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ANTI(~UITIES
OF
issued forth, plants and trees sprung up, in all their beauty and all their variety, fl.'onl the nlajestic oak to the lowly acacia,. The forests put forth their strength to a.fford shelter for quadrupeds aFt well as the feathered race, alld timber for the future use of man. The hills valleys displayed their exuberant herbage for nutriIn8nt to the anhnal creation; enlivened with ornamental llowers, whose fragrance perfumed the atmosphere, and heightened the ripening charms of Nature. Trees laden with fruit, or bursting into bloom, showed the all-providant care of a bounteous Creator, who brings every thing to maturity in its season, for the progressive use of his creatures. The fourth d ay 9 was employed in the formation of the planets, which were placed in the heavens, glittering like the brilliant lustre of precious stones in a superb J A question has arisen as to the length of time which路 each of these days occupied. The inquiry is invested with much interest,but from what data can we solve it 1 Geologists say, respecting the formation of chalk:-" Many ages before man existed animalcules were busied in tropical seas, in forming enormous coral reefs, which, in time, were worn down into powder by the action of the waves. 'fhat powder, laid in beds along the floor of the ocean, afterwards covered over with layers of mud and sand, formed the strata of chalk which we now see raised above the level of the sea, and operating as a natural filter and reservoir for supplying water for the use of the human inhabitants of the earth." (Chambers's Journal, 1843, p. 55.) The enormous length of tinle w"hich is necessary to bring coal to perfection is another proof of the vast space which has elapsed since God said," Let the dry land appear 1" The Bishop of London says in his sermons :-"As we are not called upon by Scripturo to admit, so neither are we required to deny the supposition that the matter without form and void, out of w"hichthis globe of earth was framed, may have consisted of the wreckl and relics of more ancient worlds, created and destroyed by the same Almighty po"er which called our world into being, and will one day cause it to pass away. Thus, while the Bible reveals to ut! the moral history and destiny of our race, and teaehes us that man and other living things have been placed but a few thousand years upon the earth, the physical monuments of our globe bear \vitness to the same truth; and as astronomy unfolds to us myriads of worlds~ not spoken of in the sacred records, geology in like manner proves, not by argu.. ments drawn from analogy, but by the incontrovertible evidence of physical phenomena, that there were former conditions of our planet, separated路 from each other by vast intervals路 of time, during which this world was teeming with .life, ere Jnan, and the路 anim.als which are his contemporaries, hadheen called into being." A thousand years, in the sight of God~ are but as one day. And what are thOUS&Dds of thousands 7 The inquiry is.too vast and tOQ mysterious for human comprehension. We must believe and adore.