Year: 1875




ters, and in which we have our secure
abode, except when the earthquake caus-
es the earth to tremble. Take for exam
pie this part of the earth as it appears in
the hour of creation, "Thou laidest the
foundations of the earth that it should
never be removed; Thou coveredest 1T
with the deep as a garment the waters
stood above the mountains; at Thy re-
buke they fed; at the voice of Thy thun-
der they hasted away; mountains ascen-
ded, valleys descended to the places Thou
hast appointed for them. Thou hast ap-
pointed their bounds that they may not
pass, and return not again to cover the
earth. In Job xviii, also. we have
nearly all of the phenomena of the earth
recited in manner at once grand and
truthful In the Mosaic account the
land elevated above the waters is in the
same creative day clothed with vegeta-
ton Here a difficulty arises, for science
as yet knows nothing of vegetation
which preceded by whole period the in
troduatton of animals; and that view
which overlooks the earlier animals and
supposes the plants of the Devonian and
carboniferous periods to be there referred
to, certainly involves a straining of the
record.


Further the vegetation referred to is
expressly said to have included not mere
ly the lower and humber groups of
plants, the Deshe or grass of our times,
but the higher Heterogeneous, having
fruit and seeds and trees as well as the
herbaceous plants. This is not in accor-
dance with the trend of the rocks as at
present known to u.s. The oldest strait
fed rocks contain remains of humble an
imals of the sea- Land plants did not
appear as fossils until a comparatively
late genealogical time. Either there is
some discrepancy here between the two
records, or there is an old plant-bearing
formation yet undiscovered. That the
latter should be the case would not be
surprising. Vegetable life naturally pre-
cedes animal life as being the sole source
of the food of the animals We know
that land existed from period at least
as old as that of the first animal remains
and it would be somewhat anomalous if
it remained during all the earlier periods
of geological time unclothed with vege-
tation. There may, therefore, be in this
direction discoveries in store for geology,
though from the highly metamorphic
condition of the oldest sediments, 1T is
probable that no remains may exist of
this primeval vegetation. There may be
some reference to this past vegetation in
the statement in Genesis, chap. H., that





earth, on that, at most, bent up and wa
tered the face of the ground. Now it
happens that we know, by the evidence
of rare marks, that there was rain as far
back as the Primordial ages, so that this
would place the first plants as far back
as the Laurentian age of geology.


The Introduction of vegetable life forms
new ere in the worlds history. The
earth brought forth plants, yet they were
made after their species, and, when
made, new relation was established be-
tween solar light and the earth, by which
not only a new beauty was given to the
world. but new power of producing
those marvellous organic compounds in
which animal life, with all it's further en-
dowments, would be founded. If one
looks at the structure of leaf, with its
vessels and fbers drawing into it the
soil water taken up by the stem; its mi
croscopic sac-like cells piled loosely on
each other, its hygrometric breathing
pores opening and shutting with every
atmospheric change, and considers that
this delicate organ is fitted for exposure
to wind, sun, and rain, and through all
to avail itself of undulations transmitted
through 90,000,000 of miles of space, by
means of which it can convert all the
gases of putrescent matters from the soil
and air in the endless variety of products
OF the plant, we have before US a marvel
of adaptation perhaps inferior to no 9TH
er in affording an inductive argument
for design.


The Bible surely accords with the high
est science when it claims the vegetable
kingdom, with all its wonders, as pic
ture of Almighty power, and it touches
a chord which every physiologist can ap-
preciate when it dwells on the fruit and
seed, the organs of the new and wonder
fnl power of vegetable reproduction, per-
petuates the plant after its kind sub
ject we might perpetually dwell on here
but that it will come up again in connec-
tioEz with animal life.