processes would go on as long as the vertical oscilla- 

 tions in, the crust of the earth should occur. And they have been in operation 

 from those early times, when all the water on the earth was probably kept at a 

 boiling temperature, till the present, and we find them still in operation, and 

 still producing the same results. In studying the sedimentary rocks, it should 

 be always kept before the mind, that they have been formed by the double proc- 

 ess spoken of above; and that these have exactly balanced each other; the de- 

 nudation being exactly commensurate with the deposition. The amount of this 

 sedimentary matter, in the aggregate, is enormous. 



The various formations vary greatly, being thicker in places, thinner in 

 others, and entirely wanting in still others ; but taken altogether, they constitute 

 a thickness of about 72,000 feet, or thirteen and a half miles. In considering 

 these rocks in relation to time, the mind should divest itself of all idea of reduc- 

 ing it to any statement in years. But there are numerous facts connected with 



