40 
original power ? If so, this inanimate nature, from the sub- 
tlest gas to the densest formation, is existing without cause — 
which we can conceive of no tangible thing. It is therefore 
obvious that nature was created. The created cannot create ; 
but only reproduce. Hence, as a mere reproducer, life cannot 
there have had its origin. Those who deduce life from 
elemental capacity, invest matter with eternity ; which it 
requires no argument to disprove. Neither does it require 
argument to prove that the Eternal — -as Eternal — must be the 
great primary cause ; and that all besides what is eternal, can 
only be effects of a cause. 
But may not Deity have bestowed on the inanimate the 
power to produce the animate ? I apprehend not ; because, 
since every separate particle of the inorganic is dead matter, 
how can any aggregation, or combination of dead particles, 
assume vitality ? Pile Pelion on Ossa — and what then ? It 
is only a higher mountain. If we can trace life up to the 
organic — there we must stop. There ends the track. Never- 
theless we recover it. Where ? In Revelation ; and but for 
Revelation, I contend we should be utterly in the dark on the 
subject. 
The very word inorganic, as opposed to organic, is framed 
to show it is neither possessed of animal nor vegetable vitality. 
If it has been denied life, how can we assign it paternity ? 
The atheist's “ fortuitous concurrence of atoms ” is hardly so 
absurd. 
In fact, however, a section of modern philosophy does appeal 
to this very fortuitous concurrence of atoms, for much more 
than the formation of the material universe. When it arranges 
certain essences in the chemist's laboratory, and thence an- 
nounces organic bodies, is it not bringing together by human 
skill, what it tells us, matter can itself do in the vast labora- 
tory of nature ? Unless it tell us this, it is occupied with a 
mere toy ; and if it tell us this, it either invests matter with 
intelligence, or deifies chance. 
Yet man, himself, is of the inorganic? 0 yes; he is of 
the dust of the earth ;— the dust of the earth did not make 
him. 
But without drifting into Scripture arguments, I would 
attempt to show — outside the Bible — that the talk about 
nucleated cells and primordial units, does not account for the 
origination of life by the inorganic : indeed, that it is impos- 
sible the dead framework of earth could have clothed itself 
with life; impossible that any combination of mechanical 
appliances, in connection with the agencies of light, heat, and 
electro- magnetism, could have built up living structure : atoms 
