e comprehensible
from the incomprehensible, without any guides. They were out upon an
unexplored sea in the mere twilight of the morning. They were opposed at
every step by the combative tendencies of human nature, which are ever
seeking too much for their own gratification to admit any strange,
startling propositions as intruders among old and long cherished ideas.
In its history it appears before us, first as an enemy to religion, and
then as an unobjectionable science, a neutral. But since the publication
of "The Footprints of the Creator," by the lamented Hugh Miller, it
appears in front as a fast friend and abettor. And now, since it has
approached so near to its manhood, we do not see how we did without its
aid so long. Its first grand position touching the immense masses of the
rock formations as results of second causes, in operation away back
yonder before organic life appeared upon our planet, was looked upon by
intelligent Biblical scholars of those times with suspicion, as a
system at variance with the records of the Bible. This, along with
difference of sentiment among its friends, has been the means of a very
rapid growth towards perfection. Curiosity was aroused and observations
multiplied, errors corrected and the untenable removed, until the
science now stands before us with its bases settled in unquestionable
facts. Let us all learn from this circumstance the bearings of the times
in which we live, for a double process of elimination is now going on
under the providence of God, by means of which both Christianity and
science will have more beauty and strength of manhood to command the
respect of our children.

Geology is exercising a wonderful influence on the side of religion in
the minds of those who are acquainted with its facts. In the hands of
Miller it gives a very decisive answer against the evolution hypothesis,
which is by no means a new speculation. It was, in its general form, a
very prominent doctrine of the Epicurean philosophy. "The author of the
'Vestiges,' with Professor Oken, regarded the experiment of the
formation of cells in albumen by electric currents as the leading fact
of the system." They claimed that currents of electricity in the earth's
surface generated and vitalized the cells, and that all organic life
thus originated. There is nothing to save this speculation, when it is
undressed, from contempt. "The only patronage it ever received grew out
of the fact that there is a sp