I have again and again endeavoured to conceive 'what great advantage divines and geologists expect to gain from their misrepresentations of the inspired narrative of creation; I cannot, however, affirm that I have made the discovery. I need say nothing here of the ex nihilo writers were their knowledge and understanding as excellent as their motives are honest and pure, all would be well with them. It is quite otherwise with the other two parties. Not a few of them have made the most daring and rash assumptions, in defiance of the clearest evidence to the contrary. Now, what benefit do they suppose will accrue to geology from such a procedure? This question I cannot answer, and must therefore leave it to the reader to make of it what he can. As they do not divulge their motives, we must be content to remain in ignorance of them. But whatever good they expect to derive, it only adds to the illusions they are labouring under to look for any. I shall illustrate this in a very simple manner. Let us suppose two of the inmates of some wise institution suddenly visited with strange fancies one of them, we shall say, is haunted with the notion that he cannot live without a thin bandage over his eyes, and he is allowed to veil his sight; the other imagines that sound is very hurtful to himthat it shatters his nerves, injures his health, and, moreover, breaks his peace of mind; and he begs permission to stop his ears; and his request also is complied with. For a time they are both quite happy, and wonderfully delighted with the change in their mode of life. But, by and by, the man with the bandaged eyes begins to notice a discrepancy between the light of day and his sense of sight; and the man with the closed-up ears complains of a want of agreement between the atmosphere and his sense of hearing; but neither of them have the most remote idea of the cause of these defects. They meet and converse toge

ther about their respective grievances; they have not, however, the slightest suspicion that they are themselves the sole causes of the evils they are suffering. Meanwhile they console themselves with the thought that the discrepancies cannot be real, but only apparent; for the same God who made the light and the atmosphere is the author also of the eye and the ear; and they begin to speak about "schemes of reconciliation." A bystander, listening to their sage conversation, takes the liberty of saying,-Unbandage your eyes and unstop your ears, and you will see and hear like other men. But our wise men are indignant at the intruder, for ascribing their defects to such causes ; they hurry away, and begin again to talk about "schemes of reconciliation ;" and continue, as before, with bandaged eyes and closed ears. The delusion under which the wise men labour is not assumed; they actually think some calamity has befallen them. And it may be the delusion of the divines and geologists is real also; but both the one party and the other have none to blame except themselves. And the divines and geologists, like the wise men, cast about for "schemes of reconciliation;" but they always look abroad, never within, and so they cannot find the true solution of the enigma; and the scheme of reconciliation that all but answers at one time is, in the course of half a century, found to be quite useless. Both parties accordingly must continue in bondage till they become convinced of the mistakes which they have committed against themselves.

When the Pope-Paul the Fifth-forced Copernicus to abjure the doctrine "that the sun is the centre of the system, and the earth revolves about the sun," and when the same Pope charged Galileo not to teach that doctrine, he was quite unconsciously affording proofs to the world that he was Antichrist, by fulfilling a prophecy respecting the Man of sin :

Dan. vii. 25. "He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws."

By "times" here is meant the events of the time. Copernicus had just discovered the true theory of the heavens, the most remarkable event certainly of the time in which he lived, and the Pope thought he could change that event, and bring back the old doctrine, that the earth is the centre of the system, and all the heavenly bodies move around it. He failed, however, to accomplish his object, for it was a vain, proud thought, and, probably, the suggestion of Satan whose servant he was: and, from that time, the true theory has continued steadily, though slowly, to gain ground, notwithstanding the violent opposition it met with from the Church of Rome. In our day, all who receive a liberal education understand, that there is no disagreement between the apparent astronomy which runs through the Scriptures, and the true theory of the heavens; but that, on the contrary, the one is in fullest harmony with the other.

Geology, hitherto, has been less fortunate than astronomy. The apparent astronomy is a reality, and has a foundation in nature as well as the true astronomy; and men of enlightened and unprejudiced minds soon understood that the statements of the Bible on the subject were in accordance with the whole course of nature. The discrepancies with which geologists busy and perplex themselves, have a foundation, neither in the Scriptures, nor in nature. This much geologists must grant. The authors of them, therefore, can only be the geologists themselves, many of whom are also divines. Were not this the case, conviction would be comparatively an easy matter. But though none, save themselves, have had any hand in the making of them, they are as blind to the fact, as if the discordances, which they lament, had existed ever since the

days of Moses. It is this utter insensibility, to the true and only cause of the evil, that has made it maintain its ground so long, and may uphold it for years to come. It is highly probable, that not a few of the geologists of the present day will, to use a familiar expression, carry their wrong views, in connection with the Bible and geology, with them to the grave, as many others have already done.

THE END.