CORRESPONDENCE. 



169 



opinion, that where geology ends, there the Mosaic record begins. This 

 interpretation is exceedingly simple, and removes all difficulties. We have 

 only one question to deal with, and that a very simple one, namely, does 

 the Mosaic record on the one hand, and geology on the other, testify to 

 the same condition of the earth at the only point where they come in con- 

 tact ? This question can be answered in a few words. 



Moses says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

 Now the earth it was a wreck and a ruin ; and darkness (was) upon the 

 face of the deep ; and the spirit of God (was) hovering over the face of the 

 waters." 



The meaning of these words will be best seen in the following para- 

 phrase : — 



" The following is the true history of the creation of the heavens and 

 the earth : — They were created by God, and they were created in six days. 

 At the time when their creation commenced the earth was in a truly de- 

 lorable condition. It was a wreck and a ruin. The ploughshare of ruin 

 ad passed over it, leaving it waste and desolate, dark and damp. Murky 

 vapours ascended from the abyss of waters, effectually shutting out the 

 light of day. Being deprived of light, the earth was destitute of heat ; 

 consequently animal and vegetable life was extinct. The Spirit of God re- 

 garded the earth in this its desolate condition with tender solicitude, even 

 as a mother-bird hovers over her young when in misery and pain." 



According to the exposition of the learned commentator Macknight, 2 

 Pet. iii. 5, 6 is a parallel text, referring to the period of the Drift, or, as it 

 is sometimes called, the period of alluvial and diluvial deposits : — "By the 

 word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the 

 water and in the water, whereby (that is, by which heavens) the world that 

 then was, being overflowed with water, perished." 



Such is the testimony of Moses and the Apostle Peter. 

 What says geology ? While I am writing, a voice is heard from the 

 mountains on the other side the broad Atlantic, attesting the truth of the 

 Biblical record. I quote the following paragraph from the ' London Jour- 

 nal,' March 19, 1864 :— 



" The Earth made Cold by Heat. — Professor Agassiz lately delivered a 

 course of three lectures in Boston, U.S., and the greater part of the last 

 one was devoted to a description of the phenomena which indicate that 

 the continent of North America had at one time been overlaid by dense 

 and unbroken masses of ice, moving from the north to the south. The 

 traces of such an agency are found in the peculiar drift deposited on the 

 surface of the continent, from the Arctic to the 36th or 40th parallel of 

 latitude, being in its nature and composition such as would be deposited by 

 immense cakes of ice, pushing forward the debris of the soil over which 

 they moved, and bearing on their top the irregular masses of stone which 

 are found in the region designated. That the direction of this moving 

 mass of ice was from north to south is proved by the abrasion of hills 

 having an acclivity facing towards the north, where the southern descent is 

 without such characteristic marks. After stating the grounds on which the 

 ' earthquake theory ' was inadequate to explain the phenomena of this 

 drift, Professor Agassiz estimated that the ice which deposited this drift 

 and produced its other attendant phenomena must have been 5000 or 6000 

 feet thick. But whence came the cold which produced such a thickness of 

 ice ? This query was answered by supposing that there had been injected 

 into the sea, from the subterranean fires of the earth below it, a vast mass 

 of melted material, thus producing an immense volume of vapour, which, 



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