seoret; counsels of Heaven, and have the designs and methods 
ot Providence m the creation and government of the world 
communicated to them, but this does not belong to our rank 
and condition.” 
Of one thing I feel the deepest conviction, that nothing 
man has yet discovered, no length to which science has been 
pursued, has at all educed any principle diametrically opposed 
to the truths of religion; any principle like law destroying 
the idea of creation and design which should lead us to regard 
Moses m no higher light than a Hebrew Descartes or a 
JNewton. 
It is alleged, however, that modern science hasproducedagreat 
number of facts utterly irreconcileable with revelation. These 
so-called facts are derived, for the most part, from the sciences of 
geology,, ethnology, anthropology, and philology. Now, I need 
not detain you by any lengthened argument in opposition to 
these statements. The able pamphlet entitled “ Scientia 8dm- 
tiariim, giving an account of the origin and objects of the 
Victoria Institute, has so fully entered into this branch of the 
subject, and is so well known to you, that I need not waste 
your time by repeating the long array of supposed contradic- 
tions between the facts of science and the records of revealed 
truth which have fallen before a dispassionate review of the 
progress of science. Revelation has oftentimes suffered 
much by the over-zeal— laudable though it be in itself— of its 
defenders accepting crude scientific theories as demonstrated 
tacts. I have . watched the progress of modern science with 
much satisfaction, as I have seen one supposed contradiction of 
science to revelation after another fall away. The infant sciences 
m their imperfect stage have presented difficulties to revelation 
which their advanced progress has of itself removed. The 
pursuit of this inquiry; the investigation of facts alleged to 
be m opposition to revelation; the examination of the contra- 
dictory and conflicting hypotheses of all the principal “ologies” 
of the day is the work to which this Institute proposes to 
devote itself. I feel no doubt as to the result. I believe the 
more intimately we study the book of nature, hard as it is to 
read aright, difficult as its hieroglyphics are to decipher, yet, 
it we do so m a humble spirit, I doubt not its records will con- 
firm the records of the Bible; in that faith I will venture to 
conclude my address, m the words of Bishop Butler 
Let us adore that infinite wisdom, and power, and good- 
ness, which is above our comprehension. f To whom hath the 
root of wisdom been revealed ? or who hath known her wise 
counsels? There is. one wise and greatly to be feared; the 
Lord sitting upon His throne. He created her, and saw her. 
