Monongalia mirror. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1855, 1855-02-10

Ilu system WOulu uissulNc, ahu en"Vo
rush down again on matter-chaos and
eternal night.
Meteorology is as emphatic in con-
frming the Bible, as astronomy OR ge-
ology. In this department Maury has
done equal service to science and rell-
gion. The Scriptures, when they say,
"notc tho place whence the river come,
thtther they return again, we're incom-
prehensiblc to the ancients, who didnot
understand the manner in which rivers
and seas, by evaporation, furnish We
pors forthc clouds, which, being carried
back, by air.currents, to the land, de-
conded in rain, and to supply springs
from which flow larger streams: GAN
the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea
is not full, was q puzzle scientifically,
to tho savans Of old, perhaps; but it
| is so no longer; for now we know that
a large portion of the waters Of tho
globe exists as vapor in the sky, and
that the seas are not, therefore, full,
though all the rivers run into them, as
Ecclesiastcs said. In a late article in
Rhodes United States Review, the
contributions Of Maury to this subject
are noticed in detail, and some cogcnt
! illustrations suggested by the editor, as
for example, and "God made a firma-
ment, and divided the waters that were
above the armament, from the waters
that were under the armament. How
clearly this text points out the division of
earth's waters into those that now flow
through rivers to the sea under the fir
mament, and those that flow back, in
aerial currents of vapor, above the fir
mamcnt; and how emphatically it as.
serts the great truth Of meteorological
science, that, so long as the earth en-
dures, the armament will thus ''diyide
the waters from the waters" )"
We might 60 through the wholerango
of Science, and in every respect with
similar result. Though the Bible Of
ten speaks in the language Of meta
phor, and though, of course, it always
uses popular instead of a scientific
phrascoiogy, the great fact which lies
ut the bottom of the metaphor. or the
popular phrase, is invariably found,
when scientifically stated to agree with
science. Itwould be an error to expect
Scripture to state scientific truth insci,
entifc terms. Had this been doas@it
would have created more scepticism in
ignorant ages, than the absence Of such
phraseology originates among shallow
thinkers now. 1t is a proud boast,
which believers in the Christian relig-
ion can make, that the Bible, though
intended as o relation of spiritual things
and therefore only alluding to scientific
facts incidentally; and though design
ed for the illiteratc as well as the learn
ed, and therefore couched in the plain
est language, is yet, when the meaning
is fairly translated and candidly weigh,
ed, always found to speak truth about
science, and never to contradict it.
This cannot be said of any other SO
called sacred book extant.
The most comprehensive ihtcllects
that have labored in the cause of sci
ence, have in consequence, always had
their faith in the Bible strengthened in
their studies. 1t is only one-side in
vestigators, or hasty gcneralizers, who
become sceptical throug h scientific pur-
suits. The eagle, soaring to heaven,
sees continent and oceans at glance,
sees the horizon rounding in sharp out
lines against the blue: and shall the
blind mole, burrowing in his little cor
ner, dare to say that there are neither
mountains nor sea, or that the globe is
a mere flat plain? Let the molcs of
science hush their petty voices, for it is
not the Bible that is wrong, but they
philadelphia Bulletin.
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