though all these modes of reconciliation should be unsatisfactory, it would be premature and unreasonable to infer that there exists any real discrepancy: first, because we are by no means certain that we fully understand every part of the Mosaic account of the creation: secondly, because geology is so recent a science, and is making so rapid advances, that we may expect from its future discoveries that some more light will be thrown upon cosmogony: and thirdly, because as geology has been more and more thoroughly understood, the apparent discrepancies between it and revelation have become less numerous.

We now appeal to every reasonable man, whether we have not given at least a fair and candid examination of this subject. We appeal first to the theologian and the philologist; and inquire, not whether such an interpretation of Genesis as admits the duration of our globe through an unknown period previous to man is wholly free from difficulties, but whether it has not so much plausibility, that it might be at least provisionally adopted, if demanded by the undoubted facts of science? What doctrine or precept of revelation, except merely the chronology of the globe, but not of man, is at all affected by such an interpretation; unless it be, that it enlarges our views of the plans and the benevolence of the Deity? We have seen that several of the most distinguished theologians and commentators of the age have adopted this exposition; and we cannot but believe that all, whose views are enlarged and liberalized, and who are acquainted with the facts of geological science, will acquiesce in the sentiment of Bishop Sumner. "No rational theologian," says he, "will direct his hostility against any theory, which, acknowledging the agency of the Creator, only attempts to point out the secondary instruments he has employed."* Equally reasonable are the views of Doederlein. "It was allowable," says he, "for Whiston to maintain that the earth was originally a comet : or for Leibnitz to maintain that our world was an extinguished sun; for Buffon to suspect that our earth was a fragment struck off from the sun by the stroke of a comet: for Wideburgh to exhibit and illustrate the hypothesis that one of the sun's spots, being forced from its place and moving once as a comet over an eccentric orbit, was fixed in its present place, prepared and adorned for new races of animals: or for others to propose different theories of the earth, provided they agree in this, that

* Records of Creation.

this world, which we admire, received its present form and inhabitants about 5,600 years ago." ""*

We appeal, also, to any who are sceptical in respect to the truth of the Bible; and inquire of them, whether we have not given as much weight to the geological objections against revelation as they deserve? We apprehend that we shall generally be thought to have yielded more than the rules of moral evidence demand, or prudence approves. Nevertheless, have we not shown that there is far more in geology to corroborate than to invalidate the testimony of Moses? that every remaining discrepancy admits of a probable, if not a demonstrable explanation and that therefore, it is premature and unreasonable to believe that there exists any real opposition between the two records. What more can a logical philosopher in search of truth demand? Who would hesitate to pronounce the veracity of an uninspired writer fairly vindicated by such an array of evidence? And why should a severer test be demanded because a writer lays claims to a divine inspiration?

It is a matter of thankfulness for the friends of revelation that those objections which have been derived from the science, to the truth of the Scriptures, have one after another vanished away just so soon as patient investigation had thrown the clear light of truth upon the subject. "It is now thirty-five years,' says Sharon Turner, "since my attention was first directed to these considerations. It was then the fashion for science, and for a large part of the educated and inquisitive world, to rush into a disbelief of all written revelation; and several geological speculations were directed against it. But I have lived to see the most hostile of these destroyed by as hostile successors, and to observe that nothing which was of this character, however plausible at the moment of its appearance, has had any duration. in human estimation, not even among the most sceptical."+ Along the whole outskirts of science infidelity has from time to time erected her imposing ramparts and opened a fire upon Christianity from a thousand batteries. But the moment the rays of truth were concentrated upon these ramparts, they melted away, mere airy castles as they were, magnified and made formidable only because they were seen through the mists of ignorance. Is it strange, that in fields so wide as geology dis

* Licuit Guil. Whistono.

+ Sacred History of the World, (Family Library), p. 37.

closes, and so recently thrown open to the daylight of truth, there should still be seen here and there a spot yet enveloped in mist? Is it strange, that scepticism, driven from every other field of contest, should hold on to this last retreat with a death struggle? But the last cloud of ignorance is passing away, and the thunders of infidelity are dying upon the ear. On the retiring darkness the bow of Christianity appears blending its colors with the bow of science: a sure token that the flood of unbelief and ignorance shall never more go over the world!

ARTICLE II.

THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH ONE UNDER ALL THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS OF CHRISTIANITY.*

By J. H. Merle d' Aubigné, President, and Prof. of Ecclesiastical History, in the School of Theology, at Geneva. Translated from the French. By H. Southgate, Jun., Theological Seminary, Andover.

The Church, although dispersed throughout the world, harmoniously publishes, teaches and transmits this faith, as with one voice. For, though there are various modes of expressing it, the power of the truth transmitted, is one and the same; as the sun, that Creation of God, is one and the same throughout the universe.

Irenaeus, against Heresies, Book I. ch. 3.

What great activity men display on earth; what various labors; what mighty efforts! But time lays low the greater part of their works; and should they even design to raise a tower to the heavens, their proud structure is soon cast down, and, after a few generations, is mingled with the sand of the desert.

There is nothing stable here below but Christianity. This

*The address of which the following is a translation, was pronounced at the opening of the annual session of the School of Theology, Geneva, on the first of May, 1834. The form in which it was delivered, is retained.-TR.

alone is immutable, like its Author. It is that rock of ages against which new waves have ever broken and will still break, without the power of moving it.

Let him, then, who would impart to his work on earth, a stable and enduring character, link it to Christianity. It will then receive from the eternal religion, an impress of immortality.

These are not truths, Gentlemen, which are universally acknowledged. You will find, on this subject, two great errors among men. Some pretend, that there is nothing immutable in the nature of Christianity. "Christian doctrine," say they, "is only a particular form of religious sentiment. This form has succeeded another form, and another still will succeed this. The religion of the Saviour was necessarily evolved from the state of man in the time of the Cæsars; just as the buds and blossoms of a tree are put forth in spring.' Singular error! to which Rationalism is obliged to have recourse, but which history refutes in the most signal manner. No, Christianity is not a mere human apparition. History, that unobjectionable witness, presents her to us, not in concord with, but in direct opposition to, the various tendencies of the human mind at the time of her appearance. The wisdom of the world did not give her birth it sought, on the contrary, to destroy her. Christianity was not the child of the age; she was at once its enemy and its reformer. This precious fruit did not spring forth from the dust of the earth; to dust, therefore, it cannot return. Heaven then gave to the world a changeless treasure, which successive generations were to transmit entire, from hand to hand; which we, in our turn, have received; which we now bear, with reverence and fear, in earthen vessels; which we shall hand down to our posterity; and which will subsist unchanged among men, until the earth and the heavens shall flee away, and there shall be found no place for them.

;

But while we meet, on one side, the imaginations of the levellers of Christianity, we find, on the other, the pretensions of an inflexible dogmatism, which would attribute to the Christian system, an appearance single and uniform through the whole duration of the Church. There is, indeed, something in Christianity which never changes; that is, its essence. But there is also something which does change; that is, its appearance. It is from the want of properly distinguishing between the appearance and the essence, that so many have overlooked the unchangeable nature of the Religion of Jesus Christ. Every man changes VOL. VI. No. 20.

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his appearance in the different periods of his life; and yet he is the same man.

It was necessary that Christianity, at the moment when it was given from on high, should, like every thing else which enters within the sphere of humanity, be clothed in a human form. The external circumstances of each period of its existence must needs exert a marked influence upon the development of its truths. To one form has succeeded another. Nor have these successive forms been, by any means, indifferent things. This one has, perchance, been better than that. But the same essential truth has been found in all past forms, as it will also be found in all that are to come.

The work in which we are engaged, and concerning which we are to-day to give you some account,* is very feeble, very diminutive. But behold its glory, in that it is attached to the eternal work. If we proposed to ourselves to maintain whatever belongs to such or such appearance of the Religion of Jesus Christ, our cause would have no guaranty of permanence. The first revolution of human society would bear it away to the tomb, with all other things that are merely contingent in their nature. But if we have attached ourselves to the essence of Christianity, then the holy cause to which we devote our labors, participates in the perpetuity of the work of God. We may fail; and soon, having taken the way of all the earth, we shall fail. Our school may fail. But the cause to which it is consecrated will never fail, neither in this city nor in all the world. To it, in the words of an ancient oracle, shall the gathering of the people be.

Yes, here lies the foundation of our hopes in the midst of many trials and difficulties. It is this, thanks to God, which animates our courage. And, perhaps, it will be worth while, to devote some moments to the illustration of this characteristic phenomenon of the Religion of Jesus Christ :-The sameness of the doctrines of Christianity amidst its different forms: the voice of the Church one and always the same, in all ages.

If we search, in the different periods of history, for the various human forms which the immutable truth of God has succes

The School at Geneva is under the general supervision of a Committee of the Evangelical Society of that place. This Society held its third anniversary on the thirtieth of April, and the first of May, 1834. The Author here alludes to the Report of the Committee; an abstract of which may be found in the New York Observer of Dec. 27, 1834. -TR.