Rough Notes on the controversy against Geologists. 475 



case in regard to moral truth. That was too momentous to 

 be left to man only, since his eternal happiness or misery 

 depended on his being aright informed of it; on it there- 

 fore, but on it alone, an inspired revelation is given fully, as 

 a sole and infallible direction to the happiness of the blest. 



It may be asked, Why was this so, why was not a full and 

 correct theory on such subjects as astronomy and geology 

 given ? In reply to such a question it may be inquired, what 

 relevancy would such theories have had in relation to the 

 great object in view, — the elevation of man from the depth of 

 sin and moral ruin, to a renewed holiness of nature, and its 

 consequent happiness. The foolishness of God is wiser 

 than the wisdom of men, and it is just another proof of 

 His wisdom where the intellect of man would go astray. 

 It needs not much penetration to discover that had this 

 been done, it would have been an obstacle to the re- 

 ception of a Divine revelation containing it, until man 

 had made a proficiency in science sufficient to appreci- 

 ate such truths ; and that, after he had made this pro- 

 ficiency, it would have stamped, in the opinion of many, that 

 revelation with the strongest mark of a literary forgery ; viz., 

 the development in it of facts and opinions, the growth 

 of an age far more recent than that in which it purported to 

 be written. How does the matter in reality stand ? The 

 passages in which sciences of research are touched on are 

 so worded, that while not at variance with the notions 

 of the most illiterate period of the world, neither are they, 

 nor can they, if properly taken, be in opposition to the 

 conclusions of the highest learning of the most refined. 



The impropriety of setting passages of Scripture in op- 

 position to the conclusive inductions of sound science, is 

 well exemplified in a historical fact. When the light of 

 the present system of astronomy first dawned upon the 

 world as an antagonist to that philosophy which held that 

 the sun revolved round the earth, it was decided by the 



