The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-03-18

coverer and writer on geology, was
buried in Westminster Abbey. on the
9th ult. Dean Stanley. who read the
service and lessons at tile burial, deli
vered o sermon next day upon the reli-
gious aspect of geology. taking for text
the second verse of the frst chapter Of
Genesis-"The earth was without form
and void; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the spirit of
God moved upon the face OF the
waters" He treated these words as
having a sense wider than the literal
transcript. They express transition
from chaos. as understood by the
Greeks, to the order of tho universe,
as described by Humboldt in his "Cos-
mos" They 60 from formless void,
which convey the image of warning
elements. to the moving OF the Divine
spirit which typifies the gentle brood
ing, as it were, of bird of peace. This
idea he happily unfolds and makes
oonsentaneous with the modern spirit
OF inquiry and study, whose proper eff
feet is to bring order out OF chaos. and
harmony. ont OF discord. There is q
likeness between the general spirit Of
the method OF science and that OF the
Bible. Il is model to the student in
its slow but increasing purpose of reve-
lation. corresponding to the slowly
evolved disclosures of scientific re-
search. The pursuit OF truth becomes
armed with peculiar power, when thus
invested with the sanctity of religious
duty. This power has been nobly
illustrated in the substantial agreement
which has been reached by science aud
religion, found in the spirit, methods
and lresults Of each, in the face of lite.
ral and temporary contradictions. Re.
ferring to the text, Dean Stanley makes
it the instrument. as he interprets it in
connection with the discoveries of the
great school of English geologists, of
conveying this recondite, beautiful and
most oonsoling truth.
"The language" he says. "however
poetic. child-like, parabolical and un-
scientific, impresses upon us the prin.
ciple which applies in both the moral
and in the material world that the law
Of the divine operation is the gradual,
peaceful, progressive development of
disoord into harmony, confusion into
order, darkness into light. 1t is well
known that when the study of geology
first arose, it was involved in intermI-
nable schemes of reconciliation with
the letter of Scripture. There were
and are two modes of reconciliation
which have each totally and deservedly
failed. The one attempts to wrest the
words OF the Bible from their real
meaning. and force them to speak the
language of acience, and the other at
tempts to falsify science to meet the
supposed requirements of the Bible.
The seventy finding that the hare
was described as chewing the cud, in
serted the word not and on the other
hand. the Jesuits. in editing Newton's
'Principia, announced in the preface
that they we're constrained to treat the
theory of eravitation as fictitious
hypothesis. else it wonld conflict with
the DEGREES of the Popes against the
motion OF the earth. But there is an
other reconciliation of higher kind,
or, rather, not reconciliation, but an
acknowledgment of the affinity and
identity which exists between the
spirit Of science and the spirit of tho
Bible. First, there is likeness of
the general spirit of the truths of
science to the general spirit of the
Bible truths; and secondly, there is q
likeness in the methods. For instance,
the geological truth which our illus-
triOus stadent was the chief instrument
in clearly setting forth and establish
ing, was the doctrine, wrought out by
careful, ceutious inquiry in all parts of
the world, that the frams Of this earth
was gradually brought into it's present
condition not by Sudden and violent
convulsions, but by the slow and si-
lent action of the Same causes which
We SEQ now; but operating through u
long succession of ages beyond the
memory and Imagination of man.
There need be no question whether
this doctrine agrees or not with the
letter OF the Bible. We do not expect
it should. For, had there been no
such scientific conclusions, we now
know perfectly we'll, from our in.
creased insight into the nature and
| origin OF the early Biblical records.