The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-03-23

chronology and the six days q the Mo-
sale creation, No one now inIers from
the Bible thatthe earth Is fixed, that itcan
not be moved, that the sun does literally
go tOrthas bridegroom from his cham
Der, or that the stars sang with an audi
bic voice in the dawn Of tho creation,
But when we rise to the spirit the ideal,
the general drift and purposes OF the bib
lical accounts, we find ourselves in an at
mOsphere OF moral elevation which meets
the highest requirements philosophy can
make, The discoveries Of geology are
found to Gil up the old religious
truths with new lie, and TO derive from
them in turn a hallOwiug glory. When
the historian OF our planet points out that
tho successive layers OF the eaFth's service
were formed by such agencies as We know
OF now, by the constant action OF wind
and wave, OF floating ice and rolling
stOnG-that there were not separate
centcFsO Of creation, but one primeval law
which formed and governed all things
what Is this but the echo Of those voices
which OF old declared that In the begin
ming tho heaven and earth were created,
not by thousand conflicting dcities,, but
by Ono supreme and invisible, and that
He hath given all things q law that shall
not BE- bFOken2 And we may compare
the vast inGnilics OF time and space,
that long ascending order, that gradual
progress demanded by geology, with the
words sublime in the 00th Psalm, read ut
the burial service: "A thousand years in
thy sight are but US yesterday when 1t is
past, and as q watch in the night"
Surely tho view Of the gradual prepar-
alton Of tho earth for mankind IL grand
er than that which makes him coeval with
the beasts which perish, and We ought TO
honor the arChMlogist who by unhasting,
unresling research revealed in all its
length and breadth the genealOgy and the |
antiquity OF man and Of his habitalion,
He rent tho veil and showed the long |
vista In the temple Of the Most High not |
made with hands-"AppaTet dOmUS iatnS,
d qtria Tonga pqiescuni." Not tho limita-
ton but the application Of the idea Of
God Is the result OF the labor OF such |
student, and not the descent but the ascent
Of man ia tho outcome Of hisspeculations.
II, as no used to say, we have In our bones
the ChillOf the contracted view OF the past
in which till now we were brought up,
tho enlargement which he effected Of that
view ought to give q warmth, fire, 10
our soul Of souls, In proportion as we feel
that We arc indeed thecreaturcs OF yester-
day, but the heirs Of the ages Of worlds
thatha persisted In the making Of US, As
to the likeness Of the general spirit Of the
method Of science to that Of the Bible,
the Bible Is . model 10 tho student In its
slow but increasing purpose Of reyela-
ton, through sundry times and divers
manners, warning each succeeding age to
have its eyes open, and cvcry member Of
the human race to be the "dlsciple"-that
Ia, scholar" IA tho Founder Of Chris
tianity called his followers, To invest
the pursuit OF the truth with the sanctlty
Of q religious duty IL the true reconcilia-
ton Of religion and science Such
union has been tho special glory OF the
great school Of English gOolOgists, and
the two pioneers u the science at tho
time when II had to fight its way against
prejudice, ignorance and apathy, were
both hOnored dignitaries Of tho English |
Church; and now, within these walls
there rests beneath the monument OF
Woodward one who was tho friend Of
sedgwick and tho pupil of auckland. Flo
followed truth with u HanCtifed zeal, u |
chiIdlike humility. For discover Ing,
confirming, rectifying his conclusions
there was no journey he would not un-
dertakc.
From early youth to extreme old age II
was 10 him d religious duty fearlesaly 10 |
correct all his own mistakes, and lie was
always ready 10 receive from others and
reproduce that which hC had not In him.
self. In his mind science and religion
we're indivisible. Tho freedom Of rOlig- |
ious inquiry In the National Church, the |
cause OF humanity in the world al large,
were to him IA dear rs though they wOro
his own personal and peculiar concern.
There Is unusual solemnity lmthe thought |
Of his passage into the eternal world on
which, as In II shadow or mirror lie had
40 long mcditatGd Ia those lung ages Of
which 10 was, IA II were, the first disCOy.
erer. The "loityand melancholy strain"
the Goth Psalm, which old tradition as
cribcs 10 Moses, tho Man Of God, whether
II he or not the funeral hymn Of tho great
lawgivJr, who represents tic feeling OF
ono grown gray with vast experience, who
at the close Of his earthly journoyings
contrasts the llcoling generations OF man
with tic granite forms OF the riountaing
at tho feet oiwhicli lie haa wandered, and
contrnath lhose maintains and man alike