380 
was found to be made up by 95 per cent, of the same organisms as chalk. 
Also in this deposit were curious things, which, when carefully examined, 
were found of the same organic structure. 
Now to the point. The two organisms are not merely similar, but iden- 
tical ; both composed of animal organisms— the chalk and sea deposits ; both 
existing under the same conditions. We might just as well say a man can 
live in oxygen gas, as that these low organisms, which left their exuviae ^at the 
bottom of the sea, could exist apart from the. conditions under which they 
exist now. No man of science makes assertions like these without cross- 
confirmations. Chalk contains thousands of different organizations. There 
are the remains of four-footed animals, birds, reptiles, &c. — creatures which 
are not now living. This chalk extends over an immense area, far greater 
than the “ nummulitic ” deposit. Now the question is very simple. If 
those who have gone into these things find a flaw in each other’s data or con- 
clusions, they are exceedingly ready to do so. A million years could not 
have produced this deposit of 1,100 feet thick— whether less or more it 
makes no difference ; but it is clear this world was not made six thousand 
years ago ! 
But we must also admit that all the animals now living were not created 
as narrated in the Mosaic history of the creation. The animals which lived 
in the nummulitic period were not the same as those which now live — they 
were not the beasts, nor the fowls, nor the creeping things we now find, 
which existed in the Chalk period. There is positive proof of three suc- 
cessions— three revivals of inhabitants — of this world. Bo we not see then 
the unknown previous duration of this earth ? Apply the same principles to 
matters connected with daily life, and you are convinced at once of the 
correctness of our deductions. 
If you take the only line of argument open to you, to help you out of the 
difficulty— if you deny our right to reason thus legitimately, remember it is, 
and it must be, suicidal to the other side. These views, of which, as the 
minister of science, I am the exponent to-night, are held by men who are as 
Christian in motive and practice as you. These doctrines are held by men 
who think deeply, and who have children to come after them, whom they 
desire to instruct wisely. They are -held by the best of men. They are held 
out of no wantonness, or irreverence, or eccentricity. They are. held by men 
who seek to discover to themselves, and to present to others, scientific truth. 
I ask you to remember this, to consider this, and then I ask you to judge us. 
