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5th. From the foundation of the Temple to the Babylonish captivity, 424 years, A. M. 3416,

6th. Thence to the birth of Christ, 584 years, 4000.

Olympus. We must reserve something on chronology for another lesson. Meanwhile, as time had a beginning it must have an end; and that is infinitely more interesting to us than its commencement. A. C.

MORAL BEARINGS OF GEOLOGY—No. II.

Brother Stevenson,

HAVING in my last number glanced at the argument from analogy touching the antiquity of Mother Earth, and given some reasons prejudicial, in my opinion, to the validity of such reasonings, especially when relied on as impinging on the credibility of. Moses. I hasten to append to them a few remarks on the preamble to the details of creation as found in the first chapter of Genesis.

Moses, in a style as simple and sublime as mortal speech affords. appoaches the marvellous developments of six successive epocha of creation, in the most perfect good taste, solemnly indicating that “IN SIX DAYS GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH." Here is no effort at style. Thoughtless of beauty, it is beautiful in perfection. It is comely, apposite, and most solemnly expressive of the grand conception. Time was not before. Creation and the first moment were the twin offspring of the first fiat. Matter without motion is of the essence of eternity. Matter in motion is time. If matter existed first quiescent, motion is not necessary to its being.

But this is a general introduction. The heavens are postponed for further consideration, and the history of the earth engages the thoughts of the divine historian of Nature. And what says he of the infant Earth? "It was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God [incubated or] moved upon the bosom of the waters." This is its antecedent state-its state previous to the work of the week. Whether this antecedent state continued for a moment, or for a million of years, we are not informed; and hence no fact can be elicited out of any thing said about it, dissuasive of its claims on human acquiescence.

How long the Earth was without form, and empty, within and without any of its present, inhabitants, we have no means of ascertaining. One thing is obvious, that it was so in the beginning, and that it was no part of the work of six days to u ake the Earth. Its creation is

not found in the details of the six days. How long the Spirit of God moved upon the face of its waters, and what new seeds of life and forms of being were sown into its bosom and educed into life, Moses saith not.

Nor does Moses say what intervals separated the days of creation. For my part, I believe that the days that made the first week were days-that it is diurnal revolutions of the planet. These diurnal revolutions are not now performed in equal times, and were then doubtless performed in times much more unequal than at present. Still they were days, and neither weeks, months, nor centuries. There may, however, have been immense intervals between them, or there may not, for any thing found in Genesis. Nothing would have suffered if there had been a duration equal to a myriad years between them. Nothing created on the first day needed that which was created on the second, and nothing created on the second day needed that which was created the third day; and had creation stopped on any day for a million of years, nothing created before that time would have been injured in any respect known to mortals.

lask no other guide to my thoughts on this subject than Moses and common sense. Cuvier, Buckland, Sullivan, and other geologists of real merit, have accredited Moses without me, and I can fully believe in Moses without them. And of this I am confident, no geologist, living or dead, can even stultify or falsify the records of this greatest of historians, lawgivers, and philosophers. He narrates creation's order and progress with the cast of conscious truth, and with the dignity, majesty, and unaffected loftiness of elevated intelligence, alike indifferent as to the cavils of arrogant scepticism, or the blundering impertinence of indomitable ignorance. He offers no curious speculation on the ways of Eternal Wisdom-no demonstration of the perfect adequacy of Omnipotent Energy-no justification of the arrangements and developments of Infinite Benevolence. The work spoke for itself, and the effects of the Creative Voice that echoed through the universe, indubitably taught the "Cause Uncaused, sole Root of Nature, and Fountain of Universal Being." To the eye of Moses it would not have seemed more incongruous or oblique to have said one word in proof of the inspiration that guided his details, than to the mental vision of the immortal Newton to have written a demonstration that' the sun was not fashioned and located in the heavens by the skill and energy of Nimrod the prince of tyrants and first free-booter of human rights and privileges.

But a word is yet wanting as to the first appearance of that ghastly king of terrors whose awful name is Death. If geology be true, King

Death is older than Moses by some threescore and ten myriads of years forsooth! Suppose this were a fact already obvious to every mortal eye-what then! Certain it is, that man did not die before he was made, nor for a thousand years before he sinned. That animals and plants were once immortal, or that they were doomed to die in consequence of man's follies, is carrying the doctrine of imputation a thousand ages beyond any thing of which my fancy has yet dreamed of the wild excursions of man's erratic reason. The fact that a TREE OF LIFE was necessary to man's immortality while yet he breathed the fragrant and life-inspiring breath of Eden, and sipped the sweetest nec'ar of divine beneficence in the rich ambrosial repasts of Paradise, is demonstration strong as any proof from holy writ, that man in his primeval health and innocence was then exempt from the laws of terrestrial decay only by a special law made and provided for his case:— Animated nature lives by death! Amongst the airy and phantastic flights of the most poetic imagination, in its aspirations after the beau ideal of some Eden of enchantments, I have not yet found an effort to populate the earth, or even the environs of Paradise, with innumerable races of immortal insects and animals made to generate and increase in ratios for which the most speculative mathematician has not found a habitation or a name.

The Tree of Life was Heaven's own charter of immortality to man. He never had life in himself. His being was derived and his life subjected to conditions involving decay and dissolution but for some life-restoring and youth-preserving specific. This he had in the Tree of Life. When Paul says, "And by sin death entered into the world,” he does not add, 'And into the earth.' The world subjected to death by sin is the human race, and nothing else. The birds, and insects, and animalcules of our air, earth, and sea, with all the more gigantic earthborns, inherited elements of death in their very nature and composi ion. A tree could not fall, nor a drop of water-a rock could not roll, nor a human foot impress the soil without inflicting death on multitudes. And yet some Dr. Doubty, who has read some sheets of geology, gravely asks, as if penetrated with profound reverence for the fame of Moses and of Paul, How can we reconcile Moses and Paul with the fact that the fossil remains of by-gone worlds have inscribed upon their ten thousand pages the momentous truth that worlds after worlds lived and died, and were transformed into coral reefs, islands, hills and mountains, ages before sin was born or Adam made?' Were it all true, there is not a word in the Bible contradicted or falsified by the fact.

Brother Stevenson, the multitude, and some geologists too, are

about as ignorant of the Bible as the Long Parliament and the Westminster Divines were of the uses of steam, galvanism, and the science of Cuvier, Lyell, and Buckland on the stratas of the ancient Earth.And, generally, the man who asserts most positively and affirms most stoutly his opinions, is more likely to prosely te the weak and credulous sceptics, than he that can render a hundred good reasons for his faith and hope in God."

There is another assumption or two amongst geologists, so called, to which I may invite your attention in my next. Sincerely and affectionately yours,

A. C.

News from the Churches.

Gosport, Indiana, March 20, 1842.

Last week I visited Cloverdale, a small village in Puinam county, Indiana, the place where we had such great success in proclaiming the old gospel last summer The church in this place numbers about 150, and are walking in peace and love 1 delivered five discourses, and added 11 to their number-seven by immersion-one from the Two Seed Baptists-one from the Tunkers-and three by letter.'

Among the baptized was one old lady, 70 years of age, by the name of Nichison, who was a member of that branch of the Presbyterian community called Secoders. This dear old mother being convinced that baby sprinkling was a human tradition, and that the law of Christ required her to be buried with her Lord in baptism, came out and boldly confessed her faith in the Lord; and with strong confidence in the promise of God, she went down into the water and was planted in the likeness of the death of her Lord, in the presence of her children, friends, and a crowd of weeping spectators.

J. M. MATHES.

Gasconade City, Missouri, April 1, 1842.

I have just closed a two day's meeting, and have received six confessions-one from a young man trained in the Roman Catholic religion, a very intelligent youth. I am going to immerse them to day. I am evangelizing in the counties of Franklin, Warren, Montgomery, and Gasconade. This is seed-time, and I expect an ample larvest before winter under the blessing of God. S. ROGERS.

Madison, Indiana, April 4, 1842. Brother Hall was with us during the last week. Four were added. We are trying to get along as well as possible, and hope that our dear brethren will remen ber us.

L. H. JAMESON.

Irish Ripple. Pennsylvania, April 22, 1842,

It is with pleasure I am enabled to announce to you the progress of the reformation in this neighborhood. Through the lahors of brother Applegate the number of Disciples here have increased in about six months from 12 or 13 to 24 or 25. The organization of a church here took piace one week since, and our prospects are tolerably good.

MILO M. POLLOCK.

New Ark, Ohio, April 23, 1842.

We lately held a meeting in Licking county with the congregation on the Brushy Fork of Licking creek, at which 14 obeyed the gospel; at another, 7; and 3 elsewhere-24 in WM. HAYES.

all.

Norval, Esquising, Upper Canada, April 23, 1842. We had a visit from Z F. Guinn in February, and during his stay in Eramoga there were 12 put on the Lord Jesus by being baptized into his name, and one in the city of Toronto.

There were 4 added to the church in this place by baptism lately. I now numbers 42, members. We meet together every first day to keep the ordinances delivered by the Apostles. JAMES MITCHELL,

Augusta, Georgia, April 26, 1842. I seize my pen in haste to inform you that we still have good news here. Last week I informed you that Mr. Hibber and his wife were immersed. On last Lord's day a Mrs. Cocke, sister of sister Thomas, was to he Inmersed-when, lo! Mrs. Hook presented herself. I had the pleasure of going down into the water with them. She has been a staunch Presbyterian of long standing, was sprinkled at the age of 14, when she joined. She made a bold confession, declaring with her own lips the faith in all points.

E. A. SMITH. Wadsworth, Ohio, May 17, 1842. I only have time to say the gospel is triumphing gloriously in this region. Since I Wrote you last many have obeyed. In the village of Youngstown, Trumbull county, 33 were immersed. In Minerva, Stark county, 30 immersions and 10 additions from the sects-making 40. Now I am at home, and have been for five days, 11 immersions and 5 additions-16. Bless the good Lord! I have spoken from two to three times every day for a month, and stand it well. The Lord has wonderfully sustained me in my

labors of love.

Since I arrived at home in March the 12th day, a little over two months, 110 have been immersed, and some 27 from other quarters. J. H. JONES. Franklin county, Missouri, May 12, 1842. I have organized three churches this Spring. They contain about 100 members. They meet weekly to keep the ordinances. I have immersed 21 this Spring S. ROGERS. The second I ord's day instant I spent at Lawrenceburg, Ky, in company with R. C. Georgetown, Kentucky, May 2, 1842. Rice, our Evangelist We had a pleasant meeting A pain in my teeth and a swollen jaw compelled me to leave on Wednesday morning early Up to that time we had gained 13 additions Brother Rice remained til Saturday morning following, and gained 17 more, making 30 in all. He repaired to New Castle, where brother C. J. Smith and others were laboring. He reached home this evening, and informs me that 21 additions were the result of their labors. Brother A. Kendrick was with them a few days He had been at Louisville, where he gained about 40 additions. Brother C. Kendrick has had a most glorious meeting near Stauford, having received upwards of 100, as I learn, within a few days past.

I repaired to Antioch after my return home, and commenced laboring hard with brother Gano. In a few days we received 16 additions. We were compelled to leave for other engagements

I rejoice to know that we have such young Evangelists engaged in the cause as R. C. Rice, A. Kendrick, and C. Kendrick. Their labors have been greatly blessed. My prayer is, that they may be humble, and that the Lord may bless them with health and strength to advocate this good cause for many years!

J. T. JOHNSON.

Poplar Hill, Kentucky, February 24, 1842. In the midst of our sorrows we have been made to rejoice in the submission of our second daughter, about Margaret's age, to the king of terrors. You will be happy, like. wise, to learn that my sister in law Mrs. B, and several other members of our large family, have obeyed the truth. Already five of our pupils have been immersed, and two others will follow on Lord's day next. Twenty members of our family will then be professors of the 'faith. No excitement whatever exists amongst them, nor has the slightest effort been made to produce one; on the contrary, all is done that may prevent this We know that nothing is more easy than to get up, what would be called “a revi. val," amongst a collection of young people; and that we could very readily induce a great many to "join the church;" but as we lahorinot for effect, we are careful to encourage none but those who, we think, know what they do; and especially such as have friends who will not undo, after they leave here, all that has been done. An early confession of the faith is of no value, by itself If the seed sown be not afterwards cultivated;-if all counteracting influences be not withdrawn or guarded against-better, a thousand times, is it, that young persons should be kept from confessing their faith, until they can act in obedience thereto, away even from parental influence. It is a sad mistake to sup. pose that the "joining of the church" is the ultimatum of the religious confession.Whether this be at all beneficial, depends entirely upon the character of the church, as, unless we can be educated for eternity therein, we might as well be out of it Hence it

would seem absolutely essential to the cause we plead, that not the increase, but the cha racter of the churches, should be the prime object of our public men If the churches be first what they should be, then increase will follow as a natural and necessary effect, and then the danger of apostacy is diminished in the same ratio as the certainty of suc. cess is increased; but the collecting together of a large number, renders it difficult in the same proportion, to regulate them properly, and the difficulty is increased by the length of time they remain in disorder. We may therefore very justly ask ourselves whether our whole lives are not spent IN VAIN, if we have been 'wholly employed in increasing churches that are not what they should be. Have we turned many, or any, to rightë. P. S. FALL.

ousness?

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