the Psalms, the Gospels and Apocalypse, were

so written as to contain within the literal and historical sense, those divine and spiritual subjects which relate to the church of the Lord, and to the progressive states of affection, thought, and life of man; and that they were to be interpreted, not after a carnal, but after a spiritual manner. This view of these ancient fathers has been kept alive in the church by the ablest and best theological writers in every age down to the present. This we shall prove by a few extracts from their writings as we proceed.

In Genesis i. 1, we read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." From this passage, viewing it in the most literal sense possible, we learn, not when God created the world, but that he did create it in the beginning. From what particular date we are to reckon the beginning of its existence, or what is its real age, the Word of God gives no information whatever, and science will never be able to discover. The putting of dates to the Bible in respect to the era of creation, reckoning from the year one, and thus making the present age of our globe about six thousand years, is altogether

gratuitous and arbitrary: it endeavours unwisely to mix religious with physical truth, and by mingling together what should be kept separate, the mind becomes bewildered in its contemplations of both. By giving to the world an arbitrary age of about six thousand years, many have supposed the science of Geology to be opposed to Revelation, and that it altogether contradicts the Mosaic account of creation. If it were not that many pious and intelligent Christians have felt their minds disturbed at this supposition, we should have passed it by unnoticed, smiling at the weakness that could generate the idea.

Chronologers enumerate 132 contrary opinions concerning the age of the world, (a proof this that they know nothing about it,) but in all these, there are none who reckon more than 7,000, or less than 3,700 years from the creation to the birth of Christ, making a difference in these calculations of no less a period than 3,300 years. The general opinion, however,

fixes the birth of Christ in the four thousandth year of the world, and reckoning nearly 2,000 from that event, makes its present age about

6,000 years; but the reasons on which these opinions are founded, are exceedingly various, all arbitrary, and grounded in conjecture. The calculation of the age of the world, made by the Hindoos in their religious belief, is ponderous when compared with this. Their religion teaches them to recognize the existence of One Supreme invisible Creator, the Ruler of the universe, whom they call BRAHMA. They likewise acknowledge two other deities, one of whom is VISHNU, the Preserver, and the other SIVA, the Destroyer. The deity Vishnu, as preserver, is declared to have made many appearances in the world, and the great ends of Providence are said to have been accomplished by the incarnations of this deity. According to this religion, there have been nine incarnations of Vishnu, and one more yet to come, all of which make up the period of 4,320,000 years, making a difference between their age of the world and ours of only 4,314,000 years. Allowing the Hindoo theology, with its idle ceremonies, to be false and fabulous, yet these superstitious people have, perhaps, as much ground for their long date as we have for our

short one. Revelation is silent about the age of the world; and when that is silent, it is a mark of wisdom to be silent too, and not aim to be wise above what is written. These statements, differing widely as they do, prove the fact, that any attempt to fix the era of creation originates in folly and conjecture.

Professor Sedgwick, in his "Discourse on the Studies of the University," p. 149, tells us, the geologist proves by incontrovertible evidence of physical phenomena, that "there were former conditions of our planet, separated from each other by vast intervals of time, during which man, and the other creatures of his own date, had not been called into being. Periods such as these belong not, therefore, to the moral history of our race; and come neither within the letter nor the spirit of Revelation. Between the first creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased God to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval? On this question Scripture is silent: but that silence destroys not the meaning of those physical monuments of his power that God has put before our eyes; giving us at the same time

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faculties whereby we may interpret them and comprehend their meaning." This extract contains so much of truth in it, that it cannot, we think, be disproved.

But some may ask, Is geology, then, to be allowed to contradict the Mosaic account of creation, and to disprove the date revealed to Moses? We answer, that geology can neither contradict nor disprove what the Scripture never states. The most literal account of creation given by Moses is, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;" this is all, without fixing any time. Geology does not contradict this, but maintains it, and, by laborious and praiseworthy examinations of physical phenomena, proves the existence of a Divine Architect, and ascribes to him the work, "in the beginning." Revelation gives no date; we have made this, and having so done, we find fault with geology, because it has sought out and exposed our errors. The poet Cowper was deceived in this; for he, supposing that God had revealed to Moses creation's date, aims a blow at Geology. In his poem entitled "The Task," he says