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

from the hasty concentrations OF pre-.
tendodmen Of science. Wear obliged
to him for his kind remarks, but We
cannot take credit for "defending' the
Bible. Tho sacredrecord defends itself.
1t stands, and has ever stood, o great
truth, like an immovcable rock amid the
sea Of skepticism and .unbelief. The
waves of false science beat around it,
and seem, at times, about to aabmorge
it. but in the end they are hurried back
and silenced forever, while the Bible
stands triumphant through all.
These results of immature science
have been made, SO often, and have been
so invariably repelled, that sound think
ers never allow their faith now to be
troubled by discoveries supposed to con-
tradict the Bible. On the contrary
they say that the presumption IS, when
the whole truth is known, that the new
hypothesis will be found to be untena-
bic, like those which preceded it. If
any new proof was wanted Of the divine
origin of the Bible, it would bo found
in the remarkable fact, that while all
other professedly inspired books, like
the Arabic Koran Or the Hindoo Vend,
are full of absurd statements at varl-
ance with the commonest axloms OF
science, the Bible is invariably discov-
cred to contain, expressed in popular
phraseOlogy, every fact positively de-
nonstrated by science, no matter how
startling that fact may seem at first
A striking example of this is the
Nlosaical account Of creation. 1t is
now universally conceded that the
"days" spoken of in Genesis should
have been translated at indefinite peri
ods of time; for such is the meaning
Of tho original word. The Bible, there
fore, asserts not that the world was
created in six calender days, but in six
successive periods Of an untold duration.
On three of these periods, science
throws little or no light. But Geology
tells the same tale Of the creation, du-
ring the other three as the Mosaical
narrative. During one Of these, as
Genesis tells US, plants were created
"yielding seed after their kind. The
leeologisti informs us that, earliest ofthc
epochs known positively to his science,
is one in which the fora was so exuber-
ant as to render it emphatically an age
of plants, "yielding seed after its kind. "
On another of these days, Genesis goes
on to say, the great monsters of the
deep were created. Geology teaches
us that the ichthyosaur, megalosaur,
and gigantic birds followed the era OF
the plants. Lastly, Genesis says that
the 'sbeasts of the earth after their kind,
and of the cattle after their kind"
were created; and at the close of this
period, in the evening, so to speak, Of
this day, man was made. Geology
confirms this story in every title
When we remember that, in the age Of
Moses, geology was yet unknown, the
agreement between the Mosaic record
and the modern discoveries of geolo-
gists appear amazing, and indeed can
only be accounted for, Or rather is best
accounted for, by supposing the writer
to have been inspired. We follow in
this, the line of argument adopted by
Hugh Miller and other eminent gcolo-
gists; and it is one that has never been
answered.
To pass from geology to astronomy.
There is. a curious passage in Holy
Writ, which, though often quoted fol
its beauty, never could be explained,
till very lately: The passage is the
well known one from job" Canst thou
tell the swect influence Of the pleiades?'
Modern astronomy has demonstrated
that the solar system is in motion a,
round some point inconccivably remote,
and that this point is in the direction Of
the star Alcyon, one Of the Plciadcs,
What deep meaning flashes into the
phrase, the "swcct influences" of the
Pleiades, under the electric touch Of
this fact2 By the influence of tina,
group our world is held in its proper
place; is guided through the tracklcs!
heavens; is swcetly preserved in thai
harmony, whose pcrfcctness led to tho
metaphor, that the stars sing together
as they move. Again the Bible speak.
: Of this globe as "the round world,' 6
fact first demonstrated byastronomcrs
and that long before Magellan had cir
cumayigated earth. Still further
the planets keep their appointed sta
tions, like atoms in a mountain, or o
cean, or continents, like the largest ant
smallest things everywhere in creation
by balance of forces; and this is yer
ifcd by the declaration in Scripture
He "mcasured the waters in the hol