The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-03

. 'ho "o,us anu nuns appeared .
$ overthrow the power of Rome. Thos
d who deal with the traces of prehistori
e man, must bear in mind the fact that dur
:, ing all these centuries, history throws n,
d ray of light upon the descendants of Japh
eth. 1t was from contact with Hams de
= scendants that those who lived nearest t,
n ASA caught the first ideas of civilization
f What vicissitudes the tribes of Europe OF
OF America may have undergone while
: Israel was in Egypt, or laying the founda
: ton of the Jewish state, no one can tell
l We may believe in the myth of Eden, OF
not as we see fit; but certainly it is not
necessary to go back beyond the time as
crlbed to Adam to account for all the pre-.
historic remains yet discovered. Much
controversy has arisen of late in regard to
the question of development. The history
OF our planet certainly shows that the con.
stantly improving populations of different
eras, instead of having been developed into
a higher class of being from lower ones,
that each new class Of beings has been a
new idea in constantly ascending series.
The trilobite did not develope into gar
pike, nor fish into a lizard, nor a lizard
into mammoth, any more than NAM
moth developed into monkey, or a mon
key into a man.
We have hastily reviewed the history of
the older world, from the time when it first
came from the Creators hand, down
through all its changes. We can tell much
of its history, but we know very little of
its chronology; we do know that the revo-
utions it has made around it's central sun
can be only counted by millions. We have
noted the steps taken to fit it as the abode
OF man. Reading his records, its wars and
turmolls, its misery and tears, the Lord
appears to have been unworthy of the
mansion prepared for his use; but our race
compared with the duration of the past is
young yet. We have not yet more than
reached the early morning of our race, and
equally as the history before its advent was
a course of preparation for man, SO since
his creation, he too has been steadily strug-
CLING upward to greater freedom, greater
knowledge, and greater capabilities of pro-
perry using what has been provided for his
| use.
We meet our earth, ages ago, first cool
ing into solidity; experience tells us that
this process still goes on. We plainly see
that volcano and earthquake force is not
now what it once was Imperceptibly to
us, yet none the less surely we are losing
our internal heat. What is the conclusion
from thiso Unless arrested by the great
creative hand, the time will come when the
ocean will be frozen in its bed, and all
earthly life be locked in the icy arms of
death. The sun too must decay into a
rayless orb, as result of the same newt
able law. This will not happen in our
centuries, but the hand that first wound
up the machinery of the universe is that of
Deity to whom a thousand years are as a
single day. The bounties of earth are not
exhaustlsss; geology does not dare to affirm
the past eternity of matter, neither can it
affirm that the existing order will be for
eternity.
The machinery Of worlds is slowly. but
nevertheless surely running down. Not
for eternity is the inscription written upon |
all its parts. We see the f1imy comet re-
tarded in its flight through the abyss of |
space, and returning on each revolution
something earlier than it should. The |
same power that can retard the comets |
tight can also check the speed of the ,
ponderous planet. What is the inference !
from all this ? Our earth in its mighty
sweep of GS, 900 miles an hour, will in time |
have that speed checked, until at last it |
will plunge through the simple power of
gravitation into the sun from which it first
came. 1t is true that this consumation is
still millions of years in the future, but the
clock of the universe ticks not minutes but |
ages. We think of the time that must
elapse before that consumation as immeas-
urably vast, but now that we are trying to
compute the distances of the stars we need
not be startled at the attempt to compute
the probable history of our globe.
An idea seems to run through much of
the thought of the world; that it is subject
to periodical revolutions. Many nations
have held an idea that we have a great
year of thousands of centuries, after which
all things will be done over again. Science
endorses the idea this far; the present is
not the eternal condition Of our planet
There must be renovation, doing over
again, if the world is to be eternal. In
the earlier ages volcano force seems to have
exceeded that of water. The reign of fire
was the first era in our planets history
The reign Of water succeeded, and through
the long ages that have passed before the |
review of geology, they have been contest
ing the supremacy of the world. As old
ocean has worn down the continents, ig-
neous forces have raised them still higher,
but time is coming when these agencies
will cease to be. As the volcano dies the
ocean asserts his increasing sway, until the
time may come when the continents will be
leveled and. old ocean roll around the
world.
Viewed in the light of these world ideas
how Insignificant seems the life and strug-
giles of man. Twenty vast periods of life
have passed, man appears in the last, but
he alone of all is capable of unraveling the
train of causes that brought our home into
existence, or of contemplating Deity. So
far the life of our race itself has been a
struggle upward. We have only just reach
ed time when the contending powers of
Oromasdes and Ahriman, of good and evil.
meet in anything like equal contest. Even
our boosted science is yet in its infancy:
just beginning to solve the great problems
of nature. Much that is mysterious is still
to be solved, many old wrongs are yet to be
rishted, but slowly, surely Oromasdes is
gaining the advantage. In coming years
we may except to see evil die, and our race
gain that felicity which is their due. The
same hand that has guided our earth SO
far, will guide it through the ages vet to
come. Whatever scientific analogies may
indicate as the future con dition of our