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noxious to the believer in tho inspiration of Holy Writ. Nor 
will it do to tell them, as some of a more recent school are 
inclined to teach, that philosophers, in their pursuit of know- 
ledge, have so frequently erred and retraced their steps — have 
so often propounded hasty and fallacious theories, to explain 
the phenomena of the material world — that little or no reliance 
is to be placed on any scientific dogmas ; and that, therefore, it is 
premature to entertain the question of the reconciliation of the 
fallible and the infallible. Their common sense rejects such les- 
sons, for they know that scientific truth is attainable, though it is 
seldom attained without repeated failures ; and that there are 
truths established by philosophy, whose foundations are sure 
and cannot be shaken, which must be brought into conformity 
to, and harmonize with, the divine truths which are revealed in 
the Word of God. The tone of disparagement respecting 
scientific research and inferences in which so many well-mean- 
ing men indulge, is hostile to the advance of true knowledge, 
and leaves a painful impression on the minds of many that 
the labours of the philosopher have been vain, or that they 
are prejudicial to the cause of revealed religion. 
In dealing with this subject, the important consideration is, 
not what theories have been displaced or modified, but what 
are the facts which scientific inquiries have established beyond 
dispute ; for with them the Scriptures of truth must harmonize. 
The contest between secular and revealed truths is as old 
as the revival of science in the seventeenth century, when the 
existence of the law of gravitation and the motions of the 
heavenly bodies were denounced by Churchmen as false theories, 
as strongly and dogmatically as some of the best established 
geological facts have been questioned in our own days. But 
time is proving, to those who are willing to learn, that there 
is as little ground for apprehension to the cause of revelation 
from the science of geology as from astronomy. 
As regards geological science, it must be admitted that the 
causes of some of the phenomena that present themselves are 
not so well ascertained and fixed that new explanations may 
not be suggested to account for them. Such, among others, 
are the origin of granite, the composition of the atmosphere 
at different periods of the earth's history, the causes of the 
effects commonly ascribed to glacial action, and of the position 
of fossil tropical plants in Arctic regions. These are sufficiently 
undetermined and open questions to afford legitimate oppor- 
tunities for new or modified theories and speculations ; and 
until they have passed from the domain of conjecture into 
certainty there is no necessity for the religionist, who is only 
called on to deal with established facts, to enter the arena of 
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