Nevada County picayune., 1889-10-02

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 The Book of Revelation discloses the moral laws which govern the universe, while the Book of Nature reveals the physical laws by which all material substances are governed :; and thus the two, when properly un- dcrstood, cover the whole field of knowledge, at least so far as may be necessary for the interplay of divine and human agency in the affairs of this world. Nature seems to be fond of duaities in the manifestation of her operations. We have light and darkness, good and evil, virtue and vice, heaven and hell, the positive and negative poles, the old and new testaments. two deaths, two resurrec- tions, the volume of nature and the volume of inspiration. Virtue and vice seem to have their counterpart in the centripetal and centrifugal for ces and love, which is the great cen tral principle in the moral universe, has for it's counterpart in nature the law of gravitation, by which every thing is kept in it's proper place.
 The Bible is an authoritative eX- pression of Gods will to man, and as such it should be adopted by ev- cry one as a sufficient rule of faith and practice. From its teachings, when properly understood and inter- preted, there can be no appeal. No person has the right to repudiate its authority or disregard it's teachings, Freedom of conscience and individu- al responsibility indicate the proprie- ty of of private judgment in the in- depreciation of the Bible. No Pope, or priest, or church, or council, has the right to prescribe what others shall believe or disbelieve; in all such matters it may we'll be said that "every man standeth or falleth to his own master.
 The volume, of nature, is full of instruction, and her pages lie open to the inspection of all. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the Armament showeth his handiwork - and universal nature, in all her varied aspects and manifold operations, at test the power and wisdom and good- ness of God. When properly under stood and interpreted, there is a beautiful and impressive harmony between the teachings of nature and revelation The unity of God, which is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, is also proclaimed in the wide domain of physical phenomena and the production of life from death is illustrated in both the vegetable and the animal kingdoms. The vital germ of the bread we eat and the living principle of the animal on which we subsist, is destroyed before they are converted into the pabulum of life; and so far as we know, this principle prevails in every depart ment of nature in this world.
 Shall it be thought strange then, that the same principle of life from death shall be transferred to the spiritual plane, and that by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, in spiritual sense, eternal life should be the result: There is nothing unreasonable about | it. for we are constantly witnessing the operation of the same law on q lower plane in the natural world. Except q grain of corn fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it briugeth forth much fruit. Decomposition and repro duction, death and life, are the or derly processes going forward con tinually around us; and why may not the same law obtain in the spirit ual world? The Son of God has given himself a ransom for us. in or der that we might have life; and faith is but the appropriation of this heavenly mama, by which the bles3- ings of everlasting life are secured. There is no conflict between nature and revelation God is the author of the unwritten as well as the written oracles; and each serves to illustrate and embellish the other, when the light of research and investigation are brought to bear in an honest en- 1 deavor to ascertain the truth. The progress of science, the uncoyering of arcana in the fields of geology and astronomy, and the general advance on all lines, have but served to strengthen and fortify the faith of