The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-07-15

tell you that once they We're alive, as the
grass and the shrubs and the trees are
now, that that life came from the all
abOundmg Life-GiVcr whose name is
God. And with all this comes the SuE-
gestion Of almighty power and mex
haustible resources ana immCaSurlhle
duration, and infinite goodness, which
thus planned ana provided for the wants
of man, who long ages after should
dwell i'm this valley-aud all thcSc--Om-
impotence ana OmnisCiencc. ana Eternity,
and BcnoncenCc are only names Of God.
Who Of us can descend into the dark
chambers beneath and look upOn the
stony tablets that lie piled there, in beau
tiful strata, like a vast book of count.
less leaves. without seeing the writing
of God eugravcn upon them, and that
writing everywhere spelling out His ador-
able Namo?
\ WONDERFUL HISTORY.
Second-God has recorded in these writ
ten tablets a wonderful history. Time
was when all this vegetation and the
superintendent mass of rock ana soil
did not exist; when the rough conglom-
crate underlying il constituted the
surface Of the earth, at least of this pOr-
ton of it. Nay, time was of vast and
unknown duration, before this, ere the
conglomeTate itself was formed and the
sandstOncs and the limcstorcs, and tho
states, ana the gnciscs were deposited IN
primeval oceans on the CCrgcaled bosom
of the granite, the common mother Of
them. But We need not 80 back to that.
1t Will be enough to open at the middle
pages Of the book. Lifted by rcsistless in
tcrnal forces of the earth, the ancient
strata arose from the ocean depths, TIL
what had been its gravelly bottom, and
the sedimentary mud that had gathered
upon il, emerged into air and light, This,
after being dryCd and mCllOwed and par
TALLY decompOsed, affords the rude ma
terlals for a soil and tho Great Hus-
bandman comes ana plants in it seeds
and roots of a vegetation such as was
never before or since. The sun pCurs
down upon it his genial rays, and the
humid clouds afford it abundant mois-
turc. Probably the climate was then
hotter than the hottest Of the present
tropics, and the atmosphere was filled
with CarbOnic gases most stimulating to
vegetable life, y luXuriant growth was
the result, lasting probably for centuries
or ages, Then the eternal forces which
had raised up the dry land relaxed, and
the whole sank again beneath the waves.
Slow ana gentle must have been the
| motion, Tor the inrushug waters com
mitted no violence. The most delicate
fern leaf was CnvClopcd in the soft mud,
| and laid away as tenderly as a mother
could cradle her baby in its bed Of down.
There itrepOsed-how long we know not -
| till there had been deposited upon IT
great beds of sand and gravel; and then
at the word OF the Creator. the giant
| forces reused themselves again, and lift
| ed the whole q second time into light.
ana this new deposit became dry land
and received a new adornnent of vegc-
| table life. And so the forces went on,
| through periods of inconCCivable dura
tion, each emergence into dry land bring
irg forth now vegetable growths which
| should be the future coal, each subai-
| dence beneath the waves bringing upon
1t the sands and the sediments which
should be the interlying standstoncs and
| states. You can see for yourselves how
many times the process was repeated, by
| descending any Of these shafts and
! counting the Alternating beds, provided
only the shaft reaches down TO the
bottom of the series. You can see, too
| Approximately. what was the relative
length of time employed In the produc-
| tion Of each by the thickness of the diff,
forent strata, the thinnest indicating
comparatively a brief period, though pos.
sibly long as measured by any human
standards OF time, the thckest marking
the longest.