482 
GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF OUR GLOBE. 
origin to the same cause, and therefore that the change in 
their direction is to he attributed to some grand convulsion ; 
the general opinion of geologists is, that the globe has 
undergone several similar ones, which have completely 
changed the form and character of its surface, destroyed 
large portions of its animal and vegetable kingdoms, and 
given rise to new orders in each department of nature. 
The law of nature must be regarded as being naturally un- 
changeable, according to the promise made to Noah, seed time 
and harvest, summer and winter, heat and cold, day and night, 
should go on without interruption, which, probably, would 
have also previously been the case but for foreign causes of dis- 
turbance, these, however destructive at the time, the Almighty 
over-ruled for permanent and increased good, making each 
the means of introducing a higher state than the preceding, 
and readapting the law of nature to meet the altered state of 
the world, thus, as God's word has always been in advance 
of the wisdom of man, so has his law ever met the require- 
ments of the natural world after every alteration it has 
undergone, and will continue to do so when the next great 
convulsion occurs, of which he has forewarned us. 
One of these grand changes of our globe is alluded to in 
Scripture, which commences with an account of the condi- 
tion it was in after one of those grand cataclysms, and its 
gradual restoration by a new law, to a far higher state than 
any of the preceding ones. The disposition, too, of the atmo- 
sphere, seems to have then been altered, when volcanic forces 
appear to have been so powerfully displayed, as to convert 
a large portion of the aqueous part of the globe into steam, 
which, instead of being again condensed and returned to its 
former receptacle, was raised by the increased temperature 
of the globe as a permanent vapor floating over the entire 
surface of the atmosphere, forming a mass of water larger 
than even that of the ocean beneath, this uniformly spread 
out at such an elevation as a thin mist, would not hinder the 
rays of the sun from shining through, but would retain and 
cause them to circulate around the globe, and thus tend to 
equalize its temperature, and render it conducive to human 
