OMPHALOS. 
131 
The great subject of the Bible is Chkist. God is occupied with the 
glory of his beloved Son Jesus, and the matter revealed in this precious 
book is the development of that glory, and specially in connexion with 
the earth. It is the glory of the Son of Man, as Head of Creation; and, 
therefore, nothing connected with Creation can be said to be foreign to 
the Bible, or to be out of place, when the Eather condescends to reveal 
the Son. 
Others may go to the Bible for what is called “ theology,” and to 
nature for “ science.” I cannot divide them. I cannot look at the 
Bible with one eye, and at nature with the other: I must take both to¬ 
gether, but always giving the Word the paramount authority. People 
may continue to say, if they please, that the Bible is obscure, but that 
nature is clear. Have they studied the former as fully, as ardently, as 
sincerely, as they have done the latter ? Mr. Jukes casts it at me as a 
reproach that I assume to have some acquaintance with the mind and 
ways of God. Shall the Ever-blessed One condescend to make known 
his mind to his creatures, and yet it be wrong for me to think that I can 
know it? Mr. Jukes speaks of the “ reverent man” “ only pondering 
silently in his most solemn and meditative moods” on certain “ secrets 
and mysteries.” Ah ! I shall never guess out the thoughts of the High 
and Lofty One in that way. I prefer to come to his own Word, his 
own Book, written by Himself expressly for my instruction ; and there 
I find many things, that else would have remained “ secrets and mys¬ 
teries,” made transparent as a sunbeam. The charge of treating the 
things of the Blessed God with flippant familiarity is a far more serious 
one than that of defective logic; but is not the gravamen of my offence 
this, that I endeavoured te depict graphically and palpably that which 
God Himself has so presented to us, instead of shrouding it in an ob¬ 
scurity which would warrant us in politely bowing it aside out of our 
consideration? 
The revealed Word distinctly states that animals and plants were 
created in full adult vigour:—great whales; moving creatures with life; 
winged fowl; cattle; creeping thing; every plant of the field “before 
it was in the earth;” and every herb “ before it grew.” Therefore I 
am sure these objects bore evidences of prochronic development. Since 
this was the case with organic creation, it may have been the case with 
inorganic,—with the world itself. Geologists say that this is altogether 
improbable. What of that ? Is it possible ? If they cannot deny the 
possibility, then the ground is cut from beneath their feet. Against the 
certainty of a short chronology, they bring the probability of a long one. 
I have sought to show that the Word of God absolutely compels me to 
the short chronology; I have sought to show that physical phenomena 
do not absolutely compel me to the long one. 
I am not at all sure that prochronism is the true and actual solution 
of the geological difficulty; but I am sure that it affords a tenable solu¬ 
tion. It is enough for me that it affords me an escape from the dilemma 
ou whose horns the geologists would impale me. It is not pleasant, of 
course, to see your antagonist creep out, when you thought you had got 
VOL. V.—REV. IT 
