550 



seen world where it is no longer the exception but the eternal 



plant, the animal or man, bear the same testimony, and exist as 

 outposts put forth in the succession of ages from that higher 

 heaven that surrounds the visible universe. In them, too, Al- 

 mighty power is no doubt conditioned or limited by law, yet they 

 bear more distinctly upon them the impress of their Maker, and, 

 while all explanations of the physical universe which refuse to 



tial and in the end incomprehensible, this destiny falls more 

 quickly and surely on the attempt to account for life and its suc- 

 cession on merely materialistic principles. 



Here, again, however I must remind you that creation, as main- 

 tained against such materialistic evolution, whether by theology, 

 philosophy or Holy Scripture, is necessarily a continuous, nay, an 

 eternal influence, not an intervention of disconnected acts. It is 

 the true continuity, which includes and binds together all other 



It is here that natural science meets' with theology, not as an 

 antagonist, but as a friend and ally in its time of greatest need ; 

 and I must here record my belief that neither men of science nor 

 theologians have a right to separate what God in Holy Script uiv 

 has joined together, or to build up a wall between nature and rc- 

 igion, and write upon it "no thoroughfare." The science that 

 does this must be impotent to explain nature and without hold on 

 the higher sentiments of man. The theology that does this must 

 sink into mere superstition. 



In conclusion, can we formulate a few of the general laws, or 

 perhaps I had better call them the general conclusions respecting 

 life, in which all Palaeontologists may agree. Perhaps it is not 



do no barm. We may, then, I think, make the following affirma- 



1. The existence of life and organization on the earth is not 

 eternal, or even coeval with the beginning of the physical universe, 

 but may possibly date from Laurentian or immediately pre-Lau- 



2. The introduction of now species of animals and plants has 

 been a continuous process, not necessarily in the sense of deriva- 



