lums, are in the grateful remembrance of many of their inhabitants. His piety was the crowning excellence and ornament of his whole character. It shone with a steady, but mild lustre. He loved conference meetings, and prayer meetings, and was gifted as a leader in prayer; yet he never sought to lead-His piety was remarkably humble, as well as fervent. The house of God was his delight; and all opportunities for receiving religious edification he never failed to improve, when not restrained by necessity, or by other controlling duties. He was greatly esteemed and beloved by his brethren of the Session, who deplore as their loss, what they rejoice to believe is his unspeakable and eternal gain. He met the approach of death, not as the king of terrors, but as the messenger sent to call him to his heavenly home. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." How happy, how amiable, how influential, is a consistent Christian! Yet this is a character which requires no brilliancy of genius, no eminence of science, no elevation of worldly rank, in its possessor. It is formed by the grace of God, operating on the common powers of men in every station and walk of life. It is a living witness of the truth and excellence of the religion of Christ, does more to promote that religion than the most splendid eloquence without it, and at the day of final account, will set its possessor as the object of envy to thousands of graceless legislators, sages, poets, philosophers, kings, and conquerors, who have received the plaudits of erring mortals, but must then receive the condemnation of the great Judge of all, and be clothed with everlasting shame and contempt, before the assembly of the quick and the dead. "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men—I will walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be merciful unto me."

Reviews.

We have felt it incumbent on us, in sustaining the character of a Christian Advocate, to pay a particular attention to the subject of GEOLOGY; for this is the field of science in which infidel philosophers have, for a few years past, laboured with the greatest assiduity, to establish facts subversive of the verity of the sacred Scriptures, particularly of the Mosaic account of the creation, and of the Noachian deluge. From PENN's first work on this subject-we have not yet seen his second-we inserted large extracts in the first volume of our Miscellany; and have since, once and again, reverted to the subject. We have been grieved to observe that FABER, and other Christian writers, have yielded so much to the infidel geologists, on the subject of the various formations found in the little that is known, or that ever can be known, of the materials which compose the body of our earth, as to give a construction to what are called the days of creation, inconsistent, as seems to us, with that simplicity of meaning and import in the language of the sacred writers, in which not only their beauty and utility, but their veracity also, is deeply concerned. We have always been persuaded that as the science of geology, (confessedly in its infancy as yet) should advance, and the attention of scientific Christians be drawn to a thorough investigation of the subject, that would happen in this instance, which has happened in every other hitherto-the truth of divine revelation would be cleared and confirmed by true philosophy, or a fair exhibition of the facts and phenomena of the case.

The following article is taken from the London Christian Guardian, and exhibits a tolerably correct general view of the volume to which it relates. The work has been republished in this city by Key and Biddle, and we now have it in perusal-probably we shall hereafter give farther extracts from it. We have read enough already, to satisfy us that the author has not written without a long and deep study, and a good knowledge of his subject-His manner is argumentative and unimpassioned, and his constant appeal is to unquestionable, and generally to acknowledged facts.

THE GEOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE. In which the Unerring Truth of the Inspired Narrative of the Early Events in the World is exhibited, and distinctly proved by the corroborative Testimony of Physical Facts, on every part of the Earth's Surface. By George Fairholme, Esq. Pp. xvi. and 494. Ridgway. 1833.

Truth is great and shall prevail

The correctness of this position has been strikingly evinced by every successive inquiry into the circumstances recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Many of our readers are aware that some eminent philosophers and geologists of our own, as well as of foreign countries, have hazarded assertions relative to the original constitution of the earth, and its subsequent changes, which require considerable ingenuity to reconcile with the unvarnished narrative of the Mosaic record. The insufficient grounds on which these assertions were hazarded, and the appalling results to which they led, were ably demonstrated by Mr. Bugg, in his Scriptural Geology, a work at which it has been very much the fashion to sneer, and which, on mere literary grounds, is not very inviting; but which contains a series of facts and reasonings which may more easily be contemned than refuted; and which has accordingly, as far as we are aware, been left without any attempt at reply, to the present moment. Mr. Fairholme's work will, however, we doubt not, command more serious attention; he is not, as Mr. Bugg, a divine, but like Mr. Bugg, he is zealous for the word of God; and possesses the additional advantage of being well acquainted with the science of geology, which Mr. Bugg had not very closely studied, and an attentive observer of each successive discovery which has recently been made, in that interesting department of philosophical inquiry. The result of his investigations is announced in the title of the work before us; and though there are some points in which we hesitate entirely to adopt Mr. F.'s views, we yet conceive his conclusions are substantially correct, and as such deserving of attentive perusal, and careful investigation.

The following extracts from Mr. Fairholme's preface, will evince the object which he has in view in this investigation.

"In presenting the following pages to the judgment of the world, I have reason to fear, that the very title of the work will excite, in the minds of some, feelings by no means favourable to an unprejudiced perusal of it.

"I am fully aware of the objections which have frequently been raised to the endeavours to connect physical facts, with the details of Scripture; and I am, also, aware of the mischief that has sometimes ensued to the cause of religion, from the imprudent, or unskilful defence, made by those whose wishes and intentions were the most friendly to it.

* See Christian Guardian for 1828, p. 267.

"The course of every science must be progressive; beginning in faint attempts to dissipate the obscurity of ignorance, and gradually advancing towards the full light of truth. To this usual course, the science of geology cannot be considered as an exception, having already passed through some of its early stages, which were avowedly marked with obscurity and error. During these stages of geological ignorance, I am free to admit, that the attempt to connect the supposed discoveries in the physical phenomena of the earth with the truths announced to us in the Sacred Record, could not but tend to injure either the one cause or the other; because it is impossible that any concord can exist between truth and error. In this case, it unfortunately happened, that the assertions of philosophy were uttered with such boldness, and so supported by the deceptious evidence of physical facts, seen under a false light, that it was difficult for the supporters of Revelation, ignorant as they generally were of the nature of these facts, to hold their ground with success, or not to weaken their own cause by an apparent failure in its support.

"The necessity which has, however, been acknowledged, of rejecting the geological theories of those days, opposed, as they were, to the Mosaical History, was, therefore, a fair source of hope and encouragement, to such as advocated the unerring character of inspired Scripture. It at least left that Mosaic narrative uninjured by the assault; and encouraged a hope, that, as in all other cases, the truth would finally appear and prevail.

"Of late years, accordingly, fact after fact has been gradually accumulating; each tending to temper the wild character of a hypothetical philosophy; and every day produces some new evidence of the hasty and erroneous conclusions from physical facts, to which the friends of revelation had found it too often necessary to succumb.

"Each of these errors in philosophy has been a source of triumph to the cause of truth; and the time is gradually approaching, if it be not yet fully come, when the trial must be brought to a positive issue, and when those undeniable physical facts, seen in a new and more correct light, will lend their aid to the support, instead of to the destruction of our confidence in Scripture; and when the simplicity and consistency of the geology of Scripture, will make us regard with astonishment and contempt, schemes that could so long have exerted so powerful an influence over our reason and understanding."—pp. ix. xi.

In a sensible introductory chapter, Mr. F. enlarges on these ideas, and points out the impossibility of accounting by any secondary causes for the formation of our globe, which must therefore be referred to the power and wisdom of the Great First Cause.

"In entering, then, upon our geological inquiries, it appears the more natural course to proceed upwards, from material things as they are now presented to our senses, to the First Great Cause, by which alone they could have been produced; and then, consulting such history as may be within our reach, to retrace our steps downwards, from the beginning of all things, to the present time. We may thus entertain a confident hope, that all the appearances on the surface of the earth, upon which the theories of philosophy have been founded, may be accounted for by an attentive, an unprejudiced, and, above all, a docile consideration, of the three great events recorded in history, viz. the creation of the earth; the formation of a bed for the primitive sea, with the natural causes acting within that sea, for upwards of sixteen centuries; and, lastly, the Deluge, with its crowd of corroborative witnesses, together

with the subsequent action of natural causes from that time to the present day, or for upwards of 4,000 years."-pp. 22, 23.

Those who are conversant with geological pursuits, are aware that it is very common for philosophers to speak of the earth as a kind of outer shell, covering a hollow interior; thus, at the last meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science, held at Cambridge, a learned professor intimated, that the crust of the earth was probably not more than sixty miles thick; that the interior was probably filled with volcanic fire; that the irruption of a horse-pond might at any moment produce a terrific explosion, &c. Now we are free to confess, that all this appears to us little better than sheer nonsense; and the more so as another philosopher, on the very same day, intimated that the utmost depth yet penetrated below the earth's surface, and that merely in one place, was only about a mile; and we know, therefore, just as much of the interior of our globe, as the insect which eats through the paper covering of the terrestrial globe on our study table, can be supposed to know of the material of which that instrument is made; on this subject Mr. F. justly remarks

"Some philosophers, undeterred by the apparent impossibility of any satisfactory result, have attempted to ascertain the mean density of the earth. This problem only admits of an approximated solution, derived from the principles of universal gravitation. For our actual view of the interior of the earth does not extend, as has been before said, to more than one-sixteen thousandth part of the whole. The calculations of Dr. Maskelyne, from observations on the attraction of the mountain called Schehalien, in Perthshire, followed up by Hutton, Playfair, and Cavendish, lead us to the same conclusions, which, a pri ori, we should have expected; viz. that the central parts of the earth abound with some species of heavy and solid matter; and as our inquiries, with regard to the surface of the globe, are in no way affected by the question of its interior structure, which will probably remain for ever unknown to us; and as the above result is in no way contradictory, either to our reason, or to history, we may safely assume the internal solidity of the earth as a fact, until stronger reasons are adduced in opposition to it.

"We have, then, presented to the mind, on the first day of the creation, and created out of nothing, by the incomprehensible power of the Almighty, a solid mineral globe, with its surface invisible, (from being covered with a thin coating of water, and there being as yet no light, for 'darkness was upon the face of the deep.') And here, it is not without effort, that the mind is restrained within the limits to which our present inquiries must be confined. For when we consider that this great globe is but a small member of a most stupendous system; and that even that system is lost in the immensity of other systems throughout boundless space, the apparent similarity of all which suggests the probability of each revolving sphere being destined to the same ends as our own; the mind is overwhelmed with the extent of the prospect, and with our own comparative insignificance, which would almost induce a doubt of the reality of those numerous blessings which we feel have been conferred upon us by our Maker. There is, indeed, nothing that so completely overwhelms the finite mind of man, as the discoveries which his genius and his reason have enabled him to make in astronomy; by which he finds, that, great as our solar system is, the immensity of space is filled with such systems, each moving in its own sphere, and all retained, in the most wonderful regularity and order, Ch. Adv.-VOL. XII.

Q

by the laws to which the Creator has submitted them. When we raise our thoughts from our own little planet, to the contemplation of so boundless a creation, it is not without the utmost effort of the mind that we can connect time, and more especially a short time, with such immensity. But we must keep in mind, while dwelling on such subjects, that man's most erroneous notions of creation, arise from the necessity he experiences of connecting length of time, with extent, or dif ficulty of operation in his own finite labours. We must not forget that most of our great astronomical discoveries have been founded on our own earth, and its single satellite, as a base: and if, in the study of this earth, we find it revealed to us in the most unequivocal manner by history, and corroborated by physical facts, that our planet has not existed more than what may appear to us infinitely too short a time for the formation of so great and so perfect a body, we have no power to limit this discovery to an individual member of the solar system; we must extend it to the whole, upon the same principle of analogy on which so many astronomical discoveries have been suggested, and subsequently demonstrated to be true; our reason must bend, with whatever difficulty, to so conclusive a corollary. But this is a field much too wide for our finite comprehensions. We cannot proceed far in such inquiries at the present, without the conviction being pressed upon us, that the ways of God are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts.' We feel the necessity of curbing our curiosity respecting the state of other planets, and of other systems; and we must be satisfied and thankful for the merciful dispensation it has pleased the Almighty to bestow so abundantly upon our own."-Pp. 54-58.

6

Our readers will possibly recollect that Mr. Faber has ventured to argue, that each of the six days of creation must have been periods of at least six thousand years,* and other philosophers have extended these days still farther. On this subject Mr. Fairholme justly re

marks

"The idea of assigning unlimited periods to the days of creation, as recorded by Moses, has only arisen from the necessity of a longer period than twenty-four hours, for the completion of so great a chemical process as the supposed production of the earth from chaos. But if first formations were not the consequence of a chemical process, which Newton considered most unphilosophical, and which our reason and common sense most decidedly condemns, then the extension of the period demanded for their production becomes unnecessary.

"It may here be objected, that if an Almighty power were able to create the universe in a perfect state, why should the work have occupied a period of six days? Why should not all things have started into being, as light is described to have done, instantaneously? The only answer that can be made to such objections is, simply, that it was the will of God, who, in his wisdom, appears to have had, in this, an ulterior moral view for the good of mankind, and for the commemoration of his own power and glory, by his creatures. Time has accordingly been, by his express command, subdivided into six days of labour, and one of rest: and so much of the Divine Wisdom may be traced in this arrangement, that it has been generally admitted by the wisest men who have considered the subject, that no human ingenuity could improve upon it.

“There is also a strong argument to be found in the divine command,

* See Christian Guardian for 1823, p. 267.