“4. The _modern_ age, characterized by the appearance of the most perfect of created beings. This is the _Reign of Man_.”[3] From this brief but necessary outline of “the treasures of the deep” which lie before us we may proceed to make a few preliminary remarks on the moral and theological aspects of this science. Many persons have supposed that the statements of Scripture and the alleged facts of Geology are at variance, and, forgetful that some of the devoutest minds of this and other countries have been equal believers in both, have too summarily dismissed geology from their notice as a study likely to lead to infidelity. To such we would briefly remark, that it is utterly impossible there can be any contradiction between the written volume of Inspiration and the outspread volume of Creation. Both are books written by the same hand, both are works proceeding from the same ever blessed and beneficent Creator. We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and we believe equally in the plenary inspiration of Nature; both are full of God, for in them both He is all and in all; and he who is the deepest and the most reverent student of both will not be long before he comes to the conclusion that not only is there no disharmony, no discrepancy and no contradiction between them, but that they are both harmonious utterances of the one infinite and ever blessed God. “In reason’s ear they _both_ rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; For ever singing as they shine, ‘The hand that made us is divine.’” Let us remember that Geology has nothing to do with the history of man, nor with God’s government of man; to the Bible, and only there, do we go for information on these points. Geology gives us the history and the succession of _the things and beings_ that were created and made, we believe, incalculable ages before man was placed on the face of the earth. Possibly at times some new discovery in geology may appear to contradict our long received interpretations of isolated passages in Scripture, in which case the modesty of science compels us to reexamine our data, while our reverence for the word of God teaches us to revise our interpretations. As Dr. Chalmers once remarked, “_the writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of the globe; if they fix anything at all, it is only the antiquity of the species_.” We believe that the same God who, in anticipation of the spiritual wants of the human race, graciously promised from the beginning of man’s transgression, that “the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head,” laid up for him “in the bowels of the earth those vast stores of granite, marble, coal, salt, and the various metals, the products of its several revolutions; and thus was an inexhaustible provision made for his necessities, and for the developments of his genius, ages in anticipation of his appearance.”[4]