her is now exciting a very general and
intense interest. The Bible was written during a period in the history of
the world when true science was almost unknown. The writers of the several
books which compose the sacred volume, with scarcely an exception, made no
pretensions to scientific investigation; and they did not so much _reason
out_ as _announce_ great truths and principles intimately related to
almost every department of human knowledge. These venerable writings have
been and now are subjected to a test which no other professed revelation
has been able to bear. If, then, it shall be found that their direct
teachings and their numerous references to the works of Nature harmonize
with the averments of science in this age of its greatest
achievements--still more, if it shall appear that the different sciences,
unknown when they were written, strongly corroborate their teachings,
direct and indirect,--it will be difficult for candid minds to resist the
conviction that their origin is Divine.

No one of the sciences was less understood, in those remote ages, than
Astronomy; and yet to no part of the works of Nature does the Bible make
more frequent references than to the heavenly bodies. In this department,
therefore, if anywhere, we might expect to find discrepancy between the
teachings of science and revelation. But the impartial reader will rise
from the perusal of this volume, not only with his faith in the
inspiration of the Scriptures confirmed, but with the conviction that the
sublime science of Astronomy affords a far more just conception of the
pregnant meaning of the eloquent language of Job, David, and Isaiah, than
without it we could attain.

These lectures will be regarded as the more valuable, because they are the
voluntary contribution of a Christian layman, as well as of a man of
eminent scientific attainments, to the great argument on which depends the
religious faith of mankind. Possessing a mind of extraordinary powers,
trained under the promptings of an intense thirst for knowledge to patient
and thorough investigation, he made for himself a reputation which secures
the strongest confidence in his ability to treat the momentous and
difficult questions he undertook to discuss in these lectures; whilst the
remarkable clearness of his views, his brilliant imagination, and an
extraordinary affluence of language and felicity of expression, both
enlighten the understanding and gratify the most cultivate