There is so much that the most recent readings of science have for the first time explained, that the idea of man as the author becomes utterly incomprehensible. By proving the record true, science pronounces it divine ; for who could have correctly narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself?"^
The views given in his " Manual of Geology " are more fully elaborated by Professor Dana in two admirable articles in the "Bibliotheca Sacra " (January and July, 1856). He says, in the former of those articles, " The best views Ave have met with on the (harmony between science and the Bible, are those of Professor lArnold Giiyot, a philosopher of enlarged comprehension of nature land a truly Christian spirit ; and the following interpretations of khe sacred record are, in the main, such as we have gathered from personal intercourse with him." ^
Professor Dana of Yale and Professor Guyot of Princeton, be- long to the first rank of scientific naturalists ; and the friends of the Bible owe them a debt of gratitude for their able vindication of the sacred record.
As the Bible is of God, it is certain that there can be no conflict between the teachings of the Scriptures and the facts of science. It is not with facts, but with theories, believers have to contend. Many such theories have, from time to time, been presented, ap- parently or really inconsistent with the Bible. But. these theories have either proved to be false, or to harmonize with the Word of God, properly interpreted. The Church has been forced more than once to alter her interpretation of the Bible to accommodate the discoveries of science. But this has been done without doing any violence to the Scriptures or in any degree impairing their author- ity. Such change, however, cannot be effected without a struggle. It is impossible that our mode of understanding the Bible should not be determined by our views of the subjects of which it treats. So long as men believed that the earth was the centre of our system, the sun its satellite, and the stars its ornamentation, they of neces- sity understood the Bible in accordance with that hypothesis. But when it was discovered that the earth was only one of the smaller satellites of the sun, and that the stars were worlds, then faith, although at first staggered, soon grew strong enough to take it all in, and rejoice to find that the Bible, and the Bible alone of all ancient books, was in full accord with these stupendous revelations
1 Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1856, p. 110.
a The views of Professor Guyot are presented at some length by the Rev. J. 0- Means, in the numbers of the Bibliotheca Sacra for January and April, 1855.
674 PART 1. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. X.— Creation.
of science. And so if it should be proved that the creation was a process continued through countless ages, and that the Bible alone of all the books of antiquity recognized that fact, then, as Professor Dana says, the idea of its being of human origin would become " utterly incomprehensible."